Images of Home

The show at the Tulare Historical Museum will be hanging through July 16. The museum is at 444 West Tulare Avenue, open Thursday-Saturday, 10-4. I think everyone who works there is named Linda, so if you want more info, call 559-686-2074 (but listen carefully if you call in case there are other names involved.)

Please, someone tell me if I am sounding pushy. Seriously and honestly speaking, I would like anyone with an interest in Tulare County’s beautiful places or my art or who would like to just hang out in someone else’s air conditioning to see this show before it goes away!

And, Cousin Maggie lives very far away and requested to see the paintings.

Dogwood, oil on wrapped canvas, 10×10″, $120

A friend saw this at the show and wanted to know more about this gorgeous flower. 2 weeks ago we took a trip to Giant Forest to see them in bloom. That is late, but this has been a strange year. We had such a great time climbing Moro Rock and exploring around Crescent Meadow that I forgot to take any new photos of dogwood blossoms! Cousin Maggie, do you remember my dad annoying your folks by referring to the dogwood as “fried egg plant”? Why anyone would want to annoy your sweet parents is a puzzle to me!

This one is sold, but if you are totally in love with it, I can paint it or another similar scene for you. Just being conversational and friendly, not pushy! (Didn’t want you all to think I succumbed to the pressure of those pushy art marketing articles.)

Colors, a Studio and Gallery

I have mentioned Colors in the past as being a delightful place to visit. It pops up suddenly along Sierra Drive in Three Rivers, and the parking is a little squishy, but it is Oh So Worth the effort to visit!

Colors is the studio and gallery of local artist, Wendy McKellar, one of the most versatile and high energy artists I have the privilege of calling friend. She has begun a blog, and we had such a good time learning together how to use WordPress.com. We sat side by side in my studio with our laptops, and just clicked, talked and laughed for almost 2 hours. I was able to help Wendy because my blog is very similar but on WordPress.org. (This is a confusing, hostile and territorial move that computer people have done to normal people just to keep us, the normal people, out of our comfort zone – it’s a conspiracy and a plot but I digress.)

I have added Wendy’s blog to my blogroll, under the heading of Blogs I Follow so you can regularly peek into her world of colorful creativity. It is so encouraging to have friends alongside in the journey of making art and making a living from art.

More Cute Li’l’ Things

Here are the rest of the 2×2″ paintings. My customer has selected 5 and will return all the unchosen ones to me tomorrow. I will deliver them to Colors, where Wendy will display and sell them on little easels for $16.50 each. The ones that my customer did not choose will not be inferior – don’t be put off by their apparent rejection. Taste is an individual matter, or de gustibus non es disputandum, as my wise (and wise-ass) Dad used to say.

Images of Home

The show continues at the Tulare Historical Museum. The address is 444 W. Tulare Street and the phone # is 559-686-2074. I’d advise calling for their days and hours because their website is looking a bit wacky at the time of this posting. Although it is a museum with an entry fee, you DO NOT have to pay if you are visiting the attached gallery. It is a little confusing, but humbly speaking of course, my work has NEVER LOOKED BETTER than it does hanging on their walls under their lights! The show is up until July 16. Now, have a look at 2 more pieces:

Kaweah Post Office IV, sold

Spring Sycamores, 11×14″, oil on wrapped canvas, $175

The Kaweah Post Office is a much loved little building 3 miles up North Fork Drive in Three Rivers. You can read more about it here. And, in case you were wondering, sycamores are native trees in Tulare County. They like to grow in drainages and to live near water.

Guest Post

Today’s post is taking place at Chris LoCurto’s blog. Because his blog is about business, I wrote about business. This is the first line of the post:

“As an artist, I am particularly aware of the fact that luxury items are not in great demand these days.”

Read the rest of it on Chris’s blog, comment there if you’d like! He will respond – great guy, a privilege to get to work with him even briefly. In fact, when I read his blog, I think that if I had ever had a job at a company like he writes about, I probably wouldn’t have become a self-employed artist!

This picture shows how I feel when I get invited to do a guest post – warm and fuzzy!

Cute Li’l’ Things

A while back, I thought I was ordering a dozen of these little bitty 2×2″ canvases. Turns out I ordered a dozen packages of 5 each.  Ummm, oops. They are fun and fairly easy to paint, a good way to try a single subject. A friend/customer requested several fruits of this size. So that she’d have choices, I did multiple versions of each fruit.  She requested a few oranges too, so those are in the works along with a few persimmons. They appear below in a poor quality photo – just to prove I am working on them and not just sitting at the computer!

Images of Home, Continued

Here is a continuing peek at the new paintings in the Tulare Historical Museum. Of course they look better in “real”, but for Cousin Maggie and other long distance friends, this is the fulfillment of my promise to show the paintings.

Tulare County Barn, 10×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125

When I was a kid, I assumed this was the shape of all barns. At age 16, I visited Oregon, Idaho and Washington, and was AMAZED to see the different architectural styles of barns. Didn’t take much to impress an Ivanhoe orange grower’s daughter, who grew up to be a California artist in Tulare County. (Hey  Mr. Google, are you paying attention?)

North Fork Drive, 10×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, $90

Regardless of the time of year, this is such a scenic little part of this Three Rivers road. The people who own this building probably refer to it as their “barn”!

Images of Home

It has been almost a month since the show opened. Is that long enough to have waited before showing you the pieces created specifically for the show? Hope so, because here goes!

Autumn Sycamore, sold

Farewell Gap Afternoon, 16×12″, $225

Odd Jobs

My friend Nadi has just finished painting a window. You can see her fabulous work here: Blue Window 4

I have just begun painting one. Literally, not figuratively. (The subject is California poppies, because, as you know, I am a California artist.) I started it on the wrong side, because messing up is often my modus operandi, a little Latin lingo for you. I will scrape it off with a razor, flip the window around, and begin again. Practice, practice, practice. Of course I have warned my customer not to scratch her window because if she does, the paint will go away!

NEWS FLASH! – The customer and I looked at the window in the place where it is to be hung. It looks better with the paint on the back side of the glass than on the front, so no razor-blade scraping will be necessary! Isn’t that great!! Sure surprised me. . .

Links to Learning To Draw

In case you are a new reader of this blog and are wondering how to find the earlier chapters of Learning to Draw, here is a convenient clickable list of the first eight.

If you want to click on all these but get tired of going back to this page, just right-click on each one and open in a new tab. Then you can go through them sequentially without wearing out your Back button. How did a California artist become so computer savvy? By asking people and trying stuff!

Ever say a word so often that it ceases to make sense? I just destroyed the word “chapter” for myself!

Fruit On The Vine