Custom Oil Paintings

These are custom oil paintings, commissioned pieces, from a whole lotta* years. Each one was done with a whole lotta* discussion with the customer (customer—custom art—get it?) to be sure to achieve what the customer desires.

This customer provided photos, but I went there myself and looked it over further, taking a few more pictures to be sure to get things accurate.

Yes, I am fully aware that Homer’s Nose does not appear above the Oak Grove Bridge in real life. However, the customer requested this, and my dad taught me, “You kisses their fanny and takes their money”. (No, no fanny kissing took place – it is simply a figure of speech that means you do what the customer requests whether or not it makes sense to you.)

This one was painted for someone who is color-blind, so I focused on contrast for him. 

I use pencil, oil paint, and murals to make art that you can understand of places and things you love for prices that won’t scare you.

*We discussed this term in yesterday’s post.

Custom Pencil Drawings

These are all examples from a whole lotta years at the drawing table. (Yes, I know — “a whole lot of”, but I also like to say “prolly” and “liberry” and “remorial building”).

I’ve been a long time admirer of this house and was thrilled when the owner asked me to draw it. I took many photos, looking for the best way to depict this gem.

This was a collection of favorite memories of a couple’s trip to Ireland, working from many photos that they provided. The challenge was how to put them all together.

The customer provided all the photos for these. I pushed back against the portrait; the customer said that a likeness wasn’t necessary. Good thing, because likenesses are impossible to guarantee, especially at this size.

I love to draw in pencil; however I also use…

…oil and murals to make art that people understand about places and things they love for prices that won’t scare them.

Deep Thoughts About Custom Art

This photo of Moro Rock and Alta Peak is not current – it is wishful thinking.

Seth Godin says “Humans are lonely. They want to be seen and known. People want to be part of something.” Or as Anne Lamott puts it, “Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy and scared.”

Seth also says, “People don’t want what you make. They want what it will do for them. They want belonging, connection, peace of mind, status.”

Further, “Create experiences. Using a product, engaging with a service, calling customer service. Each of these actions is part of the story; each builds a little bit of our connection. Offer these experiences with intent, doing them on purpose.”

He is all about marketing, and speaks and writes with great abstraction. I try to apply what I hear him say to my art business, and finally, in these words, I think I can gather some practical advice. Let me translate:

  1. People need to be shown kindness and treated as if they are significant (because they are).
  2. Custom art commemorates and legitimizes, celebrates and pays tribute to the things that matter in people’s lives.
  3. Spending time to hear someone’s stories, look at his photos, listen to what matters to him, take more photos, make sketches, and involve him in the process gives the customer an experience to remember, one that validates the things that are most important to him.*

Does this make you want to hire me to make a custom painting or drawing for you?

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

*The masculine pronoun is intentional here; in this context it means all humans, regardless of biological gender. “They” is a plural pronoun, and I am speaking of a theoretical singular customer here, “someone” and “the customer”. This blog does not cave to current trends.

Anniversary Dogs

A thoughtful mom commissioned me to draw a pair of dogs for her daughter and son-in-law’s anniversary. She videotaped them opening the gift, and while I cannot put that on my blog, I can show you the dogs.

The daughter sent me this message: “Jana!!!!! I love love love the portraits of Charlie and Maggie!!!!! Thank you so much!!!! You captured their expressions brilliantly!” (I might have gotten the number of exclamation points wrong in the quote).

You are so welcome, K & F!! It was a pleasure, especially because we are friends AND because you stopped by the studio when it was on the table. It was in a folder, so I knew you wouldn’t notice it, but your mom was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

In case it has slipped your mind:

I use pencils, oil paint, and murals to make art you can understand of places and things (and sometimes pets) that you love at prices for won’t scare you.

One Inch Too Big

Here are the three dry Mineral King oil paintings that are one inch too long to fit on the flatbed scanner, which I now have to connect to the old laptop in order to use. This is because when I “upgraded” my operating system, it caused my current laptop to no longer communicate with the scanner. 

What passes for old in this world is just hard to comprehend. Merle Haggard had a line in a song, “Wish a Ford and a Chevy could still last ten years, like they should” – how about a printer or a scanner?

