More Oil Paintings in Progress

Lest you think I only paint eggs these days, here is a look at other oil paintings in progress. The way I keep myself glued to the easel is by audio books – The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls was captivating and pushed me through many paintings last week.

Poppies, always need poppy paintings. And I love Dutch iris but haven’t painted any for several years. The lake painting? It’s been in this state for several months. I had another painting of this view for several years before it sold, so I’m not sure that this is a subject that is in demand. 

Those lanterns are definitely too hard for me. So, I dab away, adding one layer at a time, working from back to front and dark to light, wondering if I am learning anything or just reinforcing bad habits. That ignorance is one of the set-backs of being self-taught and working alone.

Decision time. First, the lake. If it took several years for a buyer, why am I painting this again?

Forget it. Bye-bye lake, hello Farewell Gap.

And more Farewell Gap – summer’s coming, and the Silver City Store will want paintings to sell. Here are 2 in progress.

One more layer ought to do the trick on the poppy. Seventeen more attempts on the blue and white plate under the egg might do the trick.

Special delivery!

Painting at Home

Happy Birthday, Ruthie! (Or is it on the 25th? Will I ask this question the rest of our lives?)

Isn’t “Painting at Home” a weird title for someone with a home-based studio?

My painting studio is cold and dark on a rainy day. Sometimes I paint there anyway, using an Ott light and a propane heater. It isn’t ideal, but it is what I have. I can color-correct things when the sun shows up. I am not and never will complain about the gift of precipitation!

Last Thursday and Friday I just couldn’t make myself want to be in the studio. There was a fire in the wood stove in the living room (that’s the way we heat our house), Michael was in the house listening to something interesting on the radio, and Samson was also in the house, behaving himself for a change.

So, I decided to paint in the house on the dining table. Suddenly, Samson was no longer content to sleep in my chair in the living room.

Why yes, yes indeedy I do have a couple of original Vermeer paintings in my dining area. How very observant you must be!

It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. On the 2nd day of painting in the house, I rotated everything around to the other end of the table. It wasn’t ideal either, but it certainly beat being alone in the relative dark and cold of the painting workshop.

By working upside down, I can get my shapes a bit more accurate. It is the photo and canvas that are upside down, not me. Never have figured out how to paint while standing on my head.

This last painting is my current Little-Bit-Too-Hard-For-Me piece. I have a theory that if I am always working on something a little bit too hard that maybe my painting will improve. It is the same idea as lifting weights that are almost too heavy to build muscle. (This is not real advice about physical activity. . . I was a PE disaster and know nothing.)

The other paintings are of Mineral King, because I always need to have that subject matter in my inventory.

Repainting Mineral King and Prudence

Happy Birthday, Gordon!!

The big Mineral King mural in Exeter has faded.

Yellow fades the quickest, so gray becomes purple, tan becomes gray which then fades to lavender, and green becomes blue.

The mural colors were like this when I finished it after 52 days of painting in 2009.

Now the colors look this way:

It is time to refresh the greens and grays, and when it stops raining, I will do that. The sky and the insets are fine, as are the farthest snow-covered peaks. (Maybe – ever heard of “purple mountain majesty”?)

Meanwhile, I am preparing to repaint Mineral King by painting Mineral King in oil. Painting a mural is very attention-getting, and the process will bring attention to Mineral King. It is prudent to have paintings ready for eager customers; if I had been born in the 1600s, perhaps my name would have been Prudence.

It was prudence that caused me to photograph these through the window rather than going into the painting workshop, which doubles as the Bengal-beast’s safe place. I didn’t want to awaken the sleeping Samson by going into his territory.

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:

One More Mineral King Oil Painting?

These Mineral King oil paintings seem to be reproducing while I have my back turned. Maybe I should have left the light on, or maybe I should not have taken that road trip.

Ha. Don’t I wish they just reproduced on their own.

This is the one that was on my easel when I started the series about the most popular scene in Mineral King.

Farewell Gap #24, 11x14, oil on wrapped canvas, $250
Farewell Gap #24, 11×14, oil on wrapped canvas, sold

Yes, I realize there is a numbering problem. How can this be #24 when I have shown you 32 other versions?

Life’s full of unknowns, unsolved mysteries, and other conundrums.
If the plural of medium is media, shouldn’t the plural of conundrum be “conundra”? English is weird, but I still prefer it to Artspeak.

The Last Oil Paintings in Mineral King

“Last” is one of those many faceted English words. Here it means the most recent Farewell Gap, Mineral King oil paintings.

