Category: General

As of this morning, Monday, September 13, 2021 the entire Mineral King Road is under mandatory evacuation. The Paradise Fire (part of the KNP Complex Fire) is the threat. If you are someone who prays, this would be a good time.

I am your Central California Artist AKA a Painting Machine. At least that is what it feels like when sales are good and there might be a show in the works. This would be a show at a gallery, a solo show, in the big room, not “gallery 2” or as an opening act to another artist. More will be revealed in the fullness of time. Or as Dad used to say, “Time will tell”. 

This one has been collecting dust for awhile. Let’s git ‘er dun. Why not edit out the stump? Because that is a landmark that tells those in the know exactly where this is. (Just past the junction to Mosquito Lake on the Eagle/Mosquito Lakes trail. Or is it before the junction? Never mind, it is in the vicinity).

Never can have too many citrus scenes to suit me.

This one might be called “Looking East II”. (That is a Roman numeral two, not an eleven, which is what the 2 lines between my eyebrows resemble, which is why I have bangs.)

This is the view of Alta Peak that I get when I stand outside on the bench that surrounds my chimney. 

Yokohl Valley area is popular, and I have a good variety of photos with great color and light to choose from. This calls for a little bit trickinology, because the photo’s proportions are not the same as the canvas. But no one cares, and I am developing quite a bit of skill in the trickinology department.

Now, I wonder if the show will come to fruition. Hard to say with the Plague still lurking.

“You” means me in this context; however, if you are an artist and you might have a show coming, here is what to do.

1. Ask questions, particularly if the gallery is run by volunteers and is a non-profit enterprise, which means they are always chasing money and need you to do a great job to help them. A. When? B. Solo or group show? C. Pencil drawings, oil paintings, or both? D. All pieces for sale or may I borrow back from previous customers? E. Space for how many pieces?
2. Take inventory of your existing pieces. This is a tricky piece of business, because I have pieces in 3-5 places that could be moved to the show. However, the show might last 2 months, and the gallery is only open 2 days per week, whereas the other places are busy places of commerce that sell. Besides, how can I count the pieces if they might be sold before it is time to retrieve them? This calls for an estimate.
3. Estimate how many pieces, and let the gallery know. It is best to make a list, and include sizes and prices, because chances are the gallery will want to know these things. If the gallery doesn’t ask for this information before the show, provide it anyway. They need this information whether or not they know it.
4. Evaluate your inventory by size and by subject matter. Think about who the audience and customers might be among those who visit. It is usually a matter of geography. For example, if I am showing in Mineral King, I bring pieces of Mineral King. If I am showing to visitors to Sequoia National Park, I bring pieces of Sequoia National Park. Yes, it is this straightforward. (But if the show is in Visalia, I just guess.)
5. Look through the unfinished pieces to see if anything gathering dust might work in the show, any drawings that are still unframed, any canvases just partially painted.
6. Decide which subjects or sizes might be lacking, dig through photos and available canvases (because we might not have time to wait for a shipment of new sizes, “we” being the royal we, not a mouse in my pocket), and begin.

Now that is a mystery. Stay tuned. . .

Happy Birthday, SD, DV, MW, and RT!

Is Chapter 8 the final chapter? Probably not. This is so important (and has no deadline) that I want to spend time studying it, mulling it over, adding little touches, and taking it to the nth degree. This is one way I learned to paint when I took 1/2 a semester at the local junior college back in 2006 until I got sick of the commute and the rap “music” and the fact that the class was supposed to be in photorealism but the professor dismissed photorealism as “smoke and mirrors”, saying anyone could learn the tricks, but then he didn’t teach any.

Never mind. Where were we?

I started the roses in the foreground and really like the way they glow against the color of the road behind them.

This looks weird: one trick to know if a painting has enough contrast is to look at it in black and white. I will do this with the entire painting before declaring it finished, but for now I wanted to appreciate the roses and rock wall.

