Well Received (Successful Opening Reception)

The opening reception to my solo show, “Images of Home” at Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery was amazingly well attended. No one was counting, but I think there were at least 100 people, and everyone did NOT come at once. It was most totally excellent! 

This is the first thing you see when you step into the entryway.

This is what you see when you step into the gallery.

Here is a comfortable corner for contemplation.

These three pencil drawings of Mineral King look just right on this wall. (How would they look all together on a wall in your home?)

Sold!

These are still available.

This child was too cute to not photograph. (Her mom gave permission).

There were a few opportunities to photograph people in the gallery, but that wasn’t my real mission.

Sold!

Sold!

Sold!

Sold!

Sold twice!

Sold four times!

Yeppers, you read that right. I have to order some canvases, and then get painting. If someone expressed disappointment at having missed out on a painting, I simply said, “I can paint it again for you”. (Do other artists do this??)

 

Not Boring To Me

I spent a day at the easels. To anyone else, it would probably be boring. There wasn’t anything really photo worthy, but I took 2 at the end of the day so you could see that I made progress.

Here it is in a list:

  1. I put a final layer on the Hume Lake ornaments, but only on the lake side. The photos looked very terrible. I didn’t even send them to the customer, because they were so non-representative of how cool these little things will be.
  2. When I walked back to the house, there were EIGHT deer on and around my little front lawn. Yes, EIGHT. I didn’t have my camera in my pocket.
  3. I worked very diligently on the 11×14 “In The Orchard II”. When it is drier, I will add a wind machine, more oranges, and orange blossoms.
  4. It was an easy transition to keep making oranges and leaves on the giant painting that probably won’t go in my dining room.

Are you yawning yet? It really was a wonderful day! Thank you for sticking with me to the end.

Painting as if I Have a Show Coming (Because I Do)

As the title states, I am painting as if I have a show coming, because I do. Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery, November and December, specific dates undetermined as of yet.

This one looks finished when viewed from the back of a fast horse. However, there are no horses allowed in the Courthouse Gallery, fast or slow. 

Therefore, I spent another morning on the 12×24″ oil painting, cleverly titled “Yokohl”.

Next, I rephotographed the 12×24″ oil painting with the not very original title of “Looking East II”. (Honestly, finding great titles is a challenge when I paint the same subjects multiple times.) The smoke was not very evident, so I was able to get a photo without a weird orange tint.

Next, I did a tiny bit of adjustments on the 12×24″ oil painting cleverly titled “Alta Alpenglow”. It might actually be “Alta Alpenglow” II or III or even IV, but I chosen not to count this particular view. Maybe instead of numbers, they could be Title Good, Title Better, and Title Best. But then what would I call #4?

But wait! There’s more! 

You’ll have to come back tomorrow.

A Day Without Texture in the Air

On Thursday night, I woke up a zillion times wondering if it was raining yet. It wasn’t. Mid morning, it rained! Not much, but enough to clear the air. I don’t know the effect on the inferno, but the air stopped having texture.

I can paint another day with the doors flung open and I feel happy! Let’s get started on Yokohl.

Sky and clouds first.

Hills next, painting back to front.

And creek and ground last. Then I set it in the waning daylight to photograph it. After that, I painted the edges.

It isn’t signed yet because of that waning daylight. In brighter light I will probably find a dozen things to fix. This one doesn’t really call for much drawing with my paint brushes, but I will probably figure out a way to do that. Fence posts, wildflowers, grasses, an alligator in the creek . . . 

 

Why I Need to Paint So Much

How much is “so much”? Well, as much as the low light and bad air allows, in order to be ready for. . .

The Courthouse Gallery in Exeter has asked me to do a solo show for November and December!  I don’t know the exact dates yet, because they don’t exactly know the dates yet. 

When they first asked, I did inventory of available paintings and drawings, because they said they’d like to have both. The inventory was a little loosey-goosey, because I didn’t know if pieces would sell before that time. (This was pre-fire.) Kaweah Arts and the Silver City Store have been closed since shortly after Labor Day, so sales have stopped. Further, I have 9 paintings in the store, and no one is getting in there any time soon. No one is going up the road except fire fighters, and it is treacherous. 

This means I need to finish some new paintings in order to fill up the gallery.

Therefore, the painting I thought I would do for my dining room of my favorite subject will need to be finished and for sale. It’s okay; I can paint it again for Big Queen Me-Me.

This one needs to be finished.

I can do that.

See? Just one edge left to paint, let it dry, sign it, photograph it, and move on.

Next!

