Primarily Speaking


The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. I paint with 2 versions of each of these three colors plus white.

Some say white is the absence of color, some say it is the sum of all color, some claim it is not a color. Doesn’t matter – it is impossible to mix colors without it.

The primaries keep appearing in my life. Early in my painting career, I took half a semester of painting at College of the Sequoias. We were given the assignment to copy one of the old masters. I chose Vermeer, and later realized the primaries figured in large in the painting.

I liked painting this so much that I painted another one.

Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11x14"
Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″

Our next assignment was a still life, and I brought these items. Still life paintings usually consist of things like a vase, a lemon, a rose, and maybe a skull. No thanks.

primaries

I noticed these gas cans while walking through a town in Alaska.

My flower pots often end up with primary colors without planning. Now I do it on purpose, but it used to just happen subconsciously.

Recently, the primaries plus white appeared in my yard. Apparently in addition to liking the primary colors, we like to sit.

2023 calendars, Mineral King HIKES, all sold out.

We Took a Stroll On Christmas Day

To the tune of “I Heard the Bells”

We took a stroll on Christmas Day,

So many things along the way,

Blue sky was strong,

But slightly wrong,

I thought this was a winter day.

We took a stroll on Christmas Day,

The same familiar route, our way,

The temps were sweet,

The sun a treat,

For rain and snow we all must pray.

We took a stroll on Christmas Day,

We walked an old familiar way,

But down the hill,

A foggy chill,

Three Rivers is above the gray.

We took a stroll on Christmas Day

We didn’t walk far, a shortish stray,

The grass was green,

The air so clean,

Then we strolled home again to stay.

 

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! (photos)

 

Happy Christmas, and if you are in the fog, please enjoy the Three Rivers sunshine vicariously. 

 

Juried or Judged?

This ornament was neither juried nor judged, although I may have judged it to be too difficult to try again.

Most folks don’t know the difference between these two J words; most people don’t need to know.

Many artists don’t know either, but artists who want to participate in shows need to know.

Juried

This means, “We might let you into our show or we might not. Don’t call us; we might call you, IF we deem your work worthy of our Mighty Event.”

Judged

Judging results in this: “Her piece is the best; we liked his better but it didn’t fit the categories so we gave it First Place instead of Best of Show. Yours is pretty decent, so here’s an Honorable Mention.”

Juried and/or Judged

Some shows are juried because they have standards; some shows are juried because they have limited space; some shows are juried for both reasons.

Some shows are judged because ribbons or prize money might bring in more artists and/or better sales. (I think ribbons make good bookmarks.)

Judging is extremely subjective, even when there are guidelines that the entrants are supposed to have followed. I watched a judging demonstration once, where the audience got to see the give-and-take that happens among the judges. Because of this negotiation and trading of favorites, an ugly piece got first place. I found it to be disappointing, but it certainly explained why award selections at art shows seldom make sense. 

The lesson was helpful, and pushed me to decide to not participate in most of those types of shows. My work is for my customers, regular people rather than those in the Art World Who Know Better Than Most. 

Gotta admit though, it is nice when one of those folks acknowledges my work. Still, it is better when I can satisfy customers.

Using pencils, oil paints, and murals, I make art that people can understand of places and things they love, for prices that won’t scare them.

(I’d rather get a check or cash than another bookmark: a satisfied customer is the best reward.)