I now also have to do some shenanigans with a flash drive in between the old and new laptops in order to fix the unsightly black edges around some of the paintings because of that blasted “upgrade”. If I hadn’t said anything, you probably would not have noticed.

Never mind, let’s move on, shall we?

The Honeymoon Cabin (which is a museum for the Mineral King Preservation Society)
Farewell Gap (well, oops, I hadn’t signed that one and now have to retake the photo.)
The Oak Grove Bridge, #32 (I’ve probably painted it more than 32 times – sometimes I just lose track of numbers).

Each one of these is oil on wrapped canvas, ready for hanging, 6×18″, $165 plus California sales tax, which is 7.75% here in the foothills of Tulare County, deep in the heart of California’s fly-over country. (But we feed the world, and don’t you forget it.)

Guess I’d better gird my loins, find my inner warrior, be a brave soldier, and return to Forrest’s Dream Cabin.

Extra, Extra

Today I went to Arts Visalia to gallery sit. It was closed!

Tomorrow’s hours are noon – 8:30 p.m. and there are some available appointments, if you’d like to see my work in person. Here is the phone # to call: 559-739-0905. Ashley is there until 5:30 today (Don’t quote me on this because the operation is a little bit squishier than I realized) to make an appointment for you.

 

Painting Mineral King Like Nobody’s Business

Forrest’s Dream Cabin still feels a bit daunting, too hard, too challenging. Maybe I am just lazy. Or the hateful time change still has me dragging. Or too many trips down the hill in one week threw me off my stride. 

Excuses, excuses. Even when I am in a diminished state of mental energy and toughness, I can paint Mineral King like nobody’s business*. 

When these are dry, I will hook up my old computer to the old scanner and scan them so you can get a better look. Tomorrow I will show you the ones that I photographed because they are too large for the scanner by ONE LOUSY INCH. (Who decided that 17″ was a good dimension for a scanner??)

*Such a strange cliché but I am not interested enough to look it up.

Classic Mineral King. . .

. . . in a new shape and type of light.

Have I painted this scene tall and narrow before? No. (Disregard the photo along side the painting – it was left there from a previous painting.)

Or in this evening light? I don’t think so.

Or with a dam on the creek? Nope 

I chose to leave off the smaller tree on the left. You probably wouldn’t notice if I didn’t tell you. This might be finished. Of course I can always add more detail. . . 

P.S. If you recognize this charming child, wish her a happy birthday today !

The Show Goes On

On the first Saturday of the show, I gallery sat. Yep, that’s what it is called, like babysitting. The night before, the other artist’s work was featured on a local teevee news program. That brought a few people in specifically to see the show “Seen and Unseen” by Ricardo Favela. I visited with those folks, had relatively little to say but asked questions and listened to them, and then followed them into my show in Gallery 2, “Still Here”. Then I had much to say but managed to let them talk too.

This was my view from the babysitting desk.

I could also see into “my” room.

Doesn’t it make you want to go closer?

But wait! There’s more! Someone visited the show virtually and bought this painting! (Thank you MB)

Red dots are good in galleries.

And this is interesting: two other friends, one who saw the show in person and one who faithfully reads my blog, both told me that this painting, Yokohl Creek, is their favorite one in the show!

You too may visit the show in person, virtually, (VIRTUAL TOUR) and if you are so inclined, you may watch my interview (but don’t make me watch because I will think that I am ugly and my mother dresses me funny.)

Gallery Hours: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, noon-5:30

Gallery Address: 214 East Oak Avenue, Visalia

Gallery Phone Number: 559-739-0905

Last Day of the Show: April 30

 

 

Mr. Curly Becomes “Buck”

In the ongoing virtual drawing lessons, (actually happening via email rather than Zoom or video) the horse that my student C is drawing has a name, and it isn’t Mr. Curly; the name is Buck. This reminds me of a scene in a Chronicles of Narnia movie (one of the few movies I have seen or actually remember anything) of one of the kids riding a horse. He says to the horse, “Giddy-up, Horsie.” The horse turns his head back a bit and says in a very disgusted and dignified voice, “The name is Phillip.”

Please excuse the digression.

C sent me her drawing with the eyes completed. I circled one eye in red, then wrote up the notes demonstrating the next steps. I hope you can read my writing. But perhaps you don’t care, and only came to look at the photos.