Author: cabinart

Bowlafruit Critique

Last week I showed you this watercolor painting by Jim, who asked me for a critique.

This is what I told him:

“Wow, you are a get-‘er-dun kind of guy! Love the title too. . . (I’m puzzling over what to call my painting of the same scene that isn’t too dumb, obvious and boring)

“Your shapes look great, the textures are convincing and the colors of the fruit are bright.

“3 suggestions for a little better results (just to push it up a level):

“1. If the background part of the reflection is darker than looking out onto the grass (wow, so cumbersome to find words when if we were together I could just point!), then it will have more impact. This is because the contrast will be greater both between the inside and outside of the window, and between the reflections of fruit and background.

“2. Edges of reflections and shadows should be fuzzy EVEN IF they appear sharp in life or in a photo. It helps the viewer know which is real and which is an illusion (bring to mind that poem at the end of Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues – I loved that song in 8th grade)

“3. I know nothing of watercolor so this might be useless information but here goes. . . the shadows on your lemon and lime look as if you just put black there (could be the monitor, the photo, the airwaves between your town and Three Rivers. . .) When I want a shadow in oil, I mix a darker version of the same color. Often shadows will show in a photo as black, but we have to disregard that visual information and make the color be a real color. (stupid deceptive lying sneaky cheating photos)”

And here is Jim’s reply:

“Thanks so much for your quick response…I understand everything you said, and I appreciate it, especially about the shadows on the fruit. I didn’t know that, so, wow, that’s valuable information. I really thank you, also, for your encouragement. I want to get to the point where I call myself and artist and BELIEVE it.

Blessings, my friend,

Jim

“Oh, and feel absolutely free to use any of my stuff on the blog; that’s the purpose, right? Even throw your suggestions to me on there if you desire. There’s so much we can all learn from each other in this world if we’re honest.”

Jim is smart, nice, funny, hard-working, and talented. (Forget it – he is married!)

drawing lessons

Mineral King in the Fall

October is one of the best months in Mineral King. (The other great months are June, July, August, and September.) I went looking through my 18,693 photos to find some of my favorites from fall in the past. Since I’ve only had a digital camera since 2007, that’s as far back as the photos go. And, you’ll have to wait for my favorite photo of 2012. How’s that for a “cliff-hanger”?

Mineral King in fall, 2007

Mineral King in fall, 2008

Mineral King in fall, 2009

Mineral King in fall, 2010

Mineral King in fall, 2011

Mineral King

Bowlafruit

A man named Jim took drawing lessons from me. His real desire was to learn to paint with watercolor, but he is a very smart guy and knew he needed to hone his drawing skills first. After several private lessons (in which the student learns at an accelerated rate), he was off and running.

Jim saw my photo of the Most Beautiful Fruit Bowl I’ve Ever Seen and asked permission to paint it. I’ve got a strong attachment to all my drawing students, both past and present, and it is my goal to help each one further their art skills. Besides, I was flattered, so of course I said yes.

He sent the painting to me and asked for a critique. That sort of request can be weird between people. If you don’t know the person really well or haven’t established an honest relationship, it can be a real sticky wicket. (No, I have no idea what that expression really means.) Does the asker just want reassurance that his work is good? Does he want suggestions?

It is a very important part of my drawing lessons that we are honest with one another. Your mom and your best friend and your little sister will say “Wow! That is beautiful! You really draw good!” If you overlook their grammar and manage to resist the effort to correct them, you can bask in the praise.

It feels good but it isn’t very helpful. When you are among people who draw, people you trust to be kind while speaking the truth, and you are able to hear the truth without resisting and arguing, you can really improve your art and your skills.

You can learn both from being the critique-er and from being the critique-ee. For that reason, I frequently ask my students to let me have it about my own work, and we all enjoy the process.

Jim and I established that sort of relationship when he took lessons from me, so I felt comfortable telling him the truth about his painting. Here it is for you to see, and next week I will share the conversation we had about it.

Bowlafruit, watercolor, by Jim

Get Busy

A friend gave me a sign for my studio that says something about getting busy. I’m very obedient and have been busy. Although I thought I had enough paintings for the upcoming Fall Shows and that I’d be drawing ahead for the Cabins of Wilsonia, I’m still painting for the busier selling season.

It is wise to keep paintings of Sequoia trees and of the Kaweah Post Office always on hand because I am a California artist from Three Rivers, which is right below Sequoia National Park. Part of being a Regionalist from Quainstville is always having oil paintings of my quaint surroundings available for those who appreciate such simple and beautiful subjects.

River paintings are also fairly popular with my fellow citizens of Quaintsville. We love our little area with its familiar landmarks. When you are a California artist who lives in a place called “Three Rivers” (that actually has 5 forks of the Kaweah River), how can you not paint river scenes?

Who Told Me I Can Paint??

Remember “The Most Beautiful Fruit Bowl I’ve Ever Seen“? I was ambivalent about painting it. But, something has overtaken me. Courage? Wanting to test my skill? Idiocy?

Not only did I decide to paint it, I decided to paint it 24×30”!

Ooo-ey, Girl, you bin dropt on yer head??

Maybe.

Today I decided that I am a poser who just has been faking you all out. I started the painting and just couldn’t get things to fit.

When my drawing students can’t get things to fit, I have them turn their paper and the photo upside down. Today I found myself acting as my own teacher, because I was really struggling with making these shapes fit in the space. This is how I tackled this challenge:

I even resorted to putting a grid on the canvas to see if that would help my tortured self. It did, but now I am hard pressed to tell which are the shapes and lines to keep and which are the ones to paint out.

Who told you that you can paint?

No one – I just started, I do paint, and I still don’t claim to really know how.

