Category: Oil Paintings

Lost

Sometimes I refer to myself as a “loser” in the true sense of the word. My mom used to tell me that I’d lose my head if it wasn’t attached. As usual, Mom was right.

The Mural Gallery and Gift Shop in Exeter sells my oil paintings. We’ve had a good run lately, so I took another batch of paintings to them. I forgot to include something of oranges, so planned to take one down on my next trip. The sweet lady who works there said, “Bring them all – they sell!”

So, I went into the overheated and underused workshop (too hot to paint there in the summer) to retrieve some oranges. Found two oil paintings of oranges.

Funny. I have three. Where is the 11×14″?

1433 Blooming oranges

Blooming Oranges, 11×14″, oil on wrapped canvas, $175, available here

Lost.

Did I sell it and not write it down? Did I take it to a gallery and not write it down?

AHA! It was part of the show at the Visalia Convention Center this spring! It is sitting in someone’s office in Visalia, someone whose hours do not coincide with my trips down the hill!

Found! I wrote it somewhere, but obviously the list is lost.

Oil Paintings at Home

Oil paintings at someone else’s home. Someone else who really likes my work. Someone whom I really like. But, this is the World Wide Web, so her identity will not be revealed.

She has others that are not yet hung, only propped against the wall the last time I was over. As she and I discussed the paintings she was considering, I suddenly had a flash of insight. “AHA! You are a color junkie, just like me!”

When one color junkie identifies another, there is no need to explain. We just get each other. Look at the flowers in her front garden!

When she wants a painting, it doesn’t feel like the business of selling; it is simply helping a friend with good taste, an interest in beauty and some disposable income (“disposable”? Who decided that word should go with the word “income”??). I love to help people choose the right picture, whether it is one I have already painted or drawn or one they ask me to create for them (the fancy word is “commission”.)

color junkie

About Selling Oil Paintings

This post is about the business of art, selling oil paintings, but I only go on about it for a paragraph and then it is all pictures.

In the past month and a half, twelve oil paintings have sold.

TWELVE!

I would say, “I’ve sold twelve paintings”, but it wouldn’t be very true. I am not that good at selling, in spite of reading all sorts of websites, blogs, and books on the subjects. If you really want a painting and have the money, I want you to have it! But I am not going to convince you against your budget or your better judgement that you should buy a painting from me. Not gonna do it! It is fake to say certain “magic” words that will somehow separate people from their money. No phony-baloney-plastic-banana in me.

End of explanation (excuse?). Now, let’s rejoice!

067 SS IXX 1520 Alta Moro II 1525 M's Hen O121 - 1312 Oak Grove Bridge V Poppies XXXII 1403 sunflower 1432 FG Alpen Glow 1448 KaweahR VIII 1519 Orange sunflower

O#120 - 1311

P.S. I wasn’t related to any of the customers and some I didn’t even know!

Poppies Will Wake Us Up!

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 of “Poppies will put them to sleep”. I felt happy to work on it in spite of the beginning sloppiness.

Poppy Field oil painting

Poppy field, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $100

Click THIS to buy. (Is that like saying “when” to get someone to stop pouring your iced tea so it doesn’t overflow?)

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 paintings from the studio, a gallery or a store into my house. I live with them for awhile, and then I begin to see that they aren’t as good as they could be.

I could get all bummed out about how much work everything is, but I try to look at life from a positive perspective.

So, my attitude is “YEA! I’m getting better!”

Good thing. If I wasn’t improving at my line of work, I’d need to find something else to do.

This oil painting is one of my earlier attempts at oil. “Attempts”? That makes it sound as if it were a failure.

Nope, it is an experiment, and an experience. It is on the easels for about its 4th make-over.

Maybe I should say it is at the spa instead of in rehab. . .

Here is how it looked before I went after it again.

Generals Highway

Not that much different on the screen. Definitely better in person. I might even rename it The painting formerly known as General’s Highway will become “Entering Giant Forest”.

When I am done with its make-over and it is dry enough to photograph without a shiny glare (when its stitches are out and the scars have healed?), I’ll show you the 2 versions.

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.

Don’t know. Get tired of business decisions. Wanna paint what I wanna paint!

The Shepherdess is a friend of mine. A very dear friend in the perfect light is a hard subject to resist, even when it isn’t showing off the beauty of Tulare County.

I think this will sell without any trouble. Even in this embryonic state, this one is beginning to have some appeal.

The shepherdess has some beautiful chickens.

Wow, this looks like a mess. It will take an extraordinary amount of time, but I wanna paint what I wanna paint! Nope, not Tulare County, and not even California.

My favorite bridge might be finished here again. I don’t know what number it is. I’ve lost control of the numbering of the series of the Oak Grove Bridge.

I wanted to spend more time with the shepherdess but had to settle for painting her instead. In the painting (and real life), she is not actually wearing highlighter pink. And there is no ray of sunshine on the painting except around 8 in the morning coming through the painting workshop window. The sheep still appear to me as if they need a good veterinarian. That’s okay. I wanna paint this!

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 instead of on leisure time while in Mineral King. Forget that noise!

mineral King paintings

This is 3 paintings in progress, working from 2 photos. (The photos are the ones with the completed tall trees.)

This is on a 4×4″ board with a very smooth surface. The smooth surface gives me the option of putting in a ton of detail. It will look sweet sitting on a little easel.

Here are the 2 6×6″ oil paintings that should dry quickly since summer seems to have arrived. The one on the left doesn’t look anemic in real life.

Apparently I got confused as to which photo I was using. When scene is this familiar, sometimes I forget to look at the reference and just go.

And when I see these as photos, I think they still need more work. Interesting, because I spent HOURS on these. HOURS, I tell you! (And those were hours I could have been relaxing or hiking in Mineral King out of the heat – anyone appreciate my dedication to work here?)

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. . .

first buckeye bridge

It looks better now. I added a tree, strengthened the contrasts, put more light upstream from the bridge, more detail in the rocks and brighter colors on the water.

017 Buckeye Bridge

Now here’s a weird thing: normally my paintings look best when scanned. The one at the bottom is the newer version, but this is how it appeared when I photographed it in the sunlight.

buckeye bridge

Confused and conflicted – I thought scanning was superior. Now do I need to go back and rephoto all my unsold paintings?? Or, do I go get the painting from the studio and try to see which version is the most accurate.

Troubled artist over bridge. . . that’s me.

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 to simply say “So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, goodbye.”

Say “Bye-bye” to these 2 wildflower paintings:

So what if I LOVE Explorer’s Gentian? Apparently, I am alone in this. Ditto the Leopard Lily. Yes, I could find a place to hang them in my house, but I am choosing a different path for these canvases.

Say what?

More will be revealed (and hidden) in the fullness of time (and the application of oil paint.)

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.

mineral king fog

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 yarn color with a purple glasses case thrown in for comparison.)

How about a some bird watching out the window? Down the hill we have California quail and scrub jays; up the hill we have Mountain Quail and stellar jays.