Tag: pencil drawing

A List of What’s Occupying My Time and Thoughts

Taxes

We haven’t gotten our 1099s from Social Security yet and don’t know if they will come in the mail or if we have to do something impossible online to receive them. As if doing taxes wasn’t abhorrent enough, there are so many obstacles and difficulties just getting stuff ready for the accountant.

Shoes

I walked a hole into the bottom of my hiking Crocs and my new Crocs gave me a blister—how is this possible when I wear the same shoes all the time?

Several times I’ve sent a giant expensive heavy box of decent shoes we no longer wear to a place in Montana called Provision International. They gather huge containers of usable shoes and ship them to places where people need shoes.

You can bet your boots that I will NEVER EVER wear shoes like these again.

Watches

After trying for several years to find a watch that I can change the battery on, I finally quit buying Timex and paid big money for a watch that doesn’t need a battery. But what is one supposed to do with old watches? I have five that won’t work, the nicest because something non-battery-related is wrong and 4 because the back cannot/will not/does not come off. The one time I was successful, it was impossible to replace the back. Had to take it to a jeweler who used a special clamp.

I tried to find someone on Etsy who could use them. Nada. Listed on eBay. Nada. Contacted Veterans Watchmaker Initiative several ways. Nada. FINALLY I found a place called WeRecycleOldWatches and THEY REPLIED!! Then, after silence from Veterans Watchmaker Initiative regardless of method of contact, THEY REPLIED THE SAME DAY AS WE-RECYCLE-OLD-WATCHES! Because I think Veterans often get the short end of the stick, I packaged the watches and addressed it to them. Now, to take them to the PO and PAY to send them away. . . WHY do I do all this?

Motivation

What motivates me to do these things? I abhor waste, and it troubles me to just dump things. At the same time, I do NOT want to own things that don’t work or are no longer useful. So it seems that I spend an inordinate amount of time finding the right places and people for an endless supply of things. There is a continual push-and-pull between not wasting and a desire for a simple life.

Wrist

My DeQuervain’s Tenosynovitis is better. Only took 16 months. . . and I don’t completely trust the current state of almost painfree activity, so I wear the brace when doing wristy things. Using Photoshop or Powerpoint are particularly challenging.

Knitting

My yarn stash hasn’t been declining since the DeQuervain’s Tenosynovitis has curtailed my knitting. Yarn.com somehow reactivated my email and I almost succumbed to a sale, buying yarn after successfully being on a severe yarn diet for several years. “Almost succumbed” —saved by the fact that PayPal wouldn’t work with their site. “Try Later” —Nope, you lost a sale.

Rock Fun

My friend and I sometimes look for rocks together. It is so fun to go to the river and just putz around, without a permit, a fee, an application, a user name or a password, the option to hear things in Spanish, or hold “music”. We get dirty and sometimes we fall down while looking at rocks and digging around. Sometimes we find ones we want to keep. Sometimes they are a big project to extract and then to get up near the road where we go back with a vehicle to retrieve them. Don’t tell anyone, okay? I’m sure someone will try to stop us. . .

P.S. None of these drawings are available for sale. HOWEVER, I do accept commissions.

February Around Here

This is the page for February in my 2026 calendar.

I drew this in pencil (duh) from several photos taken a short distance up North Fork Drive in Three Rivers. The original is on a piece of 11×14” archival paper. It is for sale. $375 (plus tax if you live in California) or make me an offer.

Same size and price for the January drawing. Not tryna be sellsy or pushy (because that is obnoxious and I don’t really know how to do that). Just letting you know. Besides, this is supposed to be a business blog, not just me trip-trip-trapping around and then yip-yip-yapping about it.

pencil drawing Three Rivers Three Rivers pencil drawing

More About Drawing Lessons

It is said that the best way to learn something is by teaching it to someone else. Hard to do that if you don’t understand the process yourself.

Because my students get to know one another in group lessons, they often help each other. This thrills me, because I eavesdrop and get to witness that they are really and truly learning.

Finished! This was an ENORMOUSLY challenging drawing.

Next, it goes home with me to be scanned and Photoshopped for possible reproductions, either as prints or cards. All the color has to be removed before the printing will look right.

