Doing Business with a Friend*

This post is lots of jibber-jabber before the photos, but without the gab, you might wonder why these photos are here.

A longtime (not going to say “old”) friend expressed an interest in a couple of my paintings. I brought them to her so she could see how they looked on a recently refurbished wall in her home.

After thinking it over, she asked if she could bring them back to me and see more. Of course I said yes, because A. I really enjoy her company and B. it was business.

I asked her to send me photos of the wall, and/or measurements. She did, but I do my best to not mess with people’s privacy here on the world wide web.

Before I even knew she was coming, I spent a morning vacuuming the studio. I might even have dusted a little. When I learned she was coming, I pulled most of the pencil drawings off the wall and replaced them with any painting that she might be interested in.

We spent about an hour discussing, rearranging, even designing a new painting. I drew the wall from her photos and we tried different shapes and sizes to see what arrangement was the most pleasing. This was a big decision, or perhaps several big decisions, and these things take time. It really is part of the business of art, and at the same time, it was part of friendship. If she had asked, I would have helped her figure this out even if it wasn’t my art.

The vertical shape on the left in each sketch represented the painting that she was sure about. We experimented with a square one, and with a couple of sizes and shapes of others. When she asked for my opinion, I honestly said that I was clearly not objective and am accustomed to seeing all my paintings together so I can’t tell if two paintings are better than two others when side by side in terms of subject matter.

She chose three paintings, we put them in her car, and I reassured her that if she wants help hanging them, wants to trade them for one of the others, or even wants me to paint something new, I am willing. (Another excuse to hang out? Maybe.)

I filled in the gaps, rearranged the paintings and drawings, and was so pleased with my studio that I took a couple of photos.

Here are the three paintings that she chose:

Classic Mineral King
Honeymoon Cabin
Alpenglow on Farewell Gap

*Because if your friends won’t do business with you, who will??

P.S. There are 2 fabulous quilts on the chair in my studio that this friend made. I didn’t put them out because she was coming; they are always there, except when I take one to the cabin with me each summer.

Fabulous and Varied Daffodils

In my little piece of Three Rivers, the deer don’t eat daffodils. Maybe they don’t taste as good as the native plants that are available around here in the spring. The gophers don’t bother them either. So, last December when the bulbs were on sale in Michigan (online), I bought a ton and planted them all around the yard. It was tricky business, because one is never quite certain where bulbs are already in the ground. If I was a real gardener, I’d have researched the height of each variety and somehow figured out which ones bloom first, and then paid attention to the individual packages and planted them in some sort of order.

I didn’t do any of that. I just roamed around the yard and stuffed them in the dirt willy-nilly.

Sometimes it is just more fun to be disorganized, spontaneous, and surprised.

Forget Watercolors; Where are my Oil Paints?

The last painting of a lemon sold the day I took it to the gallery*, so I painted another one. This is Lemons on the Tree IV, 6×6”, $75. It needs a few blossoms.

Now it is time to start painting Mineral King subjects to sell at Silver City this summer. This is Sawtooth #64, 8×10”, $150. It isn’t finished. (Were you nervous there for half a second?)

The Honeymoon Cabin is very popular; this cabin is from the resort which ended up in the hands of Mickey Mouse and is the only remaining one from the big teardown after the avalanche in 1969. It is now a mini museum, operated by the Mineral King Preservation Society.

Now it is finished. Unless I change my mind. Honeymoon Cabin #49. Hmmm, I guess it isn’t as popular as Sawtooth. And fret not—this is a poorly lit photo of a very wet painting. It will look much better when it is dry and scanned. And as always, everything looks better in person (except perhaps celebrities). This is 6×12”, $145.

This will be the trail leading to Farewell Gap. The method of beginning the painting is clean-out-my-brushes-at-the-end-of-the-painting-session. It is 8×8” and will be $145.

This is not a painting. These daffodils are so heavy-headed that they fall over, so Trail Guy picked a few off the ground and put them on the kitchen window sill.

It is still April, and my daffodils are so varied and beautiful that tomorrow I will show you the immense variety scattered around the property.

