On the Easels
3 Mineral King Paintings in Progress
I’ve been inching along (more accurately, “layering along”) on the 3 largish Mineral King paintings. With colder temperatures, the oil just isn’t drying quickly enough to make much progess.
Here is Farewell Gap with a few more layers.
Here is White Chief with a few more layers:
And here is Sawtooth with a new sky:
Growing Sequoias With Paint
Ever heard of growing Sequoia trees with paint? It’s figurative, not literal. Unlike the new (wrong) use of the word “literal”, I mean that I am figuratively growing trees. As in a figure of speech. . .
Please excuse the detour. Words mean things, and sometimes people need to be reminded, although I believe my blog readers are exceptional people, exceptionally smart and aware of reality. Otherwise, why would you all choose to read a blog by a realist? 
This one is finished. It needs to dry, get scanned, varnished and added to inventory on my website. I can’t remember the title (Sequoia Number Something or Sunny Sequoias Number Something) and can’t turn it over to check the title while it is this wet. 
Yikes. This is so ugly with only its first layer. You can see I have begun on the left side, which also happens to be farthest away.
I think it could use another layer of detail, but it will have to wait until it is dryer. “Dryer”? Isn’t that a machine for drying clothes? Maybe I mean “more dry”. Anyone know a good editor??
And this one is also ugly with only a first layer. I’m learning not to despair after only one pass over the canvas. It has only taken 10-1/2 years of painting to understand that ugly happens for a much longer amount of time than the fun part.
Layer by layer. . . this one will also need more detailing and some color correcting.
Here are all three, progressively more complete as you see them from upper to lower.
Merry Christmas!
For you, kind blog readers, a variety of photographs, oil paintings and one pencil drawing (this year’s Christmas card to my drawing students) just to enjoy.
Sequoia Oil Painting in Progress
I returned to painting Sequoia trees while I waited for more information on the Kaweah blacksmith shop and for it to dry a bit.
After helping the color bullies my advanced drawing students with their paintings of Sequoia trees, I wanted to paint my own.
This was the first time I have painted since we got Samson. (painting these the same day I began the Kaweah blacksmith shop). He was very busy, but didn’t attack my feet or the paint brush, or tip over the turpentine, or run across the palette.
I got this far:
Helping my drawing students with their Sequoia oil paintings helped me with mine.
Thank you, Color Bullies, Advanced Drawing Students!
Forgive Us Our Trespasses
Sometimes when I need to get photos or see stuff, I trespass. Been doing it my whole life, I confess. Forgive me my trespasses. . .
Recently I went trespassing up the North Fork of the Kaweah, looking for the site where the Kaweah blacksmith shop sat. I have a photo from 1996, but the flood of 1997 probably changed the scene. Besides removing the blacksmith shop, it probably changed the route of the river there.
Why does it matter if I have a photo? Because I can’t tell if there are hills behind or if the river should show a bit or what to fill in with between the sycamore trees. If I can’t see it, I can’t paint it. Very well, that is.
New Oil Painting With Help
One of the benefits of participating in bazaars, boutiques and festivals is that I meet new people. Sometimes this results in commissions or new drawing students. The Senior League Holiday Bazaar brought me this new oil painting commission.
Oh boy, there’s a challenge! When the customer explained that he had taken this photo in the Three Rivers History Museum, I knew I’d receive some good help.
I emailed Museum Man, who promptly removed the photo from the frame, scanned it at a high resolution and emailed it to me!
The customer told me about this little building. It was the blacksmith shop for the Kaweah Colony, and it was on property that he now owns. In 1997, a flood took it away.
We discussed colors, and he and his wife decided it would suit them better in full color rather than sepia tones. They chose the fall season, which seems right based on all the sycamore leaves on the ground.
To be continued. . .
Color Bullies, Part 2
My advanced drawing students successfully bullied me into 2 oil painting workshops. We had a great time!
A rebel set aside her Sequoia painting that she began last week. This is of the Tetons from a photo she took. I painted the scene first so it would be a little easier for her. (I had the assignment of copying an “Old Master” during the 1/2 semester of painting I took at the local junior college – copying is a good way to learn.)
