The Redbud Festival was really good this year. It wasn’t hot, it combined with First Saturday in Three Rivers, it was at the Memorial Building and I had an indoor space. Look at some of the paintings that sold:
This isn’t actually the painting that sold. This one sold a few years ago, and my friend saw it in a book of my oil paintings that I use for display. So, I will paint it for her. Happily, because I think I paint better now!
It got busy at the Redbud Festival in Three Rivers at the Memorial Building this year. As usual, I saw a ton of people I knew, but I also got to meet new people. The standout to me was meeting Earl from BLOWING ROCK NORTH CAROLINA!! Really! I am that excited! That is where my G’ma grew up, and I visited there in 2010 and just fell in love with the place. And Earl is going to be a friend, I just know it. He came back on Sunday and told me about some books he has written. When I am finished with this series of blog posts, I will be searching for them on Amazon. He is also an oil painter and a retired pastor.
The Writer’s Corner was a busy place. I really enjoyed listening to them and learning about how the different writers chose to publish. All were self-published, some using assisted self-publishing companies like CreateSpace, and others just going at it pioneer style, as I am doing with The Cabins of Wilsonia. (Guess I am a little like my distant relative from North Caroline, Daniel Boone.)
I bought a book about old people who downhill ski, written by Mr. Fischer, who taught at Redwood High School when I was there in the ’70s. I don’t remember him. That’s okay. He doesn’t remember me either.
And isn’t this weird? The Memorial Building has a drinking fountain! Remember in the olden days before we were all raving environmentalists carrying around plastic water bottles, people just got a drink of water whenever they wanted one? No fuss, no muss. Probably no chlorine or special filtering either.
But I digress again.
There were quite a few musical performers who kept any radio dead air away. Sometimes I would say to a passerby, “Want to come into my booth so we can shout at one another over the music?” Most weren’t loud. The belly dancer’s music was really loud. I couldn’t watch her because I was too embarrassed. Guess I’m about as old fashioned as a drinking fountain.
Yesterday I left you contemplating the word “dumb”.
Today we will continue our Redbud Festival Tour.
Check out the primary colors. The sign being carried by the man says “Slow! Event Ahead”. So glad it used punctuation, because I’d hate to participate in a Slow Event.
I think this pottery comes to the Redbud Festival every year. Sure looked pretty in the morning sun.
So did these bracelets. There were a lot of jewelry vendors there. There are always a lot of jewelry vendors at these types of shows. I wonder how they can all make a living. I think the products go in cycles, and we are currently in a heavy jewelry phase of the art and craft fair world. I’m glad there aren’t many oil painters around right now. Of course, maybe they don’t do little podunk shows. I like little podunk shows that are walking distance from home. What does podunk mean, anyway?
Look! I got to be by the window with natural light, and my paintings popped out to folks as they entered from the lobby.
This is inside the Memorial Building, a funny shaped place that was probably built in the 1960s. I went to a play there when I was a little girl with my Great-Aunt Mary. The witch got shoved into the oven. Must have been Hansel and Gretel. . . but I digress.
Those drapes were a heavy hassle. Michael tied them together to let more light in, and I clothes-pinned tee shirts onto them. (Lemons? Lemonade!)
It looked pretty good, if I do say so myself. Why do people say that? I did say so myself.
Redbud Festival in Three Rivers was on a new weekend and in a new location. It was walking distance from home for me!
Bye-bye, studio, I have to work somewhere else today.
Does your commute look like this? It is WONDERFUL to walk to work.
Most exhibitors parked at the Presbyterian Church. Me? I took this shortcut across the field. It was a trail, but got turned into a bit of a road when the neighborhood got a new water system.
It brings me to the backside of the Memorial Building, where there is a dude on the roof, and the cars match the fire hydrants.
Vendors were setting up their pop-up canopies in the parking lot. I was very thankful to have an indoor space, because it got hot out there on the asphalt later in the day.
See? lots of hot pavement.
BJ is from Tulare and he has BEE-YOO-TI-FUL rustic furniture and very cool yard ornaments. I was briefly tempted to get some quail, and then decided it is dumb to put metal quail in a yard full of live quail. I try to not be dumb whenever possible. It’s dumb to be dumb. Don’t be dumb. Dumb dumb dumb.
