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.

Enjoying Life Before the Storms

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A day before the big storm, there was a brief time of sunshine. It lit up this germander, a drought tolerant shrub that looks great in spring and horrid in summer.

That evening, Jackson did not want to be put away. He decided to walk the other way and then attempt to catch his own dinner. I walked around the yard calling for him, and of course, he ignored me. However, I found him. Can you see his tail?

He was very intensely focused on some quail which feed around dusk, which is when we feed our cats.

Dude, I am watching you, and you are not going to catch a quail. 

He showed up at the front door looking for entry to the workshop where his dinner was waiting. Michael walked him over, and put him away for the night.

The next day was so intensely green and my leaning tree was in full bloom. (It’s a flowering pear, one of the earliest trees to bloom and one of the last to hold its color in the fall.)

Eventually I made it into the workshop (the cats’ safe place at night) to get a little painting done.

The first one is called Below Terminus Dam. I love this view in spite of it not having snow-covered peaks in the distance. Some years there are poppies on the distant hills; it is too soon to know this year because we are having a real winter.

This is the commissioned piece, now finished. (The right side looks darker because I am casting a shadow on it.)

This is the painting that was giving me trouble. I’ve decided that it is finished now.

This concludes today’s post about your Central California artist enjoying spring, her recalcitrant cat, her yard, and painting her favorite Tulare County scenes. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

 

Slowly Painting While Loving Early Spring

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet. These photos are from March 2, a brilliant and cold day.

A friend and I went for a walk. (This was before the big rains.) I realized that while this first photo is normal to us, it is probably peculiar to other folks. These boulders get moved to block parking spaces when Edison closes its beaches on busy weekends. This method of closing a parking area is probably unusual; I think it is innovative.

The river is flowing steadily but isn’t high because nothing above was melting yet.

The snow was sooooo low.

But the daffodils were bright, in spite of being slightly splattered with mud.

Enough. Get to work, Central California Artist!

This oil painting, an 11×14″ commission is coming together. No matter how difficult these seem at the beginning, if I don’t give up, eventually they get done in a believable manner.

“Nevuh, nevuh, nevuh give up” —good advice from Winston Churchill.

Whooping it up on the Canvases

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The customer told me which mountains she wishes to see in her 11×14″ painting. So I started.

Sky, mountains, foothills, indication of distant groves, indication of closer groves. Then, it was too wet to continue. This might be an excuse; sometimes when painting these scenes, I hit a place of thinking it is too hard and that I can’t do it. (pathetic, no?)

So, time to move to the 18×36″ painting.

Working on a new sky layer gives me an opportunity to think about what I want to do here.

I think I want some overhanging branches, loaded with oranges. This means I have to make up some stuff, move some trees, bringing in some closer ones. And why not? I made up the snow-covered mountains in the distance. If I am painting this to please me, then yippee skippee, I can just go hog wild and really whoop it up.

I sure do know how to live, eh?

Happy Birthday, Little Sister!

Painting my Obsession

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I thought this painting was finished and was about to scan it when I realized it was missing something important.

Snow covered mountains in the distance! White is the slowest color to dry, so it will be a week or two before this one is ready to scan.

This one needs definition in the distant groves and detail in the foreground branches. 

I am just making stuff up now. As long as it is believable, it’ll do.

This will take awhile, lots of painting sessions to try this, that, and something else.

Saturday night, remember to spring your clocks forward because Daylight Saving Time begins. It isn’t saving any daylight, merely shoving it an hour later so that mornings are dark again. There is talk of making it permanent, but those who think that is a good idea aren’t thinking ahead to waiting until 8 a.m. to see any daylight in the fall and winter months. I say leave the time right where it belongs and quit jerking us around.

So there.



Possibly Walking More Than Working

I really meant to paint. I started detailing this piece.

But holy guacamole, look at this day!

My walking buddy and I spotted some white rocks beneath the bridge. They got heavier as we got closer to home but we made it. 

I added them to my little eccentric project to be arranged later. The iris are starting to appear above the soil now.
Then I went back to work and finished this 10×20″ oil painting of Tulare County’s finest scenery.

Next, I went back to this 10×20″ painting.

Doesn’t look like much, but it was a little progress. Remember, no deadlines, no upcoming shows, no commissions, just the beautiful month of February in Tulare County.

I Have a Feeling that. . .

Are all these posts looking alike to you? (That’s a rhetorical question, one that I don’t want to hear the answer to.)

I decided that this 6×12″ painting is finished. “Citrus and the Sierra #forty-eleven”, perhaps?

Time to put more layers on the 12×16″. Normally I paint back to front, meaning I start with the parts that are farthest away in real life. This day I started with the closest items instead.

