Jana Botkin | Cabin Art

A California Artist's Show-and-Tell

Archive for April, 2012

Apr 30 2012

Signed, Sealed, Delivered. . .

. . . it’s yours! Some artists don’t like to do commission work. Maybe they don’t like to eat, either. Or maybe they aren’t very good at understanding what other people want. Maybe they are rebellious adolescents trapped in the bodies of adults. I like commissions. It is a fun challenge to make a visual [...]

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Apr 27 2012

A California Artist Goes to Washington, Part Five

While I was in Washington working diligently on the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia, I had the delightful companionship of Penny, a little black dot of a dog, whom I called “Pen Dot”. She took the edge off missing my three cats. And here is an average view on an average morning on an [...]

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Apr 26 2012

A California Artist Goes to Washington, Part Four

My trip to Washington was to learn Adobe InDesign so I can put together the upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia. It was a business trip, of course. I worked very hard, of course. You’d expect nothing less of me, right? However, it was necessary to take another ferry ride to another town to visit [...]

2 responses so far

Apr 25 2012

A California Artist Goes to Washington, part three

The reason for my visit to my friend Carol in Washington was to get some focused one-on-one help in learning to use Adobe InDesign. The reason for scheduling it in April was because I figured I’d have a decent number of drawings finished for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia, which is the purpose [...]

4 responses so far

Apr 24 2012

A California Artist Goes to Washington, part two

In Washington, this California artist took her first yoga class. Being a get-’er-dun sort of chick, I think we could have skipped the nap at the end, and possibly some of the soothing talk about erasing our minds at the beginning. (And how in the world is one supposed to “breathe with your spine”? I [...]

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Apr 23 2012

A California Artist goes to Washington

Washington is a fantastically beautiful state. I’ve been there in many seasons and loved every one. The rain doesn’t bother me because I get to go home. The gray sometimes feels like a relief from relentless sunshine. Grape hyacinth become naturalized. There are trails in neighborhoods for walking. Churches offer coffee in their lobbies and [...]

One response so far

Apr 20 2012

Four Benefits of Learning to Draw Before Learning to Paint

As a self-confessed color junkie, I’ve pondered the question of why pencil? Was I just a chicken? That’s all water under the bridge, and now I am just accepting the fact of 13 years of drawing with a late start to oil and mural painting. It ain’t all bad! Drawing in pencil helped me develop [...]

2 responses so far

Apr 19 2012

Eight Reasons this California Artist Chose Pencil

Published by under drawing,Wilsonia

My last post ended with this question: if I am so taken with color, a “color junkie”, then why did I choose graphite as my medium? Simple – I love to draw. Oh come on, there must be more to it than that! Okay, yes there is. 1. It is easy to find pencil and [...]

3 responses so far

Apr 18 2012

Sources of Inspiration

Because I just began year #5 of blogging, I’m reposting some of my older articles for my newer readers. Hidden Garden 5, oil on canvas, 8×10, $90 Sometimes people ask what my sources of inspiration are. Most are probably asking about what gives me ideas for drawing or painting. It is an easy question to [...]

2 responses so far

Apr 17 2012

Why Artists Choose Three Rivers, a rerun

Because I just began year 5 of blogging, I decided to repost some of my earlier blogs for my newer readers. When my art studio was in Exeter and I lived in Lemon Cove, people assumed I lived in Three Rivers. I’m guessing this was because of my occupation of pencil artist. (Given the choices [...]

2 responses so far

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