4x4" - wow that was tiny!
4×4″ – wow that was tiny!
Farewell Gap XIX - wait, does this mean #19? Are there 2 of this number??
Farewell Gap XIX – wait, does this mean #19? Are there 2 of this number??
An unnumbered Farewell Gap oil painting
An unnumbered Farewell Gap oil painting
Another unnumbered Farewell Gap painting
Another unnumbered Farewell Gap painting
Farewell Gap XVIII - notice the red fir on the left has shrunk.
Farewell Gap XVIII – notice the red fir on the left has shrunk.
Farewell Gap IXX - does this mean #19??
Farewell Gap IXX – does this mean #19??
Farewell Gap XX
Farewell Gap XX
Farewell Gap XX - hmmm, haven't we had that number already? And how did the fir tree grow back?
Farewell Gap XX – hmmm, haven’t we had that number already? And how did the fir tree grow back?
Farewell Gap XXIII, and the fir is tall because I like it that way, so there.
Farewell Gap XXIII, and the fir is tall because I like it that way, so there.

There are more depictions of Farewell Gap, on murals, in pencil and in 2 coloring books (drawn in ink). However, in the interest of relieving monotony, I won’t continue this theme in other media. (Did you know that “media” is the plural of “medium”? “Medium” when it means material used for making art, not the size of my clothing.)

And Yet More Mineral King Oil Paintings

4x4" Farewell Gap 2014
4×4″ Farewell Gap 2014
Farewell Gap XIX, 2015
Farewell Gap XIX, 2015
Farewell Gap, 2015
Farewell Gap, 2015
Farewell Gap, 2015
Farewell Gap, 2015
Farewell Gap XVIII, 2015
Farewell Gap XVIII, 2015  (This is my favorite.) Short fir tree on the left!
Farewell Gap IXX, 2015
Farewell Gap IXX, 2015 Short fir on the left.
Farewell Gap XX, 2015
Farewell Gap XX, 2015 Double short firs.

Tomorrow we will take a final look at the Farewell Gap paintings.

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Still Oil Painting in Mineral King

Not really oil painting in Mineral King – oil paintings of Mineral King, painted in Three Rivers.

As a studio artist, I work from my photos. The variations are based on size and shape of painting (square, rectangular, really rectangular – and never horizontal for this scene, although that is an interesting idea). The variations also happen with time of day and time of year and type of snowfall and flow of water AND where I stood to take the photo. Plus, sometimes I juice up the colors a little more than natural. Sometimes I work at tight realism, and other times I try to loosen up. That isn’t natural to me, but is certainly faster.

Farewell Gap XV
Farewell Gap XV
Farewell Gap XVI
Farewell Gap XVI
Farewell Gap XVII
Farewell Gap XVII
Farewell Gap XVIII
Farewell Gap XVIII

These all look sort of dark, but I think it was the way I photographed them, not the paintings themselves. 2014 wasn’t a dark year. 2015 was a dark year, but we’ll have to see if that sadness was reflected in my paintings tomorrow.

Mineral King Oil Paintings, continued

One time I painted the Mineral King scene of Farewell Gap with the Crowley family cabin plein air. That was very difficult – the light and colors kept changing, people kept asking what I was doing (umm, skateboarding?), and I had to keep scooting out of the way of cars.

Painting Farewell Gap in Mineral King plein air in 2007
Painting Farewell Gap in Mineral King plein air in 2006

I don’t remember which one it was or how it turned out. I had only been painting a few months and thought that plein air painting was necessary to learning. It may have been, but mostly what I learned was how grateful I was to be a studio painter, working in a controlled and quiet environment from my photos.

Farewell Gap XIII
Farewell Gap XIII
Farewell Gap with Crowley Cabin, 2013
Farewell Gap with Crowley Cabin, 2013
Farewell Gap XIV, 2013
Farewell Gap XIV, 2013
Farewell Gap in Autumn, 2013
Farewell Gap in Autumn, 2013

That’s a new twist on an old theme.

More Farewell Gap, Mineral King Oil Paintings

Happy Birthday, Diana Banana!!

Since I have about 32 oil paintings of Farewell Gap with the Crowley family cabin in Mineral King, let’s keep going. You can evaluate my progress (or lack thereof).

IMG_7671
Farewell Gap, 2011
Farewell Gap, 2011
Farewell Gap, 2011

I painted it often in 2012.

Farewell Gap IX, 2012
Farewell Gap IX, 2012
Farewell Gap, 2012
Farewell Gap, 2012
Farewell Gap, 2012
Farewell Gap, 2012 (this one seems to have a looser feel with brighter colors)
Farewell Gap X, 2012 (this one seems particularly realistic)
Farewell Gap X, 2012 (this one seems particularly realistic)
Farewell Gap, XI, 2012 (this one is also very realistic)
Farewell Gap, XI, 2012 (this one is also very realistic)
Farewell Gap XII, 2012
Farewell Gap XII, 2012

The Roman numeral numbering system isn’t consistent here. Sometimes I called a small version simply “Mineral King”, sometimes I included it in the consecutive numbering.

Come back on Monday to see how I painted the scene in 2013.

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