There. Have I wrecked the word “dumb”?
Perhaps it would be good to continue this tomorrow.
I wanted to say “Redbud Returns” for alliteration, but didn’t want to confuse you any more than already.
What? You confused?
Maybe not you specifically. The general population has confusion about the Redbud Festival in Three Rivers. Let’s tackle this as a FAQ session.
1. Will the redbud be in bloom? Nope. It blooms in March.
2. Why is it called the Redbud Festival? Because that’s the way it is. It was established in the 1970s, and maybe they held it in March. I don’t remember.
3. Why isn’t it at Ardfarkle’s anymore? Because Ardfarkle’s doesn’t exist anymore.
4. But I liked Ardfarkle’s better. Do you have a question for me?
5. Why is it at the Memorial Building this year? Because that’s the way it is. The Memorial Building is a lovely location, a non-dusty place with both indoor and outdoor booth spaces.
6. Did you say the Rosebud Festival? Nope. It’s the Redbud Festival.
7. When is it this year? So glad you asked. Here is the official poster, beautifully created for you by the talented Karen Kimball.
The Redbud Festival is an annual (except when it isn’t) event in Three Rivers, held in May. It will be on Saturday and Sunday next. I’ll give you the specifics in tomorrow’s blog post.
Meanwhile, back at the workshop:
Oops. I’m sorry. I went for a walk. Here, look at the paintings in progress:
I already showed you this, right? But I just noticed that I transposed 2 numbers in a friend’s phone number on my chalkboard!
Cool fence, eh? The yellow stuff is some sort of fungus. It matches the fiddleneck. Oh wait, I’m distracted again.
You’ve already seen this too?
Okay, let’s go for a walk.
Wait, I keep showing you photos of this scene. Sorry. Guess I’m just really distracted today. Lots of work to do to prepare for Redbud Festival.
If my drawing students learn to draw with graphite pencils – i.e. see proportions, understand values (the darks and lights), understand hard and soft edges, and make the tools do what they intend for them to do, then my drawing students who want to can use colored pencils.
Colored pencils (mis)behave differently than graphite pencils. I’ve heard plenty of colored pencil artists say the reason to use colored pencils instead of paint is C O N T R O L.
Colored pencils require many many layers, and it hurts my wrist to use them. However, many of my advanced students choose to use them, and in spite of my ouchy wrist, I can help.
It may appear to you as if Mae has copied her photo as efficiently as a Xerox machine. I can assure you that she has done a fabulous job of interpreting the photo and adjusting it so the drawing makes more sense than the photo. She pays a great deal of attention to detail and chooses what to eliminate and what to enhance.
May is using Polychromos by Faber Castell. These seem to be the highest quality for the price that I’ve used so far. They are oil based, made in Germany, and last a long time. They are a little fatter so they don’t fit in our normal sharpeners. They are also a little hard to find if you just want to buy them one at a time.
Prismacolor used to be my favorite. I learned their colors beginning with a set of 12 that my Aunt Shirley gave me when I was in 5th grade. They are wax based, made in the USA, and break easily, which is exasperating. They are readily available in sets or in one-sies, and can be repaired in the microwave (but don’t tell the company – they don’t take responsibility for the breakage and blame the pencil sharpeners, not the rough handling before they arrive in your hands.) I noticed they are now referred to as “soft-core”, probably a response to all the complaints!
So, yes, you CAN do this with colored pencils (after hours and hours of practice!)
The question that most artists don’t like is this:
Will you donate a piece of artwork to My Good Cause?
And then it is followed by something like “You can write it off on your taxes” or “It will bring great exposure”.
The answers to the follow-ups are “Only the cost of the materials” and “People die of exposure”.
If a good Cause needs items for raffles and auctions, it would behoove both parties (the Cause and the artist) to buy the items.
All those causes are good. One year, I donated more than I sold. It didn’t bring me more business; it brought me more requests for more donations.
A Cause can spend some of its resources on an item and then sell the item for more than it paid. It will make a profit. If it doesn’t make a profit, it can write off its expenses.
