Practicing Painting

Practice Painting? Painting Practice? Paint Practicing?

Never mind. Doctors practice medicine, attorneys practice law, and this artist practices painting. Some days I feel as if I am brand new, with no idea how to tackle a subject. Some days I think I’m figuring it out. Only once in awhile does the process feel easy.

I have a solo show coming up a year from now, and I want to be ready. No last-minute panic painting, just a well-planned body of work that is cohesive, looks good together, represents my best efforts, and most of all, represents the best parts of Central California, specifically Tulare County. Or perhaps is the best representation of Tulare County, a place of superlatives, both great and terrible.

Hey Central California, stop your bloviations and show us some work.

Ahem. Would you like to see what I was practicing on?

About time.

I started with more detailing on the trees.

Then it was time to work on the background. All those vague and messy branches and clumps of needles were a bit confounding, but that’s okay, because I was just practicing. It helped to put in the sunlit strips of ground.

I had to turn the canvas sideways in order to place the tip of my brush WHICH I WAS DRAWING WITH, SO THERE, in the right place to get accuracy. In order to paint those ferns in detail, I DRAW WITH MY PAINTBRUSH.

Finally, I hung it on the wall to dry, and that’s when I realized I had begun the scene upside down but hadn’t actually reversed the canvas. Oh well. A wire is easy to move.

Two Outings

Private collection, 12×36″

In 2023, I participated in exactly one art boutique/fair/bazaar. ONE. It was in Exeter on a Saturday at the history museum/art gallery, CACHE. This was the inaugural event, the reviews are mixed, and I am guessing it won’t become an annual event.

However, I had a good day! One painting sold (Citrus Row) and many smaller items too, all adding up to YES IT WAS WORTH IT.

Being sort of accidentally semi-retired this year*, I decided that a good day of work deserved a good day of hanging out with friends. Because I still live in the same area where I was reared (children are reared, vegetables are raised), when long-time friends return to the area, they often request a get-together. This isn’t always practical, but it is usually a real treat.

I left the house at 10:30 AM and got home at 5:30 PM, just to “go have lunch”. This is why I often turn down such requests, unless I have recently had a good day of work and don’t have any looming deadlines.

The drive was interesting (I actually left Tulare County!), the company stellar, and lunch was delicious.

Our post-lunch walk was exactly up my alley.

The dead tree was interesting, but I won’t paint it.
I will probably paint this. If I really squint, I can see the mountains. We were too far north to be looking at Alta Peak.
I will paint this, minus the white spots (whitewash against thrip?) and pokey little twigs. I’ll probably fake in a navel.
My friend had to help me with these: pistachios! She said that the crop was left to fall on the ground this year. What a terrible waste.
Of course I will be painting a version of this. Shall I make the hill green?

Two outings: one work, one semi-work related, both social, one closer but more taxing (talking to people all day makes me tired), the other far but entirely up my alley with 2 close and long-time friends in the country surrounded by foothills and oranges.

“The Best View”, 10×20″, $400, currently my favorite subject matter

*Because I had no work this summer I may have forgotten how to work.

Bright Fruit and Sequoia Trees on the Easels

After a chunk of time away from the easels, I was very happy to return.

First I got to finish the fruit painting that will be a gift. (I will be GIVING it, not “gifting” it.)

This is wet, photographed here in the box I used to carry it into the house to dry.

I started this quite awhile ago, working from a photo shared with me by one of my drawing students. The ferns had been nipped by frost, turning them golden.

Although I am working from a photo, I am rearranging the trees. Here is a photo of the photo, which I am looking at on my laptop while painting.

My hope is to make those ferns perfect. Just perfect. But there is lots to be painted before I get there.

The new paintings won’t be at the Gift Fair but there will be plenty of merchandise to choose from.

Great Western Divide

The Great Western Divide is the name given to the ridge of peaks seen from the top of Moro Rock in the Sierra Nevada. On this side, water drains west and on the other side, it drains east .

I haven’t painted this before, at least not from this view. The mountains show in the distance of many of my citrus/foothills/mountain scenes, but only once did I try to make them perfect. And that was tricky, because I worked from many photos, piecing the range together, and then faking the hills.

Why did I fake the hills? Because they were different in every single photo, because each photo was taken from a different place. There is no place besides an aircraft where you can see the entire width of the Sierra Nevada.

Here we go. . .

At the end of the painting session, the light was a bit too low to be accurate on both the colors and the shapes.

So, I photographed it the next morning in the bright sunlight. Looks washed out because the wet paint is reflective.

When it is dry, I will scan it, and then, as always, I will tell you it looks better in person.

The Great Western Divide, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×12″, $125.

Land of Fruit and (no) Nuts

Yesterday you learned the term “glazing” for building a painting in layers.

Now let’s look at glazing some fruit.

This was a little tricky. I started with a photo, then started rearranging and adding more fruit so that there was more color. I kept gathering more photos, trying to make this look believable but also full of variety and vibrance.

The color varies from photo to photo here because of the light differences in the painting workshop, depending on the angle and the time of day.

It needed an orange, and obviously the orange will need some brightening up.

At the end of the painting session I realized that the light on the fruit was not consistent. So, I lifted off the lemon and will paint another one over the top. The orange needs to be brighter. The apple was a good way to calm down that giant yellow pear. The persimmon needs detailing on its green top. A tangerine will be a good addition where the red circle is. Obviously the pomegranate, yellow pear, and peach need to be finished.

Then, everything will need to be tightened up even more. Since this painting is a gift, I can spend as much time as I want without paying attention to whether or not the price is right.

