It keeps raining, and I keep drawing water in pencil.
Whole Lotta Oak Grove Bridges
Whole lotta bridges going on around here. All the Oak Grove Bridge, of course. 2 paintings, a calendar, 2 photos. Samson was busy with other things (thank you, GE for babysitting) so I tackled the bridge again. This time I started over, working from back to front and top to bottom. This layering and layering […]
Particularly Challenging Challenge
Oil painting is a real challenge at times. Getting the colors right in addition to the darks, lights, textures, shapes and proportions, along with seeing what is really there instead of what I think might be there plus adding and subtracting whatever is necessary to enhance the scene . . . it is just hard. […]
Trail Guy Blazes the Way to Mineral King
Before Trail Guy was Trail Guy, he was Road Guy in Sequoia National Park. One of his specialties was opening the Mineral King Road in the spring. This week someone from the Park asked if he’d help make the road passable for snow mobiles so people could get up there to do a snow survey. […]
Water in Pencil
This is my latest pencil drawing of water. It isn’t titled, because the name of the falls is highly unpleasant. The drawing is unframed and it is on 11×14″ paper. When I look at this drawing, I think about Millard Fillmore. Who? A president of the United States, maybe the 12th one. I’ve been listening […]
Three Oil Paintings
Happy Birthday, Robin! Today’s post is an update to several paintings in progress. I carried this one outside to the sidewalk to photograph for you. That’s what the weird gray texture around the sides is. The leaves on one of the pomegranates need another layer, because they were an afterthought. And, when it is dry, […]
Disconnected Thoughts From an Artist’s Brain
Samson matches a breed of cat called “Bengal”. That accounts for his distinctive markings, his thick and silky short hair, his busy nature and his propensity to play in water. This is just a lucky accident of random breeding, but the discovery and description helps explain some of his peculiarities. Two of my drawing students […]
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TAMMIE! Last week I took a small stack of pencil drawings to a framer because I have a show coming in the spring. As I was lining them out on his counter, I decided that there is something wrong with this picture. It isn’t anything I can put my finger on; I just […]
Little Bitty Ore Buckets
Say what? Ore buckets? Little bitty ore buckets? Remember the first Mineral King Room (in Three Rivers History Museum) mural was of a tram tower below the Empire Mine in Mineral King and only made sense if someone was standing there ‘splaining it? Now, there are visual aids. In addition to the real ore bucket […]
He Liked It!
The Commissioner and Mrs. Commissioner were very happy with their commissioned oil painting of the Kaweah Blacksmith Shop. This little building used to be up the North Fork of the Kaweah where the Kaweah Colony was. The flood of 1997 took it away, and in recent years, The Commissioner and his wife bought the property […]