We had an overachiever who worked on 2 paintings at the same time.
Good job, E! You get an A for sure. No rebelling, one painting at a time.
Turned out that two painters did choose the same scene. We put them side by side, and learned that the one on the left could benefit from stronger colors and more contrast, and the one on the right could benefit from more detail. Interesting exercise! (They look different in real life than on the screen because I had to mess with the photo because it didn’t look right because. . . . on and on and on. Never mind.)
At the end of our session, it turns out that we had two rebels and five Sequoia trees. Yes, that is a cat, but the cat painter is actually drawing a Sequoia tree in pencil these days.
None of these paintings are finished. They need more layers, more details, some color corrections, edges of canvas painted, signatures, and varnish.
This probably means there will be another painting session ahead.
Color Bullies
About twice a year, I allow several of my advanced drawing students to bully me into giving an oil painting workshop.
Sometimes everyone paints the same subject, and sometimes each person chooses her own subject. It is easier to teach when everyone paints the same subject. That way everyone benefits from the same instructions rather than having to wait until I get around to help individually.
Recently, the color bullies arm-twisted me into another oil painting workshop. I negotiated to get them to all paint Sequoia trees and the result was that I gave them several photos from which to choose.
OF COURSE every single participant chose a different photo.
The color bullies and I had a great time. (You know I use the term “bullies” as an exaggeration, yes? These folks are truly wonderful, and we love painting together!) Stay tuned to see how the paintings turn out after session #2.
Reading Rabbit Report
If you are new to this blog, I’d like to introduce you to Reading Rabbit. This oil painting was a class assignment when I took half a semester of a painting class at the local junior college. I signed up for a photorealism class, and it was combined with a studio painting class. The instructor ignored the photorealism part, so I quit the class. (Besides, it was too dark to see well in the room, he played rap “music”, and it was 70 miles round trip. Any questions??)
But what about the Reading Rabbit? I love to read, and sometimes I post what I’ve been reading on the blog. By showing this painting, it sort of fits with my theme, which is Realistic detailed oil paintings and drawings of Tulare County, California (and occasionally beyond). Besides, I want the followers of the blog and my art to know a bit more about me than just my art. It is a marketing thing, but more than that, it is a friendship thing to share oneself.
By the way, thank you, Ed B., for introducing yourself at the Holiday Bazaar. It is a thrill to meet someone who reads and enjoys all this blathering and bloviating!
- Everyone Brave is Forgiven, Chris Cleave, has been highly recommended by several book sites. I chose it because it is based on letters written by the author’s grandparents during WWII. The novel is based in England, and I expected to like it more than I did. Most people love it.
- Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner, first published in the 1970s, often shows up on people’s lists of top books of all time. I read it awhile ago and didn’t like it. I reread it because I owned it (not now – donated it to the library) and because I thought my tastes might have changed. It reinforced for me that if I don’t find the main character likable or the setting to be a place I want to be, then I don’t enjoy the book.
- Be Frank With Me, Julia Claiborne Johnson, was one of the best novels I’ve read recently. Frank is a kid with shocking intelligence and poor social skills. The writing makes him come alive and the story is very well told.
- Maeve’s Times: In Her Own Words is a collection of Maeve Binchy’s essays printed in the Irish Times newspaper. It is arranged by decade and is a look into the the nonfiction writing life of my favorite novelist. She was wonderful!
- Maeve Binchy, the biography, Piers Dudgeon, was irresistible because of my love for Maeve’s novels. Her characterization is so lifelike and her storytelling so real that it made me want to know more about her. Like most biographies, there was too much information, too many names (many of them “Mary”). But I learned about my favorite novelist. If you love her work, you will enjoy this book (and book #4 above).
- Falling Upward: Spirituality for the Second Half of Life, Richard Rohr, was another book that I keep hearing about. I made it through the first four chapters and then decided that I am either stupid or intellectually lazy. Either way, I am 57 years old and I don’t have to finish books that I don’t like.