My drawing students are used to hearing me tell them, “You can be fast or you can be good; I get to be both.” Everyone still laughs, in spite of the obnoxiousness of the second part.
This is an indisputable truth, when it comes to the highly detailed, accurate type of drawing that I teach.
Alice worked on a drawing of her Desert Painted Sheep, nicknamed “Oughtie”, for several years. (Hey Alice, I didn’t mean THAT S L O W!) But things take as long as they take*. She was very meticulous about every shape, every texture, every value, and she did a fantabulous job.
I didn’t take any photos of the process, or more accurately, I don’t remember if I took any photos of the process. We discussed various background ideas, tried some different textures, and ultimately, she decided that the drawing is finished.
During the process, I learned that goats’ tails go up and sheeps’ tails go down. She made some good friends to play pickleball with. (My drawing students have varied interests and are some of the nicest people you could ever spend time with.)
Here is the final outcome, scanned, but not yet scrubbed up with Photoshop (the junior version).
The artist forgot to sign the drawing before she sent it home with me to scan, so she emailed me a few signatures. I chose one and placed it on the scrubbed-up scan.
My classes are full but you are welcome to get on a waiting list. If there are four people waiting who can all meet at 1 p.m. on Tuesday afternoons, I will add that 1 p.m. class.
Seeing a collection of paintings that has sold provides fuel to keep me painting during a season of slow sales. This is a season of producing; November-December was a season of selling.
1.Quill Driver Books is a traditional publishing company in Fresno. Fresno?? How could I have not heard of this place? They aren’t accepting any submissions, but the books they sell look very interesting.
Reading Rabbit, AKA Salt and Light
2. Just for fun, have a look at this tree called the “wonky conker”. I don’t remember where I saw it, but it is a real curiosity.
This is a live oak, not the wonky conker, but I needed a photo here so you wouldn’t get bored with too much typing.
3. I heard someone say in an interview, “I’d rather have questions without answers than be told answers without being able to ask questions.” Amen!
Tucker and Pippin mainly want to know why we can’t keep the vehicles engines warm for them at all times.Jackson’s main question is “May I have more food now?”
4. My feet hurt. I thought it is peripheral neuropathy (from 2 different podiatrists), but now I have learned that it could be Morton’s neuroma, something I had never heard of. I am figuring it out on my own, and not having much confidence in doctors right now. (I’m afeared* that it’s both.)
Could this foot apparel from 1979 be why my feet hurt in 2024?
5. No cussing in pickleball. Really! If you cuss in a tournament, there are penalties. The friend who explained this to me said it has to do with respect for the game. In today’s world of coarse language, this is refreshing. (I thought the pickleball players that I occasionally watch were just all on good behavior because most of them attend the same church!)
6. If you grow yourhair to have it made into a wig or hairpiece, when it is time to cut it, it’s best to divide it into 4 ponytails, then cut it 1″ above the rubber band. AND, don’t cut it wet because it could mold. (Eeewww) Most places that take donations need a minimum of 10″, and some require as much as 12″. I wonder if I can hold out against a haircut for another 6 months. . .
7. Grocery shopping in new stores is kind of stressful; in one day I visited Sprouts for the first time (shockingly expensive and fancy), Aldi’s (priced about the same as Winco with much less selection), and finally I went to Winco with tremendous relief. Good grief Charlie Brown—I need to get out more if visiting new grocery stores stresses me.
I’d rather pick my fruit in an orchard than in a new grocery store.
8. You know those cartoons of pretty ladies from the 1950s with sarcastic and inappropriate captions? The originator of many is someone named Anne Taintor, and you can find 102 of them on The Bored Panda. So funny!! (Maybe other people have done these captioned funnies too, but I just learned about Anne Taintor.)
*I know that’s not a word. I’m trying to put a little levity into a rather alarming situation.
I worked on all manner of small things. Here is the progression. The final one is too small for you to see my signature, indicating completion.
Next, I added a bit more color to my yarn painting. Ooo-eee, the colors are SO WRONG on the screen! Guess you’ll have to wait until I am finished and scan the painting to understand what is here
For dessert at the end of the painting session, I worked on the background of the rose.
At the end of the day, I made a list. Farewell Gap – sign and paint edges; Take Me Home – make those oak trees more believable, keep painting, ain’t no fat lady singing on that mess yet; Rose – paint the rose, sign it, paint the edges, give it a name; Orange Groves – the list is too long; Yarn – some blue? enough green? enough red?
The indecision is helped by a list, but not always.
If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title “Favorite Internet Places for You”.