*Those quick sales are a thrill and I do NOT take them for granted.

It Seemed Like a Good Idea

I had a great idea that I thought would take off like gangbusters.

Watercolor workbooks are a bit of a fad right now. They feature about a dozen small simple watercolor paintings with a page facing each one to duplicate each painting, along with color swatches to mix, and simple instructions. These are very cool and quite fun. While in Texas last year, my friend bought one, and we had a great time messing around with it. (Scroll to #10 in this list of Eighteen Things I Learned in Texas).

Wouldn’t it be cool to have one of local subjects?? I got a quote from a printer who makes my calendars and coloring books, asked for paper samples to test how they would handle watercolor, and bought a little box of watercolors with a brush.

Wanting to keep it simple (because I don’t really know how to paint with watercolor), I decided to try wildflowers. OF COURSE, what else would you expect from me?

First I drew some wildflowers (just an outline) on watercolor paper, scanned the drawing, photoshopped it for reproduction, and figured I could paint it. Practically invisible, which is perfect to go on the page for the customer to paint.

Before painting on this piece of paper, I decided to practice on sample paper from the printer in order to see how it could hold up to a wet medium.

Besides, I needed to see if I could manage these paints. I tried watercolor about 30 years ago and decided it wasn’t for me, but this could be fun. I had fun with it in Texas, so no biggie, right?

The paper was white but photographed as blue. (I just work here.)

Ick. I couldn’t match the colors correctly, and this doesn’t look good enough to go in a book, much less an instruction book. Try something else, Toots.

This doesn’t look good. How is the paper holding up? It soaked through, something my Texas friend said was a bit disappointing about the workbook she bought and we tried together.

It even made the next page a little ripply.

Maybe I should use colored pencil.

The drawing is better than the paintings, but I have published 7 coloring books, and that fad is over. (Want to buy a coloring book? The last design, Heart of the County, is still available here.)

Never mind. If I can’t watercolor paint well, and the available paper isn’t stout enough, then this local watercolor workbook is not a good idea after all.

It was fun to figure out the steps and try to make it come together. Now I will stash my cute little watercolor paintbox and very excellent brush somewhere in my studio and fuhgeddaboudit.

Just another chapter in the life of your Central California artist, who will now return to doing what she knows how to do, which is:

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

Successful Drawing Workshop

The recent drawing workshop in Three Rivers was successful; everyone learned, and everyone had a good time, including your Central California artist, in her role as a drawing teacher.

We met at someone’s house on the river, a place full of beauty, so there are photos of things that caught my fancy along with photos from the actual drawing session.

This is a little store where the hostess and her husband sell their beautiful pottery.

Some of the pottery that did not make it intact out of the kiln is now stepping stones. Could you imagine stepping stones any more classy than this??

Ten students sat at a long table inside the house because the river made it too hard to hear outside.

I discussed drawing steps and tools, and they started on some beginning exercises to practice the techniques.

After about 15 minutes, 2 hours had passed. (That’s how one of the participants described the time.) The hostess fed us a wonderful lunch out on her deck.

Everyone began working on a drawing after lunch, and I circulated around the table, showing them how to see what is really there, rather than what they thought ought to be there. Weird, I know, but that is what drawing is, at least the way I teach it. I teach people to see, which is also weird, considering I am one of the most nearsighted people I know of.

People had such a good time that there is talk of a follow-up drawing session. Regular lessons, or another workshop? Where? When?

More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .

One Morning in April

Not quite as pretty as the morning when I took the photo to paint Sunrise over the Kaweah River.

T (my walking partner) and I see these bunnies almost every morning. We don’t understand how they survive.

Blue dick and common madia are still going strong.

It was a morning to spend in the yard. If I wasn’t such a lenient boss, I’d have to fire myself. I seem to be semi-retired these days.

It is so interesting that there is one white iris on each side of the path, and they stand above the others. I planted these bulbs in autumn of 2023 and have no memory of arranging them in any particular order.

This segment of the yard is all pinky-purply. It has one purple iris, lots of freeway daisies, several redbud trees, some lavender and some lilac. Guess you have to be here to see it all in bloom at once.

