Green and Orange

Poppies and oranges are two of my most popular subjects. Orange and green, green and orange. Orange is yellow and red; green is yellow and blue. I’m getting more relaxed about the specific shades of each, focusing more on values, which is Artspeak for darks and lights.

This painting will take awhile, because I want it to be perfect. Do I always say that? Prolly not. I’m not a perfectionist. It takes discipline to keep returning to the same painting over and over when I just want to cross it off my list and keep going on to the next one. BUT, I have learned that it is better to be a little annoyed during the process than embarrassed later.

This one has been very fun. It seems finished now, but chances are that I will see small things to correct once it is dry.

Finally, this one has orange trees that are green but the ones on the right are really wet and shiny.

This is an excellent example of how to not photograph a painting.

All three paintings show the beautiful parts of Tulare County at the prettiest time of year. When these are finished, I will begin one in the fall season. It won’t be orange or green.

Lazy Listicle of Distracted Thoughts

  1. The acorns have been raining down from the live oaks in our yard and attracting herds of deer. One morning Trail Guy counted 16 in the driveway. (Deer, not acorns)
  2. This painting needs a title! Any suggestions?
  3. These 2 5×7″ oil paint on panel paintings are drying. There are 3 more, but these are days of distractions,  falling acorns, broken things, a rush pencil commission, RAIN, and yet another odd job.
  4. This big guy was focused on acorns and water. There is a tub on the other side of that rock that the deer come to (and the turkeys and the cats. . . probably some others we don’t know about). Such is life in Three Rivers in rural Tulare County.
  5. My wonderful webdesigner gave up two hours on her day off to begin figuring out what keeps going wrong with my website. This was her only day off in the busiest week she has had since pre-Plague. There are still some mysteries, but it is mostly functional at this time.
  6. Many years ago a former neighbor gave me this juicer. This year it wouldn’t work, AFTER we picked a 5 gallon bucket of pomegranates. Someone told me about a repair shop in Goshen, so I navigated my way to Breck’s in a ferocious rainstorm, and they gave me hope. Now my hope is that it can be repaired quickly, because in spite of not paying for it initially, at $90/hour, I will be paying for it now.
  7. In spite of November being my busiest month, I spent a day on my tookus, watching a live workshop of many demonstrations of art realism. During the boring ones (I KNOW how to draw!), I packaged notecards. During the other sessions, I took notes.
  8. I also took photos. This is how the light looks on one of my studio windows in the afternoon.

P.S. I might have knitted a little bit too. . . it wasn’t Zoom and no one could see.

P.P.S. (that means PS #2) I hit a skunk on my way home the other night. Didn’t know it until I got home. Felt something, but didn’t smell it until the car was in the garage. Well, yippee skippee. A skunk is easier on a car than a deer. 

 

New and Improved

NEW

Here are three new oil paintings of oranges (thank you, Captain Obvious). Each one is 5×7″, on a board or panel, and comes with an easel for easy display on a shelf, $60, and available through the Mural Gallery in Exeter. (Actually, only two are available because one is spoken for, but I don’t know yet which one.)

IMPROVED

These two oil paintings of the Kaweah Post Office have been reworked, lighting corrected, detail added, fuss, fiddle, fix. The top one will go with me to the Holiday Bazaar (scroll down) at the Three Rivers Memorial Building on November 19 (unless it sells first, 6×12″, $125). The second one will return to Kaweah Arts for sale there: 8×10″, $125.

P.S. They always look better in person. I’ve decided to not embarrass myself again by showing you the “Before” version against the “After” version. 

Attending to Other Jobs

When I began these paintings, navels were still hanging on trees, and the blossoms began. Orange blossoms are my favorite scent. Suddenly, orange blossom season was almost over, and I hadn’t touched these 2 small paintings.


They are now available at the Mural Gallery in Exeter. 6×6″, $60; 4×6″, $50 (PLUS TAX, OF COURSE!) The Mural Gallery doesn’t have a website; it is at the park with Exeter’s first mural, next door to the Wildflower Cafe.

Speaking of Exeter’s first mural, here is the beginnings of a similar painting, another painting of my favorite subject.

This one will be fun. It is a commission, and I know I can do it because I painted the same scene a few years ago as a 16×20″. Or maybe 18×24″. I’ve slept since then (and painted many similar scenes).

P.S. The paintings are NOT scratch ‘n’ sniff.

An Orange Grove in Oil Paint

Poppies and oranges and orange groves and poppy fields: that’s what I paint in the winter and spring. (Unless I am painting Sawtooth).

Remember this? It was on the easel until the poppies started selling like hotcakes.

I finished 6 new small oil paintings of poppies, and was so pleased to have paint in the right colors left on the palette to finish this painting.

It is signed, but you can’t really tell in the last photo. After it dries, I will photograph it in good light for you (and my website and portfolio and records, etc.)

This type of painting really says Tulare County to me. Now it needs a title.

 

That Was Quick

On Friday I delivered some notecard packages to the Mural Gallery in Exeter. Manager Cindy told me of good sales of paintings there and said someone bought an 8×8″ oil painting of a poppy. That someone also requested the same size of an orange and another of a pomegranate. I asked a few questions, then went off to the Courthouse Gallery for a day of gallery-sitting and painting.

A little later, I heard from Cindy that the customer is from Barcelona, Spain, and will be returning there shortly after Christmas. That’s cutting things a little close, especially since I may not be going back down the hill before then.

When I looked in my crate of supplies, I saw an 8×8″ canvas with a photo of an orange lying on top of it. Hmmm, I wonder. . .

So, I started a new painting of an orange.

Because I have painted more oranges than I can remember, I was able to veer away from the photo but keep it believable. Of course, I had my painting friend with me to point out any areas of weakness.

I bypassed a few steps here: no wire on the back, no layering, no drying, no scan, no varnishing. But it will dry, Cindy will deliver, and our customer from Spain will go home with 2 paintings in her luggage!

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.