February 2021 – Cabin Art

Odd Job Completed

As a working artist, I seem to attract odd art-related jobs. Each one is a challenge, usually quite fun to figure out. This odd job of painted stepping stones was completed for a vacation rental where I occasionally help with the yardening.

The colored stepping stones lead through the front yard around to the playset, absent in the photo above, present in the photo below.(Not magical – just unbuilt, and then built.) And in case you are wondering, the purple blooming shrub is Germander. Looks fabulous now, looks scrappy in the summer. The shrubs in this front yard take turns looking good.

A Few More New Oil Paintings

When I thought through the oil paintings that are ready for the upcoming show, Still Here, for April at Arts Visalia, I realized there were a few more subjects that will add to the mix. Round it out. Complete it.

These are looking scrappy and rough, as paintings do while in progress. This isn’t a very satisfying step in the painting process; hence, the odd job kept pulling me away from the easel. But with a looming deadline (doesn’t that sound ominous?? It doesn’t truly feel that way), I will get back to these paintings and see if I can finish them for the show. They are 16×20″, 8×16″, and 6×18″, all manageable sizes.

P.S. Hi Tucker. You’ve already been fed three times – thank you for just sitting with me instead of begging.

Odd Job

Sometimes I help my friend with her vacation rentals, specifically in the yards and gardens. (What is the difference? “Garden” sounds nicer, but when I do the yardwork, I think of it as “yardening”.)

Recently we laid some fake grass (“artificial turf” is the real name) for a place to put up a children’s play set. We are figuring out how to conceal the edges, putting down weed barrier and planting all sorts of things around the “grass”.

Next, we will add stepping stones to lead from the front of the house to the side area with the playset (remember when there were monkey-bars, swings, slides, and merry-go-rounds, all separate pieces of equipment, with asphalt beneath? How did we survive such barbarism??)

Because we want it to be enticing to kids, we want stepping stones that are inviting. After kicking around all sorts of ideas, we chose painted cement circles. This was a frugal decision, because we are careful with the home owner’s money.

Trail Guy set up a temporary table for painting the stepping stones in the sunshine.

I have many gallons of paint for a primer coat.

The paint dried fast, so I was able to put two coats on within an hour and a half.

My friend and I bought small cans of blue, red, and yellow so I can mix many colors. We learned that with small cans, the strongest brightest colors aren’t possible. All the tint needed to make the colors bright would cause a little can to overflow. So, we got the brightest primary colors that the hardware store could mix for us.

As a professed color junkie, I just dove into the colors. Our ideas were many, but thinking about the time involved, we settled on one solid step per color, and the rest could be decorated a little more elaborately.

I began with the first design, an obvious idea for February 14, the day I painted.

Then I just kept going. I painted the 6 very solidly, and messed around with blending colors on top of the other 6. It wasn’t particularly successful, but it was a fun way to experiment and get a base coat on the white primer.

This is really fun. When we figure out how to decorate the non-solids, I hope I remember to photograph them and blog about it. And if they look good leading through the “garden” to the “grass”, I might show you that too.

It might be a bit of an odd job, but I continue to. . .

make art people can understand of places and things they love for prices that won’t scare them.

P.S. Is this art??

New Mineral King Paintings

Take a deep calming breath. There are no new ones yet, but “Starting New Mineral King Oil Paintings” is too long a title. However, I have fired up the Mineral King Painting Machine (that is a particular part of my brain that gets a little time off in winter).

First, I read through my lists of what sold, what remains, what subjects and sizes are missing. (That step isn’t one that I can photograph for you.)

Then I decide on canvas sizes, look through my photos, and make decisions. Last year more medium sized paintings sold than small ones. I have plenty of small ones remaining, so the sizes I’ll be painting now are 8×8″, 10×10″, and 6×18″. “Medium”? In my world, yes, these are medium sizes. (This step was tricky in that I had to figure out what to do with my large oil paintings that are still wet in order to use the table.)

There are many ways to start oil paintings. I chose a haphazard semi-lazy just-draw-it-on-the-canvas method. I don’t have a lot of hustle right now – just plodding forward is getting the job done. (More coffee? Start eating sugar again? Nah.)

Scribble scribble, dab, pick any color, just do something.

That’s a decent start.

Can I take a break now? A little recess, perhaps? Maybe I’ll go weed my baby poppies, because I love February.

Recess for Oil Paintings

Those large oil paintings were looking so good that I carried them out into the sunshine for a little recess.

After recess, I made a few additions and changes in spite of having signed them. They will need another recess for yet another photography session.

This one was too wet to carry outside. It is also unfinished and unsigned.

Now it is a little better. This one requires copious amounts of studying and thinking.

(Sorry, no hopscotch or tetherball at recess, although Tucker may have considered playing tag at one point.)

Peculiar Sights

Strange and vaguely interesting although peculiar sights have crossed my path lately. Before I show you these, there is some confusion about “site” versus “sight”. A site is a place; a sight is something to see. I saw these things, so they are sights, at various sites.

Hey Central California artist, will you just land that plane already?

Yeah, no.

Have you noticed how many people use this absurd expression? Now that I have alerted you, you will hear that the airwaves are filthy with this strange verbal juxtaposition.

