I feel like a Mineral King oil painting factory. Where is the variety? Where is the creativity? What’s going on here?? Part of the business of art is understanding what sells, and producing what one’s customers want to buy. This means painting the same things many many times if necessary. (Or I could become a […]
The Visalia Electric Railroad Book!
Finally, finally, The Visalia Electric Railroad: Stories of the Early Years by Louise A. Jackson is a real book, both soft and hard cover, in our hands as of 1/19/2018. The softcover book is for sale in several places. Amazon (maybe – did my extensive efforts to list it really work?? More will be revealed in the […]
What’s Wrong With These Pictures??
These Mineral King oil paintings appear to be troubled. Sawtooth, the Oak Grove Bridge, and more Sawtooth, all looking topsy-turvy and scribbly.
Do Over
A customer brought me a pencil drawing from 1995 with the request that I turn it into notecards. In order to turn an original drawing into a printed piece, there are some tasks to be done on a computer. First, I scan it, then open it in Photoshop, convert it to grayscale, erase anything that […]
Coloring Simply
When I paint, I use only the primary colors, a manner called the “double primary palette”. This is because it has 2 yellows, 2 blues, and 2 reds. (White doesn’t count and the purple at the end is a mix I always make when I begin painting.) This is a colored pencil version of that simple […]
Sawtooth Oil Painting in Stages
We last saw the Sawtooth oil painting looking quite rough. It has taken many hours, and the Fat Lady ain’t singing yet. (Close – she’s starting to warm up with a few scales.) And just in case you forgot, Sawtooth is the second most popular of the Mineral King oil painting subjects, tied with the […]
Redwoods, Again
The three small redwood oil paintings are completed and for sale at Anne Lang’s Emporium in Three Rivers (or you can contact me directly.) But wait! There’s more (in progress). This is 11×14″. The canvas began with a portrait of a stranger in a workshop; it was too hard for me, I didn’t know the […]
New Year’s Day Walk
The New Year’s Day walk could have been a hike, had we taken food and more than one measly little water bottle. Alas, we did not. We went to the Salt Creek/Case Mt. BLM recreational area and walked from the Salt Creek road (rather than Skyline Drive) up, up and up. It was a smoggy […]
Painting Outside
By “painting outside”, I don’t mean painting plein air. I do mean that it was overcast and hard to see in the painting workshop, so I moved my stuff outside. It wasn’t cold, rainy or windy, so this was an easy solution. And White Chief needed a bit more drying time. First, had to flip […]
Flower Fix
A little poppy painting has been hanging around longer than any other. Why? BECAUSE POPPIES SHOULDN’T HAVE SQUARE CORNERS!! So, I fixed it. A Mineral King scene of Farewell Gap in morning sunlight has been hanging around for too long. Why?BECAUSE IT DIDN’T HAVE ANY FLOWERS! So, I added some. See? Flowers fix stuff, and […]