This is a commissioned oil painting of Mineral King. The Friend/Customer wanted a painting to fit a particular space and match some of her other paintings. This magical scene was her decision, and I am happy to comply.
Here we go, step by step.
Maybe something I learned in the plein air painting sessions is improving my studio painting. (Or maybe this is just a magical scene.)
I grew up with German Shepherds, not little dogs. Little dogs make me want to stand on a chair and scream, and then if I touch them, go wash my hands about 4 times.
A friend of about 35 years asked me to draw her little dog. My love for her is stronger than my aversion to little dogs, and I love to draw, so I said yes.
Meet Oliver.
(Stacy, thank you for trusting me with Oliver, even though you are well aware of my semi-suppressed cat disorder.)
Oliver arrived today and he is SO darling! You did an amazing job of capturing his likeness!
Dear friend and customer Stacy
In 1992, I did this commissioned pencil drawing of a Mineral King cabin. The one who owns it sent me a photo of the card she had left from an earlier order.
I tried to turn it into something that would print as a decent card. This was not acceptable.
The customer said she still had the original, and it wasn’t even in a frame, so I was able to scan it (after touching it up a little bit, because I draw better now (as one would hope, 27 years later).
Then, I messed with it on Photoshop Elements, and voila!
Printing has changed so radically from the old days. I’m thankful that the ordering and reprinting process is accessible from my laptop these days.
When my students finish a drawing, I take it home to scan and convert into a file that can be used for printing as cards or prints to share or sell; sometimes it is just so they can have a clean record of work completed. Sometimes it takes a few hours of computer work, but I love and appreciate my students so much that I just consider it part of taking lessons.
Here is a recently completed pencil drawing, before the computer work.
Lessons are suspended for the months of July and August; we will resume on the day after Labor Day. It is possible that I will have a few spaces available if you or someone you know is interested. (Tuesday afternoons, Exeter’S Courthouse Gallery, $55/month.)
P.S. When you comment on the blog, I have to approve the comment before it appears. This doesn’t mean that your comment didn’t “take”; it means I am not near a computer to release your comment. Thank you to those who go to the trouble to comment; I appreciate you sharing your thoughts!
It took me just as long to do the house itself as the entire background. Maybe longer. The drawing is 11×14″, which means the porch details are miniscule.
If I draw from top to bottom, left to right, it cuts back on the opportunities for smearing. The background hills are very forgiving, a good place to begin this commissioned pencil drawing of a very fine house in a serene setting.
I love to draw, and it is good to just sit quietly with pencils and paper, doing something simple that has no sadness attached.
In December, I took photos of a house. It took 2 sessions, much conversation, lots of thinking, and finally narrowing it down to 3 views.
Something about my blog has changed, forcing all photos into a square format; I don’t know why it changed and can’t figure out how to fix it. So, these photos are cropped here in spite of being rectangles on my camera and computer—more evidence of “upgrade” as a euphemism for “complication”.
The customers chose Option B. Tomorrow I’ll show you the beginnings of the drawing.
A little unfinished business here on The Blog: finished pieces you haven’t yet seen in their official photographic documented form.
I started a new citrus painting, much like a recent one (that is still too wet to photograph well.)
Really, it is different from the other one. . . see?
Citrus sells steadily in Exeter at the Mural Gallery, so it is good to always have another one ready to go.
Finished and delivered this one: SHHHH, IT IS A SURPRISE! And yes, I know the scene is cobbled together from places that aren’t together in real life.
As a pencil artist, with drawing as my first artistic love, a fun day at the easels for me is when I finally get to the stage where I am able to “draw” with my paintbrushes. This is considered a bad thing in the Art World; all I can think of to respond to that is that the Art World is missing out. So there.
But I am not missing out. If I persist, persevere and nevah nevah nevah* give up, I finally get to draw with my paintbrushes so that my paintings look like MY paintings and not something I picked up from an internet video.
SHHH, REMEMBER THIS ONE IS A SURPRISE.
Finally, I am pulling out all the stops with this one, painting it because I want to, not because it is a commission or because there might be a market for it. If is sells, fine, but if not, it will be exactly at home in my kitchen. There is no deadline, but I have to be careful to not lose momentum, lose heart and then lose interest. These are some of the risks to working alone at home, away from the Art World, but risks I’m willing to take.
Just living on the edge. . .
*This is something that Winston Churchill is reported to have said. He meant “never”, but being a Brit, he pronounced it “nevah”, just like Anthony Hopkins.
**”Gotta” is a word like “prolly” and “liberry” – fun to say, funny to write, and perhaps a teensy bit worrisome to the reader about the validity and authority of the writer.
I’ve shown you all twelve paintings at Anne Lang’s Emporium; if you want one and don’t want to drive to Three Rivers, let me know and we can work out the details (such as Paypal or a check in the mail, the Postal Service to you. . .)