Painting The Desert

There are people who like the desert; I am not one of them. When I was in Israel a few years ago, I remember thinking “THIS was the ‘land of milk and honey’, ‘the Promised Land??” Deserts make me feel hot and thirsty, worried about water, missing green.

There must be beauty in the desert for so many people to like it. One of the strong motivational forces in my life is to find beauty wherever I can. While visiting a friend in Death Valley, I enjoyed looking for the beauty and then determined that I would find something in my photos to paint.

Have a look at the progress since I first showed this to you.

The painting was on hold while I finished some commissions. While waiting for others to dry in order to continue, I finished the desert painting.

And as always, when it is dry I will scan it so you can better appreciate its qualities (and it will be squared up, something that eludes me with a camera.)

Drowning Out the Rude Critic in My Head

The sunset painting was a big challenge: mixing colors that I don’t normally use, brightening colors from the provided photos, rearranging things from the photos, and because of the precision required, drawing with my paintbrush. 

Someday I may finally accept that drawing with my paintbrush is My Style, in spite of the Art World looking down its nose at this way of painting. But I digress. The point is that a customer requested a certain painting from me because he likes my style, and I have done my best to deliver.

So there.

Where was I? Got caught up in that Artworld thing, feeling like a fake artist. Will that insecurity ever subside??

Drying now.

As usual, it will be better in a scan, but still not as good as real life. Disclaim, disclaim, disclaim.

I loved working on this painting! Commissioned work is very gratifying, and it helps balance out the rude critic in my head.

First Sunset

Are you familiar with those franchise businesses where people combine alcohol consumption with painting? I think the idea is that you get all happied up and can’t tell how horribly you are painting. (It is about the experience rather than the results.) People have shown me their paintings, and they often include a sunset.

I’ve been oil painting since March 8, 2006 and have never painted a single sunset. Now, I can’t say that anymore.

A friend of mine sells real estate in rural Southern California. Hard to imagine there are rural areas in Southern California, but I assure you that there are. He asked if I was willing and able to do custom paintings that he could give as gifts to his clients. This was on the same day, in the very same hour, that I had written him a note suggesting the idea. The note wasn’t yet mailed to him (a real note on real paper) when his email arrived with the very same idea. 

That was weird. Exciting too.

His assistant sent me some photos, which I cropped into various shapes to show her some ideas.

His assistant was very responsive, excited to work with me, and full of helpful suggestions. After reading her instructions, Photoshop Junior and I did this.

Then, I began painting my very first sunset. (You may be relieved to know that it was done without “benefit” of alcohol, although it may have been useful to ameliorate the ugliness that is inevitable when I begin a painting.)

Stay tuned. It is bound to improve with time.

 

Like Lemon Meringue Pie

This painting will require many layers, and I fully intend to enjoy every minute of the process. It isn’t necessary to talk about turning lemons into lemonade – this painting is more like lemon meringue pie.

It was dry, so I relayered the mountains and hills, then moved into the lemons on the left, then the ground, then finally a bit of cleaning off my brushes by putting more green into the grove. 

When this is dry again, I’ll relayer the sky before continuing on the lemons and the grove. I want this baby to be PERFECT. 

P.S. I love lemon meringue pie, and that’s saying something, because as a former pie baker (it was just a job, not a career), pies do not excite me. Further, one of my life’s guiding principles is “If it isn’t chocolate, it isn’t worth the calories”.

Finished, Finished, and Finished

Here are the scanned versions of the most recently finished oil painting commissions. Scanning produces better results than photographing, but first the paintings have to be dry. This is why there is a time lapse between you seeing them on the easel and seeing the finished product. But don’t be confused by the bridge – I didn’t get around to showing it to you on the easel until it was actually finished and dry in real life.  

Devol Coat of Arms
Green Tunnel, Mineral King
Oak Grove Bridge XXXI (#31), but probably closer to #35 since I didn’t number my oil paintings very accurately for a few years.)

