The 2015 Calendar is HERE!

The new calendar for 2015 has arrived!

 

These are my best oil paintings. Sort of. My best oil paintings that fit the calendar format and fit the months. Sort of. The best blend of my best oil paintings that sort of fit the calendar format and sort of fit the months.

It is called “Beautiful Tulare County”. (Stop laughing – there is lots of beauty in this rural place in Central California and it is my job to find it and paint or draw it!)

$15, includes tax and mailing to you!

Want one? There are several ways to get one.




1. Use this Paypal button and your Paypal account.

2. Mail a check for $15, made out to Cabinart at P.O. Box 311, Three Rivers, CA 93271

3. Come to the Senior League Bazaar on Saturday, November 15 at the Three Rivers Memorial Building from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and get yours there.

4. Call me with a better idea – maybe we see each other on a regular basis and I can just bring it to you.

THERE ARE ONLY 100 AND WHEN THEY ARE GONE, THEY ARE GONE.

Ahem. Excuse me for shouting. Sometimes I get excited when I see all my best work together in one place and then think you all might like it too.

Cabin Commission

The upcoming book, The Cabins of Wilsonia, will have 268 pencil drawings of cabins and cabin details.

Not everyone is pleased with the way I have represented his cabin. Most people are gracious about it and know that the book is an overview, rather than a documentary or a complete album.

One friend was not sure about how to tell me that she didn’t want to buy the original drawing of her cabin. She asked a few polite questions, and I got it. I told her that I can redraw it for her any way that she wants. She said, “But I don’t want to add to your work!” I replied, “Darlin’, that’s how I earn my living!” We laughed, and she commissioned me to draw her cabin.

I took many photos and then did a sketch for her, complete with lots of notes.

After I was sure that I knew what she wanted, I started.

commissioned pencil drawing of cabin in progress

After I got this far, I got a little worried and needed reassurance that I was on the right track.

She gave me the okay, so I finished it.

Commissioned pencil drawing of cabin

 She was thrilled, so of course so am I!

Home Improvement

A dear friend manages vacation rentals. A few years ago, she was asked to take on a home that needed a ton of loving care, and she had to provide it on not just a shoestring, but a frayed shoestring. (This means she had almost a zero budget.)

Because we love to do projects together, she asked for my help. Together we figured out how to rearrange furniture, do things with paint, color, pictures on the wall, fabric, rocks and pine cones.

It was an amazing transformation, and the house became a successful vacation rental.

Now the same owner has handed over another house to my friend. Of course she called me and of course I said yes. (HEY! Does this mean I am a Vacation Rental Consultant?) As a Central California artist, I am used to people needing help and not having much to spend. I don’t know what I’d do if someone actually had a real budget with real money in it!!

The upstairs loft resembled a dorm in an orphanage (not that I’ve ever seen such a room, but I read plenty of orphan stories as a child.)

I sketched layouts, wondered if we could dump various pieces of furniture, lose a few beds (there were seven or eight), get better bedspreads, buy a trunk for the foot of each bed, rip out the carpet, paint, something, anything.

My managing friend eked out a small budget from the owner. We found a few treasures at a yard sale, pulled the faded ’70s art off the walls, discussed furniture, found a nice rug at World Market (found many, but only bought one), messed with paint colors and ideas, and finally came up with a good plan for that loft.

It was a ton of work.

This is where I came in for some real work as opposed to just coming up with ideas.

We’d love to have ripped out the carpet, but the budget was just too eensy. If you want to see the whole house, here is the link. Click here.  It was voted Best Vacation Rental in Three Rivers this year, BEFORE my friend and I went to work on it! (It might be wise to book it before the owner figures out that he can raise the price.)

Fall Painting

Friday’s posting about scariness in Mineral King even smelled like smoke to me. Oh wait – that is because the smell from the prescribed burn was in Three Rivers. Let’s soothe our senses with something else that is a symbol of fall, a nicer symbol, both decorative and edible.

