oil paintings | Cabin Art

Color Bullies

About twice a year, I allow several of my advanced drawing students to bully me into giving an oil painting workshop.

Sometimes everyone paints the same subject, and sometimes each person chooses her own subject. It is easier to teach when everyone paints the same subject. That way everyone benefits from the same instructions rather than having to wait until I get around to help individually.

Recently, the color bullies arm-twisted me into another oil painting workshop. I negotiated to get them to all paint Sequoia trees and the result was that I gave them several photos from which to choose.

OF COURSE every single participant chose a different photo.

Whoa, E, you are getting this, but why is your photo upside down? — Whoa, E, this looks great, but why is your photo upside down?? (Teeheehee, those of us who draw together know the answer to this.)

Wow, M, you are getting this and even listened to me a couple of times!

Hey, L, are you confused? (We insiders get it. . . how snobbish of us!)

Let's all go outside and marvel at the colors in the leaves. — Let’s all go outside and marvel at the colors in the leaves.

The color bullies and I had a great time. (You know I use the term “bullies” as an exaggeration, yes? These folks are truly wonderful, and we love painting together!) Stay tuned to see how the paintings turn out after session #2.

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oil paintings Sequoia painting

What I Think About While I Paint

While I painted recently, I listened to music (Selah is the name of the group), fought off Samson and thought about things.

In Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies, I am without a doubt a Questioner. As a result, most of my thoughts end up as unanswered questions. If an answer arrives, another 2 or 3 or 15 questions pop back up.

Trail Guy and I recently found a cell phone. I emailed all the neighbors and asked if anyone recognized the number. The responses were “Nope, not mine.” Why did no one look on his phone to see if he had the number or name on his own contact list?
What good are mosquitoes in the whole scheme of things?
Why did none of my art teachers teach how to frame, approach galleries, set up shows, title pieces, sell, or reproduce art?
Did I quit school too soon?
Why are all those old cities in Israel buried so deep?
Who dumps dirt on their towns and then moves to a new place?
Why does Samson need to bite everything? (hint: if he came in a pair, his litter-mate would teach him better manners)
Why is it so easy to harmonize with fabulous voices like Selah and so impossible to do it alone?

And, here is a bonus question:

If 7/11 is open 24/7, why don’t they change their name and take the locks off their doors?

The painting I will give to Exeter's Courthouse Gallery annual auction (If Samson doesn't climb it and wreck it.) — The oil painting I will give to Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery annual auction (If Samson doesn’t climb it and wreck it.)

oil paintings

Cen. Calif. Artist Actually Works

Lest you think all I do is travel and walk, here is evidence to the contrary.

Red on green retouched; green on red, just begun. These are on 5×7″ boards for displaying on little easels.

Whoa, these sure look messy on the first pass! They are also on little boards, 4×4″. Can you tell what they will be when they grow up?

The Big Trees, AKA Sequoia Gigantea, AKA redwoods. This is a regular subject for me. This is 8×10″.

More of the same, also 8×10″. It will take several passes for this one to look like anything worthy of wall space.

Lake Kaweah or Kaweah Lake? Around here we say, “The Lake”. If someone says, “What lake?” then the answer is simply “Kaweah”. Hence, the confusion as to order of the words.

One last painting begun. It is the season of the freebie. This one will go to the Courthouse Gallery in Exeter for their annual fundraising auction. I’m happy to donate to the wonderful place that allows me space for teaching drawing lessons. However, I will not be able to attend the fund raiser, because the stress of watching no one bid for something I painted might just reduce me to giving up my business, stabbing myself with my knitting needles, and taking in enormous numbers of stray cats.

new-orange

oil paintings

Popular Fruits

Oil paintings of fruits are popular for kitchen and dining rooms. Oranges and pomegranates sell the best for this Central California artist.

Here in Tulare County, we grow olives, walnuts, grapes, every type of citrus, cotton and all sorts of stone fruits, plus we produce more dairy than the entire state of Wisconsin. Some people like those things decorating their walls. If you want those things on your walls, I can paint them for you.

Meanwhile, I will continue to paint the very popular oranges and pomegranates.

1630 Orange #129 1631 Pom #52 1602 Pom #53

These paintings are available here. Or you can find me in my usual places. Or, you can holler at me while I am pounding out miles to prepare for the Lake Tahoe 1/2 Marathon. My walking partner and I are the ones with a neon green shoelace and a neon orange shoelace. That’s our team uniform. Color is popular with us.

