Mural, Day Six

The immediate feeling of “Oh boy, where do I start” comes over me when I approach the mural each day.
After standing there a bit, I decided it needs another tree over on the right.
Yes, good decision
That background isn’t right. Of course it isn’t because it isn’t finished yet.
More branches, please.
Better, still needs more.
Oops, there goes the daylight.
Is this area better? Hope so, because I spent several hours trying to improve it. Can’t tell with the poor photography in low light. 
It’s always nice to end with a sunset. What a beautiful place to work!

Mural, Day Five

First, I photographed the mural to stall while I decided where to begin.

Sky. Sky is a good starting place. Three men brought me a 6′ ladder (how many men does it take to deliver a ladder? Apparently, three!) This made it easier to work on the 8′ ladder, so the 6′ could act as a platform for my things. I also decided to go over the archway with the sky. I can always paint over it if it ends up not looking right. That fact always gives me confidence to dive in when I am unsure.

The background needed something. The original reference photo is sort of misty, foggy, or maybe smoky looking. Smoke is not welcome around here. I’m altering things enough from the photo that I don’t think duplicating the photo’s murky background will work. Enlarging murkiness results in large puzzling areas. Or maybe it doesn’t, but as the Art Empress of Realville, it goes against my grain to put nonspecific patches of unrealistic color in realistic paintings. 

I ran out of daylight.Maybe I’ll come up with a new plan tomorrow. 

Mural, Day Four

There was a storm, it got cold, we had a fire, and Pippin came inside!
The storm stopped the fires and cleared the air. The real blue sky makes my painted blue sky appear pale.

These two areas needed work. The entire mural needed work, but I chose these areas to begin the day’s painting session.

So, I worked on them.

Suddenly it was cold and getting dark. A few days ago, Trail Guy stopped by and asked if I needed anything. I said, “Faster paintbrushes”. I must be having fun, because time flies while I paint this.

What a beautiful place to work!

Mural, Day Three

On Day One, it was hot out. I wore shorts and painted in the shade. On Day Three, I wrapped it up early because of the icy wind that was whipping around, flapping the drop cloth, making my hand shake from the shivers. Weather Whiplash.

The pipe is annoying, so I decided to get that area finished first.
Pipe area is still not quite finished, but I am done with the annoyance of it for now.
By the end of the shivery painting session, I had scooted across to the big tree on the right. At the end of the day, I prefer to work standing or kneeling on the ground instead of on the ladder.
From a distance with a building blocking off the undone parts, you could get the false idea that the mural is finished.
Nosiree Bob.

Who is Bob? Some people say, “. . . and Bob’s your uncle” to mean that something has been accomplished. 

I don’t know who this Bob is, but today Kurt the Mailman stopped by to see the mural. Why does Kurt the Mailman care? He is a fabulous photographer and gave me a disk of his photos a number of years ago, along with his permission and blessing to use any for painting references. This mural is from one of Kurt the Mailman’s photographs! (I’m using quite a bit of artistic license, along with other photos for different details).

Mural, Day Two

Trail Guy stopped by to check on my progress and suggested that I place my bucket under the drip to see how much is coming off that pipe in 24 hours. Well, 20 hours, because I have been working about 4 hours a day. It started sort of hot again in the sun yesterday and by the end of the session, I put my ragged flannel paint rag on. (It’s an old shirt, one that belongs in a rag bag except that I need it.)

I wonder if puffy white clouds would look good on this wall. Those unpainted spaces could become clouds.

More will be revealed as more is covered.

 

 

 

Mural, Day One

This is on the grounds of STYC – seems really fancy for Three Rivers, but in a good way, something in which to have a bit of architectural pride. (There are some other nice buildings in town, but they are not public.)
The wall had enough shade to begin around 1 p.m.; it was sort of hot in the sun on November 2!
What am I painting here??
The dripping pipe kept my bucket full.
I bet you can guess now.
From a distance.
Now it is in shade.
That’s it for Day One.
The light is fading quickly so I left the mural at the stage where it is best viewed from the back of a fast horse (while wearing sunglasses at midnight).
Until next painting session, buh-bye.

