Yep, hawking those Mineral King tee shirts again. We are calling them Trail Guy Tee Shirts. Cute, yes?
Here is the men’s shirt in action:
This man usually wears a size Large. This is a Large. No problem.
Here is the women’s:
This is a women’s medium, which is the equivalent of a 8-10. This woman usually wears an 8, sometimes a 6. The women’s small is too tight. The medium is sort of roomy. It will shrink and fit exactly right.
We have sold out of Women’s Large. More are on order, and this time we have added Women’s XL, because the women’s run small AND shrink. We’ve had requests for sweatshirts (maybe someday), Children’s tees (probably not), Men’s XXL (yes, coming with the Women’s Large and XL order), white (sorry, we chose these blues), and long sleeved (nope, this is summer).
I am a spelling nut. Typos jump out and slap me between the eyes. (My own don’t – it is a fact that proofreading one’s own work is nearly impossible.) It sometimes feels as if I might have a form of Tourette’s Syndrome, except that I shout “TYPO!” in inappropriate settings instead of swearing.
Come to think of it, “typo” IS four letter word.
I’ve never forgotten the spelling rule “I before E except after C”.
Weird.
Think about that for a bit. I saw it as a pin on Pinterest. Might have been on a tee shirt:
I before E except after C.
Weird.
Now that I’ve shared that little oddment, I can’t remember what I was going to say.
I’m on schedule for the pencil drawings of The Cabins of Wilsonia. Here is a cabin drawing.
This will be a long post. I hope you will savor it, instead of filing it in the category of TLDR*.
The series, My Amazing Friends, began this week with Bob. Let’s continue with Barbara, also of Three Rivers, a gardener extraordinaire.
Barbara grows many plants, knows them all and is best known for her lavender. She is so passionate about her gardens (not just a yard, not just a garden, but GARDENS, plural!) that she works under floodlights at night in order to keep them in order.
Two years ago her lovely grounds were featured in the very first Hidden Gardens Tour of Three Rivers, to benefit the Three Rivers Union School, which is always in peril of closing or being absorbed into the Woodlake School District.
I had the honor and privilege of seeing the place on the official pre-tour, a return visit or two with my camera, and being present with my easel and paints during the official tour.
This year Barbara’s garden will be on the tour again. Tickets are still available, and you will get to see 4 places, including Angelica Huston’s place. Barbara’s will be the best on the tour, in my completely unbiased (harharhar) opinion!
Okay, getting too long, to be continued tomorrow. . .
I love to make stuff, real, usable stuff, things that enhance life both in usefulness and beauty. You can keep your pipe cleaners, glue guns and felt – I want things that function and that last.
I learned that tile can be used in many ways. (I was not kidding when I said I went nutso over this stuff!)
My friend Bill made the table and gave it to me to mosaic. The plan was for me to sell it, and we would all go to dinner. The table didn’t sell, I use it every day, and the restaurant closed. Thanks, Bill!
This drinking fountain is sort of low. So what? It is eminently cool, particularly with its matching stepping stone. Have you accessorized your drinking fountain?
This step had to be tiled twice. Don’t put tile on a rotting item. It doesn’t work. Don’t put a fabulous doormat in front of a tiled step. No one will notice the step. Everyone will notice the doormat. Everyone will ask if you made the doormat. You will have to admit that your friend bought it somewhere for you. Everyone will studiously ignore the step, and you will wonder if it is weird. You will decide that it doesn’t matter, because you love the step.
Would you believe there is more stuff that I have tiled, and more stuff that I have made, and more stuff that I want to make, and more stuff that I have persuaded other people to make for me?
That’s me. A drawing machine. This California artist has reverted to her roots of drawing cabins in pencil.
1. Yesterday I finished Wilsonia cabin drawing #92 and began #93. I try to always have one going on the table when I quit for the day. Then, when I return to the studio, there is no time lost figuring out what to do next. I can figure out the next step while I am drawing whatever is waiting from the previous day.
2. It is good to have close friends about the same size as oneself. Awhile ago, I made a list of things that I live by, including “Never give up the pursuit of the perfect denim skirt”. Because I had the thrill of helping my friend (aka The Captain) clean her closet, I may now own the Perfect Denim skirt. (On the other hand, it might be a weensie bit smallish. . .)
3. Concrete floors are cold; it is good to take slippers to work with me.
Yes, I did make them myself. Thanks for asking!
4. Would you believe my very fragrant paperwhites are blooming and have been throughout our weeklong cold snap? (stop sneering in Minnesota at what passes for cold in California!)
8. I’ve been contemplating the difference between inspiration and motivation. Perhaps there will be a blog post on that someday.
9. The local talk guy mentioned that lots of people are tired of being asked to “join the conversation”, sign up, create an account and a password, become part of a community and comment on blogs. I respect this. I will cease to ask you questions at the end of my blog posts so that I don’t annoy my faithful readers. However, you are most welcome to comment if you have something to say, or email me if you would like to have a private exchange or have a question. Interaction is always welcome. I just write because all that silence all day long means that lots of words and thoughts build up in my head.
