Category: General

This: 

This week is cold. It isn’t even winter yet, but we got snow in Three Rivers, along with rain. I have been working on a little project in the painting workshop, but kept the doors closed because it is cold. This means it is too dark to take photos.

That:

I bid an indoor mural job for some people who had me paint this for them more years ago than I can remember. (More photos here)

This time they want small areas painted in 4 different areas with very specific detailed things: wisteria, trumpet vines with hummingbirds, boulders with lichen, grass and wildflowers, and a manzanita shrub. This might take longer than the redwoods, due to the fiddly nature of the subjects. Painting indoors is easier than painting outdoors; the only worries are dropping brushes and dripping paint. Drop cloths, along with knowing I can always add another leaf or two help with those very real concerns.

Etc.

1. I finished a 6×6″ poinsettia commissioned oil painting (too wet to scan)
2. I began the sixth commissioned Sawtooth Near Sunnypoint oil painting.
3. My painting pants, a recycled part of Trail Guy’s uniform from his days working for Sequoia, which I’ve been wearing since 2009, RIPPED! The fabric was quite thin – too much sitting on asphalt and rough boards of scaffolding and the bed of a truck. I should have been cleaning my paintbrush on the backside of my pants instead of on the legs so that the paint would glue the fabric together. I don’t know when they ripped, but it was while wearing them at home that Trail Guy noticed. (This was much better than when my skirt ripped while I was in town – see item #1 here.)
4. The last day for my show at Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery will be January 2, 2022. Here’s a weird thought: that was supposed to be the beginning of my show at Arts Visalia, the one that actually took place in April.
5. The 2022 Calendar, Places and Things We Love, is almost sold out. (5 or 6 left? only at the Courthouse Gallery – speedy quick like lightning, LET ME KNOW TODAY IF YOU WANT TO ORDER ONE AND I WILL RESCUE IT ON FRIDAY FOR YOU! – Order here.)

   *Have you heard people say “eck settera”? It is spelled “et cetera”, abbreviated “etc.”, properly pronounced “et settera” and it means “and the rest” in Latin. You’re welcome!

    

After I finished 3 more Sawtooth Near Sunnypoint paintings, I thought it might be prudent to do one more. This would go quickly (both the painting of it and the selling) at a smaller size, 6×12″. I chose that size for the Mural Gallery, who had just sold a 6×12″ painting of Farewell Gap. I thought this might be a good companion to that one, if they were willing to call the customer.

I delivered the new one wet to the Mural Gallery, then headed to the Courthouse Gallery for the day. Within an hour, someone came in who had just been at the Mural Gallery. She loved the painting but didn’t buy it because it was wet!

She walked around the show, and came back to the new 11×14″ painting of Sawtooth that I had just hung on the wall, replacing the first 11×14″ that had sold. I hadn’t yet put up a “SOLD” sticker, and the customer said, “That’s the one – I’ll take that!” 

Oh-oh.

Me: “Umm, I’m sorry, that one is sold!”

Customer: “Can you paint it again for me?”

Fall down laughing!

Me (after getting hold of myself): “Of course!”

Me (after customer leaves): “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? WHAT IS GOING ON?”

Me (next day): “I wonder if I could paint this scene now without looking at any photographs or previous versions.”

Trail Guy: “Better not try that if you want to sell it!”

 

“Solo art show” sounds weird unless you are an artist. Artists are honored when they get asked to show all by themselves. We often participate in group shows where there is very little pressure. We don’t even always attend the opening receptions, because there is a sense of not really mattering very much. (Okay, that might just be those introverts who prefer to be at home pulling weeds, not that we know any artists like that.)

Additional Details

The Courthouse Gallery has a webpage. THIS is the link.

There is an article in the Visalia Times-Delta. THIS is the link. (You might have to have a subscription). The article will appear in today’s print edition. The Mineral King District Association also has it, no subscription necessary.

The gallery’s regular hours are Saturdays and Sundays, noon – 4.

I will be at the gallery on four Fridays from 11-3, oil painting with some friends: November 26, December 3, 10, and 17th. Feel free to stop by!

Other Merchandise

In addition to the original pencil drawings and oil paintings, there will be notecards, 2022 calendars, Heart of the County coloring books, Mineral King Wildflowers and The Cabins of Wilsonia books. AND SNACKS AND TREATS, MAYBE EVEN WINE (only on Sunday at the reception!) (I don’t care about wine, but you might).