The rose garden grew, and it was very satisfying. (deer don’t eat roses in an oil paint rose garden).

Hey! There are books on the wall! Yeppers, it is for the library. They look better than this now, but I didn’t photograph them again for you. (No, I will NOT be putting titles on them!)

Now what are you doing, Central California Artist?

Glad you asked – I am painting the edges.

It is hanging to dry: look how it changes depending on the time of day it is photographed. When I decide to be really and truly finished, I will photograph it outdoors in the sunlight.

 

. . .but quite busy. The annual Mineral King Preservation Society Picnic in the Park was on Saturday. The presenters told us about some prominent women in Mineral King’s history, and the new Park Superintendent introduced himself.

The superintendent was accompanied by someone who is in charge of the upcoming road repair project (2023? who knows?) so I asked her about the juniper in the parking lot. She said that the Park’s tree guy took a core sample and concluded that the tree wasn’t healthy enough to remain. Now my only hope is that it stays in place until the last minute, which could be another handful of years.

Next we convened at the Honeymoon Cabin for a memorial service for Jim Ingram, long time cabin friend. It was a fitting tribute in a beautiful location.

We had rain on Sunday afternoon; afterward we took a walk. Can you name this flower? Do you need a copy of Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names?

Those are grouse on the road, not litter. Here, have a closer look. They are drying out after the rain.

It is still green up the hill. The parking is awful, but there is always room in the Tar Gap parking lot.

This little guy was comfortable in our yard in Three Rivers when we got home.

Big Tree #2 on a panel needed to be touched up and Big Tree #3 needed to be painted. On a morning before the swamp cooler began to feel useless, I worked on these giant paintings of giant trees on panels. These new panels, cobbled together by Trail Guy from scrap lumber, are all different proportions. Neither of these lent themselves to showing an entire Giant Sequoia; the tree would have been far too skinny on the panel and not filled up the “canvas” well.

When I finished these, they were lined up in the painting workshop and I noticed a theme: paintings on salvaged and reclaimed items. The trunk holds cat food, and the shutter is for a fundraiser for the Mineral King Preservation Society.

The owner of the art consignment shop Kaweah Arts has been selling very well for me. We had a conversation about the sorts of customers she is seeing and what they are drawn to. This led me to conclude that I need to keep Sequoias in different sizes and shapes and prices always ready to go, along with the Kaweah Post Office, some Mineral King, the river, and some standard scenes that people see when visiting Sequoia.

This is a salvaged canvas from a plein air painting that I did at home after taking the 3 day plein air workshop in Georgia 2 years ago. I liked the scene, but no one else cares. Now it is becoming something new. (Bye-bye, patriotic chairs.)

Here are all the newly begun paintings. 

 

 

People ask if it is “cheating” to measure or to use tools when drawing. In a word, NO. If I am drawing something that needs to be exact, I measure. Usually I do it by hand first, then I measure to be certain that my proportions, sizes, distances, and angles are accurate (or close enough to be believable). The “rule” (in quotes, because I am making my own rules) is that if it took a tool to build it in real life, it most likely requires a tool on paper to replicate it.

The big old house’s details are becoming clearer to me now that I have more photos. More erasing, more do-overs (YEA for pencil), and still more decisions remain. Oranges? Walnuts? Nothing in the upper left corner? 

The new photos helped immensely.

The wooden thing by the front steps that showed up in yesterday’s post as a question is irrelevant.

The front door and the windows with their diamond upper panes are now correct in both proportions and detail.

Seeing it here on my computer screen helps me evaluate it, and I plan to plant another shrub in the front. This is where Jane’s grandmother lived many years ago, so it isn’t necessary to match every detail as it is today, only to make it look good.

We decided that a flag would be a nice addition, and it will be the spot of color that I dearly love to put in each drawing, when there is an obvious place for it. (The faded silk poinsettias at the bottom of the steps were not welcome in this drawing, although that would have been an obvious spot for color.)