A favorite place NOT on the internet (not a recent photo)
There are some places on the internet that are too good to not share with you. It is hard to find well-written blogs with regular posts, blogs without ads or with too much self-focus or excuses for not writing or no posts for months at a time. So many that I used to like have just gone splat or poof, but these have endured.
STILL is a blog with photos of natural found objects arranged in patterns. The background is just plain white without ads or words, but if you want to know what you are seeing, you can click on the tiny word “Details” on the lower right. It is simply stunning.
I took this screen shot off the site without permission. (Ahem, STILL blogger, please forgive me, and I hope this results in more followers.)
Tim Cotton Writes is a blog written by a retired policeman in Maine. He tells stories and observations about his life in a manner that feels a bit like Prairie Home Companion meets Mike Rowe (which is where I “met” him). You can read about him on his home page here. (I have his first book The Detective in the Dooryard if you’d like to borrow it.)
The Frugal Girl has become my favorite blog. Kristen is consistent, honest, personal, and responsive to her very active commenting community. She regularly posts lists of frugal things and things to be thankful for, encouraging her readers to do the same. She feels like a friend, and she even answers emails.
“Frugal Pear”, painting from The Frugal Girl’s photo, now sold to one of her readers.
Everyday Cheapskate has so many helpful tips about almost every aspect of life. Look under the heading ARTICLES on her site and be stunned by the tremendous amount of wisdom available. Want to clean your shower? Keep brown sugar from going hard? Want to read some “News You Can Use” articles?
GoodReads is not a blog but it is the best place to learn about any book you might want to read, WITHOUT A USER NAME AND PASSWORD! It is also a place to keep track of what you have read, what you are reading now, and what you want to read. (That requires the hated user name and password routine). I use it regularly to decide what to read next and to keep track of what I have read. And you can sign up for give-aways, when authors have random drawings for their books. (I won one once!)
Reading Rabbit, AKA Salt & Light
Happy New Year! Consider these sites and recommendations a gift to start your year off with learning and entertainment.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE TIME YESTERDAY TO TELL ME WHAT THEY SEE AND DON’T SEE IN THE EMAIL BLOG NOTIFICATIONS!!
Please excuse me for shouting. I am so touched by your responses and willingness to help.
In my attempt to see a pattern about who can and who cannot see photos in the email notifications, I learned this:
Mac laptop – some can see the photos, some cannot
Mac desktop – some can, some can’t
iPhone – some can, some can’t
iPad – some can, some can’t
Android phone – all can see the photos
Non-Mac desktop – all can see the photos
There must be some settings that we don’t understand on our iPhones, MacBooks, Mac desktops, and iPads. Now I might have to dig around on settings for Mac mail on every device they manufacture.
This hurts my apple-shaped heart. At least I know it isn’t a problem with my blog (using WordPress.org) or the subscription form.
One more thing: I sent out the blog post and left for the day. All your wonderful comments arrived, but I wasn’t at my computer to approve them. So, if you commented and wondered if it “went through”, it did, and once I approved it, it appeared.
You deserve a beautiful picture as a thank you for making it to the end of this post. (I hope you get to see it!)
Sequoias in Winter, 16×20″, oil on wrapped canvas
(I didn’t put the price because I don’t want you to think I am thanking you by trying to sell you something.)
My blog has a technical problem that I have been ignoring because it just seems impossible to solve. Today, I am giving it a try.
I am specifically addressing those of you who get notifications of blog posts in their email. Many of you think you are reading my blog when you are actually reading an email with the blog post in it, because you subscribed. (THANK YOU!) Almost everyone who reads my blog in their email cannot see the photos.
I have not been able to figure out why subscribers aren’t getting the photos in the emails. I no longer have a web designer; there is someone who helps me if I am in a pinch, such as getting hacked, but she has forty-eleven other jobs, and my website is not on the top of her list.
So, I have begun the unpleasant and distasteful task of trying to figure this out. Since most of my subscribers are even less techie than I am, this may not be possible. I might snatch myself bald or scream a little bit and then quit, but here is my first attempt.
Pippin is the most compliant of our 3 cats; Tucker is skittish and comical; Jackson is unfriendly and demanding.
If you are willing, please email or comment to let me know two things:
Can you see the picture in this email notification?
What device are you using? I need to know what brand (Apple or HP or . . .?) and what kind of thing it is (laptop, desktop, tablet, iPad, cell phone, etc.)
P.S. If you want to see the photos, you need to click on the title of the blog post as it appears when you open the email. It will take you to my actual blog on the internet where you can read the post and see the pictures. (The blog is a page on my website, www.cabinart.net) You can do this if you want to see Pippin in this post, but first, please answer my two questions above.
The painted designs on the wall for a new exhibit called Native Voices at the Three Rivers Historical Museum are finished!
