Painted Flowers To Give, Sell, and Keep

On a rainy afternoon, I set up at the dining table in the house. I would rather work in the house when it is cold and dark in the painting workshop. That’s kind of a “Duh” statement, no?

I felt like painting but the two large commissions are just too much for painting at the dining table.  There was still time to sell more small pieces at the Courthouse Gallery. But wait! Maybe I’d like to keep a painting of a poinsettia.

I do this every year—paint a few poinsettias thinking to keep them for my own use. Then I change my mind and sell them, figuring I can always paint one any time. And then, the cycle repeats. 

I’ve painted enough of these red flowers to not really follow the photos.

See that 2″ square canvas? It is a pomegranate becoming a poinsettia.

This time instead of using 2 yellows, 2 blues, 2 reds, and white, I used 1 yellow, 1 blue, 2 reds, and white.

Here it is, shiny wet, ready to go on top of the armoire for drying.

And what is this?

It used to be a painting of orange blossoms, but apparently no one except me liked it. So, it is becoming Matilija poppies for a friend’s upcoming birthday. She doesn’t read my blog – most of my closest friends don’t. Kind of weird, but true.

2023 Calendars Available Here, $20 inc. tax.

Better When Scanned

This pencil drawing commission of a Mineral King cabin is finished. 

First, I went over the whole drawing with a giant magnifying glass and fixed everything that needed a bit of polishing.

Then, I scanned the drawing.

No matter how carefully I clean the glass on the scanner, there are always little black specks. No matter how many different ways I adjust the settings for scanning, there are always gray areas that should simply be paper white.

So, I clean it up with Photoshop Junior (Photoshop Elements).

Can you tell the difference? At this small size, it might be difficult to see the little improvements. However, I keep track of (almost) all my work, because I never know when I might need a good version for a calendar, some cards, some sort of advertising, to impress a potential customer. . . and to think I used to either make a photocopy or take a slide! 

Speaking of calendars, there are still some 2023 Mineral King HIKES calendars available here.

$20, including tax and mailing.

Juried Show Coming Soon

After my post called “Juried Or Judged?”, one might have gotten the idea that I don’t participate in such shows. In general, I don’t. Lots of artists develop a following by entering shows all over the country, paying entry fees, shipping art, paying to have it boxed and shipped back, hoping for prizes, hoping for sales, and likely, ending up discouraged and poor.

I don’t enter shows that are far away. I am a Central California artist, specifically a Tulare County artist who takes great pleasure and pride in finding the best things of this place I’ve called home for 63 years. (We may not qualify for a Trader Joe’s or a university or even for litter-free pothole-patched roads, but we feed the world and don’t you forget it!)

When there are local shows with nominal or no entry fees, shows that aren’t too much trouble to enter, shows that will keep my work and name in the public eye (where old and new customers can find me, because I came here to earn a living), shows that seek the type of work that I do (realistic subjects based in Tulare County), then I might be interested.

Such a show is coming soon. Artists are allowed to enter 3 pieces. It is juried because they have both standards and limited space. 

The last time I entered this show, my work was small and placed in a dark corner, which did not do it any justice. Many years later, my work is larger, brightly colored, and I have 7 pieces that I want to enter. I don’t know how to decide which 3 to submit. 

Maybe some of these will sell before the show; that’ll help me decide.

What is your Central California artist going to do?? Stay tuned. . .

2023 Calendars Available Here, $20 inc. tax.

 

 

An Invitation

Another Reception at Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery and Museum is coming Sunday afternoon, December 11, 2-4 p.m. This show is Falling into Winter, where I have three pieces, including this one, “Unspiced”, 6×12″. (Don’t you think that name is terrific??) 

Half the gallery is pieces relating to Autumn/Fall; the other half is pieces relating to winter. There is a wide variety of media (that is the plural of “medium”, which is Art Speak for “stuff used to make art”.) All is for sale, except the pieces that already sold. Duh. Thank you Captain Obvious.

Calendars

2023, Mineral King HIKES, available here: Calendars

You’ll need to click/tap on the link above to see the back of the calendar, not shown out of respect for my Most Faithful Blog Commenter who never allows herself to see what it is in it until the appropriate month arrives.

Juried or Judged?

This ornament was neither juried nor judged, although I may have judged it to be too difficult to try again.