This should have a BUY NOW button, but my shopping cart isn’t working and I don’t know if the shopping cart on the website is the same as the shopping cart on the blog and after trying over and over to get it to work with those calendars, I would rather make a paragraph of excuses than try to put a Buy Now button here.
SO! you can use the “Contact the Artist” button if you would like to buy this painting and we can do a little business.
Stop it. I mean SIXTY. Trail Guy turns SIXTY today. I am not making this up. It defies any category on this blog. It boggles the mind. SIXTY used to be old. It isn’t any more.
Is this how sixty-year-olds are supposed to behave?A 59-year-old contemplates matters of consequence, including the upcoming S-word birthday.Trail Guy is not stuck. You or I would be stuck in this situation, but Trail Guy knows how to back up and turn around a trailer in any situation. He’s more than capable, especially at the not so old age of SIXTY.
Whenever I find myself with a little waiting time, spare time, car time, or am procrastinating, I usually knit. Makes sense that an artist who loves to knit would also paint yarn, yes?
Loves Cotton, Loves to Knit, 8×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, $100
A very old friend of mine is hosting an exchange student from Russia.
Oops. My friend is younger than I am. We’ve been friends since I was in 3rd grade and she was in 1st grade. . . that’s what I mean by very old friend, not that she is ancient!
Mariya would like to be an artist. I met her during that very bad show, and she is sweet and sincere. She has to interview someone in the profession she hopes to someday join, and so she chose me. I decided to share the interview with you, Oh Fine Blog Readers!
Sometimes my studio is orderly and I am hoping it is in good shape when Mariya comes to visit so she doesn’t think making art is the result of a chaotic mind.
Why did you decide to be an artist?
I chose to be an artist because every thing else I tried just felt like a job. Drawing was the most challenging and fun way to spend time, and getting paid for it was a dream come true.
Did you always dream of doing this work when you were young?
When I was a child, the only profession that interested me was art. I thought it was unrealistic, so I kept trying on other ideas in my head but none felt like a good fit.
What do you like most about your work?
The variety involved with working as an artist is one of the best things. Always looking for subjects, learning photography, interacting with customers, drawing, painting, learning to paint murals, improving my skills, teaching people to draw, finding places to sell, writing a blog, meeting people at shows – there is always something different to be working on!
What do you like best, and what do you dislike about your job?
Whatever I am doing at the time is my favorite thing – if I am painting a mural, I’m just sure that I could spend my life doing only that. When I am drawing, I know it is why I was created. When I am teaching people how to draw, I wish I had 100 students! If I give a presentation to a group, it feels as if I was born to do public speaking. While I am writing, I am certain that I could write forever and never run out of words. When I am planning a new piece of work, it is great fun to take multiple photos from different angles at different times of the day, looking for the best light. I love working with my photographs, cropping, planning, designing and dreaming about how it will look in oil, pencil or as a mural.
On the other side, bookkeeping, record keeping, paying bills, collecting from people who don’t want to pay, and paying taxes are all tasks I’d rather avoid. I also find it more difficult each year to participate in shows – the physical labor of packing and unpacking and the uncertainty of sales while having to stay energetic and positive is just flat hard.
Can you give me any advice?
Find what you love, learn it to the best of your ability, never stop practicing or learning. The hardest part of being an artist is marketing, so it might be wise to be a business or marketing major in college and an art minor. And, it seems that art schools focus too much on being different and creative and not enough on skills, marketing, and learning how to make art for real people instead of for gallery owners.
Mariya has not yet visited my studio where I paint orange after orange after orange.
I paint in layers, particularly when a painting is very particular. (Heh heh. . . how is that for being articulate?) First, the shapes get roughed in (and I mean ROUGHED). Then, the basic color is laid down thinly. Then, details begin, but not too exact and the color isn’t too fussy yet. Because I know it has to be gone over multiple times, I don’t get too worked up about precision yet.
Since I last showed you this, I’ve added new detail to the window on the right and repainted the curtains behind the window pane on the left. The onions, avocado, 2 limes, 2 lemons, and 1 orange are looking good for now. “For now” because once the rest is recovered, they may no longer meet my new standards.
Next, I’ll fix the 2 tomatoes, the remaining lime and lemon and orange. That will show what a mess the bowl and the table top are, so they will need to be redone.
Then, I’ll look at the whole painting again and see if anything else can be improved.
It reminds me of just adding a couple of new pillows to the couch. Suddenly, the shabbiness of the couch is evident. Then, when the couch is replaced, the 2 chairs no longer are up to snuff. (What does that mean?) When the chairs are replaced, the curtains become unacceptable. Those get replaced, and then the rug looks cruddy, and on and on it goes.
