And Another Little Painting Session

My plan was to get serious about the remaining five Mineral King oil paintings, to focus, finish, and move on.

I started with Sawtooth, the 6×6” version that Reader Sharon expressed an interest in.

Look at this succession of color mixing. My goal was a light brown, something that might be called “taupe” by the more sophisticated person and “beige” by a regular person.

Done! (You can tell by the fact that I signed it). The plan was to paint the edges when I finished the painting session so as to not waste the paint left on the palette.

Shape check! Upside down forces me to see things more accurately. (This technique presents a problem when working on a mural.)

Then back to front, layer by layer, color by color.

Suddenly it was time to leave to teach drawing lessons down the hill! No edges were painted, so no paintings were fully completed.

Another Little Painting Session

Suddenly after 2 months of lollygagging, it seems that my life is full of many extracurriculars at the same time that a bit more work has appeared. So, I will squeeze in little sessions of work as I can.

First, we had to go down the hill to Big Town. As a passenger, I was able to absorb all the scenery. The wildflowers were at their peak, although you can’t tell in these drive-by-shootings.

I got a pass on putting away all the groceries and headed out to paint, just wanting to have both a sense of completion and some forward motion in that little stack of Mineral King oil paintings.

I gave this guy a nose-job, “rhinoplasty”, and now am happy with it. (Terrible light—I’ll scan it when it is dry and maybe remember to show you.)

Moving forward on Farewell Gap, or “Mineral King Family Cabin” as I now am titling this scene: the distant parts first, leading to the foreground (the bottom of the canvas). Fortunately, the colors on the palette were still usable from the previous little painting session.

I painted the edges of this one and the edges of the little Sawtooth.

I did a little bit of tiny brush work on the 6” Honeymoon Cabin. All the greenery is still just blurry blobs, so it isn’t finished yet.

I have 2 more to paint of that popular subject; they can wait for another little painting session, and maybe I can finish this one then.

Ain’t nobody bored around here!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLDER SISTER! (She reads my blog.)

New Commission Pencil Drawing

My favorite form of art is pencil drawing. My favorite subjects to draw are architectural. It is fun to tackle subjects that really require thought, careful design, and a bit of artistic license. It is highly satisfying to turn a vague idea from customers into something better than they envisioned.

A customer presented me with one of those challenges: draw her home and the adjoining “granny flat”. She sent me two photos, one of each.

My first thought was, “Nope, these two together will make a really strange shape for framing.” I tried it anyway, and realized that I’d need to go see the two homes in person to figure out how they are attached.

My inner lazy chick thought that maybe I could convince the customer to skip the granny flat and only choose the main house.

Then I decided to go for the big challenge: a collage type drawing. It’s been while since I did one of these (an entire year—remember this job? And this one?) The two houses don’t fill a standard framing proportion, so I went to my default space filler: oranges.

The customer chose the collage, approved the oranges, and I started the very next day.

This is 14×17”, and even at that size, the upper house (granny flat) has teensy little details. I also complicated the job by choosing hot press watercolor paper, something I used to use exclusively. It is a little bit fuzzy, so details are even more challenging to achieve.

“How long does it take to do a drawing?”

“I dunno. How long is a string?”

I spent about an hour designing, and then it took about 15 minutes for the customer to decide. This one day’s progress was about 6-7 hours of drawing.

I know, I know, I don’t charge enough.

I just raised my prices again, so hush up about that!

How Fast?

Walking Partner and I noticed something different a week or two ago here in Three Rivers: new speed limit signs on a private road.

This is one post. 15 mph heading upstream, 5 mph heading downstream. (This is along the river—could you guess that?)

Here’s another one: This time it was 15 mph going downstream and 5 mph going upstream.

And here is another on the same road: 5 mph both upstream and downstream, but this time there is an explanation for those heading up. “Slow blind curve ahead” could apply to the bulk of the road.

And at this intersection, it is 15 mph regardless of the direction you head.

Never mind. Let’s look at some wildflowers along the walk.

This is the kind of sign I’m used to. Custom. Interesting enough to perhaps cause someone to notice.

Walking Partner and I walk about 3.5 mph, in case you were wondering. We used to walk 4 mph, but we’ve never been this old before.