The last day began with little green men, called “The Gathering”. The lighter green was ready for a second coat, and the rest of the shadows had to be drawn in. That should have been very simple, but I struggled a bit on some of the placement. (There was plenty of touch-up base coat paint for erasures.)
This is how the whole wall looked.
Next, I had to figure out how to put the shadows on the far right diamonds, called “Rattlesnake”. Instead of transferring the pattern a bit to the right of the existing diamonds or drawing it in pencil, I used masking tape to “draw” it. This took a lot of thought and measurement. I would think that it was ready to paint, stand back, and see yet another missing strip. Sometimes I was protecting the diamond edge, and sometimes I was shaping the shadows.
Everything took two coats of paint. I wasn’t sure the tape would peel cleanly, but it did fine. While looking here on my computer screen, it appears that some of my spacing is off. Some of those lines got eyeballed, so the entire thing is bound to look hand-painted rather than like applied vinyl. My customer, the Mineral King Preservation Society, looked into vinyl but chose paint instead, a choice which suits me very well.
While the paint was drying, I started touching up the drips and wobbles, along with covering the visible pencil lines and smudges from the graphite transfer paper. The smaller red diamonds called “Quail” had no shadows. Thank goodness, because these were small and detailed. Maybe I should have taped them, but every job is a completely new challenge, and I just bumble through, wishing that sometimes I could have a couple of jobs the same so that the new knowlege wouldn’t be wasted.
Finally, I decided to peel off the tape, risking disaster. (That’s an exaggeration, because as long as there was paint remaining in the necessary colors, anything could be fixed.)
I peeled and only saw a few parts that needed retouching. Acrylic paint (or latex or whatever non-oil paint is) dries so fast, which is a real bonus on a job like this.
Finally, here is a look at the whole wall.
The display will have cabinets in matching colors placed strategically beneath the colorful wall designs.
A few more facts:
The colors were chosen to not clash with the other 2/3 of the room. (The red is magical—sometimes it looks red, sometimes it looks rust, and sometimes it looks pink, and get this: the name is pumpkin spice!)
The other 2/3 of the room is for the Mineral King exhibit, a thorough look at geology, mining, the Disney era, and cabin life in, of course, where else, Mineral King.
The Native Voices exhibit is put together by the MKPS for the Three Rivers Historical Museum. That 1/3 of the room isn’t the responsibility of the MKPS, but the MKPS has paid employees who are real go-getters. They know how to find money, and they wanted the entire room to look cohesive.
This is going to be a great display, and I encourage you to visit the museum!
Something got “updated”. Lots of tools are missing. There doesn’t seem to be a way to schedule posts ahead. So, today you got 2 posts, and now this baffled explanation. STOP MAKING CHANGES, YOU TECHNO-BEASTS!
Excuse me. I feel like yelling.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. (assuming you haven’t unsubscribed by now.)
Last October, I met with the project manager and the priest of the Catholic church under construction in Visalia. They chose me to paint 2 outdoor murals, to complete them by the end of December. Now it is January and I am still waiting for them to sign the contract and allow me to begin.
So, I am just enjoying life at a slower pace, getting little things done, hanging around while waiting. We finally had a day of sun and Trail Guy and I went for a short walk around the neighborhood.
First we stopped by a neighbor’s house where I stashed a ziplock of old documents on his front porch, took a photo and texted him. You are curious? My 4th-grade best friend married a guy whose dad built that house; he recently found some old papers that pertain to the place. (Yep, still friends with my 4th grade best friend!)
This is such a perfect view of Moro Rock and Alta Peak with another neighbor’s flag that I am sure I have taken this photo and shown you in previous posts.
Here is another great view of those two landmarks.
Sometimes I look Northwest toward Comb Rocks, because it is so very green. Maybe in a couple of months it will be bright orange. Don’t be alarmed: I am thinking about poppies, not fire.
We walked up to the Catholic church (nope, not the one where I hope to be painting murals—that one is 36 miles away). I remembered a joke my dad told me, one that involved a merger of 4 companies, 2 of which I had never heard of, so the joke was wasted on me. The 2 companies I had heard of were Mary Kay and Fuller Brush. The punchline to the joke was “Hale Mary Fuller Grace”. Does anyone out there know about those other two companies, Hale or Grace?
My mural on the water treatment plant doors has a weird spot where I must have used the wrong color of teal and thus, the yellow faded away leaving just a strong cobalt blue. Can you spot it?
Looking downstream on the middle fork of the Kaweah River
Look—a gift from the high water. We went down below the bridge to retrieve this thing: a Christmas tree stand bolted to a chunk of wood. Good thing there is a dumpster near the bridge.
