I thought this would be easy to finish, forgetting that it is much faster to cover large areas with a wide brush than little bittty dots of color with a tiny brush. Feeling bold, I messed up the sky with aspen leaves.
See the photo in my hand? Many aspens. This photo carries more weight than the stack of Sawtooth photos I’ve been using so far because it has the best aspens.
The leaf mess in the sky is now aspen trees.
I’m tired of green now.
That yellow and white were so fun that it is time for red.
After I got these wildflowers done, I stopped for lunch. While I was downing something fast and boring but nutritious (thank you for your concern), I faced the fact that I just didn’t want to work on the 12×24” horizontal painting of Sawtooth. If I didn’t want to paint it, why would anyone want to buy it?
Time for a new thought. Come back tomorrow if you are curious.
Two Sawtooth paintings on my easels, yellow-lidded palette thawing from its overnight storage in the freezer. Next a decision to begin with the skies, so the tall painting needed to be flipped. And since sky was the first color, I added in the tiny (6×6”) classic Mineral King painting to the day’s tasks.
I flipped it over because otherwise I’d need to stand on a ladder to reach the upper parts of this 24×30” painting. While it was accessible, I worked on Sawtooth.
And since the right colors were on the palette, I painted Sawtooth on the 12×24” canvas.
Then since the colors of Sawtooth were a good blend for trail dust, I flipped the painting and hit the trail.
Moving forward on the painting, I mixed up distant forest colors and got those trees covered.
Obviously the next step was to take care of the distant evergreens on the larger painting, which I was able to reach right-side-up.
Next, I photographed my studio door for reference. It is a little unusual for me to be using a mural instead of photographs. However, I used this door, a stack of photos, and mostly just painted from my mind. This is a new approach, but after painting Sawtooth a minimum of 64 times, I should be able to figure out how to paint it from memory. (I am not exaggerating the number of times I’ve painted Sawtooth.)
It’s a little tricky to see any changes among the first three photos, but I was very diligent about photographing the progression. By the end of the day, I was sitting down (because my feet told me to) and began “drawing with my paintbrush”. (That’s what the ArtWorld snobs call it when a painter gets obsessed with detail—maybe because they don’t have that skill. Yeah, that’s gotta be it. They’re just jealous. So there.)
You can tell that I sort of forgot about the 12×24” canvas. These are both quite challenging, because I am not following a specific photo to create a specific view. Instead, I’m wanting to create paintings that summarize the feeling and memories that someone has after walking up the Nature Trail in Mineral King. I’m painting two different shapes so there are choices for customers.
*Sawtooth is a mountain that is visible from Visalia. Two paintings of Sawtooth would be “Sawtooths”, not “Sawteeth”. Any questions?
This looked like a full day of painting ahead. If I could knock these out, it would be a productive day.
Let’s go! I knocked out the wildflowers on the 8×10” Sawtooth painting first.
Actually, this didn’t look too hard. It needed some fencing and cows and of course, wildflowers, which are just colored dots in this type of painting. And it is so small here on the computer that you can’t see many of those details. Trust me. It looks better in person. Duh.
Easy peasy. Let’s go to the beach next. Wow, this one went quickly. Finishing with details is the best part of painting.
I took a brief break to scan a dry painting in the studio and was just slayed by the perfection of these lemon geraniums blooming by the studio and flowing over the wall. You should smell these!
Finally, I tackled this trail in Mineral King on a 8×8” canvas. It isn’t finished, but I signed it because I was able to scratch my name into the wet paint.
Finished all three plus an additional 8×8”, AND met with the customer about designing her ranch map. I need a week of these productive days, quickety quick before it gets too hot to paint.
What party? Glad you asked! The party of one and sometimes two—goofing off, yardening, exploring, and basically not producing any art.
When we got home from exploring up South Fork, there was a serious distraction. Our neighbor’s beagle followed her nose and found her way to our cat feeding area in the workshop (same room where I paint). Apparently old beagles don’t lose their instinct to follow their noses even when they haven’t had the opportunity to do so in many years. I carried her toward her home and was grateful that one of her humans met me part way because she is solid, very heavy and wiggly too.
Finally, I started working.
First, two new large (for me) Sawtooth paintings. One is the scene from the door of my studio. I tried to start it outside, but Pippin kept wanting to participate, so I took a photo of the door to work from. (It wasn’t helpful.) The color is weird because I used my inferior camera phone, since my camera battery was on the charger.
I realize that the proportions are different on the recycled 24×30” canvas, but it doesn’t matter. I can make up this scene, but I will refer to a handful of photos. This will take many layers to cover the previous painting, done by a friend’s daughter as a college assignment.
Might as well begin the horizontal version (12×24”? 10×20”?)
Ultimately, I finished one, started two, and puttered around on four.
The last painting of a lemon sold the day I took it to the gallery*, so I painted another one. This is Lemons on the Tree IV, 6×6”, $75. It needs a few blossoms.
Now it is time to start painting Mineral King subjects to sell at Silver City this summer. This is Sawtooth #64, 8×10”, $150. It isn’t finished. (Were you nervous there for half a second?)
The Honeymoon Cabin is very popular; this cabin is from the resort which ended up in the hands of Mickey Mouse and is the only remaining one from the big teardown after the avalanche in 1969. It is now a mini museum, operated by the Mineral King Preservation Society.
Now it is finished. Unless I change my mind. Honeymoon Cabin #49. Hmmm, I guess it isn’t as popular as Sawtooth. And fret not—this is a poorly lit photo of a very wet painting. It will look much better when it is dry and scanned. And as always, everything looks better in person (except perhaps celebrities). This is 6×12”, $145.
This will be the trail leading to Farewell Gap. The method of beginning the painting is clean-out-my-brushes-at-the-end-of-the-painting-session. It is 8×8” and will be $145.
