Moving Forward on the Two New Paintings

Eagle Lake

Such an ugly start.

Let’s git ‘er dun!

Eagle Lake (a painting formerly known as a dog’s breakfast), 7×14”, oil on wrapped canvas, $200, currently drying, destined for the Silver City Store, unless it sells first from this little spot on the interwebs.

Oak Grove Bridge

The Oak Grove Bridge is a bit more challenging. I started with the attitude of “close enough” and as usual when drawing or painting architectural subjects, I ended up measuring and redoing several things.

The width of each arch needed to be the same, and the top of the bridge was too thick.

So I measured, redrew the arches (yes, with my paintbrush—anyone here have a problem with that?), lowered the top of the bridge, and then planted some manzanita on the lower left. I also started locating various rocks.

You’d think that after painting this forty-eleven* times, I’d have all the rocks and the arch proportions memorized. You’d be wrong in that thinking. I could make it up, but I’d also be wrong.

Such a grand little bridge for our slightly down-at-the-heels Tulare County. There are plans to turn it into a pedestrian-only bridge with a stout replacement safe for driving upstream of this classic one. The county had to do the eminent domain thing to acquire the land, and I have a feeling this will be a long, disruptive, and messy construction project.

Change can be so difficult.

Thus, for now we must enjoy the bridge as it was and as it is, and not think about as it shall be.

*This is actually #38, if I kept count correctly, which is doubtful.

Details, Details

The new Mineral King oil paintings continue along, three going from lacking in details to completed.

The background of this 6×18″ Oak Grove bridge looks pretty good, but there are some missing architectural details.

Details in place, drying in the sunshine.

Lots of missing details here:

Details in place, drying in the sunshine.

Here is the 8×8″ Oak Grove bridge painting in steps. Architectural details still missing, but background looking good.

Details in place, drying with its unfinished cousins.

P.S. Here is a link to a teaser page about my upcoming show, Still Here. Arts Visalia

Summer’s Coming and so is the Bridge

Last week it got cold and rainy but I painted in the unheated workshop anyway because summer is coming and I will wish it was cold. Yes, there is a heater which Trail Guy offered to light for me several times, but I declined. It was overcast, and I knew I wouldn’t be painting all day because it was a little hard to see the colors correctly.

In deciding which of the 7 Mineral King oil paintings to work on, it may not surprise you that I chose one of the Oak Grove Bridge, my favorite subject to draw and paint.

The bridge needs to be refined and the foliage needs to be finished. Then I will probably start on the other oil painting of my favorite bridge in all of Tulare County. 

 

Inching Along the Commissions

Reminder: “commission” is Art Speak for a custom piece of art. Here are two in progress:

No matter how often I paint the Oak Grove Bridge, it challenges my ability to draw with a paintbrush. Drawing with a paintbrush is something that is sneered at in the Art World, but I am hard-pressed to imagine how one of those loosey-goosey painters would handle this subject.

I sent this photo to my customer, and he declared me to be finished. He was actually nicer than that – he said, “As I said before, you are the best!” Aw shucks, thank you, DB. You are a dream customer.

The giant circle continues to develop. The surface of smooth plywood with several base coats of paint is different than canvas and will take multiple layers to cover. That’s fine, because I can get tighter and better with each layer. This is my preferred method of painting, fix, fix, fix some more, and fix again, called “glazing” in Art Speak. That is how I painted the bridge commission.

My customer the citrus grower asked if the trees would be darker, because I sent a photo taken earlier than this one. Then I took this photo, and because the paint is wet here, it is reflective so it still looks pale. I kept painting, and then sent this photo:

I love this subject matter just as much as the Oak Grove Bridge and am quite happy about getting to spend many hours making it look as good as possible.

More Mineral King Oils

Drying in the morning sun; this time all three vertical 6×18″ Mineral King oil paintings are finished.

This is how they look in the afternoon light. I’ll wait until they are completely dry, then photograph them, because they are too big for the scanner.

Lupine comes in many colors, so I just mixed up a shade of bluish purple that looked good with the painting. The photo lupine color was too pink and it wasn’t believable to me.

Next, I moved on to the current painting of my favorite subject, the Oak Grove Bridge.

This is the stage where I detail it to the nth degree, the style of painting that plein air painters usually don’t bother with. (They might be too tired of swatting bugs by them.)

Oh my, I really like this one! (Yep, I am allowed to like my own work.)

Have you noticed that ever since I published Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names that I almost always include wildflowers in my paintings? What took me so long to figure this out?

One more Mineral King painting, this one a commission, working from a customer photo and some conversation about how to present things. (Not the Honeymoon cabin – this cabin is no longer standing).Before I go any further, my customer will need to let me know if this is the arrangement she has in mind.

Oil Interlude

“Interlude” is a musical term that means in interruption with a lude. 

Wait, what?

Nothing. Just messing around with words. After finishing the oak tree mural, I had days of appointments, administrative work, errands, and other things that interfered with painting, However, I did get in a few days of painting Mineral King scenes, and here are the results.

