We made it through Oak Grove Bridge #18. Is there a #19? Yup. All the way through #23, which may or may not be the twenty-third oil painting I’ve done of this, my favorite bridge.
My Favorite Bridge in Oil Paint, Chapter 5
My Favorite Bridge in Oil Paint, Chapter 4
I may have found a clue to the Oak Grove Bridge oil painting numbering problem. I was preparing for a show of oil paintings, and had several new paintings going at the same time. One was on a collapsible easel, and true to its nature, it collapsed and tore the painting on the table behind it. After feeling sick for awhile, I removed the canvas from its foundational frame and sewed it into a tote bag.
Numbering problems continue – there is no #12 or #13, and I jump between Roman numerals and normal numerals (what are those called??)
Now back to the completed oil paintings of the Oak Grove Bridge. I started messing around with exaggerated colors in 2014.
My Favorite Bridge in Oil Paint, Chapter 3
But wait! There’s more! More Oak Grove Bridge oil paintings.
Here we encounter a numbering problem. When learning to oil paint, every artist has her own system for keeping track of completed paintings (or not.) It took me awhile to sort things out. Hence, here are two Oak Grove Bridge # Nines and Tens.
My Favorite Bridge in Oil Paint, Chapter 2
Happy Birthday, Cory!!
It is easy to go on and on and on about this subject. Tulare County landmark, favorite bridge, art. . .
All of these paintings are sold and todayI’m giving you a break from all the “ads” (although you may commission me to repaint any of these bridge scenes for you!)
My Favorite Bridge in Oil Paint
There will be several chapters in this series about my favorite bridge, the Oak Grove Bridge on the Mineral King Road in Tulare County, California. (All those specifics are just in case you are new to the blog; if so, welcome!)
Yesterday we looked at three pencil drawings of the bridge. Today I will show you some of my earliest oil paintings of this wonderful subject.
Keep your seat belts on – it is a long and winding road with about 20 more oil paintings of this beautiful Tulare County landmark to go!
Sort of Working
In July and August, I don’t teach regular drawing lessons. My students often say “enjoy your vacation” or “have a nice summer” as they are leaving (and several cannot resist the urge to sing “See You In September”).
Although I do spend much more time in Mineral King in those 2 months, I am still working. Sort of. There was the show Art: Inspired by Mineral King on June 30. I deliver paintings to the Silver City Resort (AKA “The Store”), work on commissions (both pencil and oil), blog, keep track of what is selling, work on my new website design, work on the upcoming calendar, plan for any upcoming shows. That’s sort of working, isn’t it?
Productive Procrastination
The oil painting commission of Homer’s Nose With the Oak Grove Bridge felt too hard. Was I low on sleep? (That was both my parents’ question and/or conclusion any time there was a problem both growing up and as an adult.) Distraction was present in the form of some cats, a friend or two stopping by, the heat, lots of unfinished projects. . . but the main problem might have been fear.
So, I listened to the song “Fear is a Liar” by Zach Williams on repeat for an hour or so, and then I started a new painting of the same bridge from the same angle.
When I don’t know how to do the next step on a project, I often begin a new project. This may be the first time I’ve started a second painting of the same subject, the very one that has me handcuffed.
During this time of unfocused indecision, all my Mineral King paintings were crated up, ready to go to Silver City for the Art: Inspired by Mineral King show. This gave me a sense (albeit a false one) of not having enough paintings to sell. On top of that ridiculousness, I began the magical thinking of “What If Everything Sells and Then I Have Nothing of Mineral King?”
My response to that was to begin another 6×6″ painting of Sawtooth. Here they are on the drying wall in their sloppy scribble stage, along with the completed river painting.
Yep. Good decision. When you can’t get your work finished, just begin more work.
Aren’t you glad you stopped by for this uplifting, realistic, encouraging piece of artistic wisdom?
Teensy Forgiving Oil Painting
I find most painting subjects to be just a little bit too hard for me. Is this because I am mostly self-taught? Maybe. Is it because I have only been painting for 12 years? Maybe. Is it because I don’t know when a painting is “good”, or “finished” or “overworked” or “incomplete”? Yeppers. That’s it.
After struggling through figuring out how to blend Snozz Rock Homer’s Nose with the Oak Grove Bridge, how to work from 2 photos with different light, how to just make stuff up, all on a GIANT 18×24″ canvas (well, it IS giant compared to my normal 6×6, 8×8, 6×18 and 11×14 sizes!), I decided to work on the “teensy” forgiving 8×8″ oil painting of the South Fork of the Kaweah (“kuh-WEE-uh”) River.
And thus we conclude the teensy forgiving oil painting of a common well-loved Three Rivers Kaweah River view. (Hey Uncle Google, how did I do on all those key words??)
Leaving the Scary Scribble Stage
I worked for awhile on the oil painting commission of Homer’s Nose With The Oak Grove Bridge (WHAT shall this one be titled?? Snozz Rock? Sue’s View? The Nose And The Bridge? The Bridge and the Nose? Don’t Blow Your Nose On My Bridge?)
And thus, we have successfully covered the great desert of a scary semi-empty canvas with another layer of oil paint.
Please May I Be Excused?
Do you remember being required to say that when you were done with dinner as a kid? (We might not have had to say “please”. . . it isn’t sounding familiar to me, but with that degree of rudeness, why was permission even required? Never mind.)
The Redwood & Dogwood painting might be finished.
The Oak Grove Bridge might be finished.
Please, may I be excused?
Today’s painting for sale:
Do you think it is “sellsy” and push to show you a painting for sale at the end of each blog post? That’s the last thing I want to be! (or maybe being sellsy and pushy would be better than being rude and not asking politely to be excused from the table. . .)