Large Painting Situation Continued

After working on the White Chief painting for awhile, the brushes and paint weren’t cooperating with me. I actually tossed a brush in the trash! It is so annoying to load a brush with paint and then have none come out when I place it on the canvas. I don’t have time for this baloney, so bye-bye bad brush.

Meanwhile, the amount of detail was making me feel as if I was walking on a treadmill, so I got another largish canvas out and began a second largish painting.  This is of Sawtooth, a landmark peak in Mineral King.

After this, I took a break and checked my email. A dear thoughtful friend had written to tell me how much she loves the poinsettia painting, and she asked the question, meant to be rhetorical, “Is there anything you can’t paint?” My response was, “Yeppers, 2 things, both sitting on my easels right now”.

My confidence in my painting ability is always a bit thin when there are no finished paintings around to reassure me that I can paint.

 

Large Painting Situation

What is a “large painting situation”?

In the life of your Central California artist, this means that all my large paintings are gone. They are now gracing my dentist’s office in Three Rivers. 

It was time to dive into the largish painting of White Chief that I began back in October, working to git-‘er-dun so I will be ready for more largish paintings. “Largish”, because the largest canvases I have on hand right now are 18×24″, which is HUGE after 8×10″, but not very large on someone’s wall.

Lots of nondescript detail in rock formations, rock piles, rocks, stones, pebbles, dirt, and shrubs, trees, grasses, groups of trees, shrubs, grasses, all interspersed with rocks, et cetera, will I ever finish this. . .

The coloring varies on these photos of the same painting because it looks different in the morning light than the afternoon light.

11 Things I Learned in December

Oak Grove Bridge IXX, oil on canvas, SOLD
  1. By the Book is a fun podcast by two women friends who pick a self-help book, read it, follow it for 2 weeks, and report about it in 2 episodes. They either do or do not recommend the book to their listeners. Then they tell what the next book will be. WARNING: They cuss a lot!!
  2. Did you know a crown on a tooth costs $1232. I learned this in December. Ow.
  3. I’ve been wearing contacts for 42 years and just learned that the reason for 2 pair of lenses is to rotate them. I thought the 2nd pair was to be stored in case of loss. 
  4. I pretend that my advanced drawing students have to bully me into teaching oil painting, but in December I realized how very enjoyable these workshops are for everyone, including me.
  5. My website looks out of date. Do I care? Do you? Finding a webdesigner who is responsive, careful, doesn’t want to change platforms, knows how to install and operate a shopping cart, can preserve my almost 10 years of blogging, and who can teach me how to maintain my site is a very daunting task. I’ve had two very wonderful designers, and each one quit for the sake of their children. Here I go again.
  6. Not everyone can listen to and feel music. While being heavily involved in a Christmas musical, this came as a new piece of information to me. I thought anyone could learn music by listening, and just know without being told exactly when to start after hearing the introduction. I learned that this just isn’t so.
  7. After a year without a cell phone, I know now that I truly don’t need a cell phone. 
  8. I read over 100 books this year. I learned that by keeping the list on my GoodReads account that I don’t feel the need to put the best ones on my blog. Does anyone care?
  9. People don’t notice earrings. Many times I deliberately wore a mismatched pair just to test my theory, and no one noticed.
  10. Blue is out of style in home decorating. I bought denim to recover the armchair because there were no other navy-type blue fabrics. None!
  11. Wax-based colored pencils by Blackwing are stronger than the ones made by Prismacolor. Too bad they only come in 12 colors.

Did you learn anything in December? Want to share? Comment or email me. . .

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, dear blog readers. I will be silent for awhile. Nothing to worry about – I’ll be back, and hope you will join me.

Meanwhile, have a lovely week of holidays!

P.S. I have been and will continue to busy through December 24. See?

Three Rivers First Baptist Church, Christmas musical, 2015 (I took the photo from my perch up in the sound booth, where I quietly sang along with the bass line like the dork that I am.) This year’s musical will be Dec. 22 and 23 at 6 p.m. and again on Sunday, Dec. 24 at 10:30 a.m. 

Oil Painting Workshop Day 2

On Day 2 of the oil painting workshop, we didn’t spend too much time mixing colors. Everyone took her palette home, covered in plastic wrap, and stored it in the freezer until the 2nd class. We dove right into painting, beginning with recoating the green, but this time we added details to resemble grasses and foliage. 

Ahem. Is that the Royal “We”? Well, I did help. . . that’s why they pay me the Big Bucks.

At lunch time, no one wanted to stop. I took a photo of each painting in progress. Some had progressed to the poppy, recoating the oranges and tightening and adding detail. This first one looks finished to me, but the edges need paint and the painting needs a signature.

At the end of our session, no one was completely finished, but I only teach 2 sessions, not 3. (I’m supposed to be “off” in December, so there.) Anyone can work at home on her own; will they or won’t they? 

All these lovely California poppies in oil paint by four of my advanced students from drawing lessons – YEA, drawing painting students!!

Oil Painting Workshop

In the 24 years I’ve been teaching drawing lessons, I’ve never given lessons in December. But, some of my advanced students beg, plead and cajole until I cave in and give oil painting workshops during my “time off”. 

