CUSTOM ART | COLLAGES Custom art is an important piece of my art business. There are countless scenes and objects that I’d really enjoy painting or drawing, but in 33 years of earning a living with art, I have come to understand that people want what they want, not necessarily what I want. Therefore, I […]
Mineral King is Open
And the summer begins … I didn’t take any of these pictures, which were all taken before I went up the hill, because living in two places comes soon enough without pushing it. Our cabin is a summer dwelling, for good reasons. Hence, the Early Bird, AKA Trail Guy, took these photos. (You can tell […]
In the Think Tank and Other Work Thoughts
Sort of Working Having finished the oil painting commission, priced paintings and cards to sell at Silver City, all this while believing that I have finished enough paintings for the entire summer (possibly delusional about that), it was time to consider how to next spend my work time. I pulled weeds at church (not work), […]
Bridge Building (With Paint)
Incremental Improvements Painting #38 of Tulare County’s best bridge (according by your Central California artist) is inching forward into excellence. Can you see the incremental improvements? We can probably consider it all finished now, EXCEPT FOR THE BRIDGE ITSELF! Ahem. Excuse me for shouting. It just surprises me that after I put an enormous amount […]
Moving Forward on the Two New Paintings
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, […]
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 […]