Most folks don’t know the difference between these two J words; most people don’t need to know.

Many artists don’t know either, but artists who want to participate in shows need to know.

Juried

This means, “We might let you into our show or we might not. Don’t call us; we might call you, IF we deem your work worthy of our Mighty Event.”

Judged

Judging results in this: “Her piece is the best; we liked his better but it didn’t fit the categories so we gave it First Place instead of Best of Show. Yours is pretty decent, so here’s an Honorable Mention.”

Juried and/or Judged

Some shows are juried because they have standards; some shows are juried because they have limited space; some shows are juried for both reasons.

Some shows are judged because ribbons or prize money might bring in more artists and/or better sales. (I think ribbons make good bookmarks.)

Judging is extremely subjective, even when there are guidelines that the entrants are supposed to have followed. I watched a judging demonstration once, where the audience got to see the give-and-take that happens among the judges. Because of this negotiation and trading of favorites, an ugly piece got first place. I found it to be disappointing, but it certainly explained why award selections at art shows seldom make sense. 

The lesson was helpful, and pushed me to decide to not participate in most of those types of shows. My work is for my customers, regular people rather than those in the Art World Who Know Better Than Most. 

Gotta admit though, it is nice when one of those folks acknowledges my work. Still, it is better when I can satisfy customers.

Using pencils, oil paints, and murals, I make art that people can understand of places and things they love, for prices that won’t scare them.

(I’d rather get a check or cash than another bookmark: a satisfied customer is the best reward.)

2023 Calendars Available Here, $20 inc. tax.

Drawing in My Little Studio

This is my studio when the flowering pear tree (a leaning tree) was at its peak fall color. The smaller building in the back is where I draw; the closer one with the open door is the workshop where I paint (and where the cats are fed and kept safe at night).

Where was I before all that irrelevant information?

Drawing. Drawing in the studio, using pencils. Drawing a cabin. Drawing a Mineral King cabin. Drawing a commissioned pencil drawing of a Mineral King cabin.

(There. That should satisfy that greedy search engine’s demands for short sentences and repetition.)

Remember this?

It morphed into a real drawing. Here are the steps, some of which you have already seen (but I understand that you actually have a life, and may have slept since then or perhaps even drank a bit.)

Meanwhile, the rains came down outside the studio, pingety-ponging off the metal roof. How’s that for a description of the blessed, life-giving, relief-bringing, green-making, dust-removing rain?

P.S. The drawing will be better when it is scanned, rather than photographed in low light with a substandard camera. Thanks for bearing with me on this process. 

 

Dabbling, Puttering, Inching Forward

This is a scarf, knit for a friend. The colors reminded me of her, and I couldn’t decide between 2 different yarns, so I got both. It is really a dark burgundy, but both the camera and the computer lie.

None of our three cats are allowed indoors. Oops. Is that Pippin in the living room again?

Stop puttering and get to work!

I have two 10×20″ oil painting commissions to complete and mail before Christmas. This is tricky to accomplish unless I put down the camera, put down the knitting, and plant my feet in front of the easels.

It might be tricky anyway, because the photos are less than stellar, less than clear, and full of murky indiscernible things. 

After getting the beginnings of both those oil paintings accomplished, I retreated to the studio for a bit of forward motion on the commissioned pencil drawing.

Inching forward. . . 

Experimenting with Alien Pencils

As a professional artist, it is important to keep my work consistent and to meet deadlines. This doesn’t leave much room for experimenting, something that I view as a luxury for hobbyists. Hobbyists can do anything they choose, whatever inspires them, no deadlines, no need for a signature look (called a “voice” in Art Speak).


A number of years ago, a drawing student/friend gave me a super generous gift of some pencils that I had never heard of. “Graphitint” by Derwent are water soluble pencils, described as having “a hint of earthy color”, but are neither graphite nor colored pencils. After making a chart to see what this “hint of earthy color” looked like, I tried a bit of water on the swatches, drew a small picture, decided it was hideous, and just put it all away.

Recently my friend Carrie Lewis asked me to write another article for her digital magazine, Colored Pencil Magic. At first I told her that I had already written everything I knew about colored pencils. Then I remembered my Graphitints, right there in my stack of colored pencil boxes and tins.

