About the Kaweah Post Office

The Kaweah Post Office is about 3 miles up North Fork Drive in Three Rivers, California. For awhile it was known as the smallest operating post office in the USA. Now it is operated in a weird little way; the woman who owns the building goes to the Three Rivers Post Office to collect the mail and then brings it to Kaweah to pop it into the boxes. 

People who live near the post office are quick to tell you that they live in Kaweah, not Three Rivers, thank you very much. It has its own zip code (93237), so I guess that makes it its own town.

The building is very picturesque and old-timey, established in 1890, but I think the current building was constructed in 1910. It is also sort of falling apart. I don’t know what will happen to it. But, I don’t know what will happen to anything or anybody, and neither does anyone else.

It has a ton of visual appeal, which is why I continue to draw and paint it. Have a look at some of the drawings. I’m not showing you the very first one because it is downright embarrassing.

 

Drawn in 1999 (last century!)
Drawn in 2010 for the 100th year celebration
Drawn in 2018

Tomorrow I will show you the first seven oil paintings of the Kaweah Post Office. Not “THE FIRST”; MY first. I’m sure there must be dozens of other artists through the years that have chosen this little jewel.

Field Trip or Procrastination?

While working on the umpteenth pencil drawing of the Kaweah Post Office, I was struck by how stupid it is to guess at what is around and behind the little building. Why am I struggling with an incomplete photograph when all I have to do is drive about 4 or 5 miles and see the thing in person??

This is the photo I was using, and there is green chaos all around the edges. Besides, I took this photo in October of 2010, so I suspect things have changed.

Indeed, they have. I know the biggest oak lost a limb; I helped raise money to replace the roof by selling oil paintings of the Kaweah Post Office, donating half of whatever they auctioned for. But where is the little fence with the gate?Would you look at that? It is gone! But wait! I think I see it. . .That’s no help. Guess I’ll just stick to my old photo. The background works, just sort of scribbling in blurry curly growing symbols. 

Are you curious about the porch and the inside? Have a look:

After goofing off enjoying a spring morning outing, I went back to the drawing board. (Do you know anyone else who can literally say that?)

New Mineral King Cards For Sale

Last summer I had a hankering to draw some new Mineral King pictures in pencil. I did four of them without a plan for reproduction or framing. Artists make art, and I am a Central California artist making art of the flyover center of California, my main source of inspiration (along with liking to drive and to eat.)

This spring I decided to test the marketability of these drawings as cards. These are packages of 4 different cards, 5×7″, blank inside with envelopes, $15 per package. There are only 9 5 packages available. Through this blog post and Saturday’s open studio, I will decide if these are popular enough to print in greater quantity.

This sort of thing is just part of the business of art. Make the art I want, and then figure out if there is a market for it. . .

This is the insert that goes inside the package of cards. The drawings are too small to really appreciate on the insert, so I’ve placed them underneath. Scroll on, Gentle Blog Reader. What?? No Honeymoon Cabin?

Nope – sometimes an artist’s gotta do what she’s gotta do. (But she is willing to listen to customer requests, within reason.)

P.S. I thought at first that $15 was a little high-ish for 4 cards. Then I went inside a real store and looked at real cards that are sold one at a time. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? I was astonished at the prices, so believe these are a bargain.

Oranges, Completed, Sold and Delivered

As I showed you in yesterday’s post.
Completed in pencil (graphite)
With the barest hint of colored pencil.
Photoshopped for best reproduction in the 2019 calendar.

That last step after the photoshop thing only shows a subtle difference, but I wanted you to know that the business of art includes thinking ahead toward how a piece can be used besides just selling the original.

And the original is sold and sent! That makes me happy for three reasons: it is going to someone important to me who will truly appreciate it; it won’t be languishing in a drawer while I dither about whether or not to get it framed; it produced an income (not all speculation drawings sell).

Just Another Workday

One day a week or so ago, I painted in the morning and drew in the afternoon. This is what it looked like:

Piper was needy. He is resting his little head on my arm, not biting me the way Samson did.
Felt compelled to paint this view again; 4 days later a friend/customer/collector emailed to ask if I had this view available; turns out he wants it to be 16×16″, not 6×6″. Good thing I have practiced this view many times.
This is a popular size and shape, so my last canvas of this size became Sawtooth #29.
Finished? Sawtooth definitely fits this shape of canvas nicely.

Then I moved into the studio. It was a sunny day, so I raised the blind and saw this:

Hi Mike, the carpenter (not to be confused with Michael, the Trail Guy)
Here is another drawing in progress for the 2019 calendar.
The plan is to put a little color into this drawing of oranges. Can’t be considered an authentic Tulare County artist unless I include oranges in my rotation of subjects.

And thus we conclude another workday in the life of this Central California artist.

Shedding More Light on Those Lanterns

The lanterns languished. Finally, I reminded myself that I am the Mayor of Realville, the lanterns were too hard for me at that size (a paintbrush will never quite behave like a pencil), and it was time to make them go away.

So, I turned the painting into one of pomegranates.

Five Poms, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, $160 including tax

Still, I wanted to do something with those charming little lanterns. If it was too difficult a subject in oil, then surely I could draw them!

This time I had to change the format, because my intention is to use them in the 2019 calendar. I squished them closer together, eliminated a board at the bottom, and began.

