Now let’s look at the pieces that have sold in the last several months, at Kaweah Arts, Stem & Stone, Exeter’s Mural Gallery, the Silver City Store, and through my website and people I know. Three disclaimers: Thank you for sharing in my happiness, and remember: USING PENCILS, OIL PAINT, AND MURALS, I MAKE ART […]
Honesty, Diplomacy, and Wisdom
I have a wise friend who is both diplomatic and honest. She told me that a few of my paintings didn’t reflect my usual care, or perhaps she said they weren’t up to my usual standards— “lacking in detail and clarity”. (There were a couple of paragraphs so I’m summarizing here.) I blamed the old […]
Walking Down the Mineral King Road and Up the Nature Trail
Gird your loins—this is a long post. With my new-to-me iPhone 14 in hand, I walked down the Mineral King Road to Cold Springs Campground (STILL CLOSED—CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN OR SOMETHING!) and back up the Nature Trail. This is about 2-1/2 miles total. Let’s look at the flowers I found along the road. I actually […]
Hey Jeff, Am I Finished With Your Garden Painting?
I don’t think Jeff reads my blog. Marketing and sales people would tell me that I don’t push it hard enough, that I should be linking posts to my Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts. That would be difficult, since I don’t participate in any of those. This may be why I only have tens of […]
Drawing Jeff’s Garden With a Paintbrush
I thought this would be very difficult and take “forever”. Instead, I am thoroughly enjoying the process because now that the sizes and locations and base coat are down, I can simply begin drawing with my paintbrush. Step by Step by Step. . .or Way Leads on to Way Let’s just have a series of […]
Planting an Oil Garden
What’s an “oil garden”? Glad you asked! Remember this colored pencil sketch for a commissioned oil painting of someone’s garden? (Let’s call him Jeff, because that is his name.) Jeff approved of the design for his painting and chose 12×24” for the canvas size. Having realized the benefits of starting with a sketch on an […]
Business in the Mountains
The Silver City Store sold two Mineral King oil paintings on opening weekend; a few days later they sold a sequoia tree painted on a wood panel. Luckily for a future customer, I had one more ready to go. So, on the way up the hill last week, we stopped by to deliver it. While […]
Oil Painting Commission to Stretch This Artist
CUSTOM ART | COLLAGES Custom art is an important piece of my art business. There are countless scenes and objects that I’d really enjoy painting or drawing, but in 33 years of earning a living with art, I have come to understand that people want what they want, not necessarily what I want. Therefore, I […]
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), […]
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 […]