Started this one back in early January, a 10×10″.
I felt confident and hardly looked at the photo while finishing.
Is it finished? When it is dry, I’ll see if there is a believable way to add some wildflowers.
This is 6×18″, a fun format and size to paint. It forces me to distill a scene to its essence.
It will need wildflowers. The title is “Mineral King Wildflowers”, so duh.
Oak Grove Bridge # 29. Probably a higher number, but I was a little sloppy in my earlier record keeping.
Three almost finished.
These three next.

In the interest of offering these paintings for sale, the following advertisement is for your convenience/to ignore – your choice.

I sell 6×18″ for $150 plus tax which brings it to about $160; the square is 10×10″ for $175 plus tax, about $190. The plan is to have a good inventory for this coming summer, but if you are interested in buying any of these paintings now, it can be arranged. Comment here or contact me with the contact button or email me or say something to Trail Guy if you see him at the Post Office or grocery store.

Bridge Building with Kittens

The Oak Grove Bridge painting number eleventy billion is in progress, in spite of all the distractions.

These paintings want to be finished, but the bridge is taking precedence now.
This is how we last saw the bridge.
I am filling in the rest of the blank parts, a little at a time. (That sounds stupid: how else would I do it? With a paintbrush in each hand??)
Look! A kitty is sleeping on my scarf behind me.
Slowly taking shape, but definitely will need more layers. No “alla prima” for this one!
Who are you? I can’t tell without seeing if you have a tail or not.
Keep painting and stop going ga-ga over the kitten. Maybe I will go ga-ga over the painting instead. This is a work day, after all.
What? You prefer the mat beneath my feet to the scarf? This might be the tail-less KitCarson.
Nope, that’s a tail. Could be Georgia, or maybe it is the nameless other one. Look at the zebra-like striping!
At the end of the painting session, needing to dry for awhile before the next layer is added.

The painting had a few days to dry, because Trail Guy and I went on a road trip. I’ll show photos from the windshield tomorrow.

At the Easels

Almost finished.
Careful – there are babies underfoot!
New bridge painting, this time 24×30″, a big ‘un.

Normally when I paint, I don’t draw it out first. This time, the bridge needs to be perfect for the show at the County Building, and time is limited. So, I drew it in pencil on the canvas before beginning to paint. Oak Grove Bridge number eleventy billion, here we go.

I began the way that Laurel Daniel taught in her workshop but didn’t mix the grays very carefully. I may be a rebellious student. On the other hand, I am what Gretchen Rubin calls a “Questioner”, and if I don’t see the value in a particular activity, I don’t bother. Because this is too big to do all in one session, it seemed fine to not mix a perfect gray. But, part of the trouble was a bad brush. (I spiked it into the trash after awhile.)

I also didn’t do it from front to back. I’ve painted this bridge more than I can remember and just fell back into my familiar pattern.

It is much easier to put in all the architectural details when they are a size that can be actually seen.

What?? Time to quit already? but I am really enjoying this. . . tell the sunlight to wait, because I want to keep painting!

Another Bridge Day

This represents a typical day at the easels for me, working on a few paintings, hanging out with my cats, taking a break to go see the river from the Dinely Bridge which crosses the middle fork of the Kaweah River here in Three Rivers.

I tightened up some details and began working on the Oak Grove bridge on the 6×18″ painting.
Then I switched to the other Oak Grove bridge painting.
Scout may be contemplating impending motherhood. Look at the pretty orange stripe that runs down from her eye. It will be fun to see what her babies look like.
Upstream view of the Kaweah River during a string of storms.
Downstream view. I love this kind of lighting – dark sky, bright sun, clarity.
This is a memorial bouquet which gets changed regularly on the Dinely Bridge: flowering quince, daffodils and rosemary approximate the three primary colors.

Bridge Day

My favorite thing to draw and paint is the Oak Grove Bridge, 6.5 miles up the Mineral King Road. I think a bridge is the most perfect blend of architecture and scenery. It is sort of a cliche, but so what?

This is 10×10″. The color is weird because I photographed it after dark.
This is closer to the truth, although I do tend to exaggerate colors in my oil paintings.
This is as far as I went on the bridge painting day. Maybe the phone rang, or it was time for lunch.
Scout and Tucker weren’t too interested in the details but liked hanging out on the window sill shelf behind me. Samson would have been chasing my paintbrushes or biting my ankles. This pair came from the same place, but have entirely different approaches to life than their cousin/brother/uncle/who knows.
This 6×18″ painting is an entirely new approach to painting the bridge.
The background shrubbery was the obvious next step since all the colors were ready to go on the palette from the previous bridge painting.
That long green “fairway” on the left is probably the bank leading down to the road.
This is as far as I can go until everything dries. Then, the bridge itself will get painted.

I made up the rocks beneath, which one might think I would have memorized by now. Closies count on this. Ditto with the growies (since I am talking in weird abbreviated words). It will prolly take a week or so for these to be dry enough to continue.

Memorial service for The Cowboy
Bert Raymond Weldon, May 21, 1956 — January 8, 2019
CELEBRATION OF LIFE AND RECEPTION Friday, March 15, 2019, 11:00 a.m. CrossCity Christian Church, 2777 E. Nees Avenue, Fresno, California 93720