(Neither has my friend GE. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GE!!)

About My Cousin—a Quick Roadtrip

This post is almost entirely personal. My oldest cousin died, and his family and friends gathered to remember him.

He was almost 12 years old than me. I always looked up to him, my big cousin, sort of intimidating, remote, distant. In spite of not really knowing him, I always loved his wife and felt more related to her and their kids than to him.

In 2012, I was doing an art show in Visalia, and out of the blue, Cousin and Mrs. Cousin appeared. I was shocked speechless—they were so out of context. Mrs. Cousin said I looked at them, and said, “Who are you??”

That’s kind of embarrassing. But we got a great laugh out of it and still are laughing.

A little while later, Cousin asked me to paint something for Mrs. Cousin. I was shocked, because family lore has always been that because of our Scottish heritage, we are all cheap. Ahem. Frugal. But more on that later.

Cousin and I had some great phone conversations, and he bought a pencil drawing that I was working on during one of those long visits. (See? All my friends and family feel sorry for me so they keep me in business.)

We saw each other a couple of more times in person, and Mrs. Cousin asked me to paint something for him as a surprise.

He lived 300 miles away, but I gladly made the drive recently to be with my remaining cousins for less than 24 hours. It was worth it. I decided it was a business trip, because Cousin was a customer, but I was planning to go before I figured out that little added benefit, which would have made his frugal heart proud.

Here is some documentation that it was indeed a business expense to pay my respects to a beloved customer who happened to be my oldest cousin.

About that supposedly Scottish trait of cheapness frugality: Cousin had his DNA done and learned that we have zero Scottishness. Zero! Kind of blew his joke that “We’re Scottish and Irish—we like to drink but don’t want to pay for it”. (I possibly could have some “Scotch” from other family sources, but I won’t know because I’m too paranoid and conspiracy-minded to take that test. I DO have Irish, but I don’t drink. So there.)

Mural Refresh

The primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. All colors can be mixed from these (except flourescent colors but those colors aren’t relevant to my art). Colors mixed with yellow fade the fastest. This means that green becomes blue, gray becomes lavender, orange becomes pink, and brown turns purple.

I first painted this mural at home in 2008 because I had to practice painting large outdoor pictures with acrylic mural paints. If it was awful, I could just paint it out.

It has needed refreshing several times. Here is the most recent version.

The sky got patchy because I smeared on some of the wrong sky color by accident*; the distant trees turned periwinkle blue; all the greens are grayish blueish green.

Let’s go. Sky first, of course. I though I’d only fix the sky and the rest would be fine. I thought wrong.

Jackson was on standby in case I climbed off the ladder to feed him. I didn’t.
Tucker and Pippin were around but not interested.

The colors are truer now. But the sky probably could use a few clouds, those wispy types that were in the mural earlier. Some other time. . . Instead, I repainted the white border, and then the walk-in door frame, and then the windows of the studio. Way leads on to way. . .

Then I pulled weeds. No photos. But you can look at my studio through the flowers.

Maybe March is my favorite month.

Nope. That terrible time change. I thought we voted to stop the madness.

Never mind. February is still number one.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOUNGER SISTER (who probably doesn’t bother reading my blog.)

*The idea was to paint out bird poop, but the sky color had been altered for the Ivanhoe Library mural so it didn’t match.

Better Bit By Bit

Dutch iris are my favorite domestic flowers. I’ve painted them multiple times through the years.

Recently, I pulled one out of Kaweah Arts because I thought of a way to make it better. After sprucing it up, I thought you might appreciate seeing all the changes on this painting through the years.

First time

Better

Repaired and scanned:

Repaired, scanned, and fixed on the laptop to look like the actual painting:

Phooey, I think I need to replace the scanner.

Meanwhile, the painting is now looking most totally excellent (because they always looks better in person than on screens) and can be yours for $75 (plus tax if you are in California and shipping.)

Quick and Cold

This collage in pencil is of several Visalia landmarks.

The other day I had to go to Visalia (AKA Big Town) for the morning. In the afternoon, there were pressing responsibilities on the computer (scan some things, email them to folks who had requested such things, try a few more adaptations to the cover of the book I am working on (as editor and designer, not as author), and finally, I went out to paint.