Pumpkins VIII, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $90




Scary in Mineral King

Today is Halloween, and it is scary in Mineral King. This is how it looked on Sunday, October 26. This is a screen shot from the Mineral King Webcam.

 

It is called the Mosquito Fire, a “controlled burn”.  This is a prescribed burn, deliberately set between Mosquito Creek and Avalanche Creek. (Never heard of that one – maybe it is along the Tar Gap trail, which leads to Hockett Meadow?) It is supposed to eliminate fuels. I’ve heard that within 7-8 years, all said fuels have grown back, and now in addition to said fuels, there are dead standing trees.

Scary.

2015 Calendar Coming!

Two years ago I published a calendar of oil paintings.

Last year it was a calendar of photography. (I was too busy drawing The Cabins of Wilsonia to paint.)

This year it will be a calendar of oil paintings.

It will be called Beautiful Tulare County. If that sounds like a joke, stop being cynical! There are beautiful places and times of year around here. It is my business to find those places and times, and then to share them with you.

The calendar’s pages will not be precisely seasonally correct. They will be close, but summer is a dominant season around here, so those types of paintings will be dominant in the calendar.

Waiting for the price from the printer (NOT the book printer!!) and the estimated time of arrival before making them available for purchase. I’ll make it an easy price, a round number that includes tax and mailing costs.

I Love To Teach People How to Draw

One afternoon per week, I am in Exeter at the Courthouse Gallery of the Arts. Each hour on the half hour, four people come in for their weekly drawing lesson. Each person works at her own pace on her own picture. Or his. We have a great time, and people really learn to draw!

The gallery just got new wood floors in the workshop room and it is beautiful.

We go to great lengths to understand what we are drawing. In spite of having set up the scene and taking and editing multiple photos, Elainea and I found it helpful to have these creatures here in person to really inspect. If we can’t see it, we can’t draw it.

Mae is more than ready to have the background finished on her rose. See? Her hands are flying!

Mary is working on the layout.  (I know – it looks as if she is picking the longhorn’s nose.) To draw, we have to know where everything belongs and get the shapes and sizes right. Proportion is everything.

I teach both adults and pre-adults. As long as you are at least in 6th grade, you can take drawing lessons from me.

Finishing touches are important. Celeste has worked very diligently on this for quite awhile, and it shows. This is FABULOUS!

I love to teach people how to draw. It is all about seeing correctly, and then learning the steps. Then we just inch along, piece by piece, step by step.

Orange You Glad This Mural is Finished?

A drive-by shooting of the Rocky Hill label mural on the east wall of Rocky Hill Antiques, east of Exeter.

 

This is how the mural looks in the morning light. It faces east, so I was only able to work on it when the shade was 2 feet wide, around 2 in the afternoon.

And, in case you have forgotten, it has a hidden item! No prizes offered, just the satisfaction of finding it.

Finishing the Rocky Hill Antiques Mural, Part Four

On Thursday, I left you with a cliff-hanger of a green orange. (Reminds me of the time my mom wanted to show orange trees to her 4 year old Kansas granddaughter. “Look Ashley, those are orange trees.” “No they aren’t, Grandma – they are green!”)

White paint is opaque. Put down white paint, and then paint the orange! Sometimes I just floor myself with my on-the-spot innovations.  Honestly,  I often have to ask Trail Guy, but I forgot my old flip phone with a broken hinge so I couldn’t call him.

That looks weird. Gotta confess that it crossed my mind to paint it as a baseball. (It was the day that the Giants won the National League to go to the World Series.) As fun as that would have been, it would have meant that I needed to return, and I wanted to be FINISHED with this project. After all, I started the mural at the beginning of June.

Yes! The orange is done.

It looks good! The owners were right to add an orange.

I couldn’t photograph the entire mural because the pickup was blocking.

I spoke to one of the owners about adding the word ANTIQUES to the side of the mural. Together we concluded that it falls under the heading of sign, and under the skills of a sign painter. I am not a sign painter; I am a mural painter. The mural is finished.

May it be so.