The next morning, I had a few hours to make a little more progress.

This is really fun!

Is That All You Did Today??

Why, yes, indeed it is.

Wait, nope, I spent yet another hour on the phone with someone whose main phrase was, “Yes Ma’am”, as she tried to figure out AGAIN why my new phone won’t work. Or wait, is it the new SIM card? Perhaps it is the new provider?

See a pattern here? It is the word “new”.

STOP WITH THE CHANGES AND UPGRADES AND UPDATES ALREADY!!

Okay, where were we. . . oh yes, in the day’s accomplishments and forward progress at the easels.

Neither of these paintings are finished, but they are both much closer than the last time you saw them.

The base of the tree was beginning to look good.
Not good enough yet, but much closer.

That Sequoia is called the Sentinel Tree and it is in front of the building formerly known as the Giant Forest Market. Now it is the Giant Forest Museum.

The difficult thing about this commission wildflower piece is keeping the edges of the poppies slightly blurry so that the brodiaea AKA Blue Dick really jumps out.

I love this kind of detailed realism, even if it does take (almost) all day. And both of these subjects are exactly what one would expect from a Central California artist. All that is missing is some oranges.

Hmmm, I am sort of like country music with my three subjects: redwood trees, poppies, and citrus. (Country music’s three subjects are cheatin’, drinkin’, and storytellin’.)

Wait, I also paint Mineral King, cabins, single oranges, entire groves, the foothills with mountains in the background, various views of the Sierra Nevada, Three Rivers, and whatever else people are interested in hiring me to paint.

Phew. Thought for a moment I was gittin’ real simple-like.

See? I did more than just be on hold and paint. . . I did me some thinkin’. Real high-quality thought.

Slow Progress on Five New Paintings

This painting needed some improvement on the arrangement. That’s called the “composition” in ArtSpeak.

This next painting is a commission. I am combining multiple photos, trying to somewhat match a looser painting that the customer admired, but wanted in my detailed style. Because it is of wildflowers, I have lots of reference photos to work from. It is fun to use bright colors, in this and in the fruit painting above.

The next one is a 6×12″ of part of the Great Western Divide, as seen from Moro Rock. I sketched it with a paintbrush while the canvas was upside down. When I flipped it over, I decided there needed to be less sky, so I scooted everything a bit higher, while improving accuracy of the shapes.

Kaweah Arts requested some Sequoia trees, so here we go again. . . This is the pair of redwood trees at Redwood Canyon, or simply “Redwood” on the Mineral King road. Some former cabin neighbors referred to them as “Aunt Tilly and Uncle Pete”. I can’t tell which is which. Must have been married so long that they started looking alike.

This last one is 6×18″ and is the Sentinel Tree, in front of the Giant Forest Market. I mean the museum. My cousin worked there one summer (or more), and used to get a kick out of customers who would ask, “Where can I see the big trees?” She would simply point out the door.

All of these need to be relayered, then detailed, my favorite part. After they are dry, I will either scan or photograph them. Next, I will post them on the blog and tell you that they look better in person.

Starting Over Again. . .

It is time to do a few small paintings to sell at Kaweah Arts. The proprietor requested Sequoia trees and mountain ranges. I looked through my canvas sizes, looked through my photos and made some decisions. Inventory number, title, wire on the back, add to the inventory lists, crop and enhance the photos—all needs to happen before paint lands on the canvas.

Wait! This isn’t a Sequoia tree or a mountain range. What is it?

It is a scene I have wanted to paint for many years, but felt it was a bit too hard. This will be one of my long slow paintings, with many many layers. There is no deadline, and I want it to be Most Totally Excellent.

Okay, this is a standard 6×18″ painting of a big tree, AKA redwood, AKA Sequoia, formally known as Sequoia gigantea, not to be confused with the redwoods of northern California, called Sequoia sempervirens.

WHAT IS THIS???

This is a work in progress, a housewarming present for someone Very Important in my life. She showed me the pieces she has in her kitchen, and I was inspired to ask her what I could paint to add to the collection. (These might not be the actual pieces that she has, but hers are very similar to these.)

The sequoias and mountain range paintings can just hold their camels* for a little bit. I have some designing, improving, polishing, rearranging, composing ahead.

*Learned to say this while in Israel back in 2016 and decided it is more fun than horses.

A New Place to Sell

Sales of my art have declined. Is it the economy? I assume so, since sales are an economic transaction. The specific reasons are: one of my regular vendors was not open this past summer; another one relied on a now-closed adjoining restaurant for foot traffic; the third place relied on traffic to Sequoia National Park, which was closed until July 1.

What’s an artist to do?

Look for a new place to sell, of course.

St. Anthony’s Retreat asked for some of my paintings for their gift shop. This is close to home, a place where I have painted several murals, staffed by many friends, and is an active place in Three Rivers. It brings in people from all over the valley for various purposes, many of which are not actually Catholic. It is a beautiful place, very bucolic, and they have very good food too.

I worked with two friends there to decide what to put in the gift shop. This is what we chose:

Craig Ranch (on BLM land above St. Anthony’s)
Kaweah River (St. Anthony’s is visible on the hillside.)
Alta, Kaweah Lake, Lupine (visible to anyone traveling to St. Anthony’s)
Winding Kaweah, almost visible from St. Anthony’s
Redwoods, painted from the same reference photo used on a mural at Santa Teresita, St. Anthony’s youth center
Yarn! Because there was a knitter’s retreat setting up when I delivered the paintings. (Mama didn’t raise no fool. . .)