An artist who gets asked to donate her individually produced items depletes her inventory, can only write off the cost of the materials but not her time or the value of the item, and gets worn out.
An artist who gets worn out begins donating items of lesser quality, items that haven’t sold, items that aren’t her best work. (Honestly, I had an artist friend say to me one time, “Just give them your junky stuff that hasn’t sold – that’s what I do!”)
In a small community like Three Rivers or even anywhere in Tulare County, word gets out that you can either buy a piece of art for full price or you can just wait for the next fund raiser for The Good Cause. Then, Mr. Good Taste who spent money on art, sees that someone got a similar piece for 1/3 of the price, and the artist’s credibility goes down.
So, I don’t give my art away anymore. If your Good Cause would like to buy a piece, call me or email me. Perhaps we can work out some sort of a discount. When you truly value my art, I may be more likely to value your event.
Hint: if you have never bought any art from an artist, how do you have the chutzpah to ask for a gift??
There are a few Causes I choose to donate to, because they are part of my life. One of them is the mural project in Exeter, which was started by me and an awesome group of volunteers in 1996. Someone called me for a piece for their upcoming Garden Party fund raiser (a very nice event on May 5 this year); I explained my point of view because I’m teachy like that, and then I offered a painting.
Because it hasn’t sold in spite of the fact that I really like it (Obviously, my opinion does not causes pieces to sell), I took a hard look at it.
I paint better now.
Before
After (New and Improved!!)
If you don’t think it is improved, just be polite, ‘k?
I wrote about this a few months ago and called the post “Donations Bloviations”.
Every year summer happens. This is not a surprise. Summer means lots of time in Mineral King. It means paintings of Mineral King get sold at the Silver City Store. This is not a surprise either.
Every year I am just certain that this will be The Year I Paint Ahead. This year I actually am painting ahead, but that’s because the Redbud Festival is next weekend, May 3-4. Then, if Mineral King paintings haven’t sold, I’ll be a little bit ahead for summer in Mineral King.
A painting begins with a flip through my extensive photos of Mineral King to see which ideas float my boat. No matter how many terrific views there are, Farewell Gap with the Crowley Cabin is the most popular. The Honeymoon Cabin is always #2, and Sawtooth is next. After that, no discernible difference. No matter what, always always always have a painting (or two or three) of Farewell Gap on hand, in multiple sizes if possible. (I keep the words “Farewell Gap” on a sign in my painting workshop in case I forget. . . Middle-Aged Mush Brain requires more reminders than Youth.)
I chose the canvas sizes that are most likely to sell (this IS a business), put hardware on the back along with the title and an inventory #.
Sometimes I “draw” the painting with a brush first.
Sometimes I do two paintings at the same level of progress. (I almost wrote “at the same time”, but then you might think I am painting with both hands. Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not THAT good.) If I’m going to mix the paint color, I might as well mix enough for two!
These are drying. The top one might need more detail and a signature, the second one needs wildflowers and a signature, and the bottom one may just need a signature.
There is cat hair on my computer keyboard and Perkins is on my lap. It makes it awkward to type, but my boy might know that Mineral King season is coming, and he isn’t invited. We miss each other, and that is the season when I lose cats. Perkins has survived 15 summers while his comrades have been picked off, one by one. It ain’t all roses and lollipops in Three Rivers. . . sigh.
Did you know that I have another blog?
“Cabin on a Sunlit Meadow” – sold
Yeppers.
It is called The Cabins of Wilsonia. For almost three years I’ve been working on a book of pencil drawings of the cabin community Wilsonia at Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park.
The process is documented here. If you click on the highlighted word “here”, it will open in a new window with my other blog.
Today and tomorrow I’ll be posting over there. I didn’t want you to think I’d quit on my real blog.
This is my real blog. Did you know that? I love writing this blog. Yeah, yeah, I know we are supposed to love people and use things. . . it is just the sloppy vernacular of my lazy generation that causes me to state it that way.
For over a year I’ve been missing from this blog about one day a week. You might have thought I had gotten lazy about regular posting, but I was over there.
I’m sorry for not inviting you sooner.
You are invited now.