Eagle Lake Such an ugly start. Let’s git ‘er dun! Eagle Lake (a painting formerly known as a dog’s breakfast), 7×14”, oil on wrapped canvas, $200, currently drying, destined for the Silver City Store, unless it sells first from this little spot on the interwebs. Oak Grove Bridge The Oak Grove Bridge is a bit […]
Starting Two New Oil Paintings
Favorite Bridge The commissioned painting of fields and groves needed more drying time, so I began a new painting of my favorite bridge—Oak Grove, on the Mineral King Road. It is always difficult. I make it even harder by choosing canvases of non-traditional proportions. This is 8×16”. It sometimes helps to crop off the unnecessary […]
Am I Finished Now? Commissioned Oil Painting Saga…
Avocado Leaves My single photo of avocado leaves was inadequate, so I stopped by the largest avocado tree I’ve ever seen in my life and took these photos. I didn’t copy any of the leaves or branches exactly. These are all too thick and overlapping for me to untangle. So, I just studied them awhile […]
Close to Finishing the Oil Painting Commission
The distant groves and fields are probably finished. Time to begin the embellishments. I found blueberry photos on the interwebs, AND I have my own from excursions in Oregon. In my extensive collection of photos, I found one of avocado leaves, pre-digital. I used my inferior phone camera to take a picture so I could […]
Further Development on the Commissioned Oil Painting
Five step-by-step photos today, mostly painting left to right. So many parts in the photo were ambiguous and repetitive that I often lost my place. A way to combat this lostness is to first paint the things that are definite, then make up the stuff around them. Some of my sizes are probably definitely wrong, […]
It’s May!
Pencil drawing of Kaweah Lake, 11×14”, $375, unframed. (This is the May picture in my 2026 calendar.) Reminder I can help people write books and get them printed. The books that I have shepherded from idea to publication but that I don’t sell can be found on this new page: OTHER PEOPLE’S BOOKS. This includes […]
Beginning a 10×20” Commissioned Oil Painting
The real estate customers chose the panoramic shape. Good thing they know I can paint. (Well, duh, that’s why they commissioned me.) This is similar to my current favorite subject to draw and paint, but there are blueberries and avocados rather than orange trees. There is also a distinct lack of snow-covered mountains and no […]
Long Distance Oil Painting Commission
Some friends in real estate in a distant place have occasionally asked me to paint something for a customer after a large sale is made. Client. I think “client” is probably more correct here. Remember these? I wonder if the clients appreciated the paintings. No one has gotten in touch to thank me or ask […]
MURAL “UNVEILING” TODAY
In case you are curious, this is some of the area around Ivanhoe. I really love it there, which you may have figured out. Of course I also loved living in Lemon Cove, and now I love living in Three Rivers. (Don’t move here—remember that we are fat, have diabetes, the air is bad, and […]
Oil Painting Some Local Stuff
What word did people use before “stuff” became so ubiquitous? A little more work on these quail made it good enough to sign. More work ahead on this one: The scanner could not do this justice, so I put it in the sunshine and took a photo with my inferior phone camera. And this one […]