I finished and delivered a new oil painting:
Doll Doctor Antiques, 24"x 30".
Marilyn and Ariel Baylen were very pleased, and I was too because frankly I didn't know how it would turn out. This was the first complete oil rendering I've ever done. It took me two months because I was very methodical and deliberate about it. Since it was a commission I wanted to do the best job I could. Oil paintings have always taken me a long time to complete, but I want to look at the reasons the Doll Doctor took so long.
RENDERING AS AN INCOME
A rendering is essentially a portrait of a building, and the more accurate the better.
I started rendering for an income when I won an art contest illustrating the Pioneers Museum.
I made my living for several years by rendering for developers and builders. They'd give me the blueprints for unbuilt houses and I'd draw an ink picture on milar of what the house would look like after completed, including landscaping. They have software to do that now. I'd get paid maybe as much as $150 per rendering, and they would sell their houses for $250,000 or so based simply on my drawing. I'd do two renderings a day or more if I could, but it was certainly a feast or famine business. I'd paint renderings in acrylics, watercolors or guache, but not often.
I freelanced lots of individual framed renderings of people's homes and businesses, that I'd sit in my car and usually do on the spot. I drew the Margarita at Pine Creek because it was such a good place to eat at, and I sold the drawing to the owner the next time we ate there.
I was always an oil painter at heart but never imagined actually making a rendering in oil until the Baylens commissioned me. They liked my paintings of Old Colorado City they'd seen in the history center, and they are located in the heart of old town. The first thing I did was to make a full-sized rendering for the painting.
You can see how I even cut it apart to make the perspective more dramatic. I traced the rendering onto the canvas after drawing it in charcoal on the back side.
I had to reorganize my studio and purchased a new portable oil palette, one with a lid to help keep the oil paints wet (I also covered the palette with Glad press and seal wrap at night).
I had to buy new smaller brushes that I'd never used to oil paint with before. In fact the whole idea of drawing the oil painting first is not what I learned in school, where my teachers would say, "Paint, don't draw! That's why they call these paintings!" And they wanted me to develop the painting as I went along, emphasizing layout and color balance and working all over the canvas. It quickly became clear to me that for this picture I was going to have to work from the top down so as not to smear anything below, and that I had to try to do as much of the picture on my drawing table instead of my easle. For one thing, sitting on my stool at that easle made my back sore.
After I traced the rendering onto the canvas I then used acrylics to completely cover the white of the canvas, and to make bright underpainting for the oils.
The edges of the canvas are taped, because Judy Wise taught me to paint my own frames. I then took the canvas outside to start the painting on site, paying lots of attention to layout, actual color and details.
This was where I learned that trying to paint all over the canvas was not such a good idea, because I had to wait for these oils to dry before I could continue to paint, or else I'd end up getting them all over my hands and arms. Waiting for the oils to dry so I could paint over them has always been the big slowdown in completing paintings, but even though I was trying to be very efficient I did end of having to repaint a lot. For one thing I had to redraw the windows, making them wider to appear more in proportion, and making the right color for those bricks was time-consuming. I finally had to end up shopping for more oils at Meiningers Art Supply in Denver.
At least now that I'm finished I'll be able to do it better and faster next time. It helps that time management is no longer that important for me, nor is making an income from my art.
That's John Prescott with Judy Ekstrom in the picture. I originally underpainted it very thickly with oils, which took such a long time to dry I set it aside and forgot about it, but as I was compiling these High Road pictures I found it and finished it in a few weeks.
The painting was started after only the briefest sketch. This drawing of St. Anthony's at Dixon wasn't done til a few weeks ago, which helped me greatly get the painting finished. I also made several other drawings of Dixon and views along the High Road. I'm using the High Road as my current school, my training ground as I play with all my oils and my new large set of Derwent watercolor pencils. I view all my drawings as potential paintings, I won't make a painting that I haven't sketched first on the spot.
Now I'm trying to put these classical iconic images into more of a scenic context like my new view of San Jose de Garcia Church at Las Trampas, instead of continuing to make the bold, in-your face thick oils that have been my mode.
I love the colors, textures, patterns and light all along the High Road. No wonder those early Taos artists painted the way they did, the sunlight is incredible and comes in through my basement studio windows every afternoon.
The oil of St. Anthony's was lots of fun. I started by just boldly laying those shapes out, not trying to draw details at all. The underpainting of the biggest church was bright red. I found myself actually rubbing in some of my new oils with a rag, to bring out the underlying textures and colors.
I doubt I'll ever do another oil like this one, I just can't wait long enough for thick underpainting to dry, and I don't want to try to oil paint on top of thick acrylics. 
