Reuse, Recycle

California artist recycles redwood trees into poppies.

I had a 5×7 oil painting of redwood trees in snow that I used to like. The longer it hung around and wasn’t sold, the less I liked it.

No problem. I have a paintbrush and I’m not afraid to use it!

Look at this weirdness:

Fear not. I have a plan.

But wait! There’s more!

Shocking, isn’t it? It will improve. I will show you. You will be pleased. (If you like poppies, that is.)

Winery? Mountain? Vineyard?

Remember seeing this sketch a few weeks ago? It was the preliminary step to beginning the commissioned pencil drawing of a winery.

After drawing for awhile, it is helpful to stick it to the wall and study it at a distance further than 8″. You can see the size in comparison to the 10″ square barn painting above it.

Is it a winery drawing? It looks like a mountain picture to me. Wait, I thought it was supposed to be a vineyard. It is all fitting for a California artist, doncha think?

More will be revealed. Stay tuned!

Peculiar Sights

Last week I took a break in the middle of the day. Yes, I know I should have been drawing. It was a spectacularly difficult week with 5 Bad Things to face, so I went for a walk, okay? Alrighty then.

I was just boppity-bopping along, enjoying the January sunshine, contemplating matters of consequence, praying about the first 2 bad things (the other 3 were in my near future), hoping my foot didn’t hurt too much, looking for things that might make nice drawings or paintings (later, after The Cabins of Wilsonia is finished).

Look what I encountered:

That is a little pile of snow. Look at it closer. It really is snow!

Sometimes it is just weird in Three Rivers. Perhaps it is just weird in California. Maybe I was seeing things. Maybe I should have just stayed inside and kept drawing.

And more books. . .

Salt and Light, oil on board, 11×14″, not for sale

(But why isn’t it for sale? Because it is too personal to me. Then why are you showing it here? Because it is the only painting I have with books in it!)

  1. Up For Renewal by Cathy Alter is autobiographical. It was well written for a dumb book, or maybe it was a dumb subject. Anyway, I ended up just skimming it at the end. She spent a year of her life actually following the advice in women’s magazines!!! Are you kidding me???
  2. Just My Type by Simon Garfield is a book I had in my Amazon shopping cart for awhile until I remembered that I don’t like to own too many things. My friend Don bought it and graciously lent it to me. We both have an interest in typefaces, and this is “a book about fonts”. I ended up skimming it too. I realized that I like the way fonts look, I like to see if I can recognize them, but I don’t care very much about their history. It goes back to a year of my life as a phototypesetter, and then a couple of years working at a printshop where I ordered type through several other phototypesetting companies. Just broke my heart to hear my graphic designer nephew tell me that Papyrus is a horrible type. It was confirmed in this book. So what? I STILL think it is pretty, so there, Cory!!
  3. Georgette Heyer was recommended to me by my current favorite writer, Carolyn Henderson, author of Middle Aged Plague (READ HER! SHE IS FANTASTIC!! Then remember to return to me, ‘k?) Carolyn explained her this way:

    Georgette Heyer was a Regency Romance (don’t lose me here) writer of 1920-1960 – comedy of errors, delightfully written, much good advice slipped into gems of stories.

    Heyer reminds me of Jane Austen. I tried with the book Bath. Too many words, too little action, people with nothing to do but talk about one another. If you like Jane, you will like Georgette. I keep trying, but I have really lost my taste for fiction.

You Know You’re A California Artist When. . . Part 3

It was getting a bit long yesterday so here is the rest of my pencil version of California artist.

5. . . . the houses you draw often have palm trees.

6. . . . sometimes you draw poppies.

7. . . and you keep drawing oranges because everyone likes them.

5×7 reproduction with color added, $10, email me to buy  (not on website)

8. . . . you wade through dirt clods in your friend’s vineyard to get good photos of grapes for drawing.

Sweet and Seedless, colored pencil, matted and framed, 12×15″, $150

Fruit on the Vine, reproduction of pencil with colored pencil accents, 11×14″, $20

9. . . . you draw lots and lots of Giant Sequoias and call them “big trees” but think of them as Redwoods because you went to Redwood High School

Redwood & Dogwood, 14×11″, pencil, matted and framed, $400

You Know You’re A California Artist When. . . part 2

That was so fun that I decided to do it again in pencil. Split personality? No, same subjects (California, mostly Tulare County), same tight style.

1 . . . you draw the beach.

