Series Interruption for Painting Update

 

Recently I told an old friend that I have no commissions. He said, “I have one for you”. Many years ago he bought a couple of Mineral King paintings from me. One was when I was very new to painting, and according to Friend, I was reluctant to accept his hard-earned dollars for it. He wanted me to paint the two again, so he could see the difference. 

After he sent me a photo of the two paintings on his Mineral King wall, I asked if he wanted one or both, and what sizes. He chose one, a 6×6″, and it is the newer of the two paintings. However, it is still before I kept good records of completed work. (I started oil painting on March 8, 2006. Yes, I remember the date.)

This is his photo:

I looked through my files of completed oil paintings, and holy guacamole, look how many paintings of this scene I have in my records!

This is the first one, probably from 2006 or 2007, when I was still painting on boards rather than wasting canvas.

This is from 2010.

2013

2014

Can’t tell. . .

  •  . . .if these are painted from the same reference photos or not. I can tell that none of them are the one that Friend owns.
  • . . .if these improve through the years.
  • . . .if the 2023 version will be superior to these.

Excuses

  • It is too hot to paint for very long this time of year
  • When the swamp cooler was roaring in the painting workshop last week, I didn’t hear the plumber arrive, so the gate was closed and he left. I now have to wait AGAIN for him to show. (WHY doesn’t he call first??)
  • I am out of practice.

Beginning steps

I found two photos to help me get this right.

Ugh. It’s hot and the swamp cooler is roaring, and I want lunch. There is no deadline, so I will paint slowly with many corrective layers.

Done.

Now, we return to our regular broadcast, a series called “Cabin Life”.

August is My Least Favorite Month. . .

 

. . . but it ain’t all bad. (Cabin Life series resumes tomorrow.)

Personal

Happy Birthday, 40-year-old Niece!! 

Yardening

The little bitty almost inedible grapes are ripening, and THE DEER AREN’T EATING THEM! (Thank you, Deer Out!) If they survive, and if my juicer works after last year’s lengthy repair, I will juice and freeze them.

But Deer Out is also keeping them from licking my kitchen window clean, not that they have ever done that.

August is usually very hot. That’s why these flowers are naked ladies; too hot to be clothed.

Tucker’s wound has healed, and he loves the unmowed grass, which is the thickest and healthiest it has ever been. This is the 4th year of not allowing Trail Guy to mow it in order to let it propagate and send deeper roots (he isn’t complaining).

The cucumber plants died, the zucchini will flower but not produce, the tomatoes are weak (but the plumber shared some of his), the sweet potato plants are looking healthy, and the basil is prolific.

Art

This involuntary sabbatical has been enjoyable. I am not worried, because God is my provider, not me.

After not drawing or painting for awhile, I got another wild hair to draw.

First, I warmed up by sketching in church. (Judge not: it helps me listen with my left brain when I keep my hands and right brain occupied.)

Then, I was ready to draw “Valedictorian’s Dad”.

Finally, I began three new paintings.

Don’t they look terrible? 

No worries. That’s normal.

Bonus:

One of my favorite bloggers had a great post yesterday: Tim Cotton Writes

More Little Painting on Another Big Painting

 

If you have been reading my blog for the past 2 months, you have noticed that I haven’t been doing much in the way of artwork. Something just went silent, not “artist’s block” because I never run out of ideas. What was it? Two things: spring was so beautiful that all I wanted to do was work in the yard, and sales have dropped significantly so I didn’t want to keep building up inventory. (Too much stuff stresses me out, whether it is possessions, noise, items on a calendar, or people at a gathering; please forgive me for referring to people as “stuff”.)

After working on the Yokohl Oak painting, I worked a bit more on the big painting that I was hoping to someday hang in my dining area. It was just sitting quietly on the easel next to the oak tree, patiently waiting for some attention. The heat wasn’t too bad, I had an interesting podcast to listen to, and I had just killed a mosquito. (There is always one.) Why not keep painting?