Completed, Signed, Dry, Scanned, and Delivered

This is how things look around here in the late afternoon. This photo is my attempt to candy-coat things, or perhaps to put lipstick on the pig.

The five oil paintings that I worked on while in Mineral King are ready to see (and buy, if you are so inclined) at Kaweah Arts. (Except Nancy has closed her store for awhile because she has to be ready to evacuate, as we all do here in smoky Three Rivers.)

The subjects are all chosen to appeal to visitors and residents of Three Rivers. (Unless there is no more reason to live in or visit Three Rivers.)

FYI, the sizes are 6×12″ ($125), 8×10″ ($125), and 8×8″ ($100). As always, they look better in person, and California sales tax is extra.

Did you just hear the voices of Charlie Brown adults when you read that last sentence? Or did you hear Eeyore? (Where in the world did A.A. Milne come up with that now iconic name?)

Oil Paintings Sold in July (Have you seen these??)

Is this going to be a regular feature of the blog? I hope so.

These are the paintings that sold in July. Did I show you these yet? I can’t find an answer to this question, so if you have seen this, consider it a rerun, because it is a rerun, unless it isn’t.

Good Grief Charlie Brown.

Just Another Day at the Easels. . .

. . .in a barely cool painting workshop in early August, but thankful for the swamp cooler. The day before, I stood the entire time while painting. This day I sat the entire time. 

Thank you to Reader Anne for the suggestion of using an egg carton for the ornaments. It sort of worked, but I ended up holding each one in my hand. They are looking better, but still have many layers ahead. These photos are just more teasers about how they are moving ahead without revealing much except that Hume Lake will be on one side.

I touched up the 8×16″ of Farewell Gap in Mineral King, but you might have to see it in person to catch the improvements.

Since Kelly’s Sunset (also in Mineral King) has sold, I painted another one. I have altered the placement of trees from Kelly’s original photo, and altered them again in version #2. In these photos, I can see that the angle of the left flank of Vandever (peak on the right) is too steep. Will anyone else notice? Will the piece not sell? More will be revealed in the fullness of time.

P.S. UPDATE: the smaller sunset painting with the wrong angle on Vandever and a single tree sold immediately.

I Painted So Fast That My Camera Died

OF COURSE THAT WASN’T THE REASON! But look what my camera started doing when I was in the midst of my painting marathon.

Houston, we have a problem.

Ick, you all know how I feel about shopping – all those confusing almost alike products, decisions, too many details, too many choices.  I just skated by with my inferior phone photos for awhile. It is an iPhone 7, and it hasn’t lived up to my expectations. However, I do not dive quickly into things, so I imagine that I will make it work for at least another 10 years or so. (Remember, I went 2 years without a cell phone at all, I drive a ’96, bought my only purse in ’95, and my wallet in ’79. Wanna make somethin’ of it??)

Where were we. . . painting fast, a painting marathon, a painting factory. 

My new friend Kelly showed me a fabulous sunset over Farewell Gap on her phone (hmmm, I wonder what model she has), and then offered to share it with me so I could paint it.

I put the first layer on so that it was obvious where the shapes and the general color would go, then I put it outside to dry in the 102 degree weather and went back inside, grateful for the swamp cooler, to finish this little gem.

When it was finished, I put it outside, and then thought it would be a hoot to photograph the drying paintings in front of their big brother. (Simple pleasures for simple people).

Back to Kelly’s sunset. I haven’t done a ton of sunsetty cloud colors, so I mixed to sort of match the photo and then just decided to make sure the colors made sense, but didn’t overpower Farewell Gap in intensity. (See? Too many decisions wore out my ability to go online and choose from 70 cameras that all look alike.)

SOLD!  But that’s okay, because I can paint another one for you. Remember. . .

I use oil paint, pencils, and murals to make art you can understand of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.

P.S. I found a camera at a place called B&H, with identical controls to the one that croaked. It arrived within a week, and IT TAKES BETTER PHOTOS!! (better photos than the old one did before it turned pinky-purple).

New Paintings Completed. . .

. . . and one that was, but then I changed my mind. I’ll tell you about that another day.

Giant Sequoia II, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, $165 (plus too much sales tax in California)
Oak Grove Bridge #34, oil on wrapped canvas, 8×10″, $125 (plus tax, yadda yadda yadda)
Mineral King Alpenglow, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, $165 (plus you-know-what in California)
Honeymoon Cabin at Dusk, 8×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, $108 (includes the tax but if you are out of California it is bargain at $100)
Classic Mineral King, 18×35″, oil on wrapped canvas, $1200 (more in California but I won’t do the math now because it will make me break out in hives)