I couldn’t very well write an article stating I had tried them ten years ago and then shoved them aside. 

So, I decided to learn more about these alien pencils. I chose a photo to work from and started another chart to pick the right colors and get a feel for them.

What alien creatures – soft like 6B graphite, but still different than colored pencils. I thought back to a great drawing teacher I’d had who only let us use 6B pencils, keeping a super sharp point. That gave me the confidence to dive in here. After all, it’s only paper, and I do know how to draw.

It was enjoyable, because I listened to Peggy Rowe read from her book Vacuuming in the Nude and Other Ways to Get Attention, (on her son’s blog “The Way I Heard It”). And it was enjoyable because I love to draw, even with alien pencils.

Enough. Many layers, like colored pencils. Lots of ad libbing, along with severe editing, and this little 5×7″ drawing with alien pencils was finished.

Five New Little Orange Paintings

5×7″ oil paintings of navel oranges on panels, sitting on a mini wooden easel have been selling well at Exeter’s Mural Gallery. One sold, the buyer requested another, and the gallery asked for 2 more. Those sold immediately, and the gallery requested more.

You can see the beginnings here on this post from earlier in November. 

I painted five more, moved them into the house to dry, and forgot about them! They were on a piece of cardboard on top of a cabinet that was above my eye level. They were certainly dry enough to scan when I remembered them.

These sell for $60 each at Exeter’s Mural Gallery. They look better in person, because in spite of a good scanner, the colors are never quite right on the computer screen. (You might have heard that here before.)

Calendars

2023, Mineral King HIKES, still available here: Calendars

To see the back of the calendar, you will need to click on the link.

Eight Things Learned in November

  1. Postal rates are tricky: mailing 1 calendar is $2.88; 2 in 1 envelope is $4.08, 3 in 1 envelope is $11. So, if someone orders 3 calendars, it costs less to use 2 envelopes for $6.96. If someone orders 4 or more, I have to figure out the various flat rate envelopes, versus packing in lots of single envelopes. Pay attention!! Nope. The first time I mailed 2 in one package, it was $4.08. The second time, it was 8.15. Never mind, Central Calif. artist: this is why the postal employees are there. And I still am not charging postage to my customers, because we all can use a little gift. $20, including tax.
  2. “The soft bigotry of low expectations” is a phrase I recently heard, and it struck a chord with me. The phrase is best used to describe treatment of some communities, as if dealing with an ignorant and unruly child. (“Soft”? Bigotry is bigotry, plain and simple, just as discrimination is discrimination, crime is crime, justice is justice. Modifiers just complicate situations.) This phrase made me wonder if Tulare County can’t get a Trader Joe’s or keep litter off the roads because we are expected to be oblivious to the finer things of life. (Wow, talk about “lowered expectations”! I am considering a lack of litter to be a “finer thing”??)
  3. When I take merchandise to a place to sell it on consignment, I need to put every item in its own cellophane bag. Thinking I was out of Wildflower books, a stack was returned to me from a gallery that had them on consignment. Yippee skippee! But, then I flipped them over, and each book has a non-removable price sticker. I tried a razor, coconut oil, and Goo-gone. Nope. Profit gone. Ouch.
  4. Then I learned that if I soak the sticker in Goo-gone and leave it overnight, the sticker peels cleanly! (This is after a bit of gouging with a razor—true price-gouging.)
  5. Found a weird word in a book: “whilom“. It means erstwhile, former, used-to-be, and is an adjective.
  6. Train Robber’s Daughter: The Melodramatic Life of Eva Evans, 1876-1970 is a very well written history book about the daughter of Chris Evans, of Evans and Sontag infamy. So many names and places were familiar, and I congratulate Jay O’Connell on an excellent book of local history, published in 2008 and still good reading. (And a place to learn new words.)
  7. After years of ignoring these, I finally learned a little bit about using Derwent Graphitint pencils, which I will tell you about next week.
  8. While sick, I realized that my infirm activities don’t differ much from my normal. Reading, knitting, emailing, texting, letter writing, writing my blog, surfing the World Wide Web. . . what differed? I didn’t get up early, walk for exercise, work in the yard, paint, draw, talk on the phone, or go anywhere.  So almost a completely wasted week, but not entirely.

Thus, we conclude another month of learning. (But is it truly learning if I can’t remember it later?)