In the Think Tank and Other Work Thoughts

Sort of Working

Having finished the oil painting commission, priced paintings and cards to sell at Silver City, all this while believing that I have finished enough paintings for the entire summer (possibly delusional about that), it was time to consider how to next spend my work time.

I pulled weeds at church (not work), oiled the siding on the front of the studio (sort of work), learned to use the new scanner at a minimal level (work requiring enormous patience), worked on art for the 2027 calendar (the best kind of work), and went to a county supervisor candidate meet-up where I had a conversation that led to a pencil commission (marketing work).

The requested subject, Reimer’s, to be redrawn in pencil, is here in Three Rivers. Iit will take a few photo sessions to find the right light without the parking lot full of scene-blocking cars. The customer has granted permission to show progress on the blog.

Too many generations of reproduction have severely compromised the quality of this drawing.

The original drawing is in a frame somewhere in someone’s home (I hope it isn’t stashed in a storage unit), the printshop that originally printed this on cards is out of business, and the store is under new ownership with some changes. Hence, it is time for a new drawing.

Preparing to Work

In addition, someone who hired me to edit a very long paper/potential book/article/essay something sent me photos of his garden at its peak and requested a collage type oil painting. I’ve only done collages with pencil, but I am willing to try this design approach in oil paint.

A collage in pencil, designed to combine scenes that seem disparate to the viewer unless you are the customer to whom all these places make sense.

After studying the 10 or so photos that he sent, it became apparent that my laptop screen isn’t up for the task—it’s just too small. So, I put them all on a document, turned it black and white (because my printer isn’t really capable of printing in color without cleaning the heads, running test patterns, and then replacing ink that got used up doing those tasks) and printed it out.

Next, I made a list of everything that is important to the customer. (He is very good at communicating—hence, the successful editing project.)

As I tiptoed ahead on this challenging project, I realized that this is my chance to not be stupidly unbusinesslike. Often I get so caught up in a challenge that I don’t charge for all the extra work, and I rarely remember to get a deposit. This time I let the customer know that the job is in the Think Tank and that I was attaching an invoice for $100 nonrefundable deposit for the design work. It will be applied to the painting, size to be determined.

After work I came home and cleaned up the tail and guts of a squirrel that Tucker caught, nibbled on, and left for Jackson and Pippin to finish. It was seriously disgusting, so instead of showing you that, let’s look at a pencil drawing of a completely intact squirrel.

Bridge Building (With Paint)

Incremental Improvements

Painting #38 of Tulare County’s best bridge (according by your Central California artist) is inching forward into excellence. Can you see the incremental improvements?

We can probably consider it all finished now, EXCEPT FOR THE BRIDGE ITSELF!

Ahem. Excuse me for shouting. It just surprises me that after I put an enormous amount of concentration and effort into the painting that the most important part remains to be detailed.

Maybe it would be fun if I did a series of posts with all the different versions I’ve painted of this bridge.

But first, this one needs to be finished.

Here is a photo taken with my real camera instead of the inferior phone camera; the colors aren’t as strong, but neither is it as pixelated, which doesn’t matter here on the interwebs.

We call this the Oak Grove Bridge; people who don’t know it very well might call it the Kaweah River Bridge or the Mineral King Road Bridge or the East Fork Bridge. Those names sort of work.

Not that bridge

There are folks who, when they see my paintings or drawings of the bridge, say, “I’ve eaten at that restaurant”. They are wrong—the only eatery at the Oak Grove bridge might be the tailgate of one’s pick-em-up truck. The Pumpkin Hollow (“Gateway”) bridge is at the confluence of the East and Middle Forks of the Kaweah River. It isn’t over a deep canyon, just one lane wide, and with a single arch.

See the difference?

Maybe it is time to draw the bridge again in pencil. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve done that; there are only 2 versions in my computer, because so many drawings didn’t get scanned or reproduced or even photographed in my early days.

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.

Starting Two New Oil Paintings

Favorite Bridge

The commissioned painting of fields and groves needed more drying time, so I began a new painting of my favorite bridge—Oak Grove, on the Mineral King Road.

It is always difficult. I make it even harder by choosing canvases of non-traditional proportions. This is 8×16”.

