cabinart | Cabin Art

Tough Decision, Part Two

There are many seasoned artists who freely share their experience with other artists. One of the nuggets I’ve gleaned through the years is “Get rid of your junk”. There is no reason to keep things around that do not sell or do not represent your best work.

The Cabins of Mineral King represented my best work in 1998. I draw better now, which is good; I would better have improved over the last 20 years or that would be a sorry situation. (That was an awkward sentence – anyone know a good editor?)

Still, the unsold drawings haunt me, take up space and just need to go away, either through a sale or through a shredder.

Before they go into the shredder, here is a chance for you to own an original pencil drawing for a peanut butter sandwich, as my dad used to say. I will consider offers, as long as they are not insulting.

One month from today, October 7, is the deadline on this batch of drawings.

Tough Decision, Part One

As a full time professional artist since 1993, I have accumulated a pile of work. It is overwhelming at times for several reasons.

If I am looking for something in particular, I have to sift through many other things.
If the flat file drawers get too crowded, some of the paper folds, squishes, migrates to the back of a drawer, or otherwise gets wrecked. I hate it when that happens to an original drawing!
Unsold things haunt and taunt me. They say, “Loser! Poser! Fake artist! No one wants your work!” They are mean, and eventually those mean words work their way into my psyche. (What’s a psyche??)

Therefore, I have made a decision. Unsold and unframed original drawings from The Cabins of Mineral King (published in 1998) have been here long enough. If a cabin owner doesn’t value original art of his cabin, why should I? I have my own preferences and favorites already jamming up my flat files (and they treat me better than those other unsolds).

Before these go into the shredder, I will show them to you and give them one last chance. I might even send out a newsletter to those who might open an email but don’t read the blog. I will tell you the approximate size and the price, and consider all offers (unless they are insulting. The drawings are already insulting me enough, and your Central California artist can only take so much abuse.)

Let’s begin, shall we? If these drawings aren’t sold by October 6, one month away, then say “Hasta la vista, baby”.

cabin drawing cabin drawings drawing mineral king drawings pencil drawing

2019 Calendar Coming

My 2019 calendar will be A Touch of Color.

It has pencil drawings with, you guessed it, a touch of color. Each subject is something in my life, drawn from my photos (except for one when I didn’t have my camera and a friend came to my rescue.)

Some people who buy my calendars like all the pictures to be a surprise (I’m looking at you, SD). Out of respect for that contingent, I’ll just show you the front cover. To see the back cover, go to the calendar link below.

This year I am not offering an early-bird discount. It is simply $15, which will include tax if you live in California. I will pay the mailing costs.

There will be 100 available. No, make that 99, because I will keep one for myself. Wait – 98! I gave one to my friends who feed my kitties when I am away. Better hurry and order, because there are so many helpful people in my life that I am prone to give calendars to. (Wait – isn’t this supposed to be a business??)

Get your calendars here.

Birthday Drawing

Someone very dear and important to me recently had a birthday. Awhile ago, she sent me a photo of her cat and said she wanted to commission me to draw it. Or maybe she said to paint it. I forget – it has been awhile.

With her birthday coming (do they ever stop coming, faster and faster and even faster??), it seemed like a good idea to draw it for her. I could have painted it, but as you know, I love to draw. Besides, I know she loves drawings, so that was my choice for her cat.

She rescued this guy, perhaps from the middle of a road in the middle of the night. I forget. There have been many. Mr. Mittens is a huge cat with some sort of eating disorder, not uncommon in strays. He also is a polydactyl, which means he has giant multi-toed paws. He also looks like a very large version of my skinny old Perkins. Sigh.

We do love our cats.

commission pencil work drawing pencil drawing

Labor Day

Turning Leaf XVIII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $64 including California sales tax

Remember in the olden days when Labor Day was the first day of school? You’d get up in the dark, put on new clothes, wear shoes for the first time in months and say, “Mom, these shoes are too tight!” to which she’d respond, “They are fine. You just aren’t used to wearing shoes”.

Then you’d stand out in front of the house with your lunch box (mine was Mary Poppins, and although I didn’t see the movie, I did have the record) and a cat or dog for a photo.

Photos were a big deal in those days, taken to commemorate Events rather than for routine and systematic documentation of everyday life. None of us knew what to do with our faces or our hands or our bodies when a camera was looking at us. Today all kids can instinctively arrange their bodies into professional look poses and with their perfectly straightened teeth and the confidence of a supermodel, they all look naturally beautiful.

Now school starts in early August when it is still hot. I think everyone wears shorts to school now, which were forbidden in the olden days except for P.E., which was required from 7th grade on.

I am very old-fashioned. There are no drawing lessons in July or August, and we resume on the Tuesday after Labor Day. (I even wear shoes, real shoes, rather than Tevas or Crocs and if you want, I can pose awkwardly with my cats for a photo.)

Anyone want to take drawing lessons? I have a few openings. . .

Back to work, all y’all!

Eight Things I Learned in August

Fridays are for Mineral King, but today’s post is my end of the month list of things I learned. Here is a Mineral King photo for you as a consolation prize.

