Petite Poultry Paintings

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

It was a little too dark for painting well. But these petite poultry paintings could be painted by holding them in my left hand, tilted toward the window for better light while painting. 

I added a second layer to each one.

Then I did my favorite part: drew the details with a tiny paintbrush.

From there, they got moved to the living room in the house with the wood stove for drying. They will look better when scanned (after they dry, of course), because there is that bothersome shine to wet paint which makes photographs look inadequate.

Cluck I, Cluck II, and Cockadoodle-doo, completed!

Cluck I, Cluck II, and Cockadoodle-doo

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet. 

This rooster oil painting hung around for awhile. Almost immediately after it (finally) sold, someone requested another, along with 2 little square paintings of hens.

That’s a fairly good beginning. These won’t take too long to complete, and then I can return to the odd job.

Odd Job Begun

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

My current odd job is simply a painting of a mountain landscape. The odd part is that I am painting it 16-3/8″ x 29-7/8″ on a piece of Masonite.

After Trail Guy cut it, I covered it with 5 or 6 coats of flat white housepaint, sanding between each layer for a smooth surface.

Meanwhile, I studied the two photos, provided by the customers.

Neither one is the right proportions. Each has its own good points, so I combined them into a rough sketch, the proportions of the window opening and board. This is what I sent to the customers for approval.

The customers were very happy, so I sketched it onto the board.

Then, I put a very thin first layer over the white primer.

When that is dry, I will continue layering, building up color, tightening up detail, until eventually I won’t be able to think of any way to make it better.

Then I’ll do the usual finishing steps: sign, photograph, varnish.

Because I know you want to know, all I know is that this is somewhere north of Lake Tahoe. 

Odd Job and Phooey

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet. 

A woman contacted me via my connection with the Arts Consortium This is Tulare County’s designated arts council, an active and helpful group.

She had a request for a custom oil painting, which on the surface sounded normal. We began discussing via email, and eventually I learned the odd particulars of her job. She has a window in her home which looks out onto the neighbor’s wall, about 1 yard away. The window is a very specific measurement, and she would like a painting to exactly fill the space, 16-3/8 x 29-7/8″.

That is not a standard size. (Bet you already guessed that one.)

The customer, living in a city, has access to many businesses, such as a place that makes custom canvases.

Before she called the company, I remembered that when I first was learning to oil paint, I painted on Masonite, primed with many coats of flat white house paint. Back in 2006, I bought a sheet of 4×8′ Masonite (also called “panel board”), along with a table saw (which I put in the front passenger seat of Fernando*), and then Trail Guy cut the boards to the sizes that I requested. (Nope, I’m not risking my fingers on that machine.)

I looked through my scraps, but none were large enough to cut to size.

So, I took the pick-em-up truck to Vise-grip (AKA Visalia) to buy a sheet of Masonite, hoping I could buy a 1/2 sheet. At the least, I was hoping they’d be able to cut the full sheet into 4 pieces, but just in case they couldn’t, I left Fernando at home. 

Alas, the correct saw at the big box store was broken. So, I bought the giant sheet and some really helpful guy with a really foul mouth helped me load it after he saw me wrestling with it in the parking lot. (He was not an employee: remember this was a big box store, not known for helpfulness).

Trail Guy figured out how to cut it to the exact dimension.


Then, when he was figuring out where to store the excess, HE FOUND A SCRAP FROM BEFORE THAT WAS BIG ENOUGH!!

Phooey. 

*Fernando is my ’96 Honda Accord coupe. “Coupe” means two doors. You’re welcome. I try to expand people’s vocabularies here.

Drawing Because I Can

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

Sometimes I draw simply because I love to draw. I try to hold back, because my flat files are full. When I have a good reason and know the drawing will not simply be stored in my files, then get outta my way.

(“Outta” is like “prolly” and “liberry”: words I like in spite of being an editor and a proofreader.)

An acquaintance did me a big favor, so I am drawing her cabin. 

I started several months ago, then set it aside because of paid work. My work priority order is this: 1. commissions with a deadline; 2. commissions without a deadline; 3. building up inventory of subjects that will prolly sell; 4. reworking paintings that haven’t sold; 5. whatever I feel like painting or drawing.

This one is considered to be Category #2. The customer isn’t commissioning me because she doesn’t know she is a customer. I am commissioning myself.

What does commission mean? That’s another topic for another blog post.

This is the drawing before I tackled it with Photoshop Junior to prepare it for eventual printing, which most likely won’t happen.

And this is after I converted it to grayscale and erased any errant lines or spots, most likely the result of a scanner screen that WILL NOT come clean, which is most likely the result of scanning paintings that aren’t quite dry, which is most likely the result of being in a hurry, which is most like the result of any number of unfortunate incidents such as not planning ahead, pulling weeds or taking walks instead of working, or choosing to draw something without a deadline instead of painting to build up inventory.

Where were we?

Oh. The finished drawing.

Now I am outta here.

Enjoying Life Before the Storms

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

A day before the big storm, there was a brief time of sunshine. It lit up this germander, a drought tolerant shrub that looks great in spring and horrid in summer.

That evening, Jackson did not want to be put away. He decided to walk the other way and then attempt to catch his own dinner. I walked around the yard calling for him, and of course, he ignored me. However, I found him. Can you see his tail?

