Reading Rabbit Returns

Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11x14"
Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″

Here is a list of some of what I have read this summer. All were either entertaining or informative. All are worth sharing, and thank you to those who shared with me. (I didn’t list the mediocre books, of which there were several. Those I skimmed or didn’t finish.)

  1. My Reading Life, Pat Conroy. Nonfiction. (Thank you, Jennifer Dougan, for this recommendation.)
  2. The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman. Fiction. (Thank you, Cathy T., for this recommendation.)
  3. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr. Nonfiction.
  4. Knowing God, J.I. Packer. Nonfiction
  5. Under the Wide and Starry Sky, Nancy Horan. Fiction (More thanks to Cathy T.)
  6. The Calorie Myth, Jonathan Bailor. Nonfiction.
  7. Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath. Nonfiction (THANK YOU, MAK, FOR THIS FANTASTIC RECOMMENDATION!)

My list of unread books continues to grow, in spite of reading 2-3 at the same time all summer long. The over-abundance (is that word wrong, like “irregardless”?)  comes from finding a book recommended on someone’s blog, and immediately ordering it from the library. We have a terrific library ordering system here in the San Joaquin Valley. I go to the site, find and order the book, and when it is available, the system sends an email saying the book is waiting for me at the Three Rivers Library.

That’s good news! Libraries are just the best thing ever, and so is reading.

If you have discovered any great books recently, please share them with me in the comments! (in case my stack of unread books gets too short and then I get antsy in case I wind up without something to read.)

Odd Job, Chapter Two

It is a bit odd for a pencil artist/drawing teacher/oil painter/muralist to be asked to paint a sign. The owner of Blue Moon Nursery in Three Rivers knew we would work well together, so she decided to overlook my lack of experience and hire me for the odd job. (Odd job to me, but sign painting is a solid profession. I’d like to have the tools, ability and knowledge to do it well.)

After messing around with typestyles and shapes and weights, it was time to add the extras. A nursery asks for things that look growy, and “Blue Moon” is sort of a gimme.

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None of these made the cut (what exactly and literally does that mean??).

The owner of Blue Moon Nursery had some definite and good ideas, and together we came up with an excellent combination of type and frou-frous.

Stay tuned for the decision and the next steps.

February First Saturday Three Rivers

January is over. February is on us. The first Saturday of February is the 7th, and it is a bit of an event in Three Rivers, as are all First Saturdays in Three Rivers.

My studio will be open from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. It has a hand rail up the steps now! It will be raining, Lord willing! 

There will be The Cabins of Wilsonia books available.

You will be able to see oil paintings in progress, like these, if you peek through the window of the painting studio, which will not be open:

 

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And this:

 

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And if you are lucky, you might even see lupine in bloom already. February is the beginning of spring in Three Rivers!

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(It was sort of a long uphill walk to see these, but maybe there are some in a more convenient location.)

P.S. I don’t take credit cards but I do take cash and checks.

A Few Days Off Work

Finish the mural early, take one day off work, okay, why not two because I have company, oh go ahead, take three. I am the boss of me, and my boss gave me 3 days off last week. Why?

Because I completed the mural one day early. 3 days off? How about a bonus?

Never mind.

What does a Central California artist do with 3 days off?

This one does yard work, has company, entertains a lamb, works on a mural, does more yard work, has a handrail added to her studio, and watches her company and husband begin to build a fence.

Want to see some pictures? I didn’t photograph all the activities mentioned because sometimes it is hard to carry around gardening tools, paint brushes, a lamb and a camera at the same time.

 

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What are these guys doing??

 

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Sweet Pea wants to know.

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Hey, Babycakes. Want to go to Mineral King?

 

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Just kidding. It’s a mural. (Later we scrubbed the bird poo off of the sky, in case you were bugged by it.)

 

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When Cowboy Bert and Trail Guy began working on a fence (I didn’t take photos), we decided that Little Lambie-poo would be happier if she were let out to hang out with the people. It was clear that she chose Cowboy Bert to be her mama. Two manly dudes, lumber, tools, and a lamb.

Meanwhile, I worked a bit on my studio mural. Pretending to be productive eased my conscience about taking off 3 consecutive days, in spite of receiving permission from my boss.

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Challenging Mural, Day Two

Perhaps I should refer to each installation of this indoor mural story as “chapters”. However, I might lose count doing it this way. (If you read the first installment, you can see that I don’t count all that accurately.)

Wow, the internet is so fast at Visalia Granite that I am able to actually listen to some podcasts while I paint. What fun! (I called the phone company from home to ask what speed I am paying for. It was 3 units of measurement. I tested the speed and learned that we are receiving about 1.1 units of measurement. I tested the speed at Visalia Granite and it is ELEVEN units of who-knows-what-measurement!! ELEVEN!!)

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On Day 2 I began by taping the columns so I could paint around them. I thought I’d work on the uppermost thing (a pediment, perhaps?) for an hour or so, and then start on the background.

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FOUR HOURS later, I was finally off the 2 ladders, temporarily finished with the pediment. “Temporarily”, because as other parts get painted in, I’ll find ways to improve what was first painted.

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In anticipation of painting an indoor mural, I ordered some appropriate premixed colors without regard to their lightfastness. When I paint outdoor murals, I only work from the most lightfast primary colors available and then mix my own colors as I paint.

I’ve only opened one of those jars of new paint yet because all I’m able to achieve the colors I want using ones I mixed from previous jobs.

It turns out that Roman ruins in the late afternoon sunshine are quite similar to Sequoia trees. How convenient.

