Category: commissions

In Progress, Spoken For – Kaweah Post Office

A few months ago, I painted the famous Kaweah Post Office. This is up the north fork of the Kaweah River, and is the smallest operating post office in the United States! Really! The folks who live near it and use it insist that they don’t live in Three Rivers but in Kaweah, and since they do have their own zip code, I suppose it is true. However, the town of Three Rivers claims the Kaweah Post Office as its landmark. Regardless, it is cute as can be and always sells when I paint or draw it. It sold as an 11×14 in November; someone stopped me in the Three Rivers Post Office (Where else for such a request??) last week and asked me to paint it again.

Here it is in its beginning stages.

Here it is a little later. Incidentally, all realistic artists either work from photos or they lie about it. (This is a quote from Jack White, my painting guru)

Kaweah Post Office three rivers landmarks

Recalculating

Ever use a GPS to help you reach a destination? If so, you have experienced what happens each time you choose to go a different route than the Talking Lady instructs. She says “Recalculating, recalculating!” That is exactly what I do with the prioritization of paintings in progress. Have a look at the current list:

Secret unrevealed large and urgent project
6 tangerines for a real estate guy who sells ag property and likes to give art as a thank you to his clients. (This is 6 different paintings, not 1 painting of 6 tangerines!)
14×11″ Sunny Sequoias
2 8×10″ paintings of poppies
4 4×6″ paintings of poppies
8×10″ oranges as still life
Oak Grove Bridge
Clover Creek Bridge
Pumpkin Hollow Bridge

How do I prioritize? If there is a paying customer, it goes high on the list. If there is a deadline, it goes high on the list. If it is tiny and I can work on it at The Art Co-op, it gets painted on Thursdays, in order of priority. The “spec” paintings are arranged in order of the shows coming up and how I am guessing (an educated guess of course!) they will sell at particular places. When one or a group gets finished, you know what I do? I recalculate, of course! 😎

a completed Sunny Sequoias in the ongoing series

a completed poppy for an upcoming show (click on to enlarge)

a completed orange for Mr. Ag Property

a completed commission piece

Nine One One, part two

Here is a Yokuts shelter. From the diagram that the author provided, I had to ask if these were little Christmas trees made of thatch! She gave me an explanation, so hopefully the drawing will clear up any sort of confusion as to the nature of these little structures. The book will be titled The Sierra Before History: Ancient Landscapes, Early Peoples. It is by Louise Jackson and will be out this spring. The book still might be available through the publisher, Mountain Press http://mountain-press.com/index.php.

commission pencil work drawing pencil drawing Sierra Before History Yokuts shelter

Art Nine One One

Ever notice that the initials of Nine One One are NOO? That is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the words, “I know this is short notice but. . .” Saying “NOO!” would be bad for business. People come to me because I have something they need, and it would cut down on many business opportunities and mess up my hard-won reputation for being a non-flakey artist if I just automatically said “NOO” to these requests. So, I listen to the request, ask for the exact time the piece is required, think about my existing obligations and commitments, ask for specific expectations about the job, and say yes or no based on reality, rather than first instinct. An Art Emergency came to me last week – 2 illustrations for a book on the people of the Sierra. The author was notified by the publisher that the deadline for going to press was moved, and she couldn’t find decent photos of Miwok and Yokuts shelters. She had blurry photos and a diagram, and neither was adequate. She asked me to create drawings – “I know you are busy and this is short notice, but. . .” Since she is a very dear friend who has helped me in more ways than I can ever count, I truly wanted to help her. Besides, have I mentioned how much I love to draw? So, I did the drawings, and this is the first time I have ever confidently made up something without adequate photos and LIKED the results!

These are Miwok shelters made of bark.

commission pencil work Miwok shelter pencil drawing Sierra Before History

Art Emergencies

You’ve learned about odd art jobs such as quilt patches and umbrellas (and NO, I DON’T WANT TO PAINT ON AN OLD SAW!) Now, I bring you Art Emergencies. This is where someone comes to you and says “I know this is short notice but. . .” Generally speaking, 30% of the work that comes to me is an emergency. Granted, there are no true emergencies outside of birth and death, and “poor planning on your part does not create an emergency on mine”. However, poor planning on the part of a customer often creates nice jobs for me. And, to be fair, sometimes Art Emergencies are not a result of poor planning but the result of a surprise as in “Joe Bag-of-Doughnuts just announced his retirement and we need a nice personalized gift for him right away!” Here is one from a couple of years ago:

If you are wondering about it, it was for a retiring Visalia City Council member and all the elements of this collage mean something to him. And no, he isn’t Joe Bag-of-Doughnuts; he is more akin to Joe Box-of-Oranges!

commission pencil work custom art pencil drawing

Odd Job

A dear friend, B, is a very accomplished quilter. She is also a true Mineral King person. Check out this quilt she made:

In case you need a tour guide, this is a view of Sawtooth, with Monarch Falls and the East fork of the Kaweah River. B was not pleased with Monarch Falls as it appeared in fabric form, so she requested a painted quilt square to replace it. Took some real planning! We walked to the view, I did a sketch, we laid out the quilt and I sketched it in place on tissue paper over the top of the quilt. Then I cut a piece of fabric, taped off the seam allowance, and coated it with gesso. Then, I lost it for awhile. After I cleaned out a closet, it reappeared, and I painted it as B and I planned.

This shows it just lying on the quilt without being stitched (hence, the white border). I actually mixed paint to match part of the fabric! Isn’t this a cool idea? Isn’t B an over-the-top quilter?

Mineral King quilt

Getting there

Remember this? On overcast days, I draw in the studio rather than paint in the workshop. Have I mentioned how much I love to draw? 😎 Now that my seasonal shows are behind me, I can finish this so the customer will have it in hand before Christmas.

In progress

When it is overcast, the light is too low for painting. So, I draw instead! Here is the chosen sketch for this comissioned collage piece:

Looks like a scribbly mess unless you know the photos. I showed the customers 4 options and they chose A with a few minor changes. Here is the beginning of the drawing:

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.

cabinart drawing pencil portraits

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