A friend of mine is always on his phone, always always always. But he only uses it as a telephone. For note-taking, he uses a yellow legal pad, which he refers to as his “y-pad“. I’m stealing this term!
In August I learned the real difficulties of lung disease by helping my friend who is waiting for new lungs. Become an organ donor!!
A friend is moving to Furnace Creek, the settlement in Death Valley. She learned that in the summer, residents turn off their water heaters and use it for cold water; their cold water taps become their hot water sources.
Tulare Co. ranked 150 out of 150 in adults aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher, quality of the public system, and racial and gender gaps in local education. The study, by WalletHub, was of major metropolitan areas. Tulare County is hardly a major metropolitan anything, but the study combined Visalia and Porterville, the 2 largest cities in the county. Well, bummer. (We’re fat and poor here too. Oh, we also have really bad air. Sounds inviting, no?)
Making Sense of God by Timothy Keller is one of the most helpful books I’ve read in a long time, and I learned more than this post can contain. If you are a skeptic or know one who is seeking solid truths about Christianity, this book is a winner. It requires thought and took me a long time to get through, and now I need to reread it and take notes for more solid remembering.
For years I’ve wanted to find something cold to drink that had no sugar, no fake sugar, no caffeine, no alcohol. This was just a vague wish for something more interesting than plain water or herbal tea. At a block party this summer, my good friend said, “Ooh, this is not very good!” so I picked up her can for a taste. Wow! carbonation, no sweetness whatsoever, and a hint of berry flavor. It was LeCroix, nothing but carbonation and a hint of flavor. Eureka!
Keeping cats is almost impossible around here. (We’ve lost four in 2018.) Now there are two – Scout and Tucker. Bye-bye, Piper. I didn’t even get to know you.
If you need to get rid of an old couch, you have 3 options: dump it on the side of the road, drop it off after hours behind a thrift store that won’t take it when they are open, or take it to the dump. We took the third option, and it hurt my heart. Trail Guy salvaged the good fabric from the backside (the front was wrecked by cats through the years). The couch served us well from 1984 onward, and was reupholstered once. The only thing that helps assuage my guilt is that we saved two antique pieces of furniture from the same fate.
Scout, who will NEVER have access to our new/antique furniture.

Tucker, who also will NEVER have access to our new/antique furniture.

Fancy Pants Studio

A year ago fake wood replaced painted concrete flooring in my studio, and I repainted the door.

In the spring, the dilapidated board and batten siding was replaced with shingles for amazing cuteness.

Last week the red Adirondack chair moved outside and this recently reupholstered old chair moved in. Now when I have visitors, they can sit comfortably, instead of awkwardly looking at that red chair and saying, “Better not–I’ll never be able to get out of that.”

It might be too comfortable. The first day it was there, I fell asleep in it while working on my laptop.

You little hooligans may visit me in the studio but the instant you try claws in that chair, you are GONE and you will NEVER come in my house.* So there.

Guess I told them.

*Because we have newly reupholstered antique couch and chairs in the house now.

A Little Painting Session

English is a weird and confusing language. Does the title of this post mean that my painting is little, or that my painting session is little?

Yes.

The hot weather eased up a bit, so I spent some time working on a painting.

What the weather has to do with painting is that I paint in a room without air conditioning. It has a swamp cooler, which is adequate for days as hot as about 95, if it isn’t humid.

Two canvases awaited me, along with Scout and Tucker.

Neither of these paintings will be for sale – they are slated for bigger things than filthy lucre. This may be the only time I show them to you, until more is revealed in the fullness of time. You’ll just have to hold your camels, as I learned to say when in Israel 2 years ago.

One blank, one with its scribbly beginnings

Onto the larger canvas goes a layer of the mafungo* that comes from the bottom of the turp jar, more formally known as “toning the canvas”.

Painting from back to front, the sky and clouds go on first. It doesn’t matter if I splodge some sky things over the foliage because it will all be redone.

Tucker is getting friendlier, hanging around while I paint; the normally friendly Scout is off chasing a fake mouse.

New color goes in the background mountains and trees.

Putting the twisted multicolored bark and branches on the juniper is fun. . . drawing with my paintbrush is always my favorite part.

*I stole “mafungo” from Chris Daniel, on Fresno’s KMJ 580 AM from 2-6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Did You Know I Have Another Blog?

Join me at the table in Wilsonia (figuratively speaking, of course.)

I have another blog. It is called The Cabins of Wilsonia, because that is the title of a book I wrote/designed/drew/published in 2014. Here is the link to the blog, and it will open in another tab. (Thank you, Sharon!)

While I was working on the book from 2011 until it was completed in 2014, I regularly posted about the process and progress. Then the website stopped working, as tech is wont to do. (Isn’t “wont” a weird word??)

After a few years of ignoring the site, it got repaired, but I didn’t have much to say. The book was published, and I stopped spending time in Wilsonia. (I have my own place in Mineral King, and my husband actually likes me and wants me to be with him there.)

Then I had a chance encounter with some Wilsonia folks, so unexpected and delightful that I felt compelled to write about it. Hint: it happened on the Mineral King Road. (You can read about it here.)

After that, the ideas and words began flowing again. I don’t know how long this little writing spurt will last, but you are welcome to visit my other blog and even subscribe. (I promise it won’t be five days a week of posting.)

P.S. The Cabins of Wilsonia is available for sale here. It used to be $80 and is now $50, because book prices are wont to price drops several years after publication.

P.P.S. STOP WITH THE “WONT” TALK ALREADY!

P.P.P.S. Your Central California artist is wont to sometimes obsess about words.

pencil drawing Wilsonia