As of this morning, Monday, September 13, 2021 the entire Mineral King Road is under mandatory evacuation. The Paradise Fire (part of the KNP Complex Fire) is the threat. If you are someone who prays, this would be a good time.

I am your Central California Artist AKA a Painting Machine. At least that is what it feels like when sales are good and there might be a show in the works. This would be a show at a gallery, a solo show, in the big room, not “gallery 2” or as an opening act to another artist. More will be revealed in the fullness of time. Or as Dad used to say, “Time will tell”. 

This one has been collecting dust for awhile. Let’s git ‘er dun. Why not edit out the stump? Because that is a landmark that tells those in the know exactly where this is. (Just past the junction to Mosquito Lake on the Eagle/Mosquito Lakes trail. Or is it before the junction? Never mind, it is in the vicinity).

Never can have too many citrus scenes to suit me.

This one might be called “Looking East II”. (That is a Roman numeral two, not an eleven, which is what the 2 lines between my eyebrows resemble, which is why I have bangs.)

This is the view of Alta Peak that I get when I stand outside on the bench that surrounds my chimney. 

Yokohl Valley area is popular, and I have a good variety of photos with great color and light to choose from. This calls for a little bit trickinology, because the photo’s proportions are not the same as the canvas. But no one cares, and I am developing quite a bit of skill in the trickinology department.

Now, I wonder if the show will come to fruition. Hard to say with the Plague still lurking.

“You” means me in this context; however, if you are an artist and you might have a show coming, here is what to do.

1. Ask questions, particularly if the gallery is run by volunteers and is a non-profit enterprise, which means they are always chasing money and need you to do a great job to help them. A. When? B. Solo or group show? C. Pencil drawings, oil paintings, or both? D. All pieces for sale or may I borrow back from previous customers? E. Space for how many pieces?
2. Take inventory of your existing pieces. This is a tricky piece of business, because I have pieces in 3-5 places that could be moved to the show. However, the show might last 2 months, and the gallery is only open 2 days per week, whereas the other places are busy places of commerce that sell. Besides, how can I count the pieces if they might be sold before it is time to retrieve them? This calls for an estimate.
3. Estimate how many pieces, and let the gallery know. It is best to make a list, and include sizes and prices, because chances are the gallery will want to know these things. If the gallery doesn’t ask for this information before the show, provide it anyway. They need this information whether or not they know it.
4. Evaluate your inventory by size and by subject matter. Think about who the audience and customers might be among those who visit. It is usually a matter of geography. For example, if I am showing in Mineral King, I bring pieces of Mineral King. If I am showing to visitors to Sequoia National Park, I bring pieces of Sequoia National Park. Yes, it is this straightforward. (But if the show is in Visalia, I just guess.)
5. Look through the unfinished pieces to see if anything gathering dust might work in the show, any drawings that are still unframed, any canvases just partially painted.
6. Decide which subjects or sizes might be lacking, dig through photos and available canvases (because we might not have time to wait for a shipment of new sizes, “we” being the royal we, not a mouse in my pocket), and begin.

Now that is a mystery. Stay tuned. . .

Happy Birthday, SD, DV, MW, and RT!

Is Chapter 8 the final chapter? Probably not. This is so important (and has no deadline) that I want to spend time studying it, mulling it over, adding little touches, and taking it to the nth degree. This is one way I learned to paint when I took 1/2 a semester at the local junior college back in 2006 until I got sick of the commute and the rap “music” and the fact that the class was supposed to be in photorealism but the professor dismissed photorealism as “smoke and mirrors”, saying anyone could learn the tricks, but then he didn’t teach any.

Never mind. Where were we?

I started the roses in the foreground and really like the way they glow against the color of the road behind them.

This looks weird: one trick to know if a painting has enough contrast is to look at it in black and white. I will do this with the entire painting before declaring it finished, but for now I wanted to appreciate the roses and rock wall.

The rose garden grew, and it was very satisfying. (deer don’t eat roses in an oil paint rose garden).

Hey! There are books on the wall! Yeppers, it is for the library. They look better than this now, but I didn’t photograph them again for you. (No, I will NOT be putting titles on them!)

Now what are you doing, Central California Artist?

Glad you asked – I am painting the edges.

It is hanging to dry: look how it changes depending on the time of day it is photographed. When I decide to be really and truly finished, I will photograph it outdoors in the sunlight.