There are many seasoned artists who freely share their experience with other artists. One of the nuggets I’ve gleaned through the years is “Get rid of your junk”. There is no reason to keep things around that do not sell or do not represent your best work.
The Cabins of Mineral King represented my best work in 1998. I draw better now, which is good; I would better have improved over the last 20 years or that would be a sorry situation. (That was an awkward sentence – anyone know a good editor?)
Still, the unsold drawings haunt me, take up space and just need to go away, either through a sale or through a shredder.
Before they go into the shredder, here is a chance for you to own an original pencil drawing for a peanut butter sandwich, as my dad used to say. I will consider offers, as long as they are not insulting.
One month from today, October 7, is the deadline on this batch of drawings.
4-1/2 x 5″, $20, SOLD6-1/2 x 4″, $25, SOLD7 x 10″, $904-1/2 x 5″, $25, SOLD4-1/2 x 6-1/2″, $35, SOLD5 x 7″, $40. SOLD
A year ago fake wood replaced painted concrete flooring in my studio, and I repainted the door.
In the spring, the dilapidated board and batten siding was replaced with shingles for amazing cuteness.
Last week the red Adirondack chair moved outside and this recently reupholstered old chair moved in. Now when I have visitors, they can sit comfortably, instead of awkwardly looking at that red chair and saying, “Better not–I’ll never be able to get out of that.”
HEY! There are cats in my studio!
It might be too comfortable. The first day it was there, I fell asleep in it while working on my laptop.
You little hooligans may visit me in the studio but the instant you try claws in that chair, you are GONE and you will NEVER come in my house.* So there.
Guess I told them.
*Because we have newly reupholstered antique couch and chairs in the house now.
The Silver City Store/Resort has gotten quite elegant. I feel honored to be able to sell there and to now be part of their decor.
Let’s take a tour.
The outside of the store is a bit different than it used to be but still recognizable (Who put her less than classy looking vehicle in front of the store and interrupted this photo opportunity??)This is the view directly ahead when you step inside the store, although the unknown man may not be there if you stop by.Look toward the right. . .And a little farther right to the tables along the front wall. The photos above the tables are all the wedding photos of people who either met or married in the area.Look to the left of the front counter when you first step inside (that square cardboard contains the saw blade.) Why yes, that is one of my paintings on the mantel. . . thank you for noticing!Look directly left and that is the new store area where my paintings are incorporated with the other merchandise. (Nope, not a real gallery, but there are real customers with real money, and we consistently make real sales.)
Now let’s return to the front counter.
HEY! THERE IT IS!! THANK YOU, HANNAH, HANNAH, AND MICHAEL FOR CHOOSING MY ART.
Mineral King oil paintings have been selling steadily this summer at the Silver City Store/Resort.
The popularity of subjects has changed a bit. The Honeymoon Cabin is this year’s favorite, the Crowley cabin/Farewell Gap (view from the bridge at the end of the road) is second, and only one Sawtooth painting has sold. All the other paintings are in the category of Everything Else, which includes back country, trails, streams, and general scenery of the area.
The most popular size remains 6×6″ (perhaps because I paint more of that size than any other) with the second most popular size 4×6″. The large paintings look good in the store, but most people just want a bargain.
There are a couple more on the list of solds, but I didn’t keep close enough track and can’t find the scans of those paintings. (There are drawbacks to living in 2 places, one of them without the internet, but I bravely soldier on.)
Maybe for next year I should just do 6×6″ Honeymoon Cabin oil paintings. Wait, that won’t work because the market for those may be saturated. But wait. . . are the customers one-time visitors, repeat guests, or cabin community members?
The business of art is full of by-guess-and-by-golly. There is so much more to being an artist than just painting. . . all the thinking and planning in the world is still just an intuitive guess.
Recently, I’ve focused on my weaknesses in drawing and painting. If I can’t see it, it might not be possible for me to draw or paint the thing. But, if I push through and have help and take lots of time, sometimes I can succeed.
If these weren’t commissioned pieces with a paycheck at the end, I would have given up. Much of what I choose to do is speculative work – will it sell? Will anyone care?
But, both of the recent ultra difficult pieces are not speculation art. There were real customers with an idea of what they wanted, and they counted on me to figure out how to do the job. They each gave me as much time as I required, trusting my ideas and judgement.
