Before I finished layering the background things, I blew off any discipline about painting, ignored conventional wisdom about The Way You Are Supposed to Paint, and I launched into detailing. When I draw, I work from top to bottom, left to right. This way I don’t rest my hand on finished parts, thus not smearing […]
New Oil Commission, Chapter 4
About the mural The threat of rain prevented me from beginning on Friday. More relevant:the powers that be did not offer me a key to their building, which means I can only paint on Fridays. This coming Friday I will be setting up for the Holiday Bazaar, and the following Friday is part of Thanksgiving […]
New Oil Commission, Chapter 3
On Monday, you saw this version of the custom oil painting of a Mineral King scene. Next, I put more paint on the sky and worked more carefully on West Florence. (The humanoid is still a mess.) Time to rescue the humanoid from embarrassing me. Wait, time to rescue me from the embarrassment of the […]
New Oil Commission, Chapter 2
Here is my usual collection of thoughts about custom art: This is too hard, I’m a washed-up has-been, why does anyone think I am qualified? And: These people are counting on me and I’d better get started because it is going to be hard and take a very long time. Finally: Just paint, you Goober! […]
New Oil Painting Commission
“Commission” means someone is paying me to paint custom art for him. Them. Her. Shhhh, I think it will be a Christmas present. Let’s call the customer Mister. You can decide if it is a man, a woman, or several humans. Mister decided on 20×20”, a square format. The canvas arrived, and I put a […]
Procrastination and Completion
The plan was to finish the 10×30” commissioned oil painting of the two redwood trees. When I set up in the painting workshop, it looked too hard and too big and too daunting. So I indulged in some productive procrastination, opting instead to finish the plein air painting of the pumpkin field. This meant that […]
Back to Work, Central Calfornia Artist
With two Giant Sequoias to paint, I chose to finish, nay, ALMOST finish the painting I started in Gilroy. Why not the Sequoia paintings first? Because I missed Mrs. Texas after spending so much time together. I think it might need a blossom or two and better definition on the closer leaves. Because I was […]
Don’t Be Scared—I Can Make These Look Good
Sequoias, Redwoods, Big Trees, Sequoia gigantea—all these words mean the trees which gave Sequoia National Park its name. Paintings of these trees sell very steadily to the visitors in our area. Sometimes it feels a little boring to keep painting the same things over and over. When that feeling comes upon me, I think of […]
Just Another Work Day for Your Central California Artist
Painting To postpone two difficult tasks, I started this 10×30” commissioned oil painting, following the sketch which the customer approved. Just Plain Work This part didn’t warrant any photos. Some friends from Southern California went to my show, bought a drawing, and then hit a snag and couldn’t return to pick it up. I took […]
Is it Legal to Sell Sequoia Trees?
It is if they are painted. I don’t mean to go out with some spray paint and deface a redwood: I mean make an oil painting of a Sequoia gigantea, AKA redwood AKA big tree. These 6×18” oil paintings sell very steadily. Here is Sequoia Gigantea XXVI from beginning to completion. At the time of […]