It felt a little bit too hard, but my experience tells me that putting brush to canvas is the best way to overcome the feeling of inadequacy. So I dabbed a bit at those upper marks to turn them into oranges.

I couldn’t find a paintbrush that would cooperate. All the little ones did that annoying thing of gathering lots of paint but not releasing it. So, I moved into less detailed areas, just defining dark and light clumps, and actually counting the trees that appear in the front to match them with the trees in the photo. This is not because I need to be a Xerox machine; it is because in order to understand how things look, I need to actually LOOK at them. (or at a clear photo)

Getting better, but still lots of work ahead.

I am not in a hurry. This is for me, and I can take as long as I want and be as detailed as I desire. (“It’s my painting and I’ll draw if I want to, draw if I want to, draw if. . . “)

Someday this painting of the areas of Tulare County that I find so beautiful will be completed, Lord willing, and my vision don’t expire. (How many clichés can I butcher here?)

If you came here for Mineral King news and are disappointed, you can check the Mineral King website to see if anything new has been posted.

A Little Painting on a Big Painting

 

English is a strange language. In the title, the first “painting” is a verb; the second one is a noun. This makes for a fun title, and perhaps it incites a bit of curiosity on the part of you, O Blog Reader.

I painted “Yokohl Oak” in 2020 and showed it in two separate solo gallery shows. People liked it, particular local bike riders, who told me, “Hey, that’s the Bike Tree!” To me it was simply a beautiful oak tree along Yokohl Drive, and I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to recognize it if I drove past it again.

Alas, it didn’t sell. I put it in the 3 other galleries that regularly and steadily sell my work, and it didn’t sell. One astute friend told me it was lacking in my normal amount of detail. Really?? This looks excessively well-detailed to me.

Oh. He meant on the tree itself. It is too smooth for an oak tree. My drawing students agreed when I took it back home for a touch-up. I often run things past them, because they always tell me the truth. Besides, it lets me know if I am teaching them to be discerning, to truly see things accurately.

This got called “The Bike Tree” by a few different people, so I figured I’d just go with that theme.

Then I started adding more texture to the bark on the tree.

After that, I tried to photograph it.

The light was wrong, making shiny spots and making the color wrong. I rotated it multiple ways, cropped it, edited it with the photo program on the laptop, and finally decided it will have to wait to be photographed another time. 

In the meantime, this is the new and improved “Yokohl Oak”, after I did a little painting on this big (24×24″) painting.

P.S. Yokohl is the name of a valley in the foothills just east of Exeter in Tulare County. For awhile, there were big plans to turn the area into a self-contained town, but the combination of local protests and drought shut that down.

If you came here for Mineral King news and are disappointed, you can check the Mineral King website to see if anything new has been posted.

 

Loser to Best

This little painting was a loser because it wasn’t good enough for anyone to part with his hard-earned dollars, despite the fact that my works sells for prices that won’t scare anyone.

It is titled “Tulare County’s Best”, and although it shows what I believe to be the best that our rural Central California county offers, it wasn’t my best work.

It was my best plein air work at the time, because I was new to that style of painting.

But plein air painting isn’t my best work. 

Shut up about “best”!

I repainted it, and here it is, now deserving of its title.

Tulare County’s Best, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125

OF COURSE IT LOOKS BETTER IN PERSON.

Painting in Silence

One day we had no internet. This also meant no cell service (because we don’t have cell service at our house the cell phone works off the wifi) and no landline. So no podcasts, just concentrating on the current painting in silence.

 

I remembered my stereo and popped in a CD when I got tired of my loop-di-loop thoughts. Just sat and drew with my paintbrush and listened to music while painting this classic Tulare County scene for the Long Way Off show.

 

New Motivation to Paint

After goofing off for most of the month of May instead of painting and drawing, I found a new motivation to return to the easels: a solo show to prepare for! It’s a long way off, but I want it to be the best work I have ever done. 

