Category: the business of art

Painting Subjects That Sell in Tulare County

If you want to earn your living as an artist, it is important to paint things that people want to buy. I think of these subjects as Because People Like It. In Tulare County, there are some stand-outs, and I try to keep them on hand in various sizes.

Sequoia – the Big Trees, park attractions like Tunnel Log, Moro Rock, Crescent Meadow and Tharp’s Log
Mineral King – Farewell Gap, the Honeymoon Cabin, the Crowley Cabin, and Sawtooth. There are some other Mineral King subjects that sell occasionally and I add them in for variety – Timber Gap, a foot bridge or two, trails, Vandever, views around the valley.
Citrus – oranges off or on the tree, orange blossoms, and the occasional lemon or tangerine/clementine/mandarin
Poppies – in fields, by themselves, in groups, against a blue sky, against a green background, lots and lots of California’s state flower.
Three Rivers – the Kaweah Post Office, the river (any fork will do), views of Kaweah Lake, views of Alta Peak with Moro Rock, and the Oak Grove Bridge (this might be due to my biased view of this Tulare County Treasure).

One Bridge, Two Friends, Two Paintings

A few years ago, I was hiking with a friend. She wasn’t familiar with the foothills of Sequoia National Park, so I took her to see the Buckeye Bridge. She exclaimed, “Oh my, that is so beautiful! If you paint it, I will buy it!”

Being a realist (both as an artist and in life), I recognized the exclamation as an emotional reaction to beauty, a momentary response rather than a commission to paint.

I also recognized the scene as a potential subject, so I painted it.

Buckeye Bridge 3

Buckeye Bridge, 12×16″, oil on wrapped canvas, $225

When my friend saw the 12×16″ oil painting, she asked how much. I told her the price of $225, and she got all quiet. Then she said, “Oh. I thought it might be around $75.”

Ahem.

Doesn’t matter. I used the painting in my 2015 calendar of paintings called “Beautiful Tulare County”. Another friend who shares my love of art and this area, got all excited when she turned to the May page of her calendar. Her friend’s dad helped to build that bridge, and she commissioned me to paint it 6×6″ as a gift for that friend.

buckeye bridge painting

It is almost finished – maybe a few more little touches and then a signature.

I paint better now. The original painting will get moved into the category of “Do Over”, AKA “I Paint Better Now”. Or, perhaps I photograph better now?

What Shall I Paint?

Have you ever wondered how an artist decides what to paint?

Me too.

What I paint falls into 4 categories:

Things I know will sell
Things I want to paint
Commissions
Reworking old paintings

Category #1 includes Sequoia scenery, anything Mineral King, citrus, the Kaweah Post Office, the Kaweah River, the Oak Grove bridge and poppies.

sawtooth XI

Sawtooth Peak, 8×10, sold (Mineral King)

Category #2 can be flowers, fruit, an experiment, something with great light or a color that makes my heart sing, a gift for someone, or something so beautiful that I cannot resist.

Category #3 is anything a customer has requested, usually paid for up front, and sometimes working from his photos.

Sequoia painting in progress, sunflowers because I want to paint them, Buckeye Bridge as a commissioned piece.

Category #4 happens when I look objectively at a painting that’s been hanging around for awhile (literally) and decide that I paint better now.

Lake Kaweah

Lake Kaweah, or perhaps Kaweah Lake, 16×20, $350, repainted, revised, and revisited more times than I can remember. The constant improvement is bound to catch the eye of a customer. Oh – it is called “Lake View VII” on my website!

Odd Job, Chapter Four

Finally, I got to the actual painting stage of my odd job.

The Blue Moon Nursery got a 4’x8′ piece of very thick plywood, built a frame around it and painted it with multiple coats of white paint. This was a result of walking out to the road and measuring the existing signs. A medium sign looks like an unnoticeable postage stamp when you pass it in a car. A big sign might get noticed. A huge sign is too much for this Central California artist, so we just went with big.

I traced our final design onto a clear piece of plastic and using an overhead projector in three stages of measuring and adjusting. I used a Sharpie marker to transfer the image, along with a square, a yardstick, and a long tape measure. It took a very long time.

Then, I traced it from Side One onto 2 18″ x 8′ pieces of tracing paper, retraced it with a very black pencil on the back side, taped the 2 sheets to Side Two of the sign, and retraced it over the top with a pencil to transfer the design to the sign. Then I retraced the faint pencil transfer with the Sharpie. This took a very very long time.

Do you need a nap yet? Hang on, color is coming!

After a very fun color mixing session with the owner of Blue Moon, I began painting.

First, a small brush to reach into the pointy places.

Then, 2 coats of the dark blue. Next the green. Hmmm, we really like the color of the masking tape with the dark blue.

I can mix that color! (This is actually side 2, after we chose a different blue for the moon and the spirals). The new blue called for a new green.

Check out Side Two, with masking tape blue and light spring green!

This is Side One, with a darker green and a lighter blue.

Isn’t this cool? The owner of Blue Moon and I both are slightly offbeat, marching to the beat of a different drummer, enjoying variety. (After being friends for 4-5 years, we discovered that we were in the same class in the same high school!)

So, we decided to let the 2 sides remain in different (but very close) colors, and then we’ll listen to people’s comments. It is my guess that very few people will even notice the difference.

Thus, I conclude my story of yet another odd job for this Central California artist. It is a pleasure to beautify Three Rivers!

Do you have a preference on the colors on Side One and Side Two? I’d love to hear your opinion!

odd job odd jobs

Odd Job, Chapter Three

My odd job of painting a sign for the Blue Moon Nursery in Three Rivers progressed through the decision making progress.

