Category: the business of art

Trail Guy Tee Shirts

mineral king tee shirt

Remember the Mineral King tee shirts, AKA Trail Guy Tee Shirts?

We have almost run out completely.

However, I messed up by not removing them from my website. It was set up so people can do a backorder. Someone ordered 2 shirts in a size we do not have.

Lucky you!

This means I have to place another order for tee shirts.

Would you like to order one? Go to the tee shirt page and place your order so I can include it in the tee shirt order, which I will place during the week after Labor Day.

This is the Mineral King scene on which the tee shirt embroidery design is based:

mineral king

This photo is current, and you will notice that the tall tree is now singular. In our tee shirt, there are two.

Does this make the tee shirt a “collectible” or perhaps “vintage”? Time flies, and the strangest things get called “vintage” or “retro” these days.

Dang. I’m middle-aged and that’s a sure sign. Another sign is that I’d rather hike up-hill than down-hill. Pretty soon I’ll be muttering, “Kids these days. . .!”

Mineral King tee shirt mineral king tee shirts

Too Hot in the Painting Workshop

Because oil painting can be messy, I paint in a workshop building with a swamp cooler instead of inside my real studio with its more effective air conditioner.

We had some of those 100+ degree days, and the swamp cooler was not up to the task of keeping me comfortable. Heaven forbid that a Central California artist be uncomfortable! A hot artist is an uncomfortable artist, an uncomfortable artist doesn’t paint well, an artist who doesn’t paint well doesn’t sell well, and an artist who doesn’t sell well has to get a real job.

So, I took these barely begun paintings off the wall in the workshop and moved into the studio.

I managed to not make an oil painting mess in my little air-conditioned studio, a room normally used for pencil drawing, private drawing lessons, and doing non-messy businessy things.

That back wall has FIVE WET OIL PAINTINGS hanging on push-pins. It (the wall) might now be in need of a new coat of paint.

Nah. It’s a STUDIO, for cryin’ out loud!

Tune in tomorrow to see three of the paintings, finished and ready to buy.

oil paintings

Sketchy Decisions

So many pencil drawing commissions are awaiting decisions. I’ve sent sketches and more sketches. Can’t start drawing until I know what the customer/commissioner wants!

2 other sketches 1 cabin 2 sketches 3 other sketches 3 sketches

Sketches, called “thumbnails” or “thumbnail sketches” were required in most of the assignments in art classes, both in high school and college (I went to 4 different colleges – a full-fledged Transfer Student) More often than not, I had one good idea, and the rest of the sketches were just a waste of time, mindlessly fulfilling the assignment. The reason for the sketches was never clearly articulated – just do it because the teacher said to do it. (As a Questioner, I despise that sort of “teaching”.)

Now that I am a professional artist, I know that customers need to see things sketched out because photos don’t do the trick. People also like choices, but not too many.

Too bad the “teachers” didn’t teach us how to guide a customer to a decision. My cynical mind says this is because those “teachers” never had any customers. They only had teachers, giving them time-filling assignments.

COME ON, PEOPLE, DECIDE, PLEASE? Please? pleeeeeeese? I really want to start drawing!

commission pencil work drawing

Selling Makes Me Happy

Selling makes me happy because it validates my worth as a business person. As brash as it sounds to say in words, I am a business person and my product is art and art related services (painting murals, teaching people to draw and occasionally to oil paint, putting together books, cards and reproduction prints of my works for for resale and retail).

I used to have more trouble facing this, but the book Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin really helped me see the truth about earning money.

With Tulare County being the third least educated and the thirteenth poorest county, I often question the wisdom of choosing art as a business here.

However, this is my home, and I love to make art. It is a huge challenge to find, portray and then SELL the beautiful parts of Tulare County.

So, let’s all have a YIPPEE moment as we look at the most recently sold oil paintings of Tulare County!

1533 MK Stream

1513 Honeymoon XX

1519 Vandever

1445 FG XVII

1439 Blooming Oranges 2

Mineral King Trail 1507

1454 hiking MK

Maybe you would like to buy an original oil painting portraying the beauty of Tulare County, before I get all fat-headed and raise my prices!

A Little Bit Too Hard

Sometimes I paint things that are a little bit too hard for me. They are not commissions, nor are they subjects that I think will sell.

Instead, they are things that I just want to paint, in spite of my lack of skill or experience. After I have completed paintings that need to be done for sale, working on these types of paintings is my “reward”.

Wow, is this ever difficult!! This is my great-niece, and I think of the painting as The Flower Girl.

The girl is from this photo.

The flowers are from this one.

The girl feels too difficult, so I am now focusing on the flowers. It is fun to find and mix all the colors, and if I get the petals a bit wrong, it isn’t critical like the face is.

Success on the flowers (still not finished) gave me confidence to paint a bit more on the girl.