Speaking of ENORMOUSLY CHALLENGING, look at this little guy (also photoshopped for the purpose of good quality reproduction )

There is a one-day beginning drawing workshop planned for January 11, in Three Rivers. You can register at Stem & Stone. (Stemandstone.3r@gmail.com or 559-731-4881.) Class size is limited to ten people.

Calendars available here, $25, includes shipping.

drawing drawing lessons drawing workshop pencil drawing

A Peek into Drawing Lessons

Since 1994, I’ve been teaching people how to draw. Private lessons, group lessons with individualized help, and workshops. My drawing students are wonderful people, and I am so proud of them!

We don’t meet in December, so students try to get their work finished by the end of November. Some do, some don’t. Some need to finish by Christmas, so I’ve had them come to my studio for help. I’ve gone to their homes to help when we are off during summer, and I’ve had students scan or photograph their work and send it to me for help. They are wonderful people and I love helping them.

Obviously, this is a very experienced student. She came to me initially because she was a watercolorist who wanted more realism in her paintings. After a few graphite drawings, she moved into colored pencil. That was about 20 years ago!

This student picks Very Hard Very Detailed photos to work with, and she NEVER gives up! If we weren’t lifetime friends, I’d be sure that she just chooses these subjects to test my ability!

This student fights with perfectionism. Perfectionism is winning, for sure! She is never in a hurry and thoroughly enjoys the process. Every so often she will announce that she isn’t going to take quite so long or strive quite so hard for perfection. It makes us laugh.

This is work by my newest student. She joined lessons to learn how to paint better. Drawing is the basis for all art, and if you learn to see things realistically and learn the “tricks” of drawing, your other art will improve. This is her second or maybe 3rd drawing with me; I think she is close to finished with this perfect little face (yes, she has captured a likeness!)

I have room in a couple of classes, and if enough people (four) want lessons and can come from 1-2 p.m. on Tuesday afternoons, I will add another class.

Did I mention that my students are wonderful people?

You can see the work of two other students on this post from early November.

Calendars available here, $25, includes shipping.

drawing drawing lessons lessons pencil drawing

Four Assorted Boxing Day Thoughts

You prolly know that Boxing Day is a British tradition. In the olden days, the rich people boxed up their excesses the day after Christmas to give to the po’ folk. I don’t know what they do now, except I do know that one friend in Nova Scotia chooses to make a really nice dinner on Boxing Day rather than on overloaded Christmas.

2. After the Yellow Tunnel oil painting dries again, I will put the finishing touches on it. I can print and write more neatly, sometimes it is just unimportant, such as when I am slamming out the notes as fast as they pop into my mind.

3. This is the best article and idea I have ever read about Christmas. It was in the Wall Street Journal in 1997, and my Dad cut it out to give to me. I never forgot its wisdom, and it was very good to find it on the internet a few years ago.Iin case it gets deleted, I printed a copy.

Here is the article for you: Merry Excessmas!

4. Sometimes I draw in church. It helps me listen, because keeping my hands busy occupies the right side of my brain so it doesn’t hijack the other side. If I am drawing and listening, I’m not making a list of things to do in the coming week, writing reminder notes to myself, or other things that actually prevent listening.

P.S. Calendars are still available because IT ISN’T 2026 YET! Look here for the info. Or email me here: cabinart [at] cabinart [dot] net. (Written that way because of internet gremlins.) Or call me if you have my number (oh nonono, not putting it here for those gremlins to find!)

P.P.S. The Beginning Drawing Workshop is still open for registration. Look at this blog post from Monday for the details.

oil paintings pencil drawing

2026 Calendar

(SHARON, I moved the picture of the calendar back to lower on this post so you can skip it.)

Around Here—and Sometimes a Little Farther, 2026 is a collection of new pencil drawings by your Central California artist.

The drawings are mostly rural scenes, mostly from this often overlooked location in the heart of California. As a life-long resident of Tulare County, I continually seek out what it is that keeps me here. Pencil remains my favorite medium.

The price of $25 includes tax in California (unless Paypal goes rogue and adds it in, something over which I have no control and some angst). Cabinart will also pay for postage within the USA, because I know you could easily skip buying a calendar, and I wish to express my gratitude to you for liking my art.