It sometimes helps to crop off the unnecessary parts, making the photo the same proportions as the canvas.

But sometimes I do that too late, and decide to just go with the close-enough approach. Can you see that the bridge takes up more real estate on the canvas than on the photo?

Good enough to start.

Is that a Dog’s Breakfast or a Painting?

Next, a 7×14” canvas for another new painting. It might be too ugly for you to tell what it is going to be.

Jackson doesn’t really care what I paint as long as he gets fed.

These paintings are destined for the Silver City Store this summer. Each year I think I have enough inventory, then around early August, I have to slam some out very quickly. I try to guess what subjects, sizes and quantities will sell, but there are no proven formulas.

P.S. Blog reader/author/artist/friend Louise thought I could do a better job finishing the commissioned oil painting. She always tells me the truth, something I value highly, and she was right. Here it is after I followed her suggestion. It is not in my nature to be a perfectionist; instead, I am always wanting to finish things. So, sometimes it takes an honest and wise second set of eyes to make sure a piece of my art is finished well. THANK YOU, LOUISE!

Close to Finishing the Oil Painting Commission

The distant groves and fields are probably finished.

Time to begin the embellishments. I found blueberry photos on the interwebs, AND I have my own from excursions in Oregon.

In my extensive collection of photos, I found one of avocado leaves, pre-digital. I used my inferior phone camera to take a picture so I could flip it on my laptop.

Not really adequate. . . I know where there is an enormous avocado tree, so I’ll go get some better photos to finish the leaves.

Then I’ll retouch some of the other details, paint the edges, sign it, wait for it to dry again, varnish it, and then package it up to ship to the realtor customers.

Reminder

I help people write books and get them printed. The books that I have shepherded from idea to publication but that I don’t sell can be found on this new page: OTHER PEOPLE’S BOOKS. This includes Tales of TB, Springville’s Hospital, The Crooked Cross of Diamond Lake, Only the Living, and Adventures in Boy Scouting.

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Further Development on the Commissioned Oil Painting

Five step-by-step photos today, mostly painting left to right.

So many parts in the photo were ambiguous and repetitive that I often lost my place. A way to combat this lostness is to first paint the things that are definite, then make up the stuff around them. Some of my sizes are probably definitely wrong, and some of the fields are missing. The customer said accuracy isn’t important—she is looking for conceptual interpretation of the subject. I don’t think there are any Geography Police gunning for me.

Lower left will be blueberries; upper right will be avocado leaves.

I am liking the painting, which is always a relief, especially when it starts out so loose and rough and confusing.

Beginning a 10×20” Commissioned Oil Painting

The real estate customers chose the panoramic shape.

Good thing they know I can paint. (Well, duh, that’s why they commissioned me.)

This is similar to my current favorite subject to draw and paint, but there are blueberries and avocados rather than orange trees. There is also a distinct lack of snow-covered mountains and no poppies on the distant hills, but still, it is similar.

View from Wutchumna, 12×24”, private collection

Wait, “current” favorite subject? The painting above was completed in 2022. Here’s the first one I did in 2008.

Family Farm, size forgotten, private collection

Before oil painting, I drew similar scenes in colored pencil in a year I did not record, before I had a scanner, and when I had a web designer who added watermarks.

And before that, I drew similar scenes in pencil.

Spring Citrus, pencil, sold long ago

Enough remembering and bloviating. Get back to work, Central California Artist!

Reminder

I help people write books and get them printed. The books that I have shepherded from idea to publication but that I don’t sell can be found on this new page: OTHER PEOPLE’S BOOKS. This includes Tales of TB, Springville’s Hospital, The Crooked Cross of Diamond Lake, Only the Living, and Adventures in Boy Scouting.

Long Distance Oil Painting Commission

Some friends in real estate in a distant place have occasionally asked me to paint something for a customer after a large sale is made. Client. I think “client” is probably more correct here.

Remember these?

Hmmm, was my scanner going south back then too? This is darker than the painting.

I wonder if the clients appreciated the paintings. No one has gotten in touch to thank me or ask for more.

Doesn’t matter. My customers are happy enough to come back to me. (Yes, my people are customers, rather than clients, and no, I don’t actually know the difference except that one sounds more expensive.)

