Poppies are popular. Poppies pop off the canvas. Poppies pop up on the hillsides in spring. Poppies are a good choice for oil paintings. I had begun a painting on an 8×10″ canvas. It was putting me to sleep. I changed it to poppies and it woke me back up, contrary to the popular belief […]
Painting Rehab
“Painting Rehab” sounds as if my painting is on drugs and has to be locked up for awhile to detox. Or, perhaps it sounds as if an artist is needing to undergo recovery from a painting addiction. Or, it could mean that a painting needs to undergo some rehabilitation from an injury. Sometimes I move my […]
Wanna Paint What I Wanna Paint!
Sometimes I paint the things I want to paint and just hope they sell. Sometimes they do. Usually when I paint what I want, I spend twice as much time as I would on others, aiming for a level of perfection and truly enjoying the process. Kind of a bad business decision. . . maybe. […]
Hiking in Mineral King
While I was painting diligently at home in Three Rivers, Trail Guy, who is retired, was hiking in Mineral King. He now has possession of the little camera that I used to carry around, so he documents his hikes for me to share with you. Or maybe he does it simply to share with me? […]
Painting Mineral King
Sometimes, instead of going to Mineral King, I stay home and paint it. Sounds stupid, but it is my business. My mission is to represent, portray and show off the beauty of Tulare County. As a studio painter, it helps me to be in the studio. If I painted plein air, I’d be at work […]
Troubled Artist Over Bridge
This is the first version of the Buckeye Bridge. It was hard to paint – combining several photos to get the best of each, dealing with water, trying to get all those browns and greens, grays and a little blue to look like something beautiful. . . It looks better now. I added a tree, […]
Plein Air Painting
In reference to plein air painting, a friend who is a watercolorist emailed me and said, “I thought as a oil painter you would be into it.” That is a common assumption about oil painters. (My friend is more artistically adventuresome than I am. She goes out in an atmosphere where sometimes the watercolors evaporate […]
So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehn, Goodbye
One of the categories of paintings is Do-overs. This usually means that I look at a painting that hasn’t sold and try to figure out what it is lacking. The usual answer is that it needs brighter colors and more contrast. Sometimes the answer is to add more detail and precision. Sometimes the answer is […]
More Opening Weekend in Mineral King
Mineral King was overcast, cold, rainy and foggy on opening weekend this year. Guess it makes sense to get March in May since we had May in March. What’s a Central California artist to do? How about read, knit and discuss colors? I said blue, Michael said purple, and neighbor Annie said purplish blue. (Discussing the […]
Tulare County Beauty
As a Central California artist in Tulare County, it is my mission, goal and duty to portray the beauty of this place I live. Yesterday I showed you oil paintings as examples of the various subjects I paint that fall into a category I call “Because People Like It”. However, I didn’t show you my latest […]