In case you are wondering, I opened yellow ochre out of curiosity. Turns out to be a perfect match for one of my painting rags. (What a thrill to my little color junkie heart.)

New Year, New Website!

1432 FG Alpen Glow

Farewell Gap Alpen Glow, 11 x 14″, oil on wrapped canvas, $175

Happy New Year! It’s a cliche, a greeting, a wish, a cultural norm. We are generally an optimistic society and I am an optimist too, so it is with high hopes for 2015 that I express this heartfelt wish to my blog readers who haven’t given up on me.

There are lots of web designers out there, sort of like “lots of fish in the sea”. However, finding the right one is a trick. It took me 2 years, and then I met Adrianne Abel Gosselin of Pyramid Graphic Design through another artist on LinkedIn. She is EXACTLY who I’ve been seeking to repair, redo and replace my increasingly broken website and blog. What you are viewing is the result of her expertise and my monkey work. She trained me to enter all my projects, sold and unsold pieces on the site so that I didn’t have to pay her the big bucks to do what I could do myself. She listened well, organized things, was concise and clear in all her training, and did just what I asked for.

Now it is possible for you to subscribe and to comment!

Who would like to try out the commenting? How about a prize for the first one to post the first comment on my first post of the new blog in 2015!

‘Scuse me – I’ve got to go choose something to be a fitting prize. . .

Rocky Hill Antiques Mural, Chapter 7

When I got to Rocky Hill Antiques, I was so pleased to see the truck in its new position. Keith is a guy I can count on to do what he says he will do – that is an outstanding character quality.

Rocky Hill Antiques Mural in progress

Because he is so quick to help, I wanted to be able to complete everything that uses the truck on this day and the next one. He isn’t clamoring for the truck back, but I feel a little (self-imposed) pressure to get ‘er dun. This is because of the commute (SOOO annoying – all those slowpokes until the passing lanes), the heat (not too bad on Friday at all!), the NOISE, the rough wall surface, and perhaps the general wussiness of this California artist.

Ever since I agreed to do this mural, I’ve been ever so slightly worried about the lettering. I have about zero experience and knowledge of how to letter well, and when you throw in the bumpy bricks and mortar – ay-yi-yi-yi.

Rocky Hill Antiques Mural in progress

No worries! The wall surface gives me the excuse to have the letters be less than perfect.

It was really satisfying to mix up the right blue for the outline of the letters and the “pinstripe”. I love to mix colors!

Now all that is left is the base on which the statue rests, finishing the re-bluing at the bottom, the words at the bottom, and the lower parts of the little light blue stripe. Plus, I want to hide something in the mural. That is really fun. I put an old fashioned fireman’s hat in the mural on the fire station tank and a hiking boot in the Sequoia Outdoor Sports mural.

I wonder what belongs in this one. . . I think there are 2 more afternoon’s worth of painting, so I have a little bit of time to figure out what to paint and where to paint it.

Sold!

The Redbud Festival was really good this year. It wasn’t hot, it combined with First Saturday in Three Rivers, it was at the Memorial Building and I had an indoor space. Look at some of the paintings that sold:

This isn’t actually the painting that sold. This one sold a few years ago, and my friend saw it in a book of my oil paintings that I use for display. So, I will paint it for her. Happily, because I think I paint better now!

A Question Artists Don’t Like

The question that most artists don’t like is this:

Will you donate a piece of artwork to My Good Cause?

And then it is followed by something like “You can write it off on your taxes” or “It will bring great exposure”.

The answers to the follow-ups are “Only the cost of the materials” and “People die of exposure”.

If a good Cause needs items for raffles and auctions, it would behoove both parties (the Cause and the artist) to buy the items. 

All those causes are good. One year, I donated more than I sold. It didn’t bring me more business; it brought me more requests for more donations.

A Cause can spend some of its resources on an item and then sell the item for more than it paid. It will make a profit. If it doesn’t make a profit, it can write off its expenses.

An artist who gets asked to donate her individually produced items depletes her inventory, can only write off the cost of the materials but not her time or the value of the item, and gets worn out.

An artist who gets worn out begins donating items of lesser quality, items that haven’t sold, items that aren’t her best work. (Honestly, I had an artist friend say to me one time, “Just give them your junky stuff that hasn’t sold – that’s what I do!”)

In a small community like Three Rivers or even anywhere in Tulare County, word gets out that you can either buy a piece of art for full price or you can just wait for the next fund raiser for The Good Cause. Then, Mr. Good Taste who spent money on art, sees that someone got a similar piece for 1/3 of the price, and the artist’s credibility goes down.

So, I don’t give my art away anymore. If your Good Cause would like to buy a piece, call me or email me. Perhaps we can work out some sort of a discount. When you truly value my art, I may be more likely to value your event.

Hint: if you have never bought any art from an artist, how do you have the chutzpah to ask for a gift??

There are a few Causes I choose to donate to, because they are part of my life. One of them is the mural project in Exeter, which was started by me and an awesome group of volunteers in 1996. Someone called me for a piece for their upcoming Garden Party fund raiser (a very nice event on May 5 this year); I explained my point of view because I’m teachy like that, and then I offered a painting.

Because it hasn’t sold in spite of the fact that I really like it (Obviously, my opinion does not causes pieces to sell), I took a hard look at it.

I paint better now.

Before

After (New and Improved!!)

If you don’t think it is improved, just be polite, ‘k?

I wrote about this a few months ago and called the post “Donations Bloviations”.