Polishing up a Few Paintings

As I plan for the solo show at CACHE in autumn, there are a handful of paintings that I want to improve. Finesse. Polish. Tweak. Pick your word.

Clover Creek Bridge: I’m not sure why it hasn’t sold, but all I can conclude is either that it isn’t quite good enough, or nobody cares about this subject.
My default in a situation like this is to add more details.
It’s better now. Good enough to sell? Time will tell.

I love this scene! It’s one of the earlier pieces of my obsession with orange groves, foothills, and snow-covered peaks, titled “Tulare County’s Best”. Why hasn’t it sold?

I changed some of the colors and tightened some details on Alta Peak, along with making it stand out a bit more.

Maybe this one will find its new home in the fall. (Unless you want to buy it now. . .)

I painted this one with the intention of enjoying it in my dining area for awhile before putting it in the gallery (the show isn’t until mid-October). After living with it for awhile, I saw a way to make it better. So, back to the easel.

Stretch those oranges to reach the trees!
Now I really like it.

I have a few more to puzzle over and figure out how to improve. But, I’m in Texas right now, so the other Tulare County paintings will have to wait.

Painting With a Few Interruptions

Another beautiful spring day, accompanied by the desire to just be outside and pull weeds.

Nope. It’s a workday, chica.

But wait! There’s an eclipse! I joined Trail Guy for a brief look at the weirdness of shadows and light, with the help of a colander and a piece of white paper.

Back to work.

Two paintings now drying, so that tighter detail can be applied in the next session.

How about another break to enjoy the wildflowers?

Back to work.

In spite of succumbing to a few temptations, it was a very productive day. So, here is our final reward of the day.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Stroben!

Another Big Tree

Tall narrow canvases with oil paintings of Sequoia trees sell steadily, so I paint them steadily.

Sentinel Tree, 6×18″, $165

This one is modeled after the Sentinel Tree, in front of the Giant Forest Market, now a museum. I say “modeled after”, because I no longer feel the need to duplicate every branch as it appears in the photos. I don’t charge enough to paint that slowly, and frankly, no one cares. This painting is destined for Kaweah Arts, which sells sequoia tree paintings very steadily for me.

Speedy Quick Like Lightning

After spending most of the winter working on difficult subjects that took much thought, revision, and enormous amounts of time, painting familiar small Mineral King oil paintings to sell in the upcoming summer months feels speedy quick like lightning.

I think Hiking Buddy took the reference photo with her superior iPhone, generously sent it to me, and I phoofed up the colors, making them more vivid than the real life scene. Still, it was better in real life, because everything is.

This is Farewell Gap Alpenglow, 6×12″, $125, and it will be available at the Silver City Store this summer, unless it sells before that.

Happy Birthday, Hiking Buddy! (2 days early because I don’t post on Sundays.)

Four Steps to Timber Gap

If you have ever walked to Timber Gap, you know experientially that it is far more than four steps. I don’t remember the specific mileage, but it seems to be about 2 miles.

This post is actually about painting Timber Gap, and it took more than four steps. However, I only took four photographs. (I liked the title, and I am the boss of my blog.)

The trail is not the Timber Gap trail. It is the trail that leads to Franklin Lakes and Farewell Gap, but we are headed the opposite direction here. The Timber Gap trail has terrific views of the entire Mineral King valley. The flowers are Bigelow sneezeweed.

Trying to Paint

I had a morning available to paint but it took awhile to get to it. First, I had to admire Pippin in the window.

Next I varnished three paintings, and then had to figure out where to put them. So I went into the studio to see if there were any available hooks.

While contemplating my space limitations, I remembered this painting. I’ve had it awhile and don’t understand why it hasn’t sold. I love this bridge! So, I texted this photo to my artist friend Krista for her input, and then we talked for awhile about all manner of the business of art. (It is SO GOOD to have someone to bounce ideas off of!) More on this in a later post. . . I have some thinking to do.

As I was doing laps between the studio, house, and painting workshop, TRYING TO GET TO THE EASELS TO PAINT, I looked at the end of the driveway and saw 2 friends with dogs on tangled leashes. The sunshine, the colors they were wearing, the envy that they can go on walks and I can’t just now. . . sigh. I just decided to commemorate the moment with a photo.

FINALLY AT THE EASELS.

Remember this? Duh. The scene has appeared many times on this blog. As long as it keeps selling, I will keep painting it. It is a little different every time, even if I use the same photos.

Oops, gotta go! Weird colors here are due to the somewhat unstable light in the painting workshop. The final piece will be closer to the colors in the top two photos here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

The Other Day. . .

. . .I walked into the painting workshop, looked at all the paintings in their various stages, and just wanted to walk back out.

Why?

Because it was so beautiful outside and because I couldn’t figure out where to start.

Wet and finished
Wet and finished, wet and unfinished
Which to begin on?

The simplest solution was to start where I stopped the day before.

Wet, obviously unfinished

So, I did.

Some friends brought us lunch and we sat together in the front yard, then took a walk. YEA! I got to enjoy the perfect spring day with excellent people!

After lunch, I just dove into those embryonic Mineral King paintings. Knowing my heart wasn’t in it, I just took a handful of the paintings a short distance. When it required too much concentration, I stopped, and began another.

That’s enough on this one.
This used to be my favorite subject to draw and paint before I got completely enamored by orange groves with hills and mountains in the distance.
That’s enough on this. It is just as hard as I remember.

Suddenly the day was finished. None of the paintings were, but four new Mineral King paintings are closer to being finished than they were when I arrived in the morning.

Seven Skies and Two Paintings in Progress

Skies first on five
Found a sixth one that was ready for a sky.
Started with sky here, moved to the distant peak.
Slowly moving forward
Sky first
Dirt and standpipe next
Trees placed
Better dirt with shadows and texture

This will need to dry before I add in the blossoms.

Hi, Pippin!

Almost Finished, Finished and Begun

I mentioned a few days ago that there were just a few details remaining to finish three oil paintings of Tulare County’s prettiest places.

Almost finished
Finished!
Almost finished
Finished (but not correctly photographed just yet)
Almost finished
Finished, but not yet scanned BECAUSE IT IS WET!

Begun

The painting factory at my address is up and running at a steady speed.

Silos and the Sierra

A few weeks ago, I went to Tulare. As usual, I chose back roads. There were orchards in bloom, greenery everywhere, and snow on the Sierra Nevada. There is often snow there but it isn’t always so visible from the flatlands. (Smog comes down the Altamont Pass from the Bay Area and collects in the Central Valley.)

Agriculture is the biggest industry in Tulare County, and there is more to ag than citrus, although you might not know that if you look at my art. I don’t get out very often, so when I saw this field of some kind of grain (prolly for cattle to eat or perhaps for dairy cows) with the silos and the mountains beyond, I pulled over.

The base coat, easy stuff.
It looked easy, so I started with the sky, corrected the mountain blue/lavender, and then decided to try the grains. Then, I just kept going.
It was a little tricky to paint into wet paint, but the practice is good for me.

The end of the day has low light, so I took it outside to get a better photo. The color is weird on the silos and buildings, not just because of the low light, but because the mountain blue/lavender paint got mixed in. That is a risk of painting wet into wet. (Sometimes I live out on the edge, painting wet into wet or pulling over on the side of the road for photographs.)

All that remains is to get those mountains right and correct the color on the silos and buildings. I left off a giant house because it didn’t seem important. I’m the boss of my painting, not the photographs or reality (unless it is a commissioned piece).

P.S. There won’t be any wildflowers.