After putting detail on the closer trees, I moved to the row of trees that is next, trying to make the perspective look believable.

That looks right to me now.

So Tucker and I sat back and studied the painting. It caused me to do more work on the mountains, not photographed yet because you prolly won’t know the difference. Yes, I wrote “prolly”. The green hills need a lot of attention too. Oops, one of those trees looks like a fuzzy green ball. 

I have a feeling that I will be working on this one for awhile.

Three Edges, Two Layers, One Finish

That title is a description of a whole day of painting.

Trail Guy started the furnace in the painting workshop, turned on the fan to move the warm air to the opposite end of the room where the easels are, and shut the doors to keep the warmth in and the cats out. They were invited to be in, but if you know anything about cats, you know how much they hate closed doors. (Trail Guy turned on the furnace for me because it makes a big POPPPHWHOOOFSSSHH! when starting and sometimes blows out the pilot light.)

Let’s move on before I add more letters to the noise the furnace makes.

It was a brilliantly sunny day, so much that I could not see the computer screen or take good photos of my progress. But, it is warm by the easels in the sun before the furnace does its job. So, I just worked with what I’ve got. . . what? You want me to build an actual studio?? Not a chance.

See the brilliant sunshine?

Pippin liked being inside before he figured out that the doors were closed.

Someone (Hi BW) asked for the 12×16″ painting, so I started there.

Hi Pippin.

Sky first.

Work downward and forward, saving the closest things for last. Not everyone paints this way, but since it is the way I first learned and it ain’t broke, I ain’t fixin’ it.

Next!

Layer, by layer. Same deal, top to bottom, back to front.

I felt like a cog in a wheel, a factory worker. So, I decided to do a 6×12″ from beginning to end. (That is the smallest size canvas in this series of Tulare County citrus with mountains scenery.)

Sky first, moving forward, ridge by ridge.

 

Detail is so engrossing that I forgot to photograph the steps.

This looks pretty good, but not good enough. Remember, I am a pencil artist, and I draw with my paintbrush. (So there, Art World snobs.)

This looked good enough to sign. So, I did. 

There was still time for another layer on this other 6×12″ canvas. 

With the leftover sky paint, I covered edges on three more canvases. Of course there wasn’t enough, so I had to squeeze out about four more times.

I could add that to the title. Four Squeezes, Three Edges, Two Layers, One Finished.

Nah. Trail Guy turned off the heater and I am ready to move into the house.

Painting While Waiting

The project manager for the mural job at the giant Catholic Church in Visalia called me. The mural portion is stalled until the niche project is completed. “Niche project”? I am not very conversant in Catholic, so she explained to me that there will be little compartments (niches) to put people’s ashes, about 2400 people’s ashes, in some granite thing called a columbarium. There are troubles with procuring both labor and materials, so I will just start some new oil paintings until further notice.

After choosing what subjects and canvas sizes, I assign an inventory number and put hanging hardware on the backs. I don’t know what other artists do; none have told me their particular systems, so I just made this up in March of 2006 when I started painting. It has served the customers and me quite well.

Seven of the eight canvases are ready to go; the eighth is in that unopened box from Blick art materials.That’s where I get most of my art supplies; in the beginning, many came from people whose mothers-in-laws used to paint.

After the hardware, I began with the base coat, just the skies first.

Next, I systematically did a very messy application of thin paint in approximately the right colors and places. This keeps little white spots of canvas from peeking through.

They all sort of look alike, and sometimes I got confused while following the photos with the odd titles on my laptop, along with the new inventory list. I’ve ordered printed photos for most of these, and when they arrive, I will secure each one behind its canvas in hopes of minimizing the confusion.

This is only five. Tomorrow, more on this topic of painting the best of Tulare County.

 

Favorite Subject, Favorite Month

With apologies to my long distance friends who live where there is real winter, I LOVE FEBRUARY! Along with this being one of my very favorite months (March and April rate very high), I love to paint orange groves with foothills and mountains in the distance. Two favorites, right here in Tulare County. (DON’T MOVE HERE because we are fat, undereducated, unemployed, and don’t have a Trader Joe’s).

I thought this one was showing great promise, wondering if perhaps it should be the scene I paint 18×36″ instead of this measly 6×18″.

Then I realized I used the wrong photo for this size canvas. They do all sort of look alike, and until I get them titled and more detailed, I am prone to making these mistakes.  So, I just smeared everything around to cover the canvas better.

Some of the wet paintings got hung on the board to dry.

Others got piled on the table so I could paint the edges a little bit, mostly just to use up the paint in the brushes and on the palette.

Still haven’t opened that big box. I’m waiting for all the photos to come, because I think that might lessen the chances of further mix-ups.

Next week, I’ll show you a few recent photos of why I love Tulare County so much at this time of year.