Just a thought about color for you: there are 3 plants named for various shades of purple.

  • Lilac
  • Lavender
  • Violet

Sunrise Over the Kaweah River

Remember this messy beginning?

After finishing the new little paintings to sell in local galleries and gift shops, I returned to this 16×20” painting, which felt like a mural after those 6×6” canvases.

There was another painting session between the photo above and the next one. I didn’t take any photos because sometimes I just forget. Other times I say to myself, “Self”, I say, “No one cares”.

Sky first (because I paint back to front). These are colors I haven’t mixed before.

The improvements might be hard to locate, but not so hard if you remember that method of painting back to front. It means I paint the things farthest away first, and keep moving closer, rather than jumping around all over the canvas.

Holy guacamole, there are so many rocks in the lower left quadrant.

Nope, not going to paint all the rocks that show in the photo. I widened the river too, because I am the boss of the painting and the photo is not the boss of me.

Now it needs the edges painted, and a signature, but before either of those, I will mull this over for awhile. So often I think a painting or drawing is finished until I view it on my computer screen.

Weird, but not uncommon.

Because Business Picked Up …

… it is time to produce more paintings. These are the standard small ones that sell steadily to visitors to Three Rivers and Exeter, where my three main selling locations are, Kaweah Arts, Stem & Stone, and the Mural Gallery and Gift Shop. (Because that lemon sold so quickly at the Mural Gallery, I have another one drying for them.)

They are all oil paint on wrapped canvas, which means the edges are painted and framing is optional. I just didn’t want to type that every time.

Poppy, 6×6”, $75 (Stem & Stone)
Poppy II, SOLD
Lemons on the Tree, 6×6”, SOLD
Big Tree, 4×6”, $75 (Stem & Stone)
Poppies up the North Fork, 6×12”, $145 (Kaweah Arts)
Sequoia Gigantea XVIII, 6×18”, $190 (Kaweah Arts)
Alta Peak, Moro Rock, 6×6”, $75 (Stem & Stone)
Kaweah Country, 6×6”, $75 (Stem & Stone)

P.S. If you don’t live in town and would like to buy any of these new paintings (the ones that haven’t sold already), I can retrieve them from their stores and send them to you.

TODAY IS THE SEVENTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THIS BLOG!

Only the Living

Only the Living? What is that?

So glad you asked!

Only the Living is the title of my most recent book publishing effort*. This is a novel by my dear friend, Louise Jackson, author of many books, our third project together. We began working on this one last summer, and now it is ready for purchase.

Based on a true story that takes place in the Western United States during the tumultuous nineteen thirties, Only the Living is centered on Teresa Wei Ramirez, a young girl of Mexican-Chinese heritage. Thrust from a stable family life as a child in Arizona into a life of migratory field work, Teresa’s life evolves into one of fear, longing, and dreams of escape as her labor crew migrates through agricultural fields up and down the Pacific Coast states.

Teresa’s dreams of escaping become reality after she survives being beaten and abandoned in the fields of California’s Central Valley farmlands and is taken to a welcoming home and family in the Tulare County town of Farmington.  There she finds acceptance, love and hope for her future, yet holds a continuing fear of the life she’s left behind. 

Her interactions with those who have created her fears, love, marriage, parenthood, reunification with family, labor union struggles, and lifestyle choices, all contribute to Teresa’s struggle for belonging in diverse
multicultural communities of complex, multifaceted individuals.

The story takes place in a decade of change and uncertainty between two world wars, a time of massive immigrations, migrations, depression, social upheavals, prejudice and fear. A time also, of opportunity, new freedoms, changing technologies and values. A time not unlike today.

WHERE CAN YOU BUY ONLY THE LIVING?

So glad you asked! Right here, at Lulu Publishing.

Why yes, that is my painting on the cover! Thank you for noticing. Louise insisted, and I am completelyhelpless in the face of her requests.

*I help local authors by editing, proofreading, formatting, designing covers, and submitting manuscripts to assisted-self-publishing companies. This is my first novel. Nope, I don’t do marketing, other than putting the purchasing info on my blog.