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oil paintings Tulare county

One More Mineral King Oil Painting?

These Mineral King oil paintings seem to be reproducing while I have my back turned. Maybe I should have left the light on, or maybe I should not have taken that road trip.

Ha. Don’t I wish they just reproduced on their own.

This is the one that was on my easel when I started the series about the most popular scene in Mineral King.

Farewell Gap #24, 11x14, oil on wrapped canvas, $250 — Farewell Gap #24, 11×14, oil on wrapped canvas, sold

Yes, I realize there is a numbering problem. How can this be #24 when I have shown you 32 other versions?

Life’s full of unknowns, unsolved mysteries, and other conundrums.

If the plural of medium is media, shouldn’t the plural of conundrum be “conundra”? English is weird, but I still prefer it to Artspeak.

Mineral King oil paintings oil paintings

California Quail

We have California quail all over our property in Three Rivers. They are notoriously difficult to photograph, but sometimes I sneak photos through the windows.

That’s how I was able to paint this California quail. Studio painters work from photos, not from real life or a photographic memory.

I’m thankful to live in an era of easy, convenient and abundant photography, along with abundant California quail.

1622 Calif quail #2 — California Quail #2, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $60

California Quail #2 is available on this webpage, or all the usual flexible ways that I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

oil paintings

The Last Oil Paintings in Mineral King

“Last” is one of those many faceted English words. Here it means the most recent Farewell Gap, Mineral King oil paintings.

4x4" - wow that was tiny! — 4×4″ – wow that was tiny!

Farewell Gap XIX - wait, does this mean #19? Are there 2 of this number?? — Farewell Gap XIX – wait, does this mean #19? Are there 2 of this number??

Another unnumbered Farewell Gap painting

Farewell Gap XVIII - notice the red fir on the left has shrunk. — Farewell Gap XVIII – notice the red fir on the left has shrunk.

Farewell Gap IXX - does this mean #19?? — Farewell Gap IXX – does this mean #19??

Farewell Gap XX - hmmm, haven't we had that number already? And how did the fir tree grow back? — Farewell Gap XX – hmmm, haven’t we had that number already? And how did the fir tree grow back?

Farewell Gap XXIII, and the fir is tall because I like it that way, so there.

There are more depictions of Farewell Gap, on murals, in pencil and in 2 coloring books (drawn in ink). However, in the interest of relieving monotony, I won’t continue this theme in other media. (Did you know that “media” is the plural of “medium”? “Medium” when it means material used for making art, not the size of my clothing.)

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And Yet More Mineral King Oil Paintings

4x4" Farewell Gap 2014 — 4×4″ Farewell Gap 2014

Farewell Gap XVIII, 2015 (This is my favorite.) Short fir tree on the left!

Farewell Gap IXX, 2015 Short fir on the left.

Farewell Gap XX, 2015 Double short firs.

Tomorrow we will take a final look at the Farewell Gap paintings.

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Mineral King oil paintings oil paintings

Still Oil Painting in Mineral King

Not really oil painting in Mineral King – oil paintings of Mineral King, painted in Three Rivers.

As a studio artist, I work from my photos. The variations are based on size and shape of painting (square, rectangular, really rectangular – and never horizontal for this scene, although that is an interesting idea). The variations also happen with time of day and time of year and type of snowfall and flow of water AND where I stood to take the photo. Plus, sometimes I juice up the colors a little more than natural. Sometimes I work at tight realism, and other times I try to loosen up. That isn’t natural to me, but is certainly faster.

These all look sort of dark, but I think it was the way I photographed them, not the paintings themselves. 2014 wasn’t a dark year. 2015 was a dark year, but we’ll have to see if that sadness was reflected in my paintings tomorrow.

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Mineral King Oil Paintings, continued

One time I painted the Mineral King scene of Farewell Gap with the Crowley family cabin plein air. That was very difficult – the light and colors kept changing, people kept asking what I was doing (umm, skateboarding?), and I had to keep scooting out of the way of cars.

Painting Farewell Gap in Mineral King plein air in 2007 — Painting Farewell Gap in Mineral King plein air in 2006

I don’t remember which one it was or how it turned out. I had only been painting a few months and thought that plein air painting was necessary to learning. It may have been, but mostly what I learned was how grateful I was to be a studio painter, working in a controlled and quiet environment from my photos.

That’s a new twist on an old theme.

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Tag: oil paintings