More Solds

“Solds”? Is this really a noun? It is my world. Clearly the 6×18″ size is hot right now. Good thing I just ordered more canvases that size. I have several new ideas to paint in that format, so stay tuned.

More New Oil Paintings

All those paintings of Mineral King over the past several months erased the subject of Three Rivers from my mind. When I got reminded that I hadn’t yet reserved my booth for the Redbud Festival, I also remembered that people might want to see some Three Rivers subjects during that little show. 

This popular shape and size is perfect for Moro Rock and Alta Peak and good practice for a possible mural of the same scene (still only in the conversation stage). This painting clearly needs many more layers.
Not sure how it will be to paint all this grass. I will put a bunch of wildflowers in it instead of the few that appear in the photo. The green time of year here is almost wonderful enough to balance out the seemingly endless dry brown hot months.

Starting Over Again With Sawtooth

All those paintings of Sawtooth completed over the past several months, and someone wants a different size? 

Yep. No problem. I am an artist, and artists make art. Here are the beginning steps of the commissioned oil painting of Sawtooth:

First I assign an inventory #, title the piece and attach a hanging wire.
Second step is to prime the canvas, or “tone” it as another artist names it. That was even more boring than Step #1, so this photo is showing the paint from the tubes and the colors I mixed to begin the painting.
Painting from back to front means that the blue sky strips go on first.
Then some clouds, and the realization that it would be helpful to crop the photo to a square.
More clouds and the beginning of Sawtooth’s shape.
The angle looked too steep on Sawtooth’s right side slope, so I pulled out my angle finder tool. It was a little tricky to take this photo so I am not holding the thing correctly here (vertical needs to be vertical, not tipsy). I’ll recheck the angle in the next layer.
At the end of the painting session, everything had a first coat of paint.

Wow, it is time-consuming and interruptive to photograph the steps in this much detail. But, this customer has become a friend and likes seeing the progress. I’ve heard from others that seeing the process is interesting, so here we go. . .

While I Was Waiting

Painting workshop and studio

There is a trick to doing art shows and open studios. The trick is waiting patiently, on stand-by, all systems ready to go.

Studio ready for guests

How does one be productive while waiting but not be so involved that a visitor/customer/guest feels like an interruption?

Coloring olives with my Blackwing Colors in Heart of Agriculture coloring book (WHY won’t this photo rotate?? Sorry, but you’ll just have to tilt your head!)

It is a mindset. I remind myself that on THIS day, I am not here to produce; I am here for the visitors. Therefore, anything that gets done is a bonus.

  • Knit
  • Weed
  • Color
  • Begin a drawing, before things get too detailed and engrossing
  • Update inventory lists
  • Update the website
  • Edit a chapter for the upcoming book about the Springville TB Hospital (This one was tricky, but I squoze it in before I heard a car arrive!)
  • Enjoy the beautiful spring day in Three Rivers
California’s state flower in my yard

As much as I’d like to just make art and be left alone to do so, this is not realistic. The business of art requires interaction with the public, most of whom are interesting and pleasant people. The business of art also requires keeping track of inventory, updating one’s website, and planning ahead.

Another pencil drawing begun for the 2019 calendar

Sometimes, it requires sitting, being available, and waiting.

Piper kept me company for awhile.

P.S. Knitting and weeding are bonus activities, reserved for recess time.

8 Recent Happenings

Today there are many topics to address, so we will have a long list.

  1. I went away with my sisters and our Mom for a family funeral. Supposed to be a sad time, but it was surprisingly fun. 

    Me and four of the most important women in my life feeling happy to be together
  2. Tomorrow and Sunday is the South Valley ARTists’ Studio Tour. Will I see you there? You can buy tickets the day of the event at the places listed on their website.
  3. I hope the studio tour has more attendance than First Saturday Three Rivers. There were 4 people covering for me at my studio while I was with my chicky-babes (see #1) and 11 visitors.  ELEVEN?? Bless you, those eleven who came out in the rain. I hope you enjoyed your wildflower freebie!
  4. What a week of learning! I actually designed a website for my friend who manages vacation rentals here in Three Rivers. She got tired of waiting for the guy who said he’d do it for her, and I jumped in with both feet but perhaps only half my brain. We will do a lot of polishing, but the site is ready to be seen. Sequoiavacationrentals.NET It was thrilling to be able to help her, to have some experience, to have all sorts of photos to supplement hers, to FIGURE THIS OUT!! It was hard. I did it anyway.
  5. Why am I designing a site for someone and paying someone else to design a site for me? Because mine is very very complicated. There is much work ahead for me. Good thing I practiced on my friend.
  6. It was so beautiful in Three Rivers this week that instead of working in the studio (drawings to be done for the 2019 calendar and a few more paintings, including a Sawtooth commission), I pulled weeds. It was a nice break from figuring out how to build a website.

    Lots and lots of weeds.
  7. Piper is doing well. There may be kittens soon; I hope the little guy adjusts and is polite.
  8. Trail Guy took a day trip to Mineral King. The road has a gnarly slide across it above the ranger station.

See why I had to make a list?? And, in case you were wondering, I am not superstitious about today’s day and date combination.

Kaweah Post Office Oil Paintings 2

Thank you for returning to see the next set of seven Kaweah Post Office oil paintings. Shall we commence our tour of the growth of my painting skills through the capitalistic exploitation of an innocent elderly landmark? (That would have cracked my Dad up – is anyone else out there laughing along?)

