Flowers in Pencil

I may have mentioned a time or two that I love to draw in pencil. 

It came to my attention that the group behind the First Saturday Three Rivers events appreciates pencil drawings of their subject matter, because they are useful for an ad in an old-fashioned newspaper that doesn’t print in color.

I had provided photos of many flowers and 2 pencil drawings for this year’s theme of wildflowers. Hearing that the drawings were useful, I did 2 more for their use.

The first is Columbine, a flower which comes in several colors – yellow and red in the Sierra, blue in the Rockies.

The second is Farewell To Spring, which is a purplish pink. It always makes me a bit sad when it appears because it means that spring and green are over to be replaced by heat and brown. Without the color, it sort of looks like poppies.

I rarely participate by opening my studio on the first Saturday of the month for a variety of reasons. However, I do support them with my checkbook, photos, and drawings every year.

Turbulent Times

Sometimes I tell you about the good parts of living in Three Rivers (running into people at the Post Office or on a walk, having a mailbox at the bottom of my driveway to drop off things). Sometimes I tell you the bad parts, which are mostly attributable to Tulare County in general rather than Three Rivers.

The down side to living in a self-contained small town and community is that when bad things happen, no one is untouched. Last week Three Rivers lost 2 men to suicide. Each had his own reasons which are not public knowledge, and each one left a trail of broken-hearted and baffled people behind. The ripples of sadness extend outward into every part of town.

This pencil drawing is called “Turbulent Times”, and it feels appropriate right now.

Turbulent Times, a pencil drawing

Pencil Drawing Commission

Do you remember reading that I was doing a pencil drawing of a walnut grove, a commission, and was waiting for more information? I received what I needed, finished it, and now I am waiting to hear if the commissioning parties are happy.

So, I’ll show you another pencil drawing commission that I finished. The customer is very happy.

This was difficult. The size is 8×10, and that is really too small for all this detail. I did most of it underneath a large magnifying light, and resolved to stop offering the 8×10 size. It was a relief that the customer didn’t want the family sitting in the front yard – I would have just had to say a definite and resolute NO! The horses looked a little weird in the photo – as if they had horns or something. When I asked the customer why they looked so weird, she said, “Who knows? It is Oklahoma! Just make them look normal.”

Too funny – are horses weird in Oklahoma? Maybe in the late 1800s or early 1900s they wore ear points. 

I also wondered about the alternating colors of paint on the porch pillars. Red and white is my guess, but perhaps dark green and white.

Interesting pencil commission job – have I mentioned lately that I love to draw in pencil?

And here’s a little aside about living in Three Rivers: the customer/friend has been telling me for awhile that she’d like me to draw her old family homestead farmhouse. I saw her at the Post Office and reminded her. She was ready to begin, so she dropped it off in a special mailbox I have near the bottom of my driveway. We did the entire job without actually seeing one another in person – all email and drop-offs, no more chance encounters at the Post Office or on a walk. We live about 1-1/4 miles apart and often walk past one another’s homes.

In addition to loving to draw in pencil, I love living in Three Rivers.

Finishing Drawings For Other People

Every week I teach people how to draw and have been doing this since 1994. Sometimes people stay for years, sometimes they discover it isn’t for them after a few lessons, and sometimes a year or two satisfies their itch to learn to draw. Sometimes people grow up, graduate, move away, retire, travel, or something else.

Two girls quit drawing lessons and left unfinished work. I don’t remember when this happened, and somehow I ended up with the drawings and the photos from which they were working.

This may surprise you, Gentle Reader, but I am not a perfectionist. I am a finisher. It takes focus and discipline for me to try and perfect something, and it isn’t natural behavior for me. (Remember the drawing of the bridge over the Tule River a few months ago, the one that I used for February in the 2017 calendar? Yikes. I needed a perfectionist to stop me from printing that before I embarrassed myself.)

Girl One began a drawing of a border collie, her very first (and last) with me, working from a calendar. I don’t work from copyrighted photos, but often my students do. I am friends with Girl One’s dad, so I thought I’d surprise him with this:

She did the hard work of setting it up and shaded the eyes before deciding that drawing lessons weren’t for her. I had fun finishing it, and then I signed both of our names.

Girl Two was with me from 6th grade until she graduated from high school. She left this unfinished self-portrait. I am friends with her parents, so I thought I’d finish it and give it to them.

She did the hard work of setting it all up and shading the eyes and mouth. This made it easy to just add more shading, and wow, what a pretty girl! Again, I signed both of our names.

I don’t know the proper protocol for any of this, so I make it up as I go along. There is tremendous satisfaction in finishing things and giving them to the people who will appreciate them.

Water in Mineral King

What water in Mineral King? Isn’t it all snow right now?

I’m glad you asked (all interviewees either say that or “Good question” in response to most questions).

This is a pencil drawing of water in Mineral King, on Franklin Creek. I discovered a great name for it in my own imagination, without resorting to a contest. Here it is before my middle-aged-mush-brain erases it.