Her hairbow is better and her arm is a little chubbier. This might need to rest for a month or two while I build my confidence and skill on paintings that don’t matter to my heart quite so much.

This will need about 10 more painting sessions, a decision on the background color, and a whole bunch of do-overs.

But I’m learning. That is what happens when one pushes through something that is a little bit too hard.

Okay, it might be a LOT too hard.

Kaweah River Trading Company

This post is about the business of art, especially the business called Kaweah River Trading Company.

There’s a new kid on the block.

That’s a weird old cliche. I wonder where it came from. . .

Kaweah River Trading Company is a brand new store in Three Rivers with a cool name and logo. (Hudson River Trading – anyone remember this?)

Holly and Erin are selling souvenirs, local food items (honey, olives), locally made soaps and lotions, some antiques (anyone looking for a Coke machine?), tee shirts, caps, cowboy stuff, local maps and visitor information books, jewelry (made by folks they know), pottery, wall art, and my notecards. They have many other good things; those listed here are just from my immediate memory.

41891 Sierra Drive, Three Rivers, Ca

559-561-4095

Open daily, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

P.S. If the building seems familiar, it is because it was Sequoia Outdoor Sports, where I painted a mural a handful of years ago.

P.P.S. My notecards are on the front counter, and the store has already placed a second order! Yea! People still write notes to each other by hand!

Lost

Sometimes I refer to myself as a “loser” in the true sense of the word. My mom used to tell me that I’d lose my head if it wasn’t attached. As usual, Mom was right.

The Mural Gallery and Gift Shop in Exeter sells my oil paintings. We’ve had a good run lately, so I took another batch of paintings to them. I forgot to include something of oranges, so planned to take one down on my next trip. The sweet lady who works there said, “Bring them all – they sell!”

So, I went into the overheated and underused workshop (too hot to paint there in the summer) to retrieve some oranges. Found two oil paintings of oranges.

Funny. I have three. Where is the 11×14″?

1433 Blooming oranges

Blooming Oranges, 11×14″, oil on wrapped canvas, $175, available here

Lost.

Did I sell it and not write it down? Did I take it to a gallery and not write it down?

AHA! It was part of the show at the Visalia Convention Center this spring! It is sitting in someone’s office in Visalia, someone whose hours do not coincide with my trips down the hill!

Found! I wrote it somewhere, but obviously the list is lost.

Drawing Lessons

For about 21 years I have been teaching drawing lessons.

This sounds formal. The more accurate description to my way of thinking is simply that I show people how I draw and thus guide them to do their own pencil drawing.

It is one of the most satisfying and rewarding (more than just financial) parts of my art business.

There are no lessons in July or August because it is too hot and attendance is traditionally down.

So, today is it, the last one until September 8.

This is Rosemary and her wonderful walrus.

Rosemary

Delighted and delightful!

If you are interested in taking drawing lessons, either in a small group ($55/month, 1 hour a week) or private lessons in my studio ($35/1 hour, $45 1-1/2 hour, scheduled as it suits), email me using “cabinart at cabinart dot net” (written that way to confuse the trolls who roam the internet looking for trouble). Or call me at 561-7606 (area code is five-five-nine, also written that way out of general troll paranoia.)

About Selling Oil Paintings

This post is about the business of art, selling oil paintings, but I only go on about it for a paragraph and then it is all pictures.

In the past month and a half, twelve oil paintings have sold.

TWELVE!

I would say, “I’ve sold twelve paintings”, but it wouldn’t be very true. I am not that good at selling, in spite of reading all sorts of websites, blogs, and books on the subjects. If you really want a painting and have the money, I want you to have it! But I am not going to convince you against your budget or your better judgement that you should buy a painting from me. Not gonna do it! It is fake to say certain “magic” words that will somehow separate people from their money. No phony-baloney-plastic-banana in me.

End of explanation (excuse?). Now, let’s rejoice!

067 SS IXX 1520 Alta Moro II 1525 M's Hen O121 - 1312 Oak Grove Bridge V Poppies XXXII 1403 sunflower 1432 FG Alpen Glow 1448 KaweahR VIII 1519 Orange sunflower

O#120 - 1311

P.S. I wasn’t related to any of the customers and some I didn’t even know!

Tulare County Beauty

As a Central California artist in Tulare County, it is my mission, goal and duty to portray the beauty of this place I live.

Yesterday I showed you oil paintings as examples of the various subjects I paint that fall into a category I call “Because People Like It”.

However, I didn’t show you my latest paintings in several of those categories.

Let’s try this again:

Sequoia (this painting is still in progress – I wasn’t kidding when I said “latest”.)
Mineral King: (top painting – 6×6″, bottom painting 8×8″)
Citrus
Poppies
Three Rivers