Kaweah Post Office VIII. Obviously, the little post office was popular in 2012. This one was bought by a celebrity who occasionally comes to Three Rivers. That isn’t as a big of a deal to me as the fact that a stranger bought my work!
Kaweah Post Office IX was painted in 2013.
Kaweah Post Office X was painted in 2014. It might have been the first one sold to raise money for the new roof. I think it is wrong to see this much sky behind it, because there is a steep hill back there.
Kaweah Post Office XI is my favorite so far. This was done in 2015, specifically to help with the new roof. Another lying sky.
Kaweah Post Office XII was also painted in 2015, also painted for the roof repair. But shouldn’t there be a little sky showing off to the side? This is another thing I forgot to check when I was there in person. Frankly, I don’t think anyone else cares!
This one is simply titled Kaweah Post Office. I lost the sequential numbering momentum, so that means that #13 is actually #14. Does anyone care? Too bad I didn’t skip #13, like ships and some apartment buildings do. And yet another lying sky. . .
Kaweah Post Office XIII was also painted in 2015. It is currently available at Anne Lang’s Emporium in Three Rivers or from my website. 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125 plus tax (unless you buy it from my website which STILL is unable to charge sales tax for some irritating and unknown reason).

And thus we conclude our tour of my endless depictions of the Kaweah Post Office, popular landmark in Three Rivers, but not where I get my mail, in case you were wondering.

Kaweah Post Office Oil Paintings

Kaweah Post Office, first painted in 2009 with three years of painting under my belt, no confidence in my ability to paint architectural subjects and not a ton of experience in photographing my work either.

Every time an oil painting of the Kaweah Post Office sells, I paint it again.

Kaweah Post Office II, painted in 2010 (Where is the flag???)
Kaweah Post Office III, painted in 2011
Kaweah Post Office IV, painted in 2010, getting really elaborate with my details as my confidence and skill grows.
Kaweah Post Office V, complete with the cigar Indian on the porch, also painted in 2010.
Kaweah Post Office VI, 2012 (must have taken awhile for the previous one to sell)
Kaweah Post Office VII, also painted in 2012

That’s a lot of oil paintings of the Kaweah Post Office. But wait! There’s more! Come back tomorrow and see the second set of seven.

About the Kaweah Post Office

The Kaweah Post Office is about 3 miles up North Fork Drive in Three Rivers, California. For awhile it was known as the smallest operating post office in the USA. Now it is operated in a weird little way; the woman who owns the building goes to the Three Rivers Post Office to collect the mail and then brings it to Kaweah to pop it into the boxes. 

People who live near the post office are quick to tell you that they live in Kaweah, not Three Rivers, thank you very much. It has its own zip code (93237), so I guess that makes it its own town.

The building is very picturesque and old-timey, established in 1890, but I think the current building was constructed in 1910. It is also sort of falling apart. I don’t know what will happen to it. But, I don’t know what will happen to anything or anybody, and neither does anyone else.

It has a ton of visual appeal, which is why I continue to draw and paint it. Have a look at some of the drawings. I’m not showing you the very first one because it is downright embarrassing.

 

Drawn in 1999 (last century!)
Drawn in 2010 for the 100th year celebration
Drawn in 2018

Tomorrow I will show you the first seven oil paintings of the Kaweah Post Office. Not “THE FIRST”; MY first. I’m sure there must be dozens of other artists through the years that have chosen this little jewel.

Field Trip or Procrastination?

While working on the umpteenth pencil drawing of the Kaweah Post Office, I was struck by how stupid it is to guess at what is around and behind the little building. Why am I struggling with an incomplete photograph when all I have to do is drive about 4 or 5 miles and see the thing in person??

This is the photo I was using, and there is green chaos all around the edges. Besides, I took this photo in October of 2010, so I suspect things have changed.

Indeed, they have. I know the biggest oak lost a limb; I helped raise money to replace the roof by selling oil paintings of the Kaweah Post Office, donating half of whatever they auctioned for. But where is the little fence with the gate?Would you look at that? It is gone! But wait! I think I see it. . .That’s no help. Guess I’ll just stick to my old photo. The background works, just sort of scribbling in blurry curly growing symbols. 

Are you curious about the porch and the inside? Have a look:

After goofing off enjoying a spring morning outing, I went back to the drawing board. (Do you know anyone else who can literally say that?)

From Shed to Cottage

My studio began as a shed. We filled it with avocado green sinks and other junk when we remodeled our house 19 years ago. When we remodeled the interior of the studio in December 2001, I was thrilled to stop commuting to Exeter 5-6 days a week.

Well whoopeedoo, I painted the door all fancy white.

Gradually I added plants; this flowering pear tree looks great in February and November. Sometimes I wonder if it leans so much because Perkins pushed it each time he scratched there.

Studio in spring
Studio in fall, after I painted a mural on the big blank canvas that also serves as a door.

I kept adding plants and little things like the mosaic stepping stones and table, and Cowboy Bert made me the tractor seat and a railing for the steps (With a last name of Weldon, he must be a welder). Next, I painted the workshop.

Boring mural, never completed.

Then I got tired of the mural and began another one, but never liked it well enough to bother finishing.

 

What’s an artist to do? Paint another mural, of course.

With the fancy new wildflower mural, the siding really looked shabby.

This time, we centered the sign over the door rather than under the gable point.

Incremental changes really do add up. Now I am the proud and grateful owner and occupant of a darling little shingled cottage.

The interior isn’t always neat, because it is where I work, with lots of coming and going, and a variety of activity in the 11×14′ space.

Tomorrow is the first Saturday of April and my studio will be one of the stops. The theme is wildflowers. Stop by Anne Lang’s Emporium for a map and directions, and come by the studio for a little wildflower freebie! (Due to a death in my family, my studio will be staffed by some of the dearest people to me in the whole wide world.)