Every Drop, pencil on paper, 9×12″, unframed, $200

The part about this drawing that thrills me the most is that I was able to recognize it as Franklin Creek from the photo. (Trail Guy was also able to recognize it, and I confirmed it by going through my 24,000 photos on the computer and finding it in context.)

I drew another pencil piece of Spring Creek, also in Mineral King. It was the one that began this water project, and it took about 2 years to complete. The name is “Hard Water”, because I found it to be difficult. And because my friend and drawing student Rosemary was so taken with this drawing, I continued with water pictures.

Hard Water, pencil on archival paper, matted and framed to 15×19″, $399.95

(The price is because Rosemary and I got a little silly one day and decided this was a good compromise for the 99er and the 95er schools of pricing.)

Rock and Roll, Water in Pencil Drawing

I first drew water for the Irrigation category of the Madera Ag Art show, back in the late 1990s. It was called “The Source” and was raging white water. It won first place, sold, and I didn’t save a copy.

My Dad suggested drawing Lake Kaweah and naming it “Storage” and then drawing the spillway and naming it “Release”. We had plans to visit a few dams for photography, inspiration, and just plan curiosity, but then he got a brain tumor and died in 2000 at age 67. Today would have been his 85th birthday.

I went ahead with “Storage” and “Release”. Both placed in Madera; “Storage” sold and I still have “Release”.

This year I began an absorbing project of drawing flowing water in pencil. It might be related to a sense of utter relief and gratitude for the end of the drought. (Or it could simply be the encouragement of a very dear drawing student named Rosemary.)

Last week I got stuck on a name for this picture, because the real name of the location on the Middle Fork of the Kaweah is truly dreadful.

A friend posted my naming contest to Facebook and then proceeded to email dozens of suggestions. If I’d have any foreknowledge that she would do this and that the response would be so overwhelming, I would have added the caveat that in order to participate, one must subscribe to my blog. Or at the very least, VISIT the blog and use the comment section!!

Sigh. (I’m sighing over my lack of foresight on contest details, not my friend’s reposting to Facebook.)

Anyway, the contest reminded me of a name I had thought of earlier and then forgotten for some stupid middle-aged mush-brain reason. 

The winner is “Rock and Roll”!

Another suggestion sparked an idea, and then I got 2 additional name ideas on my own. So, the water drawings will continue, and some will lose their boring names (Franklin Creek, Base of Hospital Rock) and get new names. I’ll post them one at a time just in case any of the Facebook people show up. I don’t want to scare them away because of a too-long-didn’t-read type of blog post.

Want to Title a Pencil Drawing of Water?

“Life Source” is the title of my latest pencil drawing of water. (It is spoken for, but thank you for your interest.) I borrowed the name from a company that sells water treatment machines. Since water is the source of life, (okay, I know God is the source, but you get my drift here, yes?) it seems like an appropriate title.

Are you confused? Do you think you have already seen this drawing? You might be getting it mixed up with the previous one that I didn’t name. Similar. Flowing, rushing water with rocks. Both on the Kaweah River.

Any ideas for the title on this one? If I choose your suggestion, you will get a prize, as of yet undetermined, just like the title of the drawing.

Welcome, new readers who learned of this blog post via a generous friend’s sharing it on Facebook! I am not on Facebook and don’t know how to reach you unless you EMAIL me via the contact button above (under About the Artist) or COMMENT right here on this post.

Little Victories

Life is hard, full of obstacles, difficulties, problems to solve, and hassles. But, sometimes there are victories along the way that lighten our loads and lift our spirits. Last week I experienced a few of those little victories in my business of art.

  1. The scanner now works with the new laptop!!
  2. The pencil drawing that was full of mistakes is now corrected because contrary to my memory, I did NOT use Fixatif on it!
  3. I finished 3 oil paintings!
  4. The latest coloring book arrived!

These all require exclamation points because I am exclaiming over the thrill of victory.

The mistakes were all little things, negligence and carelessness as a result of haste. My readers and students had fun figuring out what was wrong. I don’t dislike this picture any more.

Tomorrow I’ll show you the new coloring book, and the next day 3 new oil paintings. New? Finished since you last viewed them.

Trading Water for Walnuts

This week I’ve set aside my current obsession of drawing water and begun a commissioned piece of a walnut grove.

This has involved several sketches, beginning with the page of the walnut grove as it appears in the coloring book, Heart of Ag for the Tulare County Farm Bureau (NOW AVAILABLE – WILL POST TO FOR SALE PAGE WHEN IT IS REPAIRED!)

This was a starting place. More ideas were requested and delivered. This is part of the business of art, the sorting out of details for commissioned work.

The response was, “This looks like a generic walnut grove, not like ours.” Hmmm, is there anything unique about your walnut grove? A barn? A creek? A canal, a ditch, a view? 

No.

I made a trip to the grove and found a teensy distinction between the customer’s grove and any other Joe Farmer’s grove. I can’t tell you what it is, because this is going to be a surprise for someone.

I can show you the beginning stages of the drawing.