Maybe “Tulare County’s Prettiest Places” would be the right name for my show at CACHE.
But what if I want to paint other places too?
Who will want other places? My fan club (fall down laughing) is based here in Tulare County.
Enough already with the speculation and analysis—let’s paint.
This is Rocky Hill Drive, probably the most popular outdoor place to run, walk, and bikeride in Tulare County.
WAIT—”Popular Pretty Places”?
Stop it and just get on with the painting, will ya?
You can’t go up on Rocky Hill itself, only up between Rocky Hill and Badger Hill. But in the very flat land of the flatlands, this is the only place for walking uphill or downhill.
This 6×18″ oil painting needs better detail on the orange trees, the shoulders of the road, and maybe even some work on the center line once all this paint dries a bit.
I think it will be a good one. I combined about 4 photos on Photoshop Junior* to see if my version of this scene was better than reality and concluded that yes, indeedy it is, or it will be if I can execute it with excellence.
Let’s go!
I am choosing to not show the beginning photos for a couple of reasons.
I don’t want any input as to whether or not I have chosen the correct elements in the correct sizes and placements. Sometimes I do want input; this time I do not; that could change. . .
I want you all to judge the painting on its own merits rather than whether or not I can accurately copy a photograph.
Phooey. I can see 3 shapes that look wrong right now. “Wrong” in that they don’t look fully natural or believable, because I am only judging this painting of one of Tulare County’s pretty places on its own merits, not while looking at any photos.
*Photoshop Elements is the “easy” version of Photoshop.
I love February in Three Rivers, so I walked a route that I haven’t walked in a long time, wanting to test my foot and my ability to endure discomfort. There were plenty of things to distract me, such as stealing a tangerine, dodging traffic, and taking photos.
Looking downstreamLooking upstream
This is an area where I hope to bring a couple of artist friends so we can paint (and maybe swat bugs) together.
A friend said she cannot see the elephant on Alta Peak, so I took this photo and outlined its image in hopes that the elephant shows for her.
I take the same photos over and over, always hoping that I will discover a familiar subject in better light or find another angle in order to make an irresistible painting someday.
P.S. In case you were wondering, 3.5 miles, foot discomfort tolerable, and I figured I could have gone another 1-2 miles without actively looking for a hatchet.
Jackson is our least friendly cat. He just comes around if he needs or wants something (not that he can tell the difference between needs and wants.) He is the most likely to ignore curfew and then come yelling around the bedroom window late at night when he wants to get into the workshop.
I painted later than usual one evening, and Jackson decided it was time for dinner. He would not be ignored. At least he didn’t bite me on my donkey. He has done that many times, the little big brat.
Doesn’t he have gorgeous stripes?
I started a new painting after putting several photos together on Photoshop Junior to see if my idea would work. Yeppers, I think this will be a winner, and I’m confident enough to paint it large (as I define “large”) —16×20″.
This is a painting that I work on in my head when I am out walking (or in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep.)
I was so absorbed in this painting that Jackson resorted to vandalism to get my attention.
This scene has been tempting me for quite awhile, but I kept waiting for something. What? Maybe until I had more experience, more confidence, more ability. Or maybe I was waiting until I knew there will be a solo show to prepare for.
I painted a smaller one from the same viewpoint a few years ago as a thank you to the farmer who allows us to glean oranges (and take photos) in his groves.
He doesn’t read my blog, so he won’t say, “HEY! The new one is better than mine!” (even though it will be.)
Yes, I enlarged the mountain in the distance because I am the boss of my picture and this is the way I like it. it is either Maggie Mountain or Moses. I am voting for Moses, which is further north than Maggie.
What passes for winter in Three Rivers is probably what many parts of the country regard as springtime. When we get rain, we get green.
This is greenery when I am walking, but probably just weeds to the property owner.
Moss is boss.
More moss!
The buckeye trees are leafing out.
We get flowers too.
The neighbor’s narcissus.
My paperwhites.This many are so very fragrant.
