Author: cabinart

Daily Paintworks

What means this?? (That’s how my niece asked for more information when she was three, and I thought it was so cute that I’ve been saying for 20 years since.)

Daily Paintworks is a wonderful online gallery featuring new paintings from its members every single day. I’ve followed it for a few years, and learned about some fantastic painters.

Recently, my friend and fellow artist Nadi Spencer joined Daily Paintworks. I don’t jump into new things very quickly (still successfully resisting Facebook, Twitter, Kindle and an iPhone), but I trust Nadi. We listen to many of the same podcasts, subscribe to many of the same blogs and often share information about upcoming shows and places to sell our work.

After thinking it over, I finally decided to join Daily Paintworks. It is hard for me to admit this, as a Regionalist from Quaintsville, a Central California artist, a loyal Tulare County artist, but here goes: The art buying public here where I live just isn’t big enough. It is time to reach out for a larger audience.

I began last week with this painting:

Orange #115, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, SOLD

Mineral King in Fall, Part 3

Since I took 273 photos of that weekend of Fall Color in Mineral King, I can keep going with this series for awhile. Tell me if you are sick of it! (or I can look at the visitation numbers to the blog and figure it out – I’m clever like that.)

Nature Trail Gold

Farewell Gap Golden View

Golden Slope from the Top of Endurance Grade

Sawtooth in Fall

Shameless self-promotion reminder: the photos are available for sale if you contact me at cabinart at cabinart dot net (in words so that the spammy folks don’t mess with my email). 5×7″$10, 8×10″$20

Mineral King Mineral King photography

Art History

I have art history. A piece of it arrived in the mail last week.

Bob, I’m forever grateful. You were one of my greatest mentors, teachers, encouragers and friends throughout my youth. Blessings on you, dear friend.

drawing

A Blogger, an Artist and a Business Person

That’s me – three-in-one, three for the price of one, me in triplicate, a human triptych.

Sometimes it is so fun just to show you what I am doing, to write, to be a goofball, to philosophize, and to ramble. Then, I remember that I am trying to earn a living here, and that perhaps I should tell you some of the products and services I offer.

I’ve said for years that I am a business woman and my product is art. That remains true, but now I am beginning to feel like a photographer who writes, or a writer who photographs and sells art on the side.

Easily confused, I guess. . .

Anyway, here is the list.

Drawing lessons, both private and group
Pencil drawings, both originals and reproductions
Commissioned pencil drawings, mostly of homes and cabins
Oil paintings
Commissioned oil paintings
Notecards
Indoor murals
Outdoor murals

There will be more, but you will have to attend one of the shows I will be participating in during November, or visit my studio on the first Saturday of December.

Cowboy Bert and Trail Guy aren’t confused about their careers. They are just enjoying a nice walk on a beautiful fall day in Mineral King.

Mineral King photography the business of art

Sawtooth on a Cupboard Door?

Usually at a garage sale I am overtaken by the desire to go home, fill a box with stuff, and bring it back, sneak it onto a table, and tiptoe away. Stuff stresses me out. Too much stuff makes me twitch, mumble to myself, and randomly toss objects into the trash or a give-away barrel.

There might be a mental disorder that is the opposite of Hoarding. I might have it.

HEY! I THOUGHT THIS BLOG WAS ABOUT ART!

I’m getting there; keep your shirt on.

I found a cupboard door at a garage sale. It was all alone, no cupboard, no twin, no handle. It suddenly looked like a canvas that wanted paint.

So, I bought it and painted it. Stuff with a clear use is exempt from my Too-Much-Stuff-Problem.

Sawtooth is one of the prominent landmark peaks of Mineral King, visible from Visalia. (I prefer to look at it, hike beneath it, photograph, paint and draw it rather than climb it or be flown off of it.)

Sawtooth on cupboard door, approximately 9×21″, oil, sold

It sold to a visitor to my studio on First Saturday Three Rivers while it was wet. As long as it was signed, she was happy. And if the customer is happy, I am happy.

Mineral King oil paintings oil paintings painting on a door Sawtooth sawtooth oil painting Three Rivers 1st Saturday

First Saturday November is Over

But First Saturday Three Rivers December is coming.

This is how my drawing table looked. I was working on a Wilsonia cabin.

This is the painting studio/gym/storage area/Trail Guy’s workshop. Please be impressed by my red chrysanthemums – I think the leaky hose in their barrel is the cause of their gloriousness. But wait! Notice the giant fruitbowl painting drying on the easel! When the three sides of the canvas are dry, I’ll flip it over and paint the bottom edge.

cabinart studio interior photo

This is the other side of the drawing studio. On the table are cards, journals (blank inside, $14 inc. tax), and the slightest corner of the 2013 calendar ($15 inc. tax). Too bad the air conditioner is so prominent. (So glad to have it during the summer.)