Come to think of it, does anyone really feel as if they know how to paint? There are a few out there, prolly those people with 10,000 hours of practice. I haven’t kept track of my hours at the easel yet, but chances are it’s not 10,000!

Tell that inner critic to just shut up and let the inner teacher take over.

Yeah. That’s what I’ll keep doing.

oil paintings

More New Paintings for Fall

Plum IV, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $40

Pomegranate 43, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $40

Told you I had been painting! 😎

These paintings are available here.

oil paintings

Yes, I Cook on a Wood Stove

(This post is about life in Mineral King rather than the place itself. If that isn’t what you were looking for, you might want to change channels.) I cook on a wood stove while in the Land of No Electricity. The oven doesn’t work, the thing is not beautiful, but the stove top has served us well and it warms the kitchen. (Old photo, no bangs, same ‘ol Slop in a Skillet, and I’m sure that my baggy clothes are making me look fat.)

Twenty six years ago, Trail Guy was looking to buy a new wood cook stove. He had a brochure of the most beautiful antique reproductions ever – really elegant. We got married, I became more familiar with the cabin, and then I thought about how fine that new stove was and how much it cost.

Buying that stove for our cabin would be sort of like parking a Rolls Royce in a tool shed. I just couldn’t agree and asked if we could wait to find a good working genuine antique. Being a wise and frugal new husband, he agreed.

For twenty-six years it kept the kitchen warm, it cooked, it helped to dry paintings.

Twenty four years later, we had a bad night with our very old wood stove. We survived, the cabin survived, the stove even survived. Trail Guy did some work on the beast (said “with all due respect” which is what people say when they mean “yuck” but don’t want to offend anything or anyone and when “bless her heart” doesn’t quite fit), and although I was reluctant to use it, there was no alternative.

Our cabin neighbors had bought a stove, then changed their minds. They sold it to us. It sat in the workshop AKA painting studio for 2 years. We don’t jump into things impulsively at our address.

The weekend that I was losing my hearing and sweating my brains out at the show in Visalia, Trail Guy and Cowboy Bert installed the “new” stove. The Steiger & Kerr Toledo (that beast, with all due respect, of course) is gone and now we have a bee-yoo-tee-full Wedgewood!

A Rough Summer For Cats

This post has nothing to do with being a California artist, a Regionalist from Quaintsville, a depicter of local landmarks, Mineral King or Three Rivers.

It is a peek into the heart of a middle-aged, slightly-affected-by-a-cat-disorder woman who happens to have a blog about her work but sometimes just has to talk about other subjects. Try to be polite. It’s called “ailurophilia” and it means “love of cats” and I’m not as weird as you might be thinking.

This summer I lost Kaweah, my sweet little short-tailed black kitty. The cat of my walking buddy went bye-bye. A week later, Zeke, my giant blue-eyed loudmouth disappeared. Around the same time, the cat of my cat-feeding girls was not seen again. 2 months later, the great and mighty Nipper Castro lay down and died.

This leaves me with Perkins, the gentle and quiet survivor of 13 years who has seen 13 of his yard-mates get picked off during his life at my address.

When I first retrieved Perkins from a friend’s barn, he looked so common to me that I had to memorize a few marks on his gray and white tabby self in case he was dead by the side of the road and might not be readily known to me.

Now that I am obsessed with my one remaining feline, I want to show you a few of his unique features, so you can admire his regal, strong and courageous self.

Perkins has pink toes.

If you see him from the side, you think he has a normal tabby type tail.

But, look at his tail from the top side – isn’t this special??

Thanks for sticking with me through this non-Mineral King, non-drawing, non-painting blog post. I’m glad we had this little talk. Perkins feels honored to be the center of attention for a change. And hopefully you will appreciate the new vocabulary word.

A Thing for Old Architecture

Perhaps the reason I like cabins is more than just the fact that they are simple rustic structures, usually in the mountains. I like all old architecture, in particular the designs, materials and details from the early 1900s. They inspire me and I want to draw them. Sometimes I want to paint them (pictures of them, not cover them in house-paint!) Sometimes I even want to live in them. (Repeat until you believe it – “Thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not covet”)

There is a place along the shores of Lake Tahoe that just rings my architectural bell. Usually when people think of Tahoe, they think of a big lake, or skiing, or perhaps a fancy-pants giant home, maybe some gambling, or even a marathon (or in my case, a 1/2, which I don’t think about any more, thanks for nothing, Stoopid Plantar Fasciitis).

What place? you ask. (I can hear you thinking.)

Tallac Historic Site is a series of 3 lakefront estates, all maintained, one converted to a museum. It is under the management of the U.S. Forest Service (Dept. of Ag). I’d link to the site for you, but it really isn’t very informative or pretty, and my photos tell more than their site.

I’ve never been there between June and September when the buildings are open for tours (except when walking that 1/2 marathon but I was too occupied to stop; afterward I had blisters and didn’t care).

Instead, I walk all around them and gawk and wonder in amazed admiration.

I even like them when they are boarded up for the season.

The attention to detail must have employed many people, along with all the needs and wants of the owners while in residence.

Too late to tour the buildings, too early for real fall color. On the other hand, it wasn’t crowded and we could take our time ogling, oohing, and ahhing.

Oh please, Trail Guy, now that you are retired, could we build a pond like this? (never mind about the water shortage in our neighborhood)

New Paintings for Fall

In spite of not showing too many paintings lately and taking a few days away from the blog, I HAVE been oil painting with the upcoming Fall shows in mind. Doesn’t looking at these just make you just want a pumpkin spice latte?

Liquid Ambar (yes, that is the correct spelling for the tree), 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $40

Pumpkin VII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $40

Persimmon VIII, 6×6″, oil painting on wrapped canvas, $40

All these new paintings are available on the Still Life page of my website.

oil paintings