Month: July 2015

Painting Mineral King

My oil paintings of Mineral King are selling steadily. This means I’d better get those paint brushes moving. Now that there are no drawing lessons, I have an extra day each week for painting.

There is a method. I don’t just paint whatever floats my boat. Instead, I take inventory. Hmmm, how many Farewell Gaps of what size? Is there anything else with water? How many Sawtooths of which sizes? Haven’t done any animals lately. . .

And while I’m on the subject, there are a couple of Mineral King paintings in the “I Paint Better Now” category. Might as well freshen them up.

First pass, hanging to dry.

Will these 2 Sawtooth paintings dry in time to scan before I take them to the Silver City Store, 4 miles below Mineral King? Better hang them outside in the summer heat.

A bear and a marmot! Trail Guy is getting great photos for me. The bottom 2 are the I Paint Better Nows.

This scene is so classic. 2 sizes, 2 different times of summer.

P.S. Call me “Butter” because I’m on a roll!

More About Drawing Lessons

Lou's Pumpkin

Just the facts, Ma’am, about Drawing Lessons, please.

Tuesday afternoons at the Courthouse Gallery on B Street in Exeter.

5 classes, each 1 hour long.

4 people per class.

$55/month.

Each person works on her own drawing, at her own pace.

No one needs to know anything before beginning. That’s why people take lessons.

No lessons in July or August (or December, but who cares about that month in July?)

There is space available. Call or email for details. (Use the comments or the contact button under About The Artist.)

P.S. Note the rebellious and creative spirit here. “Just the facts”? Fine. I’ll do them in pretty colors, so there.

Kaweah River Trading Company

This post is about the business of art, especially the business called Kaweah River Trading Company.

There’s a new kid on the block.

That’s a weird old cliche. I wonder where it came from. . .

Kaweah River Trading Company is a brand new store in Three Rivers with a cool name and logo. (Hudson River Trading – anyone remember this?)

Holly and Erin are selling souvenirs, local food items (honey, olives), locally made soaps and lotions, some antiques (anyone looking for a Coke machine?), tee shirts, caps, cowboy stuff, local maps and visitor information books, jewelry (made by folks they know), pottery, wall art, and my notecards. They have many other good things; those listed here are just from my immediate memory.

41891 Sierra Drive, Three Rivers, Ca

559-561-4095

Open daily, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

P.S. If the building seems familiar, it is because it was Sequoia Outdoor Sports, where I painted a mural a handful of years ago.

P.P.S. My notecards are on the front counter, and the store has already placed a second order! Yea! People still write notes to each other by hand!

A Business Trip to Mineral King

The last time I was in Mineral King, I did almost nothing. Accomplished quite a bit of knitting, but went nowhere and did nothing else. Read a little. But went nowhere.

The shadow beneath the bridge was nice. This photo has been enhanced, because the reality is that there is mostly brown, brownish gray, and brownish green in the scene. California is very brown, including the governor. Brown, brown, brown.

Sawtooth looked quite fetching on the way up the hill. (It is gray, not brown.)

There is some subtle color (enhanced browns?) on Vandever, which is the right half of Farewell Gap.

Each of these photos will make a decent painting, particularly if I juice up the colors.

Hey! I did do something. Gathering photos for future paintings is something. In fact, I think it must have been a business trip!

About Learning To Draw

Sara's Swing — Swing, by Sara Evans, graphite on paper, 8×10″

Since I have been teaching private and group drawing lessons for 21 years, I have lots to say on the subject.

In looking at the photos in yesterday’s blog posting, it reminded me that yes, a slanted drawing table would be more effective. However, my classes last for one hour, so we just make do with what is available.

I hear critical voices out there, saying “She’s only teaching them to copy photos.”

Spice, by Jennifer Logan, graphite on paper, 8×10″

I am teaching people to see what is really there, providing tools which help them see proportions correctly, showing them how to break down complex shapes and textures into manageable forms, teaching how to plan and persevere and persist.

They are learning about values (the darks and lights), proportions, perspective, how to make things stand out, how to drive pencils to their furthest possible use (“It’s just a pencil!” – Nope, it’s a magic stick of graphite!), how to discern what is worth drawing.

Ripe, by Wendy Miller, colored pencil on paper, 14×17″

To top it off, my students get to meet a variety of people from different walks of life, of different ages and backgrounds. All have a common interest – learning to draw in a realistic manner.

I love teaching people how to draw, and I really do love my students!

Very Effective Drawing Teacher

May I say that I am a very effective drawing teacher?

I’m 55, so I can say whatever I want. However, I think this assessment of my ability to help people learn to draw is accurate, not boasting.

I’ve been teaching drawing lessons for 21 years, and my students are FABULOUS. They are fabulous people, tremendous students, and “at the of the day” (what an overused expression), they turn out remarkable drawings.

learning to draw

I have much more to say about this, but will tell you tomorrow.

Inching Along

pencil drawing on claybord

Progress? I’ve been drawing, so something must have grown here.

The gate! I did the gate! With all those intangibles and texture, I needed to try something that had a definite shape and edges.

I set up the drawing and stepped back. It needed a sense of a path beyond the gate, so I scribbled in where it should go. Also darkened a couple of things, which may or may not even show.

The fence boards – I can do those! They have a beginning and an end, with definite edges. They cover a decent amount of real estate on this 16×20″ claybord.

Yea. Progress. Cartwheels of joy.

P.S. I’ve never done a cartwheel in my entire 55 years. It is a figure of speech, an expression of elation. Feel the excitement?

P.P.S. I think this drawing is really pretty, and seeing it here on the blog helps me want to continue it to completion instead of procrastinating and daydreaming about the book I am reading right now.

Mineral King in Summer

Despite the relentless heat and lack of water in Central California, it is green in Mineral King in the summer.

Here are some recent photos taken by my husband, AKA Trail Guy.

Can you see the pika? (Pronounced “PEE-kuh”)

Upper Cobalt Lake.

Fourth of July in Wilsonia

Meadow Cabin

You’d think that when writing of the Fourth of July in Wilsonia that I’d show a cabin with a flag.

Instead, it is the sweet little cabin on a meadow without a flag.

Why?

Because it will be included in Wilsonia’s silent auction on Saturday, July 4.

She-Who-Runs-The-Silent-Auction thought this would have the most appeal, so here we go!

Yeah, yeah, I know I said I don’t give my art away.

Sometimes I do. Wilsonia has been good to me and I want to be good back to them.

The book, The Cabins of Wilsonia, is for sale there and here.

Lost

Sometimes I refer to myself as a “loser” in the true sense of the word. My mom used to tell me that I’d lose my head if it wasn’t attached. As usual, Mom was right.

The Mural Gallery and Gift Shop in Exeter sells my oil paintings. We’ve had a good run lately, so I took another batch of paintings to them. I forgot to include something of oranges, so planned to take one down on my next trip. The sweet lady who works there said, “Bring them all – they sell!”

So, I went into the overheated and underused workshop (too hot to paint there in the summer) to retrieve some oranges. Found two oil paintings of oranges.

Funny. I have three. Where is the 11×14″?

1433 Blooming oranges

Blooming Oranges, 11×14″, oil on wrapped canvas, $175, available here

Lost.

Did I sell it and not write it down? Did I take it to a gallery and not write it down?

AHA! It was part of the show at the Visalia Convention Center this spring! It is sitting in someone’s office in Visalia, someone whose hours do not coincide with my trips down the hill!

Found! I wrote it somewhere, but obviously the list is lost.