We start off with a little lesson in color, using the double primary palette. This means 2 yellows, 2 reds, 2 blues and white. The color at the far end is a mixture of the bluish red and the reddish blue, which becomes the color used for darkening. I used colored pencils to demonstrate this (I love to draw, you know!)Then it was time for everyone to squeeze out the paints. We spent about 1-1/2 hour just discussing and mixing colors. My method is to mix 3 levels of orange and green, dark, medium and light. Orange and green were needed because the subject matter was a California poppy.

First, I had them draw the general shape of the poppy on the canvas. Second, they painted the background. I didn’t take photos until the orange started going on.

A weird thing happened: I handed each participant 3 different photos, and each person chose the very same one, all without talking to each other or seeing the others’ choices! At the end of our session, this is where everyone was on their painting. 

On day #2 we will do the second layer and the detailing.

Growing a Poinsettia

Someone bought some cards of a poinsettia painting that I did about 8 or 9 years ago. (It looked fine as a 4×6″ image, back when I was first learning to paint. Be polite, okay?)

She liked it so much that she asked me to paint the same picture for her as an 8×10″ oil painting. 

Oh boy, another do-over!! This time I get to do a better job because I paint better and because the canvas is larger to accommodate more detail.

There wasn’t one photo that was my guide when I first painted this. I used several, simplifying the image as much as possible. This time I am using several photos again, but not simplifying the flower so much. This looks a little bit weak in color because the paint is wet and shiny. This is at the end of day #1.

In the next painting session it looks almost finished, but there is more layering, the center detail, edges, and finally. signing. (Then drying, scanning, varnishing, drying yet again). This was painting day #2.

You can see in the next photo that most of the painting looks weird and reflective, because it is wet and shiny. There are 4 petals that haven’t been re-layered. This was painting day #3.

At the end of the painting session, I hung it out in the workshop to begin drying. This one wasn’t in a huge rush to be delivered, so I didn’t want its messy wet self in the house.

Funny how it doesn’t look reflective here. That is because it has indirect light from the window rather than a lamp shining on it. That lamp helps me mix the colors right, but makes for poor photography.

And finally, this is the finished and scanned commissioned oil painting of a poinsettia. Color looks duller than in real life. I hate that. But, the real one is brilliant. Guess you’ll have to take my word for it.

Merchandise and Marketing Sense

Christmas is coming, and if I had any marketing sense, I would have been telling you about merchandise that is available all through the month.

I do have sense, and I sense that it would be irritating for me to keep pounding the sales drum. However, if you need a reminder or an easy idea for a gift, and I said nothing, I would have neglected my duty to serve you, my readers.

Choices and consequences. . . here we go. . .

  1. coloring books: there are 5 designs available. Heart of Agriculture, Heart of the Hills, Heart of the Parks and Heart of Exeter are $15; Heart of Mineral King is thinner so it is $12. They are available here: Coloring Books
  2. The Cabins of Wilsonia: the price has been reduced to $50. They are available here: The Cabins of Wilsonia
  3. 2018 calendar: all gone.
  4. pencil drawings: plenty of these available, both originals and reproductions too, some framed, some not. (Did you know I love to draw?) Pencil Drawings
  5. oil paintings: landscapes, still life, lots of sizes, 27 19 paintings available at last count (which could be fewer by the time you are reading this). Oil paintings
  6. notecards: lots of designs available (I still write by hand and use stamps and the U.S.Post Office – do you?) Notecards
  7. commissions: too late for this year, but there are always gift certificates. You may use the contact dealie or email me using cabinart at cabinart dot net (someone smart in computerizing told me to always write it that way in the blog. . . I just work here.)
  8. ornaments: there is no page to sell these ornaments, but there is a story here. There are 2 that I painted like the one for the White House 10 years ago, as seen in the photo above (the center one is sold). The one on the far left is $150 (plus tax) SOLD, and the one on the right is $75 (plus tax).

P.S. If you live in the area, we can figure out a way to exchange currency for merchandise in person. If you don’t live in the area, I believe in using the U.S. Postal Service, accept checks in the mail, Paypal and can use Square.

December Oranges

Did you know that navel oranges are harvested in December? If you are from Tulare County where the world’s best (and most) navel oranges are grown, you probably knew that.

My grandfather and dad were both orange growers. I am an orange painter.

A friend/neighbor called to say that her sister-in-law wanted an oil painting of oranges just like the one in her dad’s house. I asked for a photo of the painting so I would know how to make another one.  Obviously, these people have impeccable taste in artwork. After receiving this photo, I looked through my 963 photos of oil paintings, arranged by subject, and although I recently finished Orange #134, this old painting didn’t show up in my inventory. 

That’s okay. I have plenty of photos to work from. And if I am going to paint an 8×10 oil of oranges, I might as well do a second painting to have ready for the next orange art emergency.

This is how the orange paintings looked on day one of painting in December. (The 8×10 will probably be mailed while it is still a bit wet.)

At the end of the painting day, I put them in boxes to carry into the house and prop up over the wood stove so they will be ready for the second layer. 

(I painted a second and third layer without photographing the process.)

EPILOGUE: Finished and in the mail, right on schedule!

Incremental Studio Improvements

I am a big believer in incremental improvements, little changes adding up over time. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be able to draw in pencil, paint in oil, or even be a knitter.

My Three Rivers studio was just a little storage shed on our property until it got gussied up in December 2001. It was thrilling to have a place to work at home!

Over the years little changes have been made. They all add up, and here I am, 16 years later, with a studio that looks like this:

Next will come new siding.