What Happened, Part Two

Today I will be painting on the Ivanhoe library mural, Lord willing, the Creek, etc. The past two days have been seriously disrupted by many hours on the phone trying to solve the website problem, which also took down my email.

If I was a smoker, it would have been a couple of 2-pack days.

Contemplation

I really contemplated whether or not it is possible to run an art business without a website. Many artists only use Facebook and/or Instagram. Having dabbled in those several years ago, my gut instinct is NO NO NO NO. And NO!

There are no Yellow Pages, direct mail is cost prohibitive and cannot be easily updated, and I’m not inclined to wear an A-frame sign or a weird chicken costume and stand on a street corner. I don’t want to rent public space when I have my most excellent studio and painting workshop here at home, an easy 35-second commute by foot from the house.

So, my inclination is to just relax and recover, and then look into another hosting company. BlueHost used to be based in Arizona, and humans were accessible here in the United States without a robot on the phone to direct you to another country where some poor (but very smart) person with an accent (occasionally accompanied by background children or roosters) would keep reassuring you that they really were sorry for your problem and would do their best to help. It wasn’t until after a series of phone calls that added up to 5 hours (yes, I counted) when I insisted that the case needed to be escalated and stated that I will look for another server/host company that I got an email saying the problem was resolved.

Maybe it is resolved; however, my confidence in BlueHost has taken a hard battering, and there may be a separation in our future.

Techie Details

They upgraded me to an expensive plan, which I declined. They moved me to a more reasonable plan, which included a $199 “migration fee”. Then they neglected to “migrate” my site to the reasonable plan; on one call I was reassured that it had been done, and it worked briefly. Next, the email that is attached to the website ceased functioning, and I was told that it had not been migrated. WELL, MIGRATE ALREADY!

Ugh. Can we talk about something more pleasant? Let’s lift our eyes until the hills. . . from whence does our help come? Not from tech, that’s for sure and for certain!

More Tasks in the Painting Workshop

When a painting doesn’t sell, I study it to discern what can be improved.

This painting has been with me for awhile, so I gave it some thought and then made a few subtle changes.

I don’t expect you to be able to discern what I did to it, but maybe after it is dry and scanned, I’ll show you the before and after scans.

This painting has also been with me for awhile. It took about 4 years to complete because of not having a clear vision of what it ought to be. The photos meant something to me, but just didn’t translate into a nice scene. While I thought it was finished, it hasn’t rung anyone else’s bell

More thought, more study, and some useful input from Trail Guy resulted in this version.

Again, I don’t expect you to be able to discern what has been improved, but now I am hopeful that the right customer will come along.

Next week I’ll show you a more drastic do-over as we contemplate those finishing tasks in the painting workshop.

Life Lately

My life is full of random things lately. Some projects at church, a colorful scarf using up scraps to surprise a friend, walks by the river, minimal Christmas decorations, an oil painting workshop. And power outages, internet and phone outages, and road blocks.

Work consists of selling calendars and reminding folks of my show at CACHE* in Exeter, “Simply Home”, which ends December 29. Is that the last day or is that the day the show is coming off the walls? (Volunteer-run organizations tend toward squishiness, so I am unclear on the meaning of the ending date.)

2025 CALENDARS

Available here: CABINART.NET/STORE/

SIMPLY HOME

Sunny Sequoias, 18×36, oil on wrapped canvas, $1500

*CACHE HOURS: FRIDAYS 1:30-4:00, SATURDAYS 10-4, SUNDAYS 12-4

Avoiding, Obfuscating, Obscuring

Those words all describe my recent blog posts. I haven’t shown you any work in progress, only the pieces hanging at CACHE in my solo show “Simply Home” until December 29. (Have you been yet? Live too far away? I can ship paintings. Just sayin’. . .)

So, let’s enjoy a few more autumn photos from Three Rivers, taken before the storm. Chinese pistache trees remain the star in the landscapes; flowering pear is the champion outside my studio.

SIMPLY HOME

Sawtooth XXIII, 18×24″, $850

UNTIL DECEMBER 29, CACHE, 125 South B Street, Exeter, California

CACHE’s hours are posted on their website under the “Visit” tab. Scroll to the bottom and look on the right side.

Veteran’s Day, Chapter Two

When thanking the Veterans you know, embrace this observation from Army Veteran Charles Province:

It is the Soldier, not the minister, who has given us freedom of religion. It is the Soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the Soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to protest. It is the Soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial. It is the Soldier, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote. It is the Soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.

Fast or Good?