He was very intensely focused on some quail which feed around dusk, which is when we feed our cats.

Dude, I am watching you, and you are not going to catch a quail. 

He showed up at the front door looking for entry to the workshop where his dinner was waiting. Michael walked him over, and put him away for the night.

The next day was so intensely green and my leaning tree was in full bloom. (It’s a flowering pear, one of the earliest trees to bloom and one of the last to hold its color in the fall.)

Eventually I made it into the workshop (the cats’ safe place at night) to get a little painting done.

The first one is called Below Terminus Dam. I love this view in spite of it not having snow-covered peaks in the distance. Some years there are poppies on the distant hills; it is too soon to know this year because we are having a real winter.

This is the commissioned piece, now finished. (The right side looks darker because I am casting a shadow on it.)

This is the painting that was giving me trouble. I’ve decided that it is finished now.

This concludes today’s post about your Central California artist enjoying spring, her recalcitrant cat, her yard, and painting her favorite Tulare County scenes. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

 

Slowly Painting While Loving Early Spring

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet. These photos are from March 2, a brilliant and cold day.

A friend and I went for a walk. (This was before the big rains.) I realized that while this first photo is normal to us, it is probably peculiar to other folks. These boulders get moved to block parking spaces when Edison closes its beaches on busy weekends. This method of closing a parking area is probably unusual; I think it is innovative.

The river is flowing steadily but isn’t high because nothing above was melting yet.

The snow was sooooo low.

But the daffodils were bright, in spite of being slightly splattered with mud.

Enough. Get to work, Central California Artist!

This oil painting, an 11×14″ commission is coming together. No matter how difficult these seem at the beginning, if I don’t give up, eventually they get done in a believable manner.

“Nevuh, nevuh, nevuh give up” —good advice from Winston Churchill.

Aaaaand. . . More Orange Groves

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

(More storms predicted for today and tomorrow, and if anything exciting happens, I’ll return to my post as photojournalist for you then.)

About Painting

Back in January I started eight new oil paintings of orange groves. I added a similar painting of oak trees with distant mountains (for the show Locals), and then someone wanted a painting of the groves with hills and mountains in a different size. That brought the total to ten paintings, all similar. Five are now completed (one sold), and other than the commissioned painting, there is no urgency or deadlines.

The urgency is self-imposed on the commissioned painting. As I prepped the canvas, I realized that I didn’t know which view of the mountains my customer was interested in. So I sent her these two photos (she is the photographer but I am the painter) and then put a thin layer of paint on the canvas (too boring to photograph).

Since my palette was loaded with the right colors and I had the biggish brush in hand, it seemed like a good time to begin layering paint on the 18×36″ that I was hoping to keep for awhile.

While slopping it on, I realized that maybe I want a different scene than the one I painted for myself last time. No rush; the space in my dining room is currently occupied by a painting of redwood trees.

Next, I moved to this 6×18″ with the blocks of groves that are confusing.  I repainted the sky, distant mountains, and foothills.

The groves are confusing because I have not been following the photograph or the advice I give to my drawing students: “Draw the dog before you draw the fleas.”

This means figure out the larger parts before putting in the details. So, I covered over most of the lines of the groves, got out the photo, and started to pay attention. It isn’t that I have to follow photos because they are the only right way to paint; I have to follow them in order to understand how to make those blocks of trees look believable.

This feels like slow going, perhaps because it is. When I draw, a day flies by. When I paint, it crawls. Maybe someday with enough experience this will change. Meanwhile, tick, tock, tick, tock. . .is it lunchtime yet?

Quick Day, Quick Draw

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

The very fastest days are the ones spent in my studio, drawing with pencils, listening to podcasts. It took me about 2 hours to do this drawing. . .

NOT!* Just felt like it because there were so many interesting podcasts to listen to. And, because I love to draw. (have I ever told you that before?)

We will miss our UPS driver when he retires. And we will probably learn to really like the new one. 

*A long time ago I had jobs where I would work the entire day, then look at my watch and see it was only 9:30 in the morning.

Pencil Commission

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

Has anyone ever had an unpleasant UPS driver? I think they must all be screened by personality before getting hired. If they are high energy, extroverted, optimistic, friendly, and have a good sense of humor along with a great memory, then they are candidates to drive those big brown trucks.

My UPS driver will retire soon, and he likes my art. He knows about my art because our buildings have murals on them, he delivers supplies to me, and I often greet him with a paintbrush in each hand.

He has the privilege of delivering to Sequoia National Park, and has taken some fun pictures of his truck surrounded by beautiful scenery. He wants a pencil drawing of his truck in one of these scenes, and has been sharing ideas with me for a few months. 

Recently, we figured out the best combination of brown truck with Sequoia scenery. Because the photos he shared with me belong to him, and because I don’t know the rules of a huge company like UPS, I will only show you my beginning sketches.

This is okay, but could be better. Trail Guy and I discussed the possibilities, because he actually has a very good sense of composition. (And zero desire to learn to draw or paint, so don’t even suggest that to him). We agreed on a solution.

Mr. UPS is good with either idea, but this one is definitely the winner.

He has no deadline, but it is nice to draw in my studio with reliable heat so I dove in quickly. Stay tuned. . .