An orange grove painting is supposed to be destined for the dining area of my house, but since I hung this painting of Sequoia trees, there isn’t an empty space nagging at me. However, it might be good in the Long Ways Off show, and I’ll need to paint many larger paintings, so it is TIME to go back to work.

This is how it has looked for months. (I cleaned off the spider webs for you.)

Better sky and distant hills first. 

Then I began working my way forward.

 

When I got to that distant curving road, I flipped it over to better focus on the correct shapes.

Finally, I was tired of mosquitoes and my knees hurt, so I sat down to work on the dirt. 

There are still miles to go. I actually took twice as many photos as you see here but deleted every other one so you wouldn’t fall asleep.

Things learned:

  1. Morning light in the painting workshop is better for photographing the work.
  2. Mosquitos are a real hindrance to concentrating. 
  3. After not painting for weeks, my knees hurt after standing a few hours.
  4. With the doors opened for better light, sometimes my photos blow onto my palette.

I wonder how long this new motivation will hold. That show is a long ways off: October 2024. 

 

Better Painting

After I took a plein air (on location) painting workshop, I tried to incorporate some new techniques into my normal studio method of painting. I didn’t like the results, and apparently, no one else did either, because those paintings didn’t sell.

This one in particular was troubling, because I thought the subject matter would overcome any difficulties.

After goofing off for weeks, I decided to warm up to painting by improving this little loser.

Better sky

Better snow

Better distant mountains and hills

Better Painting

 

 

When it is dry, I will scan it so we can all scratch our heads in bewilderment about how I could have ever thought the painting might sell in its earlier state. 

Guess I was blinded by love for the subject matter of Tulare County’s best features.

P.S. I didn’t mess with the orchards or wind machines because they look fine.

 

Sold in Spring 2023

If you are getting this post in your email, go to the internet and type in jana botkin dot net (type it in computer style, not the way it is written here).

Sales have been slow. I am not defining “spring”, precisely, and it isn’t over yet. However, I am not producing very much: just editing and formatting 2 different books, teaching drawing lessons, communicating occasionally with the folks on 2 different pairs of murals, and wondering if there will be any reason to paint towards selling at the Silver City Store this coming summer.

 

Lest you think I am bored, your Central California artist is never bored. I am yardening, meeting up with an old friend from high school, cleaning out closets and rooms at church, yardening some more, reading, knitting, walking with my neighbor, and yardening (in case you were wondering.)

How I Finished the Oil Painting Commission

My blog seems to be back to normal, so if you are receiving my posts via email and can’t see the photographs, tap here to go to the blog on the internet.

The large oil painting commission has taken quite a bit of thought and time. It feels very important to make it the best I possibly can. This is difficult for a non-perfectionist, whose main drive is to complete projects rather than do things perfectly. However, as a grownup, I am capable of overcoming my natural bent when it is the right thing to do.

I photographed the painting while it was upside down on the easel.

Then I flipped and cropped the photo, enlarged it to fill my computer screen, and studied it.

This is a weird phenomenon, one observed and used by my drawing students and me. Things often look fine until you see a photograph on a phone, camera, or computer screen. Suddenly the flaws appear.

The result of my study session is a red oval around each part that didn’t look quite right.

Then I mixed up the right colors and began making minuscule corrections. My plan was to photograph the corrections for you, but all wet paint was shiny and looked terrible in the photos. So, never mind that plan.

I lifted it off the easel to sign it and saw that the bottom looked terrible.

Then I looked out the painting workshop door and felt happy in spite of the little hitch in my git-along.

 

Here it is on the easel, ready for the official photograph. In spite of looking tiny in this setting, it is way too big for my scanner.

Wait! You haven’t seen the edges yet!

Finally, paint the bottom of the canvas, and the painting is finished. (Still wet)

I think you need to see it in person to truly appreciate this commissioned oil painting of my current favorite scene of Tulare County to paint for the very patient and accommodating Mr. Customer.