And, we get lichen. Well, we already had that, but I’m on a roll here, taking photos while walking.
An old friend told me she was envious that I get to live in Three Rivers. In order to help her feel better, I told her this:
“There are elements of 3R that aren’t so great, such as frequent power outages (more frequent than towns down the hill), smoke in the fall, evacuations during wildfires, unreliable and spotty cell service, phone and internet outages, occasional water outages, no dentist, no drug store, expensive groceries, only 3 churches to choose from, shrinking population, Park closures that adversely affect commerce, limited commercial choices (is this a bad thing?).”
How many are drying in the house at the time of this writing?
Six!
But how many are you working on right now?
Just four.
Will this painting ever be finished? It has now been improved a little bit more.
BeforeAfter
Maybe this one is ready to sign! All the edges will take awhile to paint too, but maybe the actual scene is actually finished. Actually!
It looks pretty good in person, if I do say so myself. Yep, just said it.
This is fixin’ to get some real paint so it can look like more than a mist of its future self. The green hill in the distance is the other side of the close green hill in the painting above.
It looks tiny here, but in reality, it is 16×16″.
These poppies are really fun. I put it off for awhile because it seemed too hard, too fussy, too small. I was wrong.
This little field of poppies (6×12″) only needs a bit of drying time and some final touch-ups. Well, that plus signing, edges, drying, scanning, and some varnish.
And the steady progress of building up a body of work of Tulare County oil paintings continues, in anticipation of the solo show at CACHE in late fall, 2024.
Seeing a collection of paintings that has sold provides fuel to keep me painting during a season of slow sales. This is a season of producing; November-December was a season of selling.
Sometimes people wonder if I work on more than one painting at a time. Yeppers, for sure! Today’s post is a look at several paintings at various stages of completion.
This one is getting close to completion. I like it better with each new iteration.
This will go quickly. I mean the painting process will go quickly; selling is an unknown in terms of speed.
The poppies look good but the painting needs more. . . . . . lupine and popcorn! Now it is drying in the house.The Four Guardsmen, as you head up to Giant Forest.This will definitely need another detailed layer.
8×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, The Big Trees, FINISHED!
There are more in various stages, but this is enough for today. Thanks for stopping by.
Trail Guy and I took a walk. As we were approaching home, this is what we saw.
After this excitement (plus the usual mess of turkeys in the yard), I went into the workshop to work on three paintings. One needed finishing, one needed more detail, and one needed the first layer.
This one got some wire on the fence, a signature, another cow, and the edges painted. This is a photo taken with the phone, but when it is dry, I will scan it for a more accurate representation.
The leaves and oranges on the front row might be finished. There are orange blossoms on the tree at the far right, but the idea of adding them to the rest of the row was a bit daunting (boring, actually).
I bet you can figure out what this 16×16″ canvas will be. Almost looks like a watercolor at this stage.
The end of January had some very clear days with temperatures in the 60s. We took advantage of this to check out the Mineral King Road, just as far as where the snow might become a driving problem. There was no agenda, just some friends hanging out, stopping when and where something struck our fancy.
We walked some too.
We were curious to see if there was water in the flume.The boards on top were very slick, and we heeded this warning.Despite recent roadwork, all drainage troubles aren’t solved.Our guys did what they could.
Weird sausages made from straw keep the road from sloughing off down the canyon.
There was a deep hole here all summer, just below Slap Jack but now this dirt pile (in the foreground) has filled it up.
This was a CCC camp.Trail Guy found remains of their outhouse.
Some cabin neighbors used to refer to these redwoods as Aunt Tillie and Uncle Pete. We call them “Redwood”, as if there is just one, but it is short for Redwood Creek.
We turned around at Atwell Mill, not wanting to deal with the snow.
Just above Lookout, we saw something we’ve never seen on the Mineral King Road before.
Those are rock climbers!!
Such a clear beautiful day, and we hope it is the last chance to drive up for while because there will be too much snow soon. (But not so much that the road falls apart again this year.)