This is not a painting. These daffodils are so heavy-headed that they fall over, so Trail Guy picked a few off the ground and put them on the kitchen window sill.
It is still April, and my daffodils are so varied and beautiful that tomorrow I will show you the immense variety scattered around the property.
*Those quick sales are a thrill and I do NOT take them for granted.
Summer lasts a little bit too long for my liking. In early July, I was tired of it. That is an unpopular view, and I accept my status as a weirdo in this regard. However, I soldier onward in the heat, thankful for the inadequate swamp cooler in the painting workshop, and the inadequate wall unit in the studio. When I am finished painting for the day, I stagger into the house and cool off in the most totally excellent central air conditioning.
Sometimes I go walking in the mornings with my good friend. Occasionally we see a garbage bear.
Then I come home and paint.
I added wildflowers to the 8×8″ oil painting of Franklin Falls in Mineral King. They are mountain pride, arnica, and Indian paintbrush. Although they were not in either reference photo, I’ve seen them all at Franklin Falls. Being the boss of my painting, I took artistic license. Here it is, drying on the wood pile stack.
Having finished the smaller paintings destined for the Silver City Store, I returned to building up a body of work for the October-December show at CACHE.
Like most of what I have chosen to paint lately, this isn’t easy. Look at my reference photo, taken from inside the car. Traffic stopped briefly so at least it is focused.
The working title is Keep Right. Although that is very good instruction to drivers heading to Giant Forest in Sequoia as they approach the Four Guardsmen, I am doubting my ability to make the sign look good. Besides, we live in times when people tend to be highly sensitive, spring-loaded in the offended position, so out of deference to those folks, I will think of another title.
Or you can think of another title. . . I’m not easily offended, and love to hear good ideas from my tens of readers, most of whom are friends in real life.
I wasn’t kidding when I said it was hot. Look what happened while I was painting.
Wow. What a sensitive little snowflake. It was only 103° that day.
Last year when sales were almost non-existent, I forgot what it is like to arrange a painting schedule around the heat and the limitations of a swamp cooler. Now I remember. Everything has a downside and an upside. Last year up—no painting in the heat. This year up—good sales.
All set up, ready to begin, early in the morning.
I finished the 6×18 bridge and took it out to the woodpile for drying.
Then I got sidetracked polishing the door handle. Good thing I’m not on anyone’s time clock.
Next: Franklin Falls. This is 2 miles up the left/east side of the Mineral King valley, a pleasant walk with only a little bit of uphill, followed by a cold wade across the creek, unless you are inclined to rock hop, which I am not. I have 2 photos, neither of which is ideal, and neither of which is square.
That’s okay. . . I know the place pretty well, and I know what people expect to see.
When something is full of fiddly detail that can’t be exactly duplicated, because of ridiculousness and cramming 2 rectangles into a square, I just find the things that matter most. The rest can be fudged.
If you’ve been to Franklin Falls, I think you’d see that this is becoming recognizable and believable.
In discussing this painting with Hiking Buddy, I told her that it is sort of colorless, all greens and browns and grays. She wisely said (reading my mind), “That’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a few wildflowers”.
Off to the woodpile for drying; the flowers will go on nicely once it is dry. Or not nicely, but if it is dry, I can wipe them off and try again.
On day two of my Mineral King oil painting biathalon, I started early, actually feeling kind of excited to try a new scene.
I was so into the details that I forgot to take very many photos of the progress.
Call me “Butter” cuz I’m on a roll!
Next?
These two would most likely be too wet to scan, so I had to photograph them more carefully. The wildflowers at Timber Gap painting will need some skewing on photoshop to straighten it out.
Feeling accomplished, and because I began so early on Day Two, I decided to see if I could get one more painting finished.
Nope, guess not. But 4-3/4 paintings in two very hot very long days was a good dent, and I got them to the store at Silver City in time for the hoped-for Independence Day rush.
After I carried the first painting outside, I just grabbed the next canvas in the lineup. It is an unusual view of the Honeymoon Cabin, which is a tiny museum for the Mineral King Preservation Society. It is either the 2nd or the 3rd best selling subject of Mineral King oil paintings.
I carried this one out to the woodpile, nay, wood stack because it is so very neat, and put it alongside the first painting. Two down, four to go, and only one more day to paint. What’s a Central California Artist to do?
Put the palette and brushes in the freezer, and go home for the evening, that’s what.
Both paintings were dry enough to take to Silver City 2 days after painting them.
The saga of a Mineral King oil painting biathalon will continue tomorrow.
When paintings are selling quickly and the season is short, your Central California artist must work quickly. Therefore, on a pair of hot days, she soldiered through multiple paintings to restock the store at the Silver City Resort.
First, this piece needed the water to be repaired, the edges painted, and a signature. This one isn’t going to Silver City unless the current large attention-getter sells.
Before I faced the urgency of restocking Silver City, understanding that the season is short and that the show at CACHE will happen even if I interrupt the painting schedule for more immediate sales, I worked a bit on this 16×20″ painting titled “Keep Right”.
I was procrastinating the start of what felt like a biathalon (a two day marathon). Finally, I went to the shelves, pulled 6 small canvases of varying sizes, and then went to my piles of Mineral King photos. Each canvas got an inventory number, a title, hanging hardware, and a sky.
To start, I picked one that felt easy. It was going to be a long hot day, and I wanted to have a sense of success.
I carried it outside to the stack of firewood where the sun hits until early evening in the hopes that it would dry enough to scan before taking it up the hill. In case that didn’t happen, I took a photo. It’s blurry. I don’t know why. . . I just work here.
This was such a long work day, and I had another one coming. It makes me feel hot and tired just telling you, so I’ll continue this tomorrow.
