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!
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”.
In conclusion, this is a California artist, disproportionately influenced (inspired, perhaps?) by citrus. Today I am probably out in an orange grove with my cousins, looking for Washington navels that may still be hanging in the center of the trees. Or perhaps we are inhaling the remaining scent of orange blossoms.
One of the most popular subjects for painting, drawing and photography in Three Rivers is the tiny Kaweah Post Office about 3 miles up North Fork Drive.
I’ve drawn it more times than I can remember and painted it 10 times. The reason I remember how many paintings is because I have called them Kaweah Post Office I, Kaweah Post Office II, Kaweah Post Office III, Kaweah Post Office IV. . . et cetera. Clever, no?
Here is #10, AKA Kaweah Post Office X in 2 stages. You may have to attend the Studio Tour this coming weekend to see it finished.
In order to keep each painting a little different, I paint it different sizes, from different angles, at different times of the year, and with different details. Sometimes I layer it (called “glazing” in Artspeak) and sometimes I try for alla prima (which means to finish all in one session).
This one is 10×10″, so it is slightly stretched out, and it will contain the historical marker, a new thing for me when painting. I thought the rocks looked fun – all those different grays to mix! Don’t know yet if they are fun, because I haven’t gotten to them at the time of this posting.
Sequoias, AKA “big trees”, are something I really love to paint (and draw). On my doors, on canvas, (or on paper.)
I liked the painting on my door so much that I decided to do the same scene on canvas.
First step – draw it vaguely with a paintbrush.
Second step, get the base coat on.
Third step, begin the background and add layers to everything else.
Fourth step, photograph it inside the painting workshop with the sequoia doors open.
Fifth step, photograph it with the other two doors of redwoods.
Seventh step, photograph it while it is drying.
(Sixth step was to finish painting it. Did you think I messed up on counting? Wouldn’t have been the first time!)
Really? Turn away work? Who would do that?
Me, that’s who.
Why?
Because I know my limitations.
The story:
An acquaintance called me to take a look at an old photo of a pilot posing on the wing of his aircraft in the 1940s. It was an 8×10 black and white photo, the man was about 1-1/2″ high (he was in a squat) and his face may have been about 1/2″ high.
If I can’t see it, I can’t draw it.
I could see the man’s face with really strong magnifying lenses, but to reproduce it accurately and in color (that was the point of him calling me), it would have been extremely time consuming. A dot here, erase, move the dot slightly left, erase, move the dot slightly higher, oops now he looks like a Cyclops. . . that is how those tiny portraits go.
I speak from hard-won experience. No faces smaller than an egg.
Once in awhile I get lucky and succeed with these tiny tiny faces, but it is after a serious and honest conversation with the customer about their expectations and my abilities. Remember this?
(Well, oops, the link broke and I don’t know what it was.)
So I recommended that the potential customer find someone who is very skilled with Adobe Photoshop to take the crud out and put some color in.
However, if would like to have it drawn large, perhaps 16×20, some sort of size that would bring the man’s face up to the size of an egg, then yes, I am the artist he wants!
Nice man. I think it will be good to do work for him in the future. He appreciated my honesty, and he said that he just hadn’t allowed enough in his budget for a larger drawing.
In my experience, people rarely allow enough in their budgets for art. Oh well, got a good blog post out of it. Waste not, want not. (Stop thinking “nothing ventured, nothing gained” – I can hear you out there!)
But wait, there is more besides poppies on my easel. Not really on the easel, but there are other paintings drying on the wall behind my easel. A painter’s gotta paint, especially when there is a Studio Tour on its way in Three Rivers. March 21, 22, 23, in case you were wondering.
That lemon and pear have been hanging around for awhile. I keep fiddling with them, and now I think they can dry. The little painting of Timber Gap isn’t faded – it is just the way the light comes through the windows that are CLEAN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER 15 YEARS!
Excuse me for shouting. I had given up on those windows, thinking it would take way too much time to scrape them clear of putty and paint and who knows what. Turns out that Trail Guy had the time and the skill and the tools and the patience.
WOW!! Thank you, Trail Guy!!!
Oh, the grapes may finally be finished after 49 layers. I am exaggerating, but they have been plaguing and nagging me for many months. The apple and the peach are new. I think they are looking mighty edible. They need a bit more detail in the leaves and a signature before I scan them to show you.
They might be available during Studio Tour, or they might be at Colors.
After spending an entire year completely focused on completing one drawing after another after another after another until 268 drawings were completed. . .
What was I saying? All those after anothers got me lost.
I love to draw. It has been a long time since I drew simply because there was a picture I wanted to draw instead of a commission or a cabin related drawing for The Cabins of Wilsonia.
See?
Grazing in Kaweah Country, graphite (AKA “pencil”), 14×11″, $250
If you live in Three Rivers, you’ll be wondering where this is. It is on Kaweah River Drive, at the place called “The Catfish Farm”. It might be called The Chess Ranch. Whatever you call it, the place is for sale. It is a huge piece of wonderful property, which can be yours for about $5,000,000. Yeah, five million dollars. Whatever. Just write a check or something.
Makes this pencil drawing look like the bargain of the year!
Commissions are an important component of earning a living with art. Some artists love them, some do them while figuratively holding their noses, and some artists flat out refuse. I fall somewhere between the first 2 types of artists, because it depends on both the idea and the customer.
While I worked with Lisa on her commissioned oil painting of the Lake House last fall, I did some thinking about commissions. It is so tricky to work long distance, using photos, email and an occasional phone call. Words mean things, and relying on words to explain an unseen thing is tricky.
Three Rivers commissioned oil painting
There are several elements at work in this type of art-making endeavor:
The Ideas: Those who know what they want, and those who are not sure, and those who keep editing.
The Customers: Those who can communicate and those who cannot.
Hmmm, that makes 3 x 2 = 6 possible commission customers
1. Knows what she wants and can explain it – The easiest!
2. Not sure what she wants but can explain as she figures it out. . . keep talking, because eventually we will arrive. (Hi Lisa! We did it!!)
3. Keeps editing and can explain each new idea – keep talking, but my prices are really too low for this type of continual editing and changing. Construction companies call these “Change Orders” which means they charge each time a customer orders a change.
4. Knows and cannot communicate – yikes.
5. Isn’t sure and cannot communicate – Sorry, Toots, I am unable to be of any assistance here.
6. Doesn’t have an idea and cannot communicate – Fuhgeddaboutit.
It all comes down to communication.
The painting above was painted for a customer in the #1 category, except that she isn’t far away. She wants another just like it. That will be fun, and I will add the personal challenge of just like it only better.
P.S. I see it is time to update my commissioned oil painting page because I have put commissioned paintings on the sold page instead of where they belong! Where are My People? I need People for this stuff!
Enjoy this special time of year. . . I’m going quiet for a few days so I can do likewise. Blessings to you, friends, family, followers whom I have not yet met.
P.S. This post was scheduled to appear on Christmas Eve. I stayed away from the computer and didn’t notice that it hadn’t posted! Today I wondered where it was, and reposted it. THAT’s why it is just now appearing. Bye-bye, weirdo blog machine. I’m going to draw for a few days and ignore you and all your techie weirdness.