Three Rivers Post Office

When it was time to mail the cabin drawing to the customer, I packaged it. Trail Guy came out to the studio to offer his delivery services, and I was delighted to not have to interrupt my work with a trip to the Post Office. Yes, I know it is only 3-4 miles away, but in the summers, my work days are limited because I keep going to Mineral King instead of keeping my feet planted in front of the easels. So, I value my work time and appreciate not having to do my own errands.

Trail Guy returned from the Post Office with the receipt and an explanation of why it cost $18 to send a piece of paper to San Diego – had to buy a box, pay for insurance, etc. And “piece of paper” isn’t meant to discount the value of an original pencil drawing, but essentially, to the post office, it was a highly insured piece of paper packaged carefully in an overpriced box.

He turned toward the counter in the painting workshop, picked up a taped-together bundle of cardboard and said, “What is this?”

Ahem. That would be the drawing that I thought he had just mailed.

When I got back up off the floor from laughing, I emailed my customer to tell her to expect a box of cardboard, minus her drawing before actually receiving the drawing.

Later that afternoon, I went to the Post Office with the actual drawing. The clerk retrieved the box from the back, we opened it, inserted the drawing, and she taped it back up. No new packaging, no new payments. It was in time to go out with that day’s mail.

I LOVE THE POST OFFICE IN THREE RIVERS!!

This is the Kaweah Post Office, not the Three Rivers Post Office. The unframed original is available for $200. Interested? Give me a pair of minutes to look for it because I can’t find it right now. What else would you expect from someone who mails empty boxes to customers?

 

Two Job Conclusions

Thing One: the A-frame is now in place. I stopped driving by the pump like some weird stalker, and just waited. Eventually, a neighbor left a nice message on the phone saying how good the sign looked, and was it my work?

So, I walked that direction the next morning.

Hey! What’s that??

The dry season is to the front.

Spring is to the rear. I wonder, will it get rotated next year?The A-frame is in place.

Thing Two: I mailed the Coat of Arms on a Monday and was told the expected arrival was Thursday. It was received on Tuesday!

Now what’s next??

Kaweah Lake Paintings, Part 2

These are more recent paintings of The Lake, also known as Lake Kaweah, and Kaweah Lake. In addition to not remembering the correct way to state the name, I often wonder if it is in Lemon Cove or Three Rivers. 

Life is full of unanswered questions.

This painting of Kaweah Lake was done in 2014, probably on a 6×6″ canvas.
Painted in 2015
Painted in an unknown year.
Same painting, repainted in another unknown year as my skill grew. 

I also painted the lake other ways.

The Lake, oil on wrapped canvas, 4×6″, $50

 

This was painted in my phase of making colors brighter than they appear in real life.

That concludes our tour through paintings of Kaweah Lake. Tomorrow we’ll move on to other topics.

Kaweah Lake

As I refreshed the mural at the Tulare County South Fork fire station #14 in Three Rivers (sorry for all the words – it helps Uncle Google find my posts), I thought of all the times I have painted Kaweah Lake. This subject isn’t as popular as Mineral King, of course, but very little is that popular.

These are the first ones I painted of the lake, back in 2007 when I had only been oil painting about a year. I didn’t have a good inventory system set up yet, so I don’t know the sizes. I think they were either 4×6″ or 5×7″. Who bought them? I don’t know that either. If you own one of these, THANK YOU!

These were painted a bit later, maybe in 2009. I still didn’t record the sizes and didn’t yet have a scanner or Photoshop Junior. This is the same year that I first painted the water tank at the Tulare County South Fork fire station.

2009, when the mural was new, after I practiced the subject at least 8 times on canvases and boards.

We’ll continue our tour of Kaweah Lake on Tuesday.