2023 Calendars Available Here, $20 inc. tax.

Eight Things Learned in November

  1. Postal rates are tricky: mailing 1 calendar is $2.88; 2 in 1 envelope is $4.08, 3 in 1 envelope is $11. So, if someone orders 3 calendars, it costs less to use 2 envelopes for $6.96. If someone orders 4 or more, I have to figure out the various flat rate envelopes, versus packing in lots of single envelopes. Pay attention!! Nope. The first time I mailed 2 in one package, it was $4.08. The second time, it was 8.15. Never mind, Central Calif. artist: this is why the postal employees are there. And I still am not charging postage to my customers, because we all can use a little gift. $20, including tax.
  2. “The soft bigotry of low expectations” is a phrase I recently heard, and it struck a chord with me. The phrase is best used to describe treatment of some communities, as if dealing with an ignorant and unruly child. (“Soft”? Bigotry is bigotry, plain and simple, just as discrimination is discrimination, crime is crime, justice is justice. Modifiers just complicate situations.) This phrase made me wonder if Tulare County can’t get a Trader Joe’s or keep litter off the roads because we are expected to be oblivious to the finer things of life. (Wow, talk about “lowered expectations”! I am considering a lack of litter to be a “finer thing”??)
  3. When I take merchandise to a place to sell it on consignment, I need to put every item in its own cellophane bag. Thinking I was out of Wildflower books, a stack was returned to me from a gallery that had them on consignment. Yippee skippee! But, then I flipped them over, and each book has a non-removable price sticker. I tried a razor, coconut oil, and Goo-gone. Nope. Profit gone. Ouch.
  4. Then I learned that if I soak the sticker in Goo-gone and leave it overnight, the sticker peels cleanly! (This is after a bit of gouging with a razor—true price-gouging.)
  5. Found a weird word in a book: “whilom“. It means erstwhile, former, used-to-be, and is an adjective.
  6. Train Robber’s Daughter: The Melodramatic Life of Eva Evans, 1876-1970 is a very well written history book about the daughter of Chris Evans, of Evans and Sontag infamy. So many names and places were familiar, and I congratulate Jay O’Connell on an excellent book of local history, published in 2008 and still good reading. (And a place to learn new words.)
  7. After years of ignoring these, I finally learned a little bit about using Derwent Graphitint pencils, which I will tell you about next week.
  8. While sick, I realized that my infirm activities don’t differ much from my normal. Reading, knitting, emailing, texting, letter writing, writing my blog, surfing the World Wide Web. . . what differed? I didn’t get up early, walk for exercise, work in the yard, paint, draw, talk on the phone, or go anywhere.  So almost a completely wasted week, but not entirely.

Thus, we conclude another month of learning. (But is it truly learning if I can’t remember it later?)

Eight Things Made November the Busiest Month

Many responsibilities and opportunities in November

  1. Little Bucky
  2. Online Painting Seminar: I gave this an entire day during my busiest month and learned things that you probably don’t care about. However, this palette, made up of only 3 primaries and white is impressive. (I use 6 primaries and white, and thought that was simple!) Besides, it is pretty.
  3. Website Repairs: my designer helped me get it a bit more functional. She told me that there are things to do to improve the readership, and I told her that I don’t want to try to get strangers to find me. The people who are interested in my art and my life are people that I either already know, or people who I will eventually meet, because we care about the same things and places.
  4. The art emergency pencil drawing, which I showed you yesterday.
  5. New commissions: one pencil drawing, two large paintings all needed before Christmas
  6. Holiday Bazaar: New paintings needed, finished paintings gathered from Kaweah Arts, new cards ordered, calendars ordered. Even though I was a no-show, everything had to be packaged, priced, boxed up, hauled to the Memorial Building, set up. 
  7. There were a few more items, but they’re private, because after all, in spite of being read only by people I know, this is the World Wide Web.
  8. New Murals Coming! I bid on and designed three, was “awarded” two, and now await further instruction as to when I can begin. This is St. Charles of Borromeo, the largest Catholic Church in North America, located in Visalia, Tulare County, California. Yep, right here in little ol’ Too-larry County.

 

Calendars

2023, Mineral King HIKES, still available here: Calendars

I’d show you the back of the calendar, but out of respect for my Most Faithful Blog Commenter you will need to click on the link to see it. Sharon buys a calendar every year, and never allows herself to see what it is in it until the appropriate month arrives.

Getting By With a Little Help From My Friend

Trail Guy and I set up the booth at the Holiday Bazaar on Friday night, quickly and efficiently. There was enough merchandise, and it looked pretty good. I didn’t take pictures of my booth, figuring I’d get some on Saturday with the morning sun coming through the full-color Chinese Pistache trees visible through the window, which was the back wall of my 10×10′ space.

Then I went home and developed a fever. Well, phooey. Why during my busiest weekend of my busiest month?? Life is not fair. So, instead of doing a show, I did a No Show.

