Random Facts About Squirreliness

Sometimes a list helps. I’ve been making lists for years, sometimes as an aid to memory and efficiency, and sometimes for the sense of satisfaction gained from checking off things.

Today’s list is in the first category. I hope this is helpful for you.

  1. The comments on my blog may be working again. Anyone want to try?
  2. I’ve updated my page called “Where To Buy“. Want to look? It is under the Artist tab on my website. There are addresses, phone numbers and website links for most, and hours when I know them.
  3. The contact button works intermittently. This has to do with my ability (inability?) to update pages on my website. When it is disabled, supposedly I am able to add new pictures to the pages. Sometimes I forget to reactivate it. (Maybe a list would help me. . . ?)
  4. I haven’t been able to successfully update the oil paintings and pencil drawings on my site. It seems as if I have added them, but the pictures just appear as little question marks.
  5. My former web designer is working to simplify the design of my website so I am able to update things without getting in line to hear back from her replacement. He must be very very popular. I could give you a list of the steps to update, but you’d be bored silly.
  6. When the design has been simplified, things might be squirrely-looking for awhile.

 

I Love February

Because there are flowers in the yard and the flowering quince is coming soon.

Because it is green around the studio.

Because the daylight lasts longer, the sky is blue, and the cats don’t beg to stay in the house during the day.

Because Kaweah is waiting for me to go paint.

And although she prefers my lap, she is content directly underfoot while I stand to paint!

Hope I never squash her sweet little self!

Growth, part eight (A new curve)

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The Road to Alta – oil on wrapped canvas – 8×10″ – $85

Because of the internet, keeping in touch and getting found is much more likely than in the “olden days”. About four years ago, I caved in to the pressure to keep up (who keeps moving that cheese??) and had a website designed by http://www.mvwebdesign.com/. People who don’t have websites or who are new to websites often ask how sales are from the web. The answer is that the site acts as a catalog and brochure rather than a store. Sales do occur, but usually I am doing business with people I know who simply contact me to make purchases. (If I were one of the Big Boys, it would probably be different, but I am content to stay local.) In this current era, having a website lends legitimacy to a business. Weird that such an intangible is so necessary to appear bona fide!  https://www.cabinart.net/index.htm

 

Growth, part six (Holing up at Home)

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I LOVE working at my own address, but there are a certain drawbacks to having a business at one’s home. The temptation to do other things, the NEED to do other things (like laundry, watering, paying bills) is always in one’s face. There is no driving away from home and focusing on work.

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 Another consequence of an at-home business is the reality of “out of sight, out of mind” rather than “absence makes the heart grow fonder”.   The marketing efforts need to be stepped up, because no one is going to wander into the studio by accident.  About 4 years ago, it became apparent that more change needed to take place. I’ll tell you about that in Growth, Part Seven!

 

Growth, part five (Facing Faces)

After about 9 years and on the fourth address for cabinart, it became apparent that notecards were fading fast, and the local market for house and cabin commissioned drawings was getting saturated. The next step? Portraits! I had skirted around this subject for years, refusing commissions, terrified of not being able to capture a likeness. This was and is a reasonable fear. If someone pays you to draw Steve, they expect you to draw Steve, not his cousin! Faces are so subtly different; we all have the same components, and yet we most definitely do not look like one another. (However, I do tend to get all the cookie-cutter blondies on The O’Reilly Factor mixed up. . . )

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What to do? This was a brick wall on which I had been bashing my head for years. A wise friend said, “Why don’t you pray about it?” Duh. So, I did. Within the year, the CPSA offered 2 separate workshops on colored pencil portraiture, and the principles definitely crossed over to graphite. I was on my way in portraits! However, this will always be a difficult subject for me; unless I pray through each and every portrait, I do tend to draw the guy’s cousin. The subtle differences can just divert a face from the intended person to a stranger or a distance relative with a slight mis-stroke of the pencil.