Category: Oil Paintings

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, 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” 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.

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.

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!

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, strengthened the contrasts, put more light upstream from the bridge, more detail in the rocks and brighter colors on the water.

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.

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.

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.)