When they were in progress, I took them to my students and said, “Do to me what I do to you – evaluate this drawing honestly!”

They told me to forget all the grass and turn the entire background into boards. Being confident that I have taught my students well, I followed their directives. You can see that the grass on the left side is boards; the grass of the right side is still grass (or hair or a weird texture of something?)

I also hadn’t yet decided how much color to include, so the lantern on the far right needs more blue. The shadows aren’t dark enough, and the drawing isn’t finished yet in the top picture.

Now it is finished, photoshopped for best reproduction, and I really really like it!!

P.S. The 2019 calendar will be called “A Touch of Color” and will be pencil drawings with a little bit of color in them, probably all Tulare County subject matter.

The Barn Drawing

Remember the pencil commission of the Michigan barn, drawn from some barely adequate photos? I think the grass and sky took as long as the barn itself. When I finally finished, I scanned it to email to the customer for approval.

He saw right away that the 2 tall doors were lighter than the others. Why didn’t I notice that? Because I was in the weeds! I mean the grass! (. . . don’t get weird on me; I’ve never tried an illegal substance in my entire life and that is the shocking truth)

Doors too light

Here it is with the large doors darkened a tad. 

The next step is to do the prep in Photoshop Elements so it can be reproduced. Can you tell the difference?

Barn Raising

Just kidding. I’m not raising a barn, just drawing it. Well, maybe I am raising it out of the vast whiteness of the paper.

I received these 2 photos along with many instructions. The top photo is how the barn looks now; the lower one is how it looked when the customer was a child and what he is wanting me to draw.

He also wanted me to match the size of the barn in this print, drawn (or is that ink with a watercolor wash or something else I don’t recognize?) by one of my art heroes.

Part of the business of art is communicating thoroughly and clearly with customers and potential customers. I realized that this job would require a sketch and approval of the sketch before I began, because there were lots of places for misunderstanding. I sketched it roughly 2″ x 3″, to match the proportions of the size the customer requested (measured in picas, so just trust me that it is proportionally correct). 

Got it in one attempt! Sketch approved, drawing begun. The photo isn’t great, nor is the printer. I am working primarily from the sketch and the notes.

A few hours later, this is where I was:

I told the customer it would be 2-3 weeks, but commissions always jump to the front of the queue. (2 poppy paintings need a final layer, there are 4 paintings in Birdland, and I still need a few more paintings of the most popular Mineral King scene because 3 more sold last week. Not complaining, just explaining.)

Do Over

A customer brought me a pencil drawing from 1995 with the request that I turn it into notecards. 

In order to turn an original drawing into a printed piece, there are some tasks to be done on a computer. First, I scan it, then open it in Photoshop, convert it to grayscale, erase anything that is supposed to simply be paper color, resize it to 600 dpi and whatever size in inches it will be printed, then convert it to a PDF and send it to the printshop, where she becomes their direct customer.

When I saw it, I thought it was a reproduction print, not the original. WHY did I draw an original on such flimsy and textured paper?? And why are all the trees on the distant hills the same size, evenly spaced and looking so distinct? Why is there no pencil on those hills? Why does no grass show between the slats of the fence? Why does that main tree look manicured?

Before I did any of those computer tasks, there was some serious pencil work to be accomplished.

Before:

After:

Ready to print: 

The changes are subtle, but important. My drawing students and I will see the difference, and I don’t feel embarrassed to have my name on the drawing any more.

Merchandise and Marketing Sense

Christmas is coming, and if I had any marketing sense, I would have been telling you about merchandise that is available all through the month.

I do have sense, and I sense that it would be irritating for me to keep pounding the sales drum. However, if you need a reminder or an easy idea for a gift, and I said nothing, I would have neglected my duty to serve you, my readers.

Choices and consequences. . . here we go. . .

  1. coloring books: there are 5 designs available. Heart of Agriculture, Heart of the Hills, Heart of the Parks and Heart of Exeter are $15; Heart of Mineral King is thinner so it is $12. They are available here: Coloring Books
  2. The Cabins of Wilsonia: the price has been reduced to $50. They are available here: The Cabins of Wilsonia
  3. 2018 calendar: all gone.
  4. pencil drawings: plenty of these available, both originals and reproductions too, some framed, some not. (Did you know I love to draw?) Pencil Drawings
  5. oil paintings: landscapes, still life, lots of sizes, 27 19 paintings available at last count (which could be fewer by the time you are reading this). Oil paintings
  6. notecards: lots of designs available (I still write by hand and use stamps and the U.S.Post Office – do you?) Notecards
  7. commissions: too late for this year, but there are always gift certificates. You may use the contact dealie or email me using cabinart at cabinart dot net (someone smart in computerizing told me to always write it that way in the blog. . . I just work here.)
  8. ornaments: there is no page to sell these ornaments, but there is a story here. There are 2 that I painted like the one for the White House 10 years ago, as seen in the photo above (the center one is sold). The one on the far left is $150 (plus tax) SOLD, and the one on the right is $75 (plus tax).

P.S. If you live in the area, we can figure out a way to exchange currency for merchandise in person. If you don’t live in the area, I believe in using the U.S. Postal Service, accept checks in the mail, Paypal and can use Square.