My drawing students are used to hearing me tell them, “You can be fast or you can be good; I get to be both.” Everyone still laughs, in spite of the obnoxiousness of the second part.

This is an indisputable truth, when it comes to the highly detailed, accurate type of drawing that I teach.

Alice worked on a drawing of her Desert Painted Sheep, nicknamed “Oughtie”, for several years. (Hey Alice, I didn’t mean THAT S L O W!) But things take as long as they take*. She was very meticulous about every shape, every texture, every value, and she did a fantabulous job.

I didn’t take any photos of the process, or more accurately, I don’t remember if I took any photos of the process. We discussed various background ideas, tried some different textures, and ultimately, she decided that the drawing is finished.

During the process, I learned that goats’ tails go up and sheeps’ tails go down. She made some good friends to play pickleball with. (My drawing students have varied interests and are some of the nicest people you could ever spend time with.)

Here is the final outcome, scanned, but not yet scrubbed up with Photoshop (the junior version).

The artist forgot to sign the drawing before she sent it home with me to scan, so she emailed me a few signatures. I chose one and placed it on the scrubbed-up scan.

My classes are full but you are welcome to get on a waiting list. If there are four people waiting who can all meet at 1 p.m. on Tuesday afternoons, I will add that 1 p.m. class.

*How’s that for a quotable truth?

Recently (ish) Sold Paintings

Seeing a collection of paintings that has sold provides fuel to keep me painting during a season of slow sales. This is a season of producing; November-December was a season of selling.

Eight New Things Learned in January

1.Quill Driver Books is a traditional publishing company in Fresno. Fresno?? How could I have not heard of this place? They aren’t accepting any submissions, but the books they sell look very interesting.

Reading Rabbit, AKA Salt and Light

2. Just for fun, have a look at this tree called the “wonky conker”. I don’t remember where I saw it, but it is a real curiosity.

This is a live oak, not the wonky conker, but I needed a photo here so you wouldn’t get bored with too much typing.

3. I heard someone say in an interview, “I’d rather have questions without answers than be told answers without being able to ask questions.” Amen!

Tucker and Pippin mainly want to know why we can’t keep the vehicles engines warm for them at all times.
Jackson’s main question is “May I have more food now?”

4. My feet hurt. I thought it is peripheral neuropathy (from 2 different podiatrists), but now I have learned that it could be Morton’s neuroma, something I had never heard of. I am figuring it out on my own, and not having much confidence in doctors right now. (I’m afeared* that it’s both.)

Could this foot apparel from 1979 be why my feet hurt in 2024?

5. No cussing in pickleball. Really! If you cuss in a tournament, there are penalties. The friend who explained this to me said it has to do with respect for the game. In today’s world of coarse language, this is refreshing. (I thought the pickleball players that I occasionally watch were just all on good behavior because most of them attend the same church!)

6. If you grow your hair to have it made into a wig or hairpiece, when it is time to cut it, it’s best to divide it into 4 ponytails, then cut it 1″ above the rubber band. AND, don’t cut it wet because it could mold. (Eeewww) Most places that take donations need a minimum of 10″, and some require as much as 12″. I wonder if I can hold out against a haircut for another 6 months. . .

7. Grocery shopping in new stores is kind of stressful; in one day I visited Sprouts for the first time (shockingly expensive and fancy), Aldi’s (priced about the same as Winco with much less selection), and finally I went to Winco with tremendous relief. Good grief Charlie Brown—I need to get out more if visiting new grocery stores stresses me.

I’d rather pick my fruit in an orchard than in a new grocery store.

8. You know those cartoons of pretty ladies from the 1950s with sarcastic and inappropriate captions? The originator of many is someone named Anne Taintor, and you can find 102 of them on The Bored Panda. So funny!! (Maybe other people have done these captioned funnies too, but I just learned about Anne Taintor.)

*I know that’s not a word. I’m trying to put a little levity into a rather alarming situation.

Variety on the Easels

Remember this?

I worked on all manner of small things. Here is the progression. The final one is too small for you to see my signature, indicating completion.

Next, I added a bit more color to my yarn painting. Ooo-eee, the colors are SO WRONG on the screen! Guess you’ll have to wait until I am finished and scan the painting to understand what is here

For dessert at the end of the painting session, I worked on the background of the rose.

At the end of the day, I made a list. Farewell Gap – sign and paint edges; Take Me Home – make those oak trees more believable, keep painting, ain’t no fat lady singing on that mess yet; Rose – paint the rose, sign it, paint the edges, give it a name; Orange Groves – the list is too long; Yarn – some blue? enough green? enough red?

The indecision is helped by a list, but not always.