A lifelong friend offered to work my booth. What would we do without our friends?? I thought to myself, “Self,” I thought, “I will NEVER get out of her debt”.

Another friend said, “Real friends don’t keep score”.

Being a Questioner, I thought about that. My conclusion is that we have built-in scales of balance, and without actually keeping score, we can tell when we are being taken advantage of, when someone is a moocher or a user. I hope we also can recognize when we are taking advantage of someone else and put the brakes on thinking we are entitled.

It is so hard to be on the receiving end of giving, so much easier to be a giver. Probably has something to do with my innate need to be self-sufficient.

No one is completely self-sufficient. We all need a little help from our friends. Thank you, MKACD! 

Five Different Reasons to Send a Note

Everyone loves to get real mail, and as Crane Stationery used to advertise, “No one has ever cherished an email”. (This was before texting, which has made email look personal and handcrafted.)

The other morning I wrote a bunch of notes. A list had accumulated of people I needed to communicate with, and each one needed to be handwritten. Sometimes email just doesn’t do the trick.

As I carried them to the mailbox, it struck me that each note was written for a different reason.

  1. Thank you
  2. I’m sorry for your loss (any of my cards, blank inside, would work for this).
  3. Get well soon (any card with a blank interior will work for this)
  4. Happy Birthday (nope, none of my cards actually say this inside, but I have great confidence in your ability to write those words)
  5. An invitation (I used a blank card for this too)

There are many other reasons to use cards and hand-write notes to people.  

I’ll give you some other ideas tomorrow.

 

Lazy Listicle of Distracted Thoughts

  1. The acorns have been raining down from the live oaks in our yard and attracting herds of deer. One morning Trail Guy counted 16 in the driveway. (Deer, not acorns)
  2. This painting needs a title! Any suggestions?
  3. These 2 5×7″ oil paint on panel paintings are drying. There are 3 more, but these are days of distractions,  falling acorns, broken things, a rush pencil commission, RAIN, and yet another odd job.
  4. This big guy was focused on acorns and water. There is a tub on the other side of that rock that the deer come to (and the turkeys and the cats. . . probably some others we don’t know about). Such is life in Three Rivers in rural Tulare County.
  5. My wonderful webdesigner gave up two hours on her day off to begin figuring out what keeps going wrong with my website. This was her only day off in the busiest week she has had since pre-Plague. There are still some mysteries, but it is mostly functional at this time.
  6. Many years ago a former neighbor gave me this juicer. This year it wouldn’t work, AFTER we picked a 5 gallon bucket of pomegranates. Someone told me about a repair shop in Goshen, so I navigated my way to Breck’s in a ferocious rainstorm, and they gave me hope. Now my hope is that it can be repaired quickly, because in spite of not paying for it initially, at $90/hour, I will be paying for it now.
  7. In spite of November being my busiest month, I spent a day on my tookus, watching a live workshop of many demonstrations of art realism. During the boring ones (I KNOW how to draw!), I packaged notecards. During the other sessions, I took notes.
  8. I also took photos. This is how the light looks on one of my studio windows in the afternoon.

P.S. I might have knitted a little bit too. . . it wasn’t Zoom and no one could see.

P.P.S. (that means PS #2) I hit a skunk on my way home the other night. Didn’t know it until I got home. Felt something, but didn’t smell it until the car was in the garage. Well, yippee skippee. A skunk is easier on a car than a deer. 

 

Round-up of Randoms

This post is a round-up of random thoughts that I’ve been gathering, thoughts that don’t fit any category, sprinkled with irrelevant and random photos.

