This stack of ten canvases was staring at me accusingly. So rude.
The only way I could get them to shut up was to start working on them. I spread out the smallest canvases with their photos, mixed up a pile of sky color to cover eight of the beginning backgrounds, along with a nondescript dark background color for two that are different from my usual Mineral King scenery paintings.
The two Sequoia gigantea are finishing their drying session. No hurry; I delivered one still sort of dampish to Kaweah Arts, and these two are just back-ups.
Some of the canvases had a base coat, and last week I drew the basic shapes in pencil. I don’t always do this, but for some unknown reason felt compelled to do that last week. Maybe I just wanted to make the starting out session more accurate. . . maybe I thought it would make the paintings go faster. . . or maybe I just felt like drawing in pencil. Yeah, that.
As I was taking inventory of Mineral King paintings on hand, I kept returning to this 8×10” of White Chief, which was painted from a particularly dramatic photo taken by Trail Guy, early one season. The painting just didn’t slap me in the eyes like the photos do, so I guessed at what might make it better and then fiddled around with it a bit more.
Better? Maybe. Hard to say when the upper one was scanned and the lower one photographed with my inferior phone camera. If it sells in 2026, I will conclude that it has been improved. If not, I’ll just break all my brushes, slash my canvases, and see if I can find a job eradicating typos somewhere.
JUST KIDDING!!
4 Comments
The “after” really pops!
Elisabeth, I think that might be the difference in photography. When I scan the retouched painting, the comparison will be fairer. And yesterday I did a few more touch-ups, so who knows? The paintings of scenes that require sweat to reach don’t sell as well as the scenes one views from the parking lot.
My eye went right to the middle of the canvas, where the brownish area looks like a dinosaur to me. His mouth is open like he is eating the snow patch, and he has a white eye and is looking to the right. It is like those pictures where you can see two different images and the image you see tells you something about yourself. I don’t know what seeing a dinosaur in your painting says about me, but I like it and I hope it sells!
Marjie, you crack me up! Thanks for the laugh. I’m now afraid to study the painting following your description in case I never see it as White Chief again!