Progress? I’ve been drawing, so something must have grown here. The gate! I did the gate! With all those intangibles and texture, I needed to try something that had a definite shape and edges. I set up the drawing and stepped back. It needed a sense of a path beyond the gate, so I scribbled […]
S L O W
This project is difficult and slow, oh so v e r y s l o w. I often tell my drawing students, “You can be fast or you can be good. I get to be both.” Not this time. I am S L O W. Or perhaps it is the claybord that is slow. Or […]
On the Drawing Board
Drawing board? Drawing table? Drafting table? The piece of furniture where I draw pictures using my pencils. Now that we have that figured out, let’s have a look: Say what? Is that a typo? “Claybord”? A customer found 2 antique frames at an estate sale. She loves my pencil work and asked me to do […]
One Bridge, Two Friends, Two Paintings
A few years ago, I was hiking with a friend. She wasn’t familiar with the foothills of Sequoia National Park, so I took her to see the Buckeye Bridge. She exclaimed, “Oh my, that is so beautiful! If you paint it, I will buy it!” Being a realist (both as an artist and in life), […]
What Shall I Paint?
Have you ever wondered how an artist decides what to paint? Me too. What I paint falls into 4 categories: Things I know will sell Things I want to paint Commissions Reworking old paintings Category #1 includes Sequoia scenery, anything Mineral King, citrus, the Kaweah Post Office, the Kaweah River, the Oak Grove bridge and […]
Odd Job, Chapter Four
Finally, I got to the actual painting stage of my odd job. The Blue Moon Nursery got a 4’x8′ piece of very thick plywood, built a frame around it and painted it with multiple coats of white paint. This was a result of walking out to the road and measuring the existing signs. A medium […]
Odd Job, Chapter Three
My odd job of painting a sign for the Blue Moon Nursery in Three Rivers progressed through the decision making progress. This combination of type was our first choice. The style of Blue Moon is a little hippy-dippy, loosey-goosey, whimsical (sorry, can’t think of a rhyme for that word). “Nursery” looks solid, professional, steadfast, here […]
Odd Job, Chapter Two
It is a bit odd for a pencil artist/drawing teacher/oil painter/muralist to be asked to paint a sign. The owner of Blue Moon Nursery in Three Rivers knew we would work well together, so she decided to overlook my lack of experience and hire me for the odd job. (Odd job to me, but sign […]
Odd Job, Chapter One
Is sign painting an odd job for an artist? It depends. If you live in a city where there are sign painters, they would be a logical choice for a sign. If you live in Three Rivers, have a limited budget, would rather not drive 35 miles and want to have input, then choosing an […]
Odd Job Based on Mineral King
After many years of being an artist in Tulare County, and specializing in Mineral King, people often think of me when they need an artist. I get asked to do unusual things, which I call “odd jobs”. This one was a first for me – drawing in a manner that could be sandblasted onto granite […]