  1. The last time Michael and I drove up the Mineral King Road together, a car with two young women caught up to us. Michael pulled into the next turnout, rolling slowly as he does, wishing the driver would get on it so he didn’t have to stop. Instead, the car stopped, the window went down, and the driver said, “You two are so adorable!” Excuse me? “Adorable” is what young people say to old people! I wasn’t even knitting at the time. (At least she didn’t say “adorbs”, a word that affects me like nails on a chalkboard.)
  2. The largest Catholic church in all of North America has been under construction in Visalia for two years. Visalia?? Central California, huge number of Catholic families, not a lot of priests available for multiple congregations (or however they refer to their separate churches).
  3. The bears are very active in Three Rivers this year, but not as many as in 2015 during and after the Rough Fire.
  4. Three Rivers population has dropped from 2200 to 1800, and there are only 80 children enrolled in the school. Seems like a good place to enroll your children if you want the teacher:student ratio of private school without the expense. WAIT! One week later, the population part of the sign was missing. What is happening??
  5. An old customer/friend called with an art emergency. This means that she needs some custom art and needs it fast. My prices haven’t changed in many years, but the smallest size I draw is now 9×12″ instead of 8×10″, and I tacked on a rush charge. I was a little embarrassed to tell her the price, feeling as if I was gouging her (but come on!), and her response was: “You don’t charge enough”. Oooph. Just oooph.
  6. I bid on a large mural project, and the waiting to hear if my design and prices were accepted, not knowing the competition, not knowing if it is even feasible to the (potential) customer is Not Fun. This is where faith comes in: “Okay, God, I trust you and your plan for me”. (If I say it enough, maybe eventually I will just relax about the uncertainty).

7 Things Learned in October

These month-end learned posts are for people with curious minds, but not necessarily short attention spans. Welcome to my world. 

  1. Do you live in “a bubble“? A friend (Joy Cromwell) had something about this on her website. I took the PBS quiz and scored 44. This means I am very insulated from mainstream American culture. Wish the score was even lower.
  2. Knapheide is a word and a brand completely foreign to me. I saw this on the back of a utility truck.When I looked it up, this is what I learned: “Knapheide is North America’s most popular manufacturer of work truck bodies and truck beds”. They started out building wagons in 1848! Their mailing address is a P.O. Box in Quincy, Illinois. This is a town along the Mississippi River where a lifelong friend of mine lives. How did I never hear about this company??
  3. Some friends told us they are having solar panels installed for their home electricity. This led to quite a discussion where we all confirmed that we are probably too old to recoup the costs of the panels and installation in SCE savings. However, they are tired of trying to conserve, getting hammered by large bills anyway, and being uncomfortable in the summers. Our conclusion is that solar is a luxury item that is being misrepresented in advertising, not only as a way to save money, but as a way to “save the environment”. Those panels take an enormous amount of resources to build, and that is not necessarily “environmentally friendly”. (Truth is very hard to come by, but I do my best for you here.)
  4. Feijoa is a green fruit that I found at a farmers market in Morro Bay.  After peeling and slicing one, I tasted it. It ended up in my compost bucket because it is just weird. I read about it here (#25) and contrary to the seller at the market, this article says it isn’t usually eaten raw. I can’t remember how to pronounce it, but it doesn’t matter since I won’t be buying it again. It is also called “pineapple guava”, which I think might be a plant in my yard. Wait, that might be “strawberry guava”. Doesn’t matter, because my shrubs don’t make fruits, and if they did, the deer would eat them.
  5. A “malthusian” is a person who believes there are too many people in the world. (Is there a word for people who think there are too many people in California? in cities? visiting Three Rivers on a weekend?)
  6. This is something I knew but hadn’t followed through: I don’t like social media. It is a grind to stay current, and very little (if any) business or true friendships result. A. LinkedIn is helpful if a stranger contacts you about business and you need a clue before returning a phone call. B. Facebook is a sewer and Twitter is for birdbrains. C. I have neither posted nor looked at Instagram for several (6?) months, so I deleted it from my phone. So there.
  7. When asked which brand of colored pencils is the best, I usually say that Polychromos are the best quality, Prismacolor have the best colors, and never waste your money on Crayola. I think they don’t have enough pigment; besides, art supplies easily found at a grocery store probably aren’t professional quality. Here is a helpful comparison of Crayola and Prismacolor.

And thus we conclude another month-end Learned List, in which your Central California takes you down various side roads of often irrelevant and vaguely amusing topics.

(This is Charles-Eugene, a cat I have not met yet.) Clearly, he didn’t find this list vaguely amusing.