I also wish to let you know that I only have 100 for sale this year, and when they are gone, it’s hasta la vista, baby!

All the drawings with the exception of the pier are for sale.

P.S. The calendar is printed in the USA.

Available on my website here: 2026 CALENDAR

calendar pencil drawing Tulare County art

Want to learn to draw?

Check out work by two of my drawing students. The first one is finished, and the second one is in progress.

I teach people how to put on paper exactly what they see. It is the beginning of all art, in my opinion. (If a person can only see it in his mind, I cannot help with that.)

Lessons are $60/month, one hour per week with other people, all of whom are learning too, all at different levels of skill. I don’t know where you’ll ever find a better group of people to spend an hour with each week—the friendships grow, the encouragement flows, and we laugh a lot too.

We don’t draw together in December, July, or August. You are welcome to stop by and see what it is like!

Tuesday afternoons, 2-5:30, CACHE, 125 South B Street, Exeter

pencil drawing

Thinking Aloud About Old Notecards

I’ve been getting my art printed on notecards since 1987. In the olden days, a package consisted of 2 each of 5 designs. In the olden days, people communicated on cards and mailed them with a stamp rather than talking into a little machine and tapping something. This meant that I had 1000s of cards printed at a time. Some of those pressruns produced uneven amounts of cards in a set, which meant leftovers.

What if I make packages of those old designs and sell them at a discount? There are six different designs, all in random amounts in a box, collecting dust on a shelf.

The ones circled in red are what is available. (For the curious reader*, the sets from left to right are Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Tulare County Landmarks.)

These were printed a long time ago. If someone had told me back then that I would become a blogger (a what??), an oil painter, a painter of murals, a knitter, a resident of Three Rivers, and that I would drive an automatic transmission car, I would have laughed out loud in disbelief. (And if someone would have said “LOL”, I would have looked at them with puzzlement. It used to mean “Little Old Lady”.)

Okay, decision made, packages compiled. Each package contains 4 different cards (and envelopes), mostly chosen at random with the exception of the first one on the upper left below. I have more of that drawing than any other, so every package contains one of those. They will be $5 a package, as opposed to my current cards. (The current ones are $10 a package and are all the same design within a single package.) These will be potluck.

It will cost too much to mail them, so they will only be available in person at the upcoming Holiday Bazaar.

*For the Very Curious Reader, the drawings from left to right, top to bottom: Kings Canyon overlook, General Sherman Tree, Four Guardsmen, Clover Creek Bridge, Exeter Woman’s Club (yeppers, that is the correct spelling), the Hilliard House (burned down in 1983 but never forgotten around here.)

pencil drawing Tulare County art

Drawing with Pencils

I guess you could draw with chalk or a paintbrush or your finger on a fogged up window, but drawing with pencils is what I do.

Student work

It’s also what I teach. A returning drawing student had one month free for lessons before embarking on a new chapter of life. We dove right in, and she stayed for several hours each time rather than the normal one hour weekly lesson. The final one took place in my studio, which is where we started about 12 years ago when she was a wee fourth grader. I made an exception to my usual 6th grade minimum age requirement because she was an exceptional child and private lessons meant much more help and attention.

Here’s a drawing she did in about 5th grade.

Here is the drawing she just completed.

She has become an exceptional adult. To quote another one of my drawing students who has known her through the years, “She’s all that AND a bag of chips!”

Protecting identity, because this IS the World Wide Web.

Central Calif. Artist Work

This is a commissioned pencil drawing I finished in July. I haven’t posted it because I didn’t know if the intended recipient reads my blog. (If you recognize yourself, please pretend to be surprised when you receive the drawing!)

Cats in the house

HEY! WHY DO YOU THINK YOU CAN WEASEL YOUR WAY INTO OUR HOUSE??

commission pencil work drawing lessons pencil drawing

Sold in Summer—Pencil Drawings

Five of these pencil drawings sold at my solo show in Tulare, “Around Here (and Sometimes a Little Farther)”. The others were pencil commissions, which I showed you with all the slow developments in painstaking detail.