Boutique Ahead, Paint Fast

The Lemon Cove Womans Club’s Harvest Boutique will be on Saturday. This coming Saturday, October 20, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Gotta get some things ready to sell!

These fruit and blossom paintings are on 5×7″ boards, to be displayed on mini easels. This is how they looked after the first pass over the boards.

 

Then, I decided there weren’t enough oils on canvas, so I quickly finished the 4×6″ pomegranate and added the pumpkins and Redwood with Dogwood. These are all forgiving subjects, so I can paint them a bit faster than architectural subjects, or Mineral King scenes with recognizable peaks.

Hot Wheels

Does it seem as if I am obsessed with Hot Wheels? My older sister’s first car was a ’68 Mustang, which was thrilling after only having giant station wagons and farm pickups at our address. Then I discovered Honda Accords, and have owned nothing but since about 1981. (This topic doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the business of art, but I do like good cars, and this is my blog. So there.)

My friend has a great looking 2007 Mustang convertible. Her mom bought it for herself on her 80th birthday, and my friend inherited it.

Samson liked it.

It appeared in my coloring book.

It was parked outside the workshop when I handed my friend the binder of drawings for the first coloring book. She is a quiet person, and when she was finished looking through the pages, she looked outside and calmly said, “Did I see my car”? I’d like to be calm, but I probably said something like, “HAR HAR HA HA HA IT SURE IS!”

And I like it.

But, I still wouldn’t dream of owning a car that my mechanic of the past 35 years won’t work on. Foreign Auto Works in Visalia only works on Honda, Acura, Toyota, and Lexus. So, Hot Wheels is just for fun, not something I aspire to. And it is fun, indeed!

More Solds

“Solds”? Is this really a noun? It is my world. Clearly the 6×18″ size is hot right now. Good thing I just ordered more canvases that size. I have several new ideas to paint in that format, so stay tuned.

Sawtooth Peak Oil Painting Continued

The layers continue to build on Sawtooth Peak, an oil painting.

As it was when you last saw it:

Another layer added to the sky:Another layer added to Sawtooth:

Another layer added to the lower ridges:

And more added to the lower ridges:Yo, Professor Layer, may I be finished with the sky and the peak and the lower ridges now? (Can you see Trail Guy’s visor in the background as he adds grommets to the Kaweah Artisans banner?)

When this dries, I’ll put in branches at the bottom edges. I think this wants greenery, or maybe it is fine as it is. . .

What do you think??

 

You Know You are Middle-aged When. . .

Rapid Change*, pencil drawing, title indicative of life as a middle-aged being

An older and wiser friend reminds me from time to time that life is like a roll of toilet paper–the closer to the end, the faster it goes.

I’ve been thinking lately that you know you are middle-aged when. . .

. . . you prefer hiking uphill to downhill because your knees kill you going downhill.

. . . you choose not to watch a movie because you don’t want to shuffle 3 remote controls and don’t understand why it is even necessary.

. . . your pastor, doctor and the president are all younger than you. (Not so with the current president, in case you were wondering.)

. . . you go to your class reunion and can’t find your friends among all the old people.

. . . you know the words to the orchestrated songs in the grocery store.

. . . you notice young people driving too fast instead of old people driving too slow.

. . . you recognize the word “update” as a euphemism for “complications and trouble ahead”.

Do you have anything to add to this list?

*Rapid Change is available for sale here.

 

Drawing Mineral King

It is Friday, and the only new thing I have to show you of Mineral King is a drawing. My weekends have been taken with memorial services (one last Saturday and another one tomorrow), drawing workshops, art receptions, business presentations. 

I’m not complaining, just ‘splaining.

The drawing is new. The scene is old, or perhaps “classic” is the right word.

Pencil drawing, “Mineral King From The Bridge”, 9×12″, unframed, unpriced, uncertain.

It has been awhile since I drew anything of Mineral King (except for water). Maybe a series of pencil drawings of Mineral King would sell as reproduction prints. Cards? Too much money to print, too little profit. But I’ll give that some thought too.

Want a laugh? Look at how I drew this scene in 1987.

Growth is good, unless you are a cancer cell. 

 

How to Get My Blog

Sometimes when I tell a friend that he can see something on my blog, I hear one of the following replies:

  1. I don’t get your blog.
  2. I’m not on Facebook.
  3. What’s a blog?
  4. I don’t do blogs.

Here are my answers to those replies:

  1. Nothing to “get” – you can visit The Google* and type in www.cabinart.net and it will take you to my website. Then click or tap the word “Blog” on the menu and it will take you there OR YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE.
  2. See the word “Blog”? I put a red oval around it so you can find it easier in this picture example.
  3. I’m not on Facebook either. My blog is on my website, not on Facebook.
  4. “Blog” is a shortened term from “web log”. It is a journal or log (but not a diary – there are no secrets on the World Wide Web!) that is kept on a website.
  5. Nothing to do on a blog except read and enjoy; commenting is optional.

Look at this picture of my blog page. I’ve circled the part where you can subscribe. If you do so, you will get an email confirmation. You have to follow the link in the email in order to begin getting my blog.

You, yes, little ole you, can join the tens of readers who subscribe to my blog. Then you too will finally get my blog!

Thank you for reading to the bottom. You deserve a gold star. Too bad I only know how to make red stars. Let’s call it a proverbial gold star. 

Sorry. I must be overheated.

*The Google – Sometimes I say “Mr. Google” and a friend says “Uncle Google”. 

The Rest of the Stories

Remember Paul Harvey? We had to be quiet during lunch so my parents could listen to him every day at noon when we were home from school. He would tell a story sometimes with a surprise ending, and then he would say, “And now you know. . . (long, very long, very very long extended pause). . . the REST of the story.”

Remember the pencil drawing of the walnut grove? The recipient loved it. 

Remember the very difficult and (for me) very large painting of the Oak Grove bridge?

It is finished. It now hangs in my dining room, because I am really happy with it. If you want to buy it, it can hang in your dining room.

Oak Grove Bridge IXX, 24×30″, oil on wrapped canvas, $1500 (plus tax)

Remember a painting I did of a trail in Mineral King? I improved on it a bit. Without showing you the old version, you might not recognize the improvements. 

 

Mineral King Trail, 11×14″, oil on canvas, $275

Remember the habañeros? The commissioned oil painting is finished. I still don’t know how to dispose of the peppers themselves. If I bury them in the garden, they might grow new ones. . . can’t be growing toxic waste in my yard that way. . . put them in the green waste bin? But they are red!

Finally, remember the “easy” painting of the bridge? 

Oak Grove Bridge XXII, 11×14″, oil on wrapped canvas, $275 plus tax

And now you know. . . .

(very long pause)

 

the REST of my stories.