Wood, Wind, Waves, pencil on paper, 12×16, matted and  framed, $500


Central California Coastal Pier, sold

Beach Birds, sold

Wave Action, 11×14, unframed, $100 (email me, it’s not on my website)

2. . . . and the mountains

Honeymoon Cabin, pencil on paper, 11×14″, unframed, $300

Crescent Meadow II, reproduction of pencil with colored pencil accents, $25

original also available here

Sawtooth, reproduction of pencil on paper, $20

3. . . . you draw lots of oranges.

Sun Kissed, reproduction of pencil with colored pencil accents, $25, 8×10

4. . . . and sometimes you draw your friend’s tractors.

His Other Car, pencil on paper, framed and matted, 19×26″, $400

Size Matters, 16×20, pencil and colored pencil, framed and matted, $350

7 Things Your Drawing Teacher Won’t Tell You

The Honeymoon Cabin, pencil on paper, 11×14, $400

If your drawing teacher is me, that is. These are things I would never say to a student:

  1. Sorry, you don’t have any talent.
  2. Doesn’t matter if your pencil isn’t sharp. Just use any old stub you can find.
  3. You don’t need to be able to draw – just go start painting.
  4. That pencil drawing would look great in a bright red mat!
  5. How boring – don’t you want to add color to that?
  6. You don’t need a photograph – just make it up.
  7. Doesn’t matter what it is supposed to look like – just express yourself.

I’ve been teaching drawing lessons since 1994 and not a single one of those things has ever come out of my mouth. Okay, maybe I had someone make up grass or dirt a few times without really studying it very well, but then we had to erase it and start over again.

You Know You’re A California Artist When. . .

(with thanks to Jennifer at Jottings by Jennifer for the idea)

1. Your fruit paintings are done from just-picked, not grocery store fruit.

Plum II, oil on wrapped canvas, $40

2. You’ve painted oranges at least 102 times.

Oranges 83, 14×11″, oil on board, framed in black wood, $250

3. You’ve painted poppies so many times that you’ve lost track.

California Poppy, oil on wrapped canvas, $40

4. You’ve painted Giant Sequoias so many times that you almost don’t need to look at photos of them anymore.

Sunny Sequoias VIII, 18 x 24, $450

5. It is too hot to knit, so you paint your yarn instead.

6. You get so excited about red leaves in the fall that you have to paint them.

Turning Leaf II, 8×10, $80

    Your turn! “You know you are a _____________ when. . .”

    Book Report

    This is an update on the The Cabins of Wilsonia, not a report of books I’m reading.

    Sometimes I put 2 drawings on a single sheet of paper because it is just that much less to handle. (read “lose”) And I am frugal with paper. (read “lots of things”)

    This is my Wilsonia stack of stuff. There is a pile of finished drawings and paper (Strathmore 400 Series Bristol Smooth), The Cabins of Mineral King for reference, the box of selected photos arranged alphabetically by street, the rolled up map I used while learning the layout of Wilsonia and its cabins, a can of spray fixative, the notebook I carried around while learning about and photographing the cabins, and a manilla envelope labeled PAGES. This is where I keep my “map” of how each page is to look. This project would come to a screeching halt without those little sketches.

    Now I am mostly finished with Alta, Brewer and Chinquapin Lanes and have begun Cedar. 3 streets (mostly) finished, 26 streets to go.

    Dang. That looks frighteningly large. One bite at a time. Draw, draw, draw.

    Too Wired

    Pencil drawing, “Loft Bedroom”, sold

    It is a frightening realization that I am very very dependent on electricity. My neighborhood was warned of a 2 hour power outage, and we were even told the time to expect it. Suddenly we were racing around to take care of everything that needed to be done before the power went off. Is the garage door open so we can get to our vehicles? Will the water boil for coffee before the power is off? Gotta fix my hair before my power tools are inaccessible! Better forward my studio phone to the cell phone while there is power so I can receive phone calls while down the hill! (no cell service where we live) Quick, check my email in case there is something urgent!

    What is this all about? Don’t I draw with pencil and refuse to use an electric sharpener? Yes, but if the sun isn’t shining, it is too dark to see the details without a lamp, preferably a magnifying one.

    I have lived very comfortably for months at a time without electricity in the past. Is this part of aging? Part of the creeping tendrils of technology, worming its way into my life in more ways than I care to admit?

    Probably.

    This California artist needs to go knit a few therapeutically unwired rows of a non-electric sweater.