These are good friends and good customers; knowing my limitations, I wanted to please them in spite of the difficulties.
If I was more business oriented, there would probably be a contract, a down payment, and the contract would talk about things like “Change Orders” and “Photo Availability”.
I showed you the completed Mineral King Pack Station last week (and since learned that the white horse’s eye is too high, but too late, it is at the framer now).
Today, have a look at the completed Homer’s Nose with the Oak Grove Bridge.
The customer is very happy and so am I!
About the truck on the bridge: the customer’s husband was heading down the hill, while a friend was coming up the hill. When the friend arrived, Mrs. Customer asked the friend if she had seen her husband on the road. The friend said she hadn’t. Later, the friend shared the photo she had taken of the bridge on the way up, and Lo-And-Behold, she had photographed Mrs. Customer’s husband’s pickup-truck on the bridge without knowing it!!
P.S. What is “lo and behold”? I think it means “oh my stars!”. . . My neighbor, who died at age 94, was very fond of that expression, and I think of him every time I hear it.
Farewell Gap, a pencil drawing, will be available as a framed original for $400 and in card sets.
After 7-8 months of painting toward a show about Mineral King and (almost) in Mineral King, it is tomorrow!
Is it considered shouting to use bold type? Or is that only for capital letters? I’ve always always always considered italics to be whispering, so maybe this paragraph will be more soothing to your ears.
Four artists with cabins in the Mineral King area will be showing and selling our work on the deck of the Silver City Store tomorrow, June 30, 10 AM until 3 PM.
The Silver City Store is 21 miles up the Mineral King Road. It is a long way there, a long and winding road, and it is well worth the effort it takes to get there. The store is at about 6700′ in elevation, and it is no longer called “The Store” but now is “The Silver City Resort”. The store itself has been remodeled into a new rustic elegant interior; the artists will be on the spacious outdoor deck.
Linda Hengst, Joan Keesey, John Keesey and I will be there. Linda paints in acrylic (or is it oil? Hard for me to tell the difference), Joan does tight realistic botanicals in watercolors, and John does whimsical playful watercolors of somewhat stylized scenery of the area. Linda’s work makes you say “Ahhhh”, Joan’s work makes you say, “Ooooh”, and John’s work makes you smile. My work? Um, let’s see. . . “How much for this one?”
I am taking 23 oil paintings (some of which I have shown you on this blog), 5 pencil drawings (all of which you have seen on this blog), Mineral King cards (old and new designs), a few reproductions of pencil drawings (also of Mineral King, duh) and some copies of my book The Cabins of Wilsonia. (The Cabins of Where? Yes, they have been requested.)
Let’s roll! See you tomorrow??
Art: Inspired byMineral King
Show and Sale
FOUR ARTISTS: Jana Botkin, Linda Hengst, Joan and John Keesey
SILVER CITY RESORT, 21 miles up the Mineral King Road
Saturday, June 30, 2018
10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Honeymoon Cabin #33, 6×18″, $160 inc. tax. (I like this one so much that if I saw it in a gallery, I’d probably buy it.)
“What are you doing?” is a question directed to me, not to you. Some days I don’t know what to do. It results in talking to myself, occasionally in an audible voice. This isn’t because there isn’t anything pressing; it is because I can’t figure out how to prioritize.
What would you do first? What am I doing??
Begin painting the oil commission of Homer’s Nose with the Oak Grove Bridge
Work on the oil painting of the South Fork of the Kaweah
Work on my bookkeeping to be ready to pay quarterly sales tax
Work on “populating” my web site renovation
Scan a drawing for a student and do the photoshop prep
Photograph a completed painting and do all the computery things necessary to make it good for the website
Sometimes the business of art is just a quagmire of decision making. There is some study somewhere out there in some book that explains “decision fatigue”, how the more decisions we have to make in a day causes us to be less able to make good decisions.
When I am figuring out what to work on next, I factor in weather (is it too hot in the painting workshop room?), deadlines (what is coming up next?) and finances (what activity will generate income when it is finished?).
#1 will generate income; #2 is just a speculation painting; #3 will generate income; #4 has an October deadline; #5 has a June 30 deadline; #6 has a deadline that I have forgotten about and ignore until an email reminder comes; #7 has been dragging along since January, my blog subscription button is gone, there are paintings listed for sale that have already sold and new paintings and cards that aren’t listed. Finally, #8 and #9 are just meh.