Are you going to show us or not??

Just having fun in February, my first favorite month.

February Distractions

February is my favorite month. Wait – it is my First Favorite. I also love March and April. In February we can get brilliant sun or cold storms, the green shows up, wildflowers begin, and fruit trees pop into bloom in orchards down the hill. I would like February to have 31 days and August to only have 28. (Just 14 would be fine too.)

February brings distractions.

I’ve been weeding baby poppies, hoping to give them a chance to go bonkers this spring.

A friend requested some help laying artificial turf at one of the vacation rentals that she manages. (This house)

Then a friend let me come by to pick some Mello Gold (super sweet grapefruit looking citrus), I had a package to mail, and a book was FINALLY ready for me at the library. My vacation rental manager friend and I have plans to make some stepping stones for one of her yards, another place needs some ferocious weeding, Trail Guy and I like to take walks, several friends like to come to Three Rivers to go “hiking” with me (they call it that but I don’t take a pack with water or food so it is just a walk), and I have a big knitting project on the needles.

Maybe February needs to be 40 days long.

Dithering Over Decisions

Still Here, my upcoming exhibition for the month of April has me dithering about how much is enough, how to prioritize the work ahead, and wishing for the umpteenth time that I had a functional and accurate crystal ball.

When Arts Visalia asked me if I’d move from January 2022 to April 2021, I decided that I would finish 4 of the 5 paintings in progress and not try to add anything else. The fifth could just wait for another opportunity.

This might be finished now.

Because I am painting larger than normal for me, I am not able to guess how long a painting will take to finish. The ones on the easels seemed almost impossibly far from completion. Then suddenly 3 of the 4 looked ready to sign. So, I pulled out #5, because it will be a nice addition.

Maybe there is time to finish this one.

Incrementally closer to completion with each painting session.

Meanwhile, I went through my framed pencil drawings and decided a bit more variety will be good. So, I delivered 3 more drawings to my framer with the usual instructions of “Make them look good and call me when they are ready.” I believe in hiring the best people for the job and then just getting out of their way.

I wonder if Arts Visalia will rethink the decision to hang my work in Gallery 2 and move me into the Main Gallery. I could fill it up. My work could fill both galleries. HEY, ARTS VISALIA, DO YOU READ MY BLOG?

Probably not. Guess I’ll head back to the easels.

Virtual Drawing Lesson 5

Virtual Drawing Student C finished her drawing of the horse, Rocky. She sent me a new photo that I named Mr. Curly, and I have instructed her how to begin.

About starting Mr. Curly:

1. First step is always to decide how big and where on your paper that Mr. Curly will go.

2. Remember to draw a border so that you don’t view the edge of the paper as the edge of your drawing. Margins are necessary for many reasons.

3. Do you have tissue paper so you can trace the main shapes? The purpose of this is to simplify the image in order to get the bare bones laid out on your new paper.

4. If you don’t have tissue paper, you can skip that step. It is a little harder to see the main shapes with all those colors and textures than if you are looking at just an outline on tissue.

5. Remember to look at the drawing (and the tracing or the photo) upside down, sideways, other sideways, and then finally right side up.

6. Go slowly, draw light, and don’t stop until all the shapes look perfect. Okay, you can stop if you need a break or feel stuck, but don’t begin shading until you have all the outlines down. Remember to draw the dog before you draw the fleas.

7. After it looks perfect, scan and send it to me so I can see if there are any problems with the proportions.

P.S. Maybe Mr. Shaggy or just Shaggy would be a more appropriate name. Or how about Lurch?

Virtual Drawing Lesson Thoughts

In working with my drawing student C via email, we discussed the fact that the drawing of her horse Rocky got finished in record time for her. She is such a good thinker and clear communicator that I decided to share what we discussed. These are her conclusions about finishing quickly and my thoughts.

C’s drawing table is where she can work any time she passes by without having to set things up.

It is so helpful to have an art project be accessible so it isn’t a project unto itself just to set up.

C felt dependent on my help when in class and a little intimidated to just dive on in.

I need to find a way to encourage my students to be more independent so they don’t wait for me to tell them each step; at the same time, I understand why they wait for instruction, because who wants to erase??

C felt a little intimidated about being with people who are more advanced than she is.

It takes awhile for people to realize that their classmates are super encouraging and that all of us started at the beginning, not suddenly arrived as accomplished artists. I sometimes purposely bring something ugly and early to show my students so they won’t feel embarrassed by their own early origins. My students all make better first drawings than I drew AFTER I started accepting commissions.

C had confidence drawing horses, a subject that she has painted several times.

She is right about having more confidence when drawing a familiar subject. I often remind my students to pick something they love, because they will be staring at it for L O N G time.

I love that my drawing students become friends, love listening to them all get to know each other, love learning from them on a variety of topics. Sometimes I wonder if it would be more efficient to ask everyone to stop talking and focus. Then I remember being in a colored pencil workshop when the very unpleasant instructor shouted, “QUIET! NO TALKING!” and I never want to do that. So, we’ll just keep on as things are, and I will continue looking for ways to encourage independence.