Author: cabinart

Five Senses of Fall

A few friends accompanied me to Mineral King over the weekend. It was a beautiful fall-ish time – clear air (could have been clearer except that there are fires within the Sierra Nevada), warm in the day, cool at night. I was struck by how fall can be experienced with all five senses.

Taste: the currants are abundant!

Hear the wind in the aspens – it sounds different in the fall!

The colors are beginning to change:

The dried grasses smell different:

The higher we climbed, the more nip we felt in the wind:

Mineral King

Studio Tour

Since the show at the Creative Center ended, First Saturday September is over, and the show at Lodgepole didn’t happen, my studio looks full and good! Thought you all might like a peek inside:

I sure can cram a lot of items into an 11×14 square foot room! Incidentally, if you would like to visit, you can call or email for an appointment. I will even sweep up the dead scorpions in preparation for your visit. 😎

Three Rivers studio

Love to Draw!

All summer I have been in conversation and planning for a drawing of a cabin. It has grown from a simple drawing to a collage, and the very trusting and polite customers have given me freedom to do it anyway I want. Often, the customers like to participate in the planning and be given a few choices and have a little input. These folks have taken a different approach, and it is a tad bit nervous-making, and quite a bit of fun! Here is what is completed as of today:

It just takes me back to my roots of pencil, commissioned work, and, well, cabinart!

commission pencil work drawing

A Pair of Minutes, continued

Amazing how much work can be accomplished when one sits down, removes distractions, picks up the tools and works for just a pair of minutes! You can see how this very large drawing is nearing completion:

The right side of the water wheel, brick pavers, some ground cover and a few detailed flowers in the foreground are all that remain. But wait! There’s More! – the final step in all drawings is the “nit-picking”, also known as the refinement stage. This is when little changes are made that cause a significant improvement – darkening the darks, lightening the lights, increasing contrast in the important places, sharpening the edges on some areas and blurring out others.

commission pencil work drawing

A Pair of Minutes

I’m trying to be in the studio/workshop for a pair of minutes instead of always being in Mineral King or at the computer. There is work to be finished, lots of work to be started, and people are waiting eagerly (and politely, thank goodness!) Just a pair of minutes ought to do it, figuratively speaking. . .

The customer brought me a 16×20 photo that he took a number of years ago. We agreed that it would look nice in the panorama format, so I “cropped” it using kraft paper. The sky color of photos is grayish in many cases; one of the benefits of being in the mountains is having an incredibly blue blue blue sky; that is how I’ve chosen to represent this scene of Sawtooth and Mineral Peaks. Have a closer look:

After it dries a bit, I’ll tighten up a few details, paint the edges, sign, and photograph it more accurately.

commissioned oil paintings Mineral King Sawtooth Peak

Annie’s Things

That is the title of a commissioned painting just completed. A thoughtful supervisor wanted a going-away gift for a seasonal employee. The employee played a role by the name of Annie, and these are the props she used. Actually, she had a different lantern, but it got taken away for a glass replacement. Boy was I ever excited to find one in my cabin that looked very similar. The hard part was that I photographed the items with a different lantern and then had to substitute the new one from reality. Merging pieces from different places is very difficult because determining the appropriate proportions and scale is sort of a guessing game.

commission oil painting

A large drawing in progress

This is the picture that has required 3 photo sessions so far. Yesterday I returned around noon, the time I initially photographed the scene. However, I forgot to take into account the changing season and new location of the sun. So, I now have the new photos with more visual information but the shadows are in the wrong places! That’s a workable problem – the other photos are showing me how to handle the light. I just may finish this next week after all!

Learning to draw, Chapter Twenty-One

I have a drawing student who has been very diligently working at her skills for perhaps 10 years. When we first met, my classes were full and the waiting list had 70 or 80 names on it. Her desire to learn was so strong that she asked me to recommend a book to her. As always, Betty Edwards’ Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain was my only and best idea. She bought it, worked through the exercises, and when space in my classes became available, it was apparent she really didn’t need drawing lessons from me! She disagrees with that analysis, but have a look at her work:

Today’s drawing tip is this: practice, practice, practice!

drawing lessons

Labor Day Weekend, Part 2

Labor did happen over Labor Day weekend, all projects not requiring electricity, of course!

A birthday was celebrated – note the gift wrap appropriate to the area.

This guy and several of his relations kept us entertained throughout the weekend. The busy-ness of the Golden Mantle squirrels always signals the end of summer.

Labor Day Weekend

Turns out the Park Service granted permission for the show, but didn’t convey the message until I was already off in the Land of No Electricity for the weekend. Hmmm, good or bad? A little of both, but a great weekend was had by all (even those of us who made no $$) Michael and I hiked to the Empire Mine area to return something that was borrowed. We were just finished with the very steep first 1/4 mile of the trail when I heard an exclamation of dismay from my hubby. I knew instantly that he had forgotten something, so I simply responded, “That’s okay, I’ll just wait for you here.” You may recall that with me, waiting is rarely a problem.

Notice how nicely the colors blend with the sky and the green of the landscape.

When Michael came back with the borrowed object, we proceeded onward and upward. We followed the cable and stanchions of the tram line that carried ore buckets during the mining days in Mineral King.

The borrowed object was returned, but this time wasn’t placed in full view as it had been originally found.

We visited the bull wheel at the upper end of the tramline.

Michael explained how it worked – I understood most of it, and appreciated the history lesson.

Would you believe there was a road up there?? I wouldn’t either, if I hadn’t seen and photographed it myself!

This is the remains of the tram tender’s cabin, fully visible from the trail as one heads down (if the light is right and the hiker is paying attention)