This combination of type was our first choice. The style of Blue Moon is a little hippy-dippy, loosey-goosey, whimsical (sorry, can’t think of a rhyme for that word). “Nursery” looks solid, professional, steadfast, here to stay.

It needs some decoration, but this wasn’t the right one.

The owner and I decided on the best combination of type and decorations, and then got to the part we both love (both avowed color junkies).

We both love the dark purply-blue, the high contrast with the white lettering, and it is a given that the growy needs to be green and the moon needs to be blue. Color is sooooo fun.

Now what? How will I get this colored sketch onto a 4′ x 8′ board??

Stay tuned!

odd job odd jobs

Odd Job, Chapter Two

It is a bit odd for a pencil artist/drawing teacher/oil painter/muralist to be asked to paint a sign. The owner of Blue Moon Nursery in Three Rivers knew we would work well together, so she decided to overlook my lack of experience and hire me for the odd job. (Odd job to me, but sign painting is a solid profession. I’d like to have the tools, ability and knowledge to do it well.)

After messing around with typestyles and shapes and weights, it was time to add the extras. A nursery asks for things that look growy, and “Blue Moon” is sort of a gimme.

None of these made the cut (what exactly and literally does that mean??).

The owner of Blue Moon Nursery had some definite and good ideas, and together we came up with an excellent combination of type and frou-frous.

Stay tuned for the decision and the next steps.

odd job odd jobs

Odd Job, Chapter One

Is sign painting an odd job for an artist?

It depends. If you live in a city where there are sign painters, they would be a logical choice for a sign.

If you live in Three Rivers, have a limited budget, would rather not drive 35 miles and want to have input, then choosing an artist might be a good decision. Blue Moon Nursery, AKA Sierra Garden Center, is one of my top 5 places to spend money in Three Rivers. (grocery store, post office, hardware store and Sierra Subs)

My sign painting odd job began with a conversation: “How comfortable are you with lettering?”

I’ve learned to just listen and ask questions, so we moved along until I decided that perhaps I could figure this thing out.

First, I messed around with type – the styles and the arrangements seemed endless.

moon 7 moon 8

It was a progression as I experimented with different styles, different weights and different curves. The final one here was my first choice.

Stay tuned to see what the next decision was!

odd job odd jobs

Redbud Festival Weekend

The Redbud Arts and Crafts Festival is a long time Three Rivers tradition. It has been around since I was a little girl, and it is always long after the redbud have finished blooming.

north fork

This is how redbud looks in bloom, up the North Fork of the Kaweah River. This is a commissioned oil painting I did last year as a result of a conversation I had with someone at the Redbud Festival. Wow, was it ever fun to mix these colors and paint this scene!

Anyway, here it is again, Redbud Festival time.

Redbud

WHERE: Three Rivers Veterans Memorial Building, 43490 Sierra Drive, Three Rivers, California. This is about a mile upstream from Reimers, AKA “the candy store”, on the uphill side, not the river side of the road.

WHEN: Saturday, May 2, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday, May 3, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

ADMISSION: free!

WHAT: Lots of artists and craftsmen showing and selling their wares, music? (maybe), food (more will be revealed in the fullness of time.) There are vendors both indoors and out, and no one is allowed to bring items that they have not made themselves.

WHY: It is spring in Three Rivers, people like to come here, people like to shop, it is fun to see what people are making, it is fun to meet people who make their own products, and Mother’s Day is coming so maybe you would like to buy a present for a mother in your life.

Random Thoughts from a Chaotic Mind

We are having an extreme family emergency, and it is causing me great distress and lack of focus. If I don’t go into detail, perhaps I can live in denial. If you are interested, you may read about it here. (my brother-in-law) Meanwhile, random thoughts from a chaotic mind. . . If I dabble in this and that, it has to add up to productivity eventually, dontcha think?

This is what it looks like to drive in the countryside of Tulare County in Central California. Doesn’t it just make you wonder why anyone lives here? Or how an artist can persevere to find things to draw and paint?

This is the place where the Orange Cove Lions meet weekly. Their scheduled speaker cancelled, so they called me. Sure, I’ll speak to your group! What a great group of guys – I felt right at home. Citrus farmers, rural Central California folks – my kind of peeps.

And this is what my drawing table looks like right now. 2 drawings in progress, working from many photos, adding a little colored pencil, all because it was too overcast to see to paint. The sun came out, so I took this photo, moved into the workshop to paint, and then, bye-bye sunshine. What’s a Central California artist to do?

In other news, I messed with this painting a little more. A bit more light on the water and brighter colors in the flowers.

Is it finished yet? Will I finish anything – a drawing? a thought? a task? Can’t think, can draw.

Fake Painting on a Garden Tour

“Fake painting”? What means this?

It means that I was supposed to be painting plein air, and although I was painting plein air (which means on location), I have no intention of considering those paintings completed. I am a studio painter, and painting on location is a special skill for someone else.

It is sort of like handing a ukele to a violin player and saying, “Here! You’re a musician! Play this and have fun!”

It might have been more fun if it wasn’t 90º. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t productive either.

I set up on the porch in hopes of seeing and completing this view.

I’m in the shade, squinting out into the light, wondering what colors I’m really mixing.

Okay, never mind. I’ll finish this in the studio. Let’s try another location. If I’m out in the sun, maybe I’ll be able to see my colors better. So what if it is hot? I’m a Central California artist, and we can take the heat. Otherwise, we’d move to a more sensible location in the state.

Never mind. Let’s take a break and listen to some music in the shade where there is a breeze. I can finish this in my studio later.

There were some beautiful flowers. Maybe I should become a plein air photographer.

Guess I need to spend some time in the studio cleaning up those messy paintings. Someone else can play the ukele and stand in the heat and do plein air messy stuff because I have a studio and am not afraid to use it.