My customers sent me the listing with gorgeously staged photos of the house and some drone shots (also gorgeous) of the giant property.

From these, with a little bit of guidance after I asked all the questions I could think of, I did two quickity sketches. The customers chose two possible sizes, probably based on their budget, and the sketches are proportional to each of the two sizes.

The property is a blueberry farm along with avocado groves. The house, although fabulously fabulous beyond all fabulosity, isn’t that important here.

Good thing they know that I can paint and draw.

To be continued. . .

BONUS: I read this from James Clear’s newsletter: “The problem with keeping your options open is that every option requires energy to hold. And a shelf full of maybes is often heavier than a hand holding one yes. Put something down.”

Oil Painting Some Local Stuff

What word did people use before “stuff” became so ubiquitous?

A little more work on these quail made it good enough to sign.

Quail Pair, 8×8”, $150

More work ahead on this one:

The scanner could not do this justice, so I put it in the sunshine and took a photo with my inferior phone camera.

Looking Up the Kaweah, 10×10”, $2,000,000*

And this one was photographed with my point-and-shoot Canon Elph pocket camera. Sure wish I could get all this techie stuff sorted out.

8×10”, Blossom Overlooking the Kaweah, $200

REMINDER (Because I know you all are just dying to go to Ivanhoe):

*I just put that price there to see if anyone would notice.

What This Central Calif. Foothill Artist Does in a Day

Not gonna bore you with mundane details of life, just the productive and mildly interesting aspects that often fill a workday for me.

First I met some friends early and we slammed out 4 miles on foot. Sometimes I don’t have anyone to walk with, and so I pick shorter steeper walks. On this particular morning there were 3 friends!

Next, Trail Guy and I decided it was a good day to figure out spacing and irrigation for another planting project at church. I’ve been keeping these shrubs alive for awhile for this purpose. (Vitex—doesn’t that sound like a food supplement? AKA “chaste tree” and we call them “lupine trees”)

When we got home, I called a glass shop to make an appointment to have someone come estimate the replacement of 5 broken window panes. Most came with the property and have been ignorable for many years, but last week I broke the pane over my drawing table. The window was stuck, and when I pushed on the frame from the inside, it warped enough to break the glass. Since this one matters, I figured I might as well get them all repaired.

Next, I finished editing a paper? document? report? for someone who has done a bunch of research, created this 160 page document, and may have slept through high school English classes. He did good research, and It could make a good book in the future.

When that was finished, I submitted the reformatted file of The Crooked Cross of Diamond Lake and then resized the cover to fit the greater number of pages. Why would I do this? Although Louise and I were quite happy with the outer appearance of the book, the interior was substandard. I used a free standard (Wait, didn’t I just call this “substandard”?) template from the book printing company and it was just ugly. So I successfully fought through my 11-year-old template and got it to work. (I’ll let you know when the book is available for purchase and how to get a copy.)

Of course I dress to coordinate with my book covers—don’t you?

When all my productive procrastination wore itself down to nothing left that could pass for work, I went outside to paint. The mosquitoes make it fairly annoying, so I picked a couple of pieces of lemon geranium and rubbed it over exposed skin. I think it actually worked as a mosquito repellant!

The order of business was to finish the last 2 paintings of the Honeymoon Cabin, getting stocked up for the summer selling season at Silver City.

I forgot to take the final photo of the 10×10” square painting.

The next two paintings are to sell here in Three Rivers, probably at Kaweah Arts or Stem & Stone. This one is a bit challenging with many things to simplify, many textures that would be possible if this was a pencil drawing. However, oil paint is a different media. (Thank you, Captain Obvious)

Same here.

When I left the painting workshop, I took two finished paintings into the studio to scan. I am still holding out that I can keep this scanner going for awhile. I really don’t want to spend a ton of time reading about them on the internet, trying to figure out who is a paid reviewer and who is telling the truth, figuring out what extra stuff is necessary to force it to work with Mac, and then having my laptop bite the dust (it is a 2015 model) and then the new scanner won’t work. Sigh.

The first one is as it scanned; the second is repaired with Photoshop Elements to more closely resemble the painting.

Same thing with this one.

And finally, I put the photos from my inferior phone camera on the laptop and wrote this post.

WAKEY WAKEY, I’M DONE NOW!