People came. They ate cookies. They bought art. It was good.

Want to come in December?

Three Rivers 1st Saturday

Mineral King in Fall, Part 2

I told you it was gorgeous in Mineral King in mid-October this year. Since our cabin is closed for the season, I will be stretching that mid-October Blast of Fall Color into several blog posts. May these photographs inspire you to do something good! (Don’t be cynical with me. . .)

Empire Peak in Fall

Nature Trail Aspens in Fall

Mineral King Fall Colors

Aspens in All Colors

There will be more next Friday, because Fridays are for Mineral King on this California Artist’s blog!

Mineral King Mineral King photography

First Saturday, Again?

If you are over 50, you probably are experiencing the rush of time. I don’t mean “rush” as in thrill, but rush as in hurry, fast, speedy-gonzalez. Didn’t I just particpate in First Saturday about 2 months ago? Nope, it was in May. Or was it in February?

See? I sound like an old person, which over 50 used to be.

In addition to the change in how time passes, there are always those questioning conversations, plus the ever-shifting definition of “old age”.

But that’s not why I am blogging today. (See? all those conversational diversions also go with middle-age!)

First Saturday Three Rivers is happening in two days, on November 3, 2012 and MY STUDIO WILL BE OPEN.

Sorry for shouting. I get a little carried away sometimes with the enthusiasm of actually having folks come to my place of normally solitary and silent work.

You’ll have to go to Anne Lang’s Emporium to get a map to find me. I’m not posting directions or my address on the World Wide Web for all those weirdo spammers to see!

The theme is Oak. Or is it Oak Leaves? Maybe it is Oak Trees.

If you come, you’ll have the best selection of my new blank journals with my paintings on the cover ($14 inc. tax) or my first ever calendar with paintings for each month of 2013 ($15 inc. tax, special deal for you only this Saturday.)

Lone Oak, oil on wrapped canvas, 12×16″, $250

First Saturday three Rivers

How A Fruit Bowl Painting is Like a Living Room

I paint in layers, particularly when a painting is very particular. (Heh heh. . . how is that for being articulate?) First, the shapes get roughed in (and I mean ROUGHED). Then, the basic color is laid down thinly. Then, details begin, but not too exact and the color isn’t too fussy yet. Because I know it has to be gone over multiple times, I don’t get too worked up about precision yet.

Since I last showed you this, I’ve added new detail to the window on the right and repainted the curtains behind the window pane on the left. The onions, avocado, 2 limes, 2 lemons, and 1 orange are looking good for now. “For now” because once the rest is recovered, they may no longer meet my new standards.

Next, I’ll fix the 2 tomatoes, the remaining lime and lemon and orange. That will show what a mess the bowl and the table top are, so they will need to be redone.

Then, I’ll look at the whole painting again and see if anything else can be improved.

It reminds me of just adding a couple of new pillows to the couch. Suddenly, the shabbiness of the couch is evident. Then, when the couch is replaced, the 2 chairs no longer are up to snuff. (What does that mean?) When the chairs are replaced, the curtains become unacceptable. Those get replaced, and then the rug looks cruddy, and on and on it goes.

I’m not showing you any photos of my living room.

oil paintings

Crescent Meadow in Triplicate

“Triplicate” is not to be confused with “triptych”. It means in three parts, but not the same way as a triptych. That means one painting in three parts.

Never mind.

I probably paint better now.

I hope so.

A customer stopped by my studio and said he’d bought a painting of Tharp’s Log for his son a year or so ago. Now he wanted to buy something to go with it, and he remembered it had been shown with a painting of Crescent Meadow. (If you have visited Sequoia National Park, then you probably know that one begins the walk to Tharp’s Log at Crescent Meadow.) Of course the painting had sold.

Doesn’t that sound snotty? “Of course the painting had sold.”

I showed him the photos of previous paintings of Crescent Meadow until he said, “That’s it!” He asked me to paint it again for him. By way of reassuring me it isn’t wrong to repaint the same scene, he told me the story of Gilbert Stuart, who painted George Washington over and over and over, possibly even in the same pose.

It did make me feel better – thanks, Bill! I’ve been doing the same scenes over and over for years and wondered if it was cheating!

Since I needed to paint one for this man who lives far away to give to his son who lives even further away, I decided to paint 2 of them. As long as I have to mix up the paint colors, it makes sense to me.

It is similar to Marilyn’s saying, “Cook once, eat twice”.

Now they are drying so that I can add more detail on top, including some wildflowers. Notice the two are not identical. That would be too hard for this California Artist who is working hard on not being bound to her photos.

California Artist commission oil painting Sequoia National park Sequoia painting