Author: cabinart

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. . . )

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.

Growth, part four (Venturing into color)

Just Picked – colored pencil – 18 x 21″ – $550

Just when I thought I “had it made” and was settling in to The One Way To Do An Art Business, several of my students wanted to learn colored pencil. In high school, my friend Lisa thought watercolors were for babies, and I had the same opinion of colored pencils. First, I had to find a new attitude toward colored pencils; second I had to learn to use them correctly. This happened through books and the Colored Pencil Society of America. They offer seminars and workshops that are phenomenal in their variety and scope – this is a wonderful organization. http://www.cpsa.org/

Orange Juice – colored pencil – 11 x 14″ – $200

citrus art colored pencil oranges

Growth, part three (Learning to teach)

The next step in the saga of growing an art business was teaching people how to draw. It has always been a very rewarding challenge to help people learn to see, to break down the process into manageable steps and to spend time with wonderful people that I might never have gotten the chance to know. That grew, and eventually I had to move somewhere that gave me the flexibility to teach more classes. Over time, the list of people wanting to take lessons expanded to 85 people! I had as many as 50 students at one time in classes of 4-5 per hour.

Pencil drawing by S. Brown – private collection

pencil drawing

Growth, part two (Cards & Commissions)

I used to draw pictures that fit nicely into sets of notecards, which then sold very well both retail and wholesale. I still do a few cards, but the market just isn’t as big. In fact, it is microscopic. Tell me, how many cards, thank yous and little notes do you send a year? How many do you receive? Hmmmm, really have to think about that one. Cards do sell, but not very many anymore. (Despite the handiness of communicating via computer, the truth is, no one ever cherished an email, so there.)

In addition, I drew cabins and homes on a commission basis. (still do!) That was the sum total of my abilities in the early years, and it kept me quite busy.

local notecards pencil commissions Sequoia

Growth, part one

Ever read the book Who Moved My Cheese? If I remember it correctly, it is about the necessity of changing and keeping up. Way way way back when I first started selling art, I drew a picture of the Kaweah Post Office. It was not very good, but I was too dumb to know the difference between good and not good and too excited to calm down and study it and repair the not-so-good parts. Instead, I had 100 reproductions made and began selling them. If you have one of those and would like to trade it for a better version, please let me know – it will be FREE. This offer is good for the first 9 8 people who respond and PHYSICALLY HAND ME THE OLD PRINT!! Of course, if you’d like to just buy one, you may do so here: https://www.cabinart.net/reproductions_new.shtml There are only 2 remaining prints of the Post Office, so the offer is now officially expired.

Kaweah Post Office

Just walking?

In case you were wondering, hiking is not “just walking”. Yes, in theory you are doing the same motion of putting one foot in front of the other. However, you are doing it on a steep slope, often with weight on your back and at altitude! I walk between 30 and 40 miles a week, and sometimes hiking still makes me sore. (hate to think how I’d feel if I didn’t walk so much!) So, here are some photos of some of last week’s excursions for you to enjoy.

This is the Nature Trail, which Phoebe thinks is boring, probably because it is the closest to “just walking” of any trail in Mineral King. I like it because of the variety of flowers and trees – these aspens are possibly my favorite part of the trail.

Marmots are an integral part of the MK experience. In May and June they gnaw on car parts; by July they have calmed down; in August they hardly appear at all!

We fill Phoebe’s head with all sorts of information that is a little boring at age 15 but we all hope it will be appreciated in a few years. (She uses my daypack because of the Dork Factor associated with fanny packs.) She and Michael have climbed this rock outcropping of Empire a couple of times. (I wait below, because just as hiking is not just walking, climbing is not just hiking!)

Crystal Lakes are probably the least visited of all the lakes out of MK. The lower Crystal is one of 4 lakes with a dam, built by the Mt. Whitney Power Company in 1911. Getting there is an accomplishment – there are 3 very steep pulls in the 5.5 miles to the lake! Of course we had to complicate things by climbing to the ridge above the lake so that we could possibly climb down to Monarch Lake, also with a dam.

There was too much snow on the north side of that ridge, so we climbed around seeking a route down, then enjoyed the view of upper Monarch Lake and headed back down to Crystal instead of making the loop. The snow doesn’t show in this photo, but it was there, blocking our route of choice.

Here are 2 views of the trail on the way back down to MK.

On another day, we saw a pair of fawns and their mother. We waited a 1/2 hour for them to get comfortable with our presence across the canyon and I took a number of mediocre photos. Here is the best, but only 1 fawn shows (sort of).

After it seemed as if we had hiked a zillion miles, we came to this sign that said we had 4 more to go! According to my Garmin Forerunner, it was fairly close to the truth. That is Timber Gap in the background.

Some books call this a tiger lily; some call it a leopard lily. Because of its spots, I tend to think the latter name is more appropriate. Regardless of the name, you can smell it before you see it!

hiking Mineral King

Unusual commission

Have a look at the completed umbrella. Forgive me for tooting my own horn, but isn’t this the coolest thing?!? Have you ever seen this treatment before? Painting a patio umbrella wasn’t my idea, but the poppies were. I’m into poppies, but if you read this blog, you knew that.

Blue, part 2

Here are a few more blue flowers:

These are called, and no, I’m not making this up, “Blue Lips”!Larkspur are a bit more purplish than blue.

At the last place we lived, these covered the lawn in the winter. I had no idea they grew in the wild!These are called (nope, not making this up either) – “Five Spots”. What can one say to that except, “Duh”.These are truly blue and grow in a couple of profuse patches along the road, perhaps around 4000′. Their name is Heavenly Blue, which they are. The really great patch is in a place that would be very dangerous for stopping so you’ll just have to drive to Mineral King. Soon!

Mineral King

Completion Celebration

Wow, that was a great turnout last night! Thank you for coming! Those who came heard that there are 12 hidden things but only were shown 4 of them. They also learned of the 2 dumbest questions and the 3 most annoying comments. I could have gone on about the mural for 3 hours, but it was kind of hot out and the food would have run short before I got any. (no starving for this artist!) Wish I had had the opportunity to speak with every one there and name each person who helped make the mural happen. There will be a little 3-dimensional effect, and possibly a larger 3-dimensional effect. More will be revealed. Meanwhile, have a look at some hidden items:You probably can tell the first is a coffee pot; the second is NOT a purse but a fishing creel; the third is NOT Sasquatch but a running girl. She isn’t fat – that is her sweatshirt billowing. She isn’t holding a scarf – that is my attempt to blend her into the snow patches in a natural manner.

“You’re an artist. . .”

“. . . and I have this project.” Those words can be a big OH-OH or they can signal an adventure on the way. Now that I know how to paint, those words are most often in the adventure category. When you are an artist, especially one who makes her living rather than being a hobbyist, people ask the strangest things! Here is my latest adventure:

This is not a funny looking tablecloth but a patio umbrella! It has some sort of water resistant stuff on it, so it has to be rather forcefully persuaded to take the paint. Several layers into the process it gets easier to spread the color around. It needs more, but I ran out of workday today, as usual.