What a weird sounding title. Never mind. Have a look at the progress on the Kaweah Post Office oil painting for Chuck.
First I drew it on the canvas.
Then, I put the first layer of paint down.
Don’t be scared, Chuck! They all start out this rough. It is a long layering process, and I’ll keep you posted weekly on the blog.
The Kaweah Post Office is one of our only landmark structures in Three Rivers. I am working to help meet the insurance deductible to rebuild it because a big limb from a valley oak tree smashed the roof. (We are quite rural – perhaps a bear was in the tree eating acorns and caused the limb to break . . . I wasn’t there, but it could have happened that way!)
There is an auction on eBay to sell my painting of the Post Office; I will split the proceeds with them. (I gotta earn something here, dear readers – selling art is how I make my living!) It ends tomorrow, Friday, October 9, at noon. See it by clicking this link.
A nice man named Chuck told me he wants to participate with $200, but he just doesn’t shop on eBay. No worries, Chuck. I understand those types of boundaries, because I don’t play on Facebook.
So, I offered to repaint it for him for $100 and give $100 to the Post Office (that size normally sells for $150.)
Chuck upped his donation to $150 to the Post Office, so I got busy immediately. Here is how it looked after the first session on the canvas.
Normally, I don’t draw the image in pencil first. Instead, I block it out with my paint brush and correct the proportions with each successive layer of paint.
Because I will show Chuck a photo of the progress once a week on this blog, I wanted it to look better at each stage than paintings usually do. If he saw my normal sloppy way of beginning, he might get scared and withdraw his offer!
Thank you, Chuck (and don’t be scared!)
My business is called “Cabinart” because when I began, I lived in a cabin and I drew people’s cabins.
I still live in a cabin part time and I still draw cabins. When someone pays me to draw a specific cabin, that is a commission.
A friend asked me to draw a cabin that he borrows as a gift for the owner. I asked for specifics, and he said, “Do the voodoo that only you do so well”, or something equally unusual. He is an unusual person – no one like him in the world, and I think he is a treasure.
Sorry. Distracted by thoughts of my funny clever friend.
I drew it.
Not enough pizazz. Let’s add some color.
Still not quite good enough.
Nice. Commissioned pencil drawing of a cabin.
My friend/customer LOVED these paintings, including the extra thick canvases. Yea!
However, I studied the orange painting and realized it isn’t symmetrically round like an orange – it is squished on the left side.
Back to the easels. . .
Do you ever wonder about the origins of sayings such as “jumping the gun”? That is an easy one – it refers to racers (horses? people?) who take off before the starting gun.
In commissions, the “starting gun” is when the customer pays 1/2 down and we decide exactly what she wants. A conversation alone is not the starting gun.
I have had a recent wonderful reunion with an old friend (we are actually middle-aged, not old, and think we met in 4th grade but can’t remember). She expressed an interest in some fruit paintings. We didn’t decide anything for sure, and I didn’t even have the right sized canvases.
But, I’m having a hard time focusing and pushing through and following up. Sometimes life is hard, and it robs one of the ability to do everything one normally would do. Sometimes when life is hard, one just takes the easiest route.
(LBWR, feel no obligation for these 3 paintings – I just felt like tackling the project even though the canvases are thicker than the ones you saw and we didn’t cement the final look. If they don’t suit you, I’ll schlep them around to my fall shows, and I will still paint yours however you would like.)
First pass – wow, these are thick canvases. 
Next, effort into the orange because it got short shrift last time.
Looks good, and the colors are easy to morph into lemon colors. 
Wow, that pomegranate looks awesome, if I do say so myself.
“If I do say so myself” – where did that ludicrous saying originate? I did say so, myself.
LBWR, what do you think of these? I will be painting the sides dark green so they won’t need frames.
This is my real blog. The Cabins of Wilsonia is my other blog. Sometimes I am confused as to which posts belong on which blog.
After seven years of blogging, my default position remains here. Sometimes I have to remember that I have another blog, now that The Cabins of Wilsonia is a published book and I’m not obsessing about it daily.
So, today and next week you are invited to my Wilsonia blog to read about a commissioned piece.
The title is “Incompetence and Awkwardness”.
Does that pique your curiosity?
As I began the previous commissioned pencil drawing of a cabin, another customer notified me of his decision.
A, B, or C?
C!
A pencil drawing commission customer made a decision about which view to have me draw of her cabin!
A or B?
B!
What appears to be a slight difference between the 2 views matters to the customer. I am here to make the customer happy. She knows her cabin; I do not.
So many pencil drawing commissions are awaiting decisions. I’ve sent sketches and more sketches. Can’t start drawing until I know what the customer/commissioner wants!
Sketches, called “thumbnails” or “thumbnail sketches” were required in most of the assignments in art classes, both in high school and college (I went to 4 different colleges – a full-fledged Transfer Student) More often than not, I had one good idea, and the rest of the sketches were just a waste of time, mindlessly fulfilling the assignment. The reason for the sketches was never clearly articulated – just do it because the teacher said to do it. (As a Questioner, I despise that sort of “teaching”.)
Now that I am a professional artist, I know that customers need to see things sketched out because photos don’t do the trick. People also like choices, but not too many.
Too bad the “teachers” didn’t teach us how to guide a customer to a decision. My cynical mind says this is because those “teachers” never had any customers. They only had teachers, giving them time-filling assignments.
COME ON, PEOPLE, DECIDE, PLEASE? Please? pleeeeeeese? I really want to start drawing!
Remember these wildflower oil painting beginnings? First, I drew them with my paintbrush.
Stage two was to get the first layer of color down.
The real fun was putting in the detail.
It isn’t often that I get to paint with these colors, and it just makes my heart sing.
Lalalalalalala! LALALALALA!
Excuse me. Got a little carried away with that purplish-pink.
Now I just know you are singing too!
Top to bottom: Jeffrey Shooting Star, Leopard Lily, Foxglove. Yes, I know foxgloves are not native flowers around here, but they certainly go wild!
These are commissioned oil paintings of wildflowers. When they are dry, I’ll sign them, then scan them, then probably wrap and deliver. (It’s a wrap – another wildflower song in the can!)