First Sunset

Are you familiar with those franchise businesses where people combine alcohol consumption with painting? I think the idea is that you get all happied up and can’t tell how horribly you are painting. (It is about the experience rather than the results.) People have shown me their paintings, and they often include a sunset.

I’ve been oil painting since March 8, 2006 and have never painted a single sunset. Now, I can’t say that anymore.

A friend of mine sells real estate in rural Southern California. Hard to imagine there are rural areas in Southern California, but I assure you that there are. He asked if I was willing and able to do custom paintings that he could give as gifts to his clients. This was on the same day, in the very same hour, that I had written him a note suggesting the idea. The note wasn’t yet mailed to him (a real note on real paper) when his email arrived with the very same idea. 

That was weird. Exciting too.

His assistant sent me some photos, which I cropped into various shapes to show her some ideas.

His assistant was very responsive, excited to work with me, and full of helpful suggestions. After reading her instructions, Photoshop Junior and I did this.

Then, I began painting my very first sunset. (You may be relieved to know that it was done without “benefit” of alcohol, although it may have been useful to ameliorate the ugliness that is inevitable when I begin a painting.)

Stay tuned. It is bound to improve with time.

 

Slow Start

An idea came to me about painting again. Start slow, and do three paintings for an upcoming situation. (If it is interesting enough, I’ll tell you about it next week.)

First step is to choose the photos. I thought I’d paint all three alike but then couldn’t decide which version.
Putting on the hanging hardware and titling the pieces is a step I’ve known other artists to skip. Not this little gray duck – titles are important for identification and inventory purposes, and hanging hardware makes it much easier on the recipient of the painting.
That’s enough for starters.

I started these paintings using the method taught by Laurel Daniel last year in her three day plein air painting workshop in Georgia. I will follow her method until the real me takes over and I put in details, drawing with my paintbrush.

Stuck

One year ago, I decided to complete a series of large paintings with the hope (faint distant wish) that a boutique hotel would open in Three Rivers and the owner would want my art on the walls. This brings to mind something my dad used to say: “If you put a wish in one hand and spit in the other, which hand actually contains something?”

The hotel builder got criticized, ridiculed and chased away. I painted large anyway, and then the Thing came along and really wreaked havoc on my motivation to add to an inventory that is collecting dust.

This painting was on the easel last fall. Along came a good long run of commissions, including murals and oil paintings, and many oil paintings to be sold at the Silver City Store. Now it is still on the easel. I am stuck.

Why don’t I want to paint this?

A deadline, an interested customer, a gallery show, a boutique hotel – one of these might get me off my duff. (“Duff” is another word from my dad).

Life is full of unanswered questions.

Finished and Finished

The green looks a bit uneven because it is wet. Those tiny white letters were challenging, nay, CHALLENGING!

The two sided A-frame mural (sign? what is this thing?) needed a few touch-ups.

 

In case you are wondering, yes, I can name all the flowers. They are all foothill flowers, not in my wildflower book Wildflowers of Mineral King: Common Names.

 

Other than getting the quail as close to reality as possible, this side was just lots of scribbling in brownish yellows and yellowish browns. 

Now what am I going to work on??

Odd Job, Day 5

Back to the coat of arms painting, an odd job of an oil painting commission.

I mixed and applied the correct green, along with a strong purple for the bottom ribbon. (It will need some detailing).

Then I mixed and applied a more golden yellow and a stronger blue.

The edges are a little weak, but the entire piece will get black outlines. This is a simple painting, but there is very little forgiveness with strong colors each abutting other strong clean colors. It requires a lot of drying time in between layers.

Odd Job, Day 4

Yesterday I showed you the not-so-good green on the background of the odd job, a Coat of Arms for my customer/friend. (Remember, “odd” means “unusual” – I am NOT insulting my friend or her job here!)

Since beginning to oil paint, I have met up with two new yellows and one new blue. It is time to get a grasp on how they all interact to make greens.

My friend said, and I agree, “More Kelly than lime”. Photoshop Junior used Kelly green, but I wasn’t very careful with mixing in the first pass over the canvas.

Clearly we need the second green down in the middle row.

Better, but too wet to continue. 

Tomorrow is the end of the month listicle. 

This coat of arms will have to wait. Another odd job awaits! (How’s that for an exciting cliff-hanger?)

Odd Job, Day 3

After making all our design decisions about my friend’s coat of arms, I started painting. 

But first, I had to draw and trace it onto the canvas. This is too precise a design to be just sloppy-slapping it down.

This needs to dry for a day or two before I continue. It needs a more vivid green, a golden type color instead of the yellow, and new layers on everything. 

Odd Job, Day 2

After my customer sent me a chart of colors to include, it was time to try it with Photoshop Junior to see how it would look. Looking at her list of colors within the Coat of Arms, I saw that green was missing, so that became the background. 

This is actually the 2nd or 3rd iteration from many conversations and adjustments as we worked out the design together.

The pointy-pokey waving arms didn’t please her, so she sent many other design to consider. I developed a more ribbon-like look on the left side.

The symbolic Farewell Gap needed simplification too.

We had a few more discussions about black outlines, smoothing out some of the bends in the purple ribbon.

 

Everything is now ironed out, so it time to move to canvas. 

Tomorrow. . . 

P.S. I am guest posting once a week on the Mineral King Preservation Society website, under the topic of “An Artist’s Inspiration”. The first post went live yesterday. www.mineralking.org

Decision on the Morphing Commission

While I was working on the backpacks in the commissioned oil painting of Lost Canyon, wondering if I’d be able to move the stream and trail, the answer came back as a definite “no”. They wanted the trail to remain across the bottom of the canvas.

When someone hires me to paint something specific, that someone is my boss.

I kept working my way down the scenery toward the backpacks, figuring out what to put in those large areas where I didn’t have any photos to guide me, figuring out how to make the stream flow in a believable manner, adding rocks, shrubs, trees, and textures.

The color isn’t accurate here because it was photographed in low light at the end of a painting day. But I wanted you to see how this is coming along, particularly the backpacks! This is my favorite way of painting – drawing with my paintbrush.

What remains to be painted: the hiking poles, the lower grasses, and of course wildflowers in the grasses.

Morphing Commission Continued

Last week I showed you a commissioned oil painting with a changing plan, and I was waiting for customer approval to move the stream and the trail into a new position, to match the cobbled together photo below.

While I was waiting for the answer, I continued to detail the rocks on the mountain in the distance.

There is no way to copy each rock, green patch and tree especially when combining multiple photos. The idea is to make it believable.

Working upside down helps me see what is really there, not what I think or hope is there. It forces me to see the shapes correctly.

As I studied it and worked on it, I began seeing ways to make the scene have more distance. This was by pulling the green patches up into the rocks in smaller and smaller pieces.Then, I moved to the backpacks, because regardless of the customers’ decision, they would remain in the same position.

More will be revealed. . .