If you are like me, you are curious to see the difference between the last 6×18″ Oak Grove Bridge and the current one. It is interesting that I can paint from the same photo twice and get different results. Some of this is because I have to just make up the “growies”, since there is no way to copy them exactly. Besides, real life is messy. And speaking of real life, there probably isn’t as much difference in the colors between the 2 paintings if we saw them in person. So much has to do with how it photographs or scans.

Oak Grove Bridge XXIX (#29)

If you ever think you might like a painting from a photo you see on my blog (or one you’ve taken), or if you’d like a painting that has already sold, I can do that for you.

Inching Along the Commissions

Reminder: “commission” is Art Speak for a custom piece of art. Here are two in progress:

No matter how often I paint the Oak Grove Bridge, it challenges my ability to draw with a paintbrush. Drawing with a paintbrush is something that is sneered at in the Art World, but I am hard-pressed to imagine how one of those loosey-goosey painters would handle this subject.

I sent this photo to my customer, and he declared me to be finished. He was actually nicer than that – he said, “As I said before, you are the best!” Aw shucks, thank you, DB. You are a dream customer.

The giant circle continues to develop. The surface of smooth plywood with several base coats of paint is different than canvas and will take multiple layers to cover. That’s fine, because I can get tighter and better with each layer. This is my preferred method of painting, fix, fix, fix some more, and fix again, called “glazing” in Art Speak. That is how I painted the bridge commission.

My customer the citrus grower asked if the trees would be darker, because I sent a photo taken earlier than this one. Then I took this photo, and because the paint is wet here, it is reflective so it still looks pale. I kept painting, and then sent this photo:

I love this subject matter just as much as the Oak Grove Bridge and am quite happy about getting to spend many hours making it look as good as possible.

Irresistible Subject

Ever painted a circle? I have. It was a heavy saw blade with sharp teeth. Sawteeth? Yeppers, Sawtooth with sawteeth.

This one is much kinder to work with. It isn’t heavy, the surface is very smooth, the top is clearly marked, and it fits on an easel.

The paper photograph hadn’t arrived, but I couldn’t wait a moment longer to begin. A scene with citrus and mountains, a true source of inspiration, is just irresistible to this Central California artist!

Good thing my customers have faith in my ability, because as always, things start out looking rough.

HURRY UP, PRINTED PHOTO!!

 

New Commissioned Oil Painting

I stopped by the Silver City Store to check my paintings and encountered an old friend on the deck. He said how much he liked my bridge painting in the store. I went inside to do inventory and couldn’t find the bridge, so came back out and asked, “Did you say you ‘like’ the bridge or that you ‘bought’ it?”

He said that he “liked” it, and I told him it had sold. He was disappointed, so I offered to paint it again for him, and he said yes.

Wow. If only every sale was that easy. I went home and immediately began painting, because the Oak Grove Bridge is my favorite subject. (If you have been following this blog for awhile, then you already knew that. If you would like to see more, put “Oak Grove Bridge” in the search bar of the blog and it will give you a stack of old posts to read or to just look at photos, paintings and drawings of the bridge.)

Ooh. As soon as I saw the bottom photo here, I saw some things to correct on the painting.

 

 

More Green Tunnel

I’ve been painting the Green Tunnel from looking at the photo on my laptop. The progress left me unsure of my abilities and of the results. Sometimes commissions cause this sort of insecurity. (But I’d rather paint than go to counseling).

When the print finally arrived, I was surprised by how helpful it was, in a different way than painting from the screen. I can enlarge details on the screen, but there is something more tangible (duh!) about ink on paper.

The difference here is a photo taken with a phone (above) and a photo taken with a camera (lower). Neither one does the real painting any justice.

Now, let’s see what happened when I had the printed photo to work from.

The goal is not to match the photo exactly but to make the painting be as appealing or more so. I don’t think it is finished yet, but I already like it better.

Resting Coat of Arms

Whole lotta resting going on ’round here.

We chose silver gray for the customer’s name to match Helmet Dude. Now the coat of arms oil painting commission is drying. Sometimes when a painting is drying, I keep thinking of ways to improve it.

With this one, I am just trying not to look any more.

When it is dry, I’ll scan it for a better look. That’s for you to have a better look. I am FINISHED. (Please, please, may I be excused?)