What did I decide to do?
Come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you.
Today’s painting for sale:
Never mind. Can’t decide. Decision fatigue, you know. . .?
Thirty-three years ago some friends and I tried rock climbing, that rappelling thing with ropes and harnesses. My friend was suspended over space and she looked up at the guy (with barely contained fear) who was supposedly teaching us and said quite calmly, “Instruct me, please!”
Today I want to instruct you a bit about subscribing to my blog, except I can’t!
News Flash: at 7:36 a.m. the Blog Subscription button reappeared! You may now subscribe (or resubscribe) to the blog!
For some reason, the dealio to subscribe to the blog has vanished. This means that you can no longer subscribe to the blog, until and unless I figure out what went wrong. You know that the word “update” is a euphemism for “complication”, yes? Well, something got “updated”, and in the process, the blog subscription dealio went away.
All I know to do is to advise you to go to the World Wide Web (might be Safari, might be Chrome–I hope you know what it is on your own computer or device), look up my website, and when you get to cabinart.net, then click on the word blog in the menu bar at the top.
All I wanted was to draw, paint, tell you about it, and sell some art. But, my life got updated.
So, to make up for my ignorance, confusion, chaos, and general ambiguity, please enjoy a picture of quiet and calm, something that I could use right about now.
This is Chapter Two in the story of figuring out how to design one commissioned oil painting of two different Tulare County landmarks. As a Tulare County artist, I am pleased to have been chosen for the task.
The customer requested a different view of Homer’s Nose, and I have 5 photos from that point of view. This is the one we selected:
Homer’s Nose, from the Yokohl curve on Highway 198
She also requested a view of the Oak Grove bridge with more visible rocks (i.e. less water). If you have followed this blog or my art for very long, you know that the Oak Grove bridge is my favorite thing to draw and paint, even when it is a little bit too hard. So, I have plenty of photos to choose from for this very specific request:
Oak Grove Bridge photo by me from the same point of view, lower water so rocks more visible.
I know Spice Bush, but never heard of Mock Orange. Good thing I have friends with great photos who know far more than I do about many things.
Mock Orange, from a friend’s photo, flipped.
And a photo I have of Spice Bush, but will probably take more because it is in bloom right now and is beautiful.
Spice bush bloom
With all these visual aids, I drew this:
Sketch #2
What will my customer say in response to this second sketch? More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . . Tune in tomorrow, same Bat Time, same Bat Channel.
And here are today’s paintings, both commissioned pieces of Homer’s Nose, painted in 2014, each one 6×6″.
Homer’s Nose, oil on canvas, 6×6″, private collectionHomer’s Nose, oil on canvas, 6×6″, private collection
I do set goals – finish X number of paintings, get website redesigned, finish drawings for the next calendar, etc.
But I don’t set big sweeping overarching business goals, or as one of those motivational speakers says, “BHAGs”, which stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goals.
And many of us have heard the acronym SMART for goals, which means goals have to be Specific, Measurable, and 3 other things that I never remember.
In thinking about goals for my art business, all I could come up with is Paint Better And Sell More Paintings.
“Paint Better”? What is this? Better than what? Better than I paint now, but what constitutes better? Tighter and more photorealistic? Looser and flowier? Plein air? Brighter colors? How is this specific or measurable? How is this even attainable when I can’t define “better painting”?
And “Sell More Paintings”? I can count, and set a higher number, but am I supposed to put them in my little red wagon and pull them around the neighborhood? Must I get a smartphone and join FaceBook? (Have mercy – Please please please don’t make me get a cell phone and join FaceBook!!)
I have no earthly idea how to sell more paintings. If I did, I’d be selling more.
Goalless suits me for now.
I wonder what all those motivational speakers would have to say to me . . . probably “Don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you”.
I am painting better each time I revisit this oil painting of the Oak Grove Bridge that is too hard for me. I am making up some colors for the background, just experimenting, trying to learn what “better” might look like, outside of my natural bent to just make things look as realistic as possible.
Will it sell? Maybe if I chant to myself while painting, “Paint better, sell more paintings, paint better, sell more paintings…”
Perhaps it is time to listen to music instead of motivational speakers while I paint.
Is “goalless” a word? 