Why? It was kind of cold out there, maybe 50°. That should be no excuse. I went out to paint, because incomplete paintings don’t sell. I had been studying my photos of Three Rivers the previous evening, thinking about sales, thinking about what I haven’t painted in awhile, and thinking about the local businesses who sell my paintings. There are a few new things I want to try.

No, it wasn’t as cold as this but I thought you might enjoy this pencil drawing of the Pear Lake Ski Hut.

Try? Yeah, as in “can I do a good job?” and “will this sell?”

Most of my current customers are visitors, travelers passing through Three Rivers. They want something indicative of their visit, preferably on the lower end of the price spectrum, small enough to fit into luggage and small enough to not skew their home decor.

Enough bloviating.

First I looked at the unfinished pieces.

While briefly considering what was necessary for completion, I felt a cold breeze on the back of my neck and realized I didn’t want to sit there while concentrating on details.

Instead, I chose to do something quick. Some things quick. Some quick things.

Never mind.

Choosing the photos, choosing the sizes, digging the canvases out of the supply shelves, assigning inventory numbers, attaching hanging hardware, and slapping on a first thin layer.

OUTTA HERE! Back to the house by the woodstove. THANK YOU, TRAIL GUY for keeping the home fires burning.

Selling While Acting Semi-Retired

You may have noticed that I have been lollygagging quite a bit this year. I remember my dad describing himself as “semi-retired” when he was the age I am now. I think that is beginning to describe me. Go for a walk, hang out with some friends, organize some stuff, do a freebie job at church, organize some more stuff, do some errands… What? me work? maybe later… I’m busy.

However, due to the diligence of Stem & Stone along with Kaweah Arts, and a long-time reputation, there have been a few sales in the last several months. These are the ones I have remembered to keep track of.

This is probably the last time I will paint the Kaweah Post Office. It has been closed for several years, and it took several years for this painting to find a buyer.

I think these are the Sequoia Giganteas that was sold by Stem & Stone. If I forget to ask the seller for the inventory number, then I get confused as to which trees have sold. These 3 were actually very small: 4×12”, but I can’t make them proportionately small here on the blog.

I showed you these two while they were in progress. The first was 6×18”, painted for general inventory and the other 12×36”, a commission. I did the first as an experiment to see how it would work; the second one has more details as requested by the customer.

I don’t remember the circumstances of the sale of this one, titled Hiking Mineral King.

This 6×12″ was fun. I titled it Big Tree, Little Cow.

A newish cabin owner in Wilsonia discovered my book The Cabins of Wilsonia and was thrilled to find that the original drawing of her cabin was still available.

Then she discovered my website and found another pencil drawing to go with her cabin.

These sold last fall but I haven’t done a Sold post since last summer.

I thought that nothing was selling except notecards, but I was wrong. Maybe I should go back to the easels and stop with the lollygagging around. I can always put down my brushes and head out to pull weeds or take a walk or read a book (THANK YOU, READER/FRIEND LAURIE FOR ALL THE BOOK SUGGESTIONS!) while the paint is drying.

Using Tech with a Pencil Drawing

When one of my drawing students or I finish a drawing, we often like to get it reproduced as prints, notecards, for a business card or a brochure, in a portfolio of work. . . so many potential uses!

Back in the olden days, pencil was very difficult to reproduce either on a copy machine or a printing press. Now we have computers, which everyone knows can solve all the world’s problems.

Fall down laughing.

Now, with a scanner and Photoshop Elements (AKA Photoshop Jr.), I am able to prepare pencil drawings for reproduction. (This is a service I provide free of charge for my drawing students but I do charge customers because it can be a somewhat lengthy process.)

BEFORE

AFTER

Prolly time to buy a new scanner because mine is adding colors that do not belong. Ugh, shopping for tech products: the scanner quit working when I updated my laptop in 2017 (to a 2015 model), so I have to keep my old laptop in order to use it. The pieces and products and devices continue to multiply.

P.S. THANK YOU, LOU, FOR ALLOWING ME TO SHOW OFF YOUR FANTASTIC PENCIL DRAWING OF MORO ROCK IN SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK!