Category: General

Interview with Mariya

A very old friend of mine is hosting an exchange student from Russia.

Oops. My friend is younger than I am. We’ve been friends since I was in 3rd grade and she was in 1st grade. . . that’s what I mean by very old friend, not that she is ancient!

Mariya would like to be an artist. I met her during that very bad show, and she is sweet and sincere. She has to interview someone in the profession she hopes to someday join, and so she chose me. I decided to share the interview with you, Oh Fine Blog Readers!

Inside Jana Botkin's studio — Sometimes my studio is orderly and I am hoping it is in good shape when Mariya comes to visit so she doesn’t think making art is the result of a chaotic mind.

Why did you decide to be an artist?

I chose to be an artist because every thing else I tried just felt like a job. Drawing was the most challenging and fun way to spend time, and getting paid for it was a dream come true.

Did you always dream of doing this work when you were young?

When I was a child, the only profession that interested me was art. I thought it was unrealistic, so I kept trying on other ideas in my head but none felt like a good fit.

What do you like most about your work?

The variety involved with working as an artist is one of the best things. Always looking for subjects, learning photography, interacting with customers, drawing, painting, learning to paint murals, improving my skills, teaching people to draw, finding places to sell, writing a blog, meeting people at shows – there is always something different to be working on!

What do you like best, and what do you dislike about your job?

Whatever I am doing at the time is my favorite thing – if I am painting a mural, I’m just sure that I could spend my life doing only that. When I am drawing, I know it is why I was created. When I am teaching people how to draw, I wish I had 100 students! If I give a presentation to a group, it feels as if I was born to do public speaking. While I am writing, I am certain that I could write forever and never run out of words. When I am planning a new piece of work, it is great fun to take multiple photos from different angles at different times of the day, looking for the best light. I love working with my photographs, cropping, planning, designing and dreaming about how it will look in oil, pencil or as a mural.

On the other side, bookkeeping, record keeping, paying bills, collecting from people who don’t want to pay, and paying taxes are all tasks I’d rather avoid. I also find it more difficult each year to participate in shows – the physical labor of packing and unpacking and the uncertainty of sales while having to stay energetic and positive is just flat hard.

Can you give me any advice?

Find what you love, learn it to the best of your ability, never stop practicing or learning. The hardest part of being an artist is marketing, so it might be wise to be a business or marketing major in college and an art minor. And, it seems that art schools focus too much on being different and creative and not enough on skills, marketing, and learning how to make art for real people instead of for gallery owners.

orange paintings in the studio — Mariya has not yet visited my studio where I paint orange after orange after orange.

How A Fruit Bowl Painting is Like a Living Room

I paint in layers, particularly when a painting is very particular. (Heh heh. . . how is that for being articulate?) First, the shapes get roughed in (and I mean ROUGHED). Then, the basic color is laid down thinly. Then, details begin, but not too exact and the color isn’t too fussy yet. Because I know it has to be gone over multiple times, I don’t get too worked up about precision yet.

Since I last showed you this, I’ve added new detail to the window on the right and repainted the curtains behind the window pane on the left. The onions, avocado, 2 limes, 2 lemons, and 1 orange are looking good for now. “For now” because once the rest is recovered, they may no longer meet my new standards.

Next, I’ll fix the 2 tomatoes, the remaining lime and lemon and orange. That will show what a mess the bowl and the table top are, so they will need to be redone.

Then, I’ll look at the whole painting again and see if anything else can be improved.

It reminds me of just adding a couple of new pillows to the couch. Suddenly, the shabbiness of the couch is evident. Then, when the couch is replaced, the 2 chairs no longer are up to snuff. (What does that mean?) When the chairs are replaced, the curtains become unacceptable. Those get replaced, and then the rug looks cruddy, and on and on it goes.

I’m not showing you any photos of my living room.

oil paintings

A Zillion Ways to Paint

About 6-1/2 years ago I began oil painting. I knew nothing. I asked lots of questions of anyone who painted, bought some tools and paint, and started. I knew nothing.

I signed up for classes at the crafts chain Michael’s and attended 2 of the 4 classes. I signed up for a class at the local junior college and completed half a semester. I read books. I asked more questions. I read websites and blogs and watched videos.

This is what I learned:

1. Use a limited palette. (defined differently by each person who says this)

2. Only use the best paints.

3. Don’t waste your money on good paint – the cheaper brand of Winton is just fine.

4. Only buy the best brushes.

5. Get the cheapest brushes on sale at Michael’s.

6. Finish your paintings in one pass – ” alla prima”.

7. Don’t lick the canvas with your brush – be EXACTLY sure of where you want the paint to go before you apply it.

8. Paint in layers, from lean to fat (which no one has yet adequately defined).

9. Use liquin.

10. Never use liquin – use “this” formula (which varies depending on the speaker/writer/teacher).

11. Don’t use any formula – use pure linseed oil.

12. Paint plein air (meaning outside on location)

13. Don’t attempt plein air until you are really comfortable with painting.

14. Paint large, at least 16×20.

15. Paint small so you can get lots of practice on many paintings and sell to people who are low on money and low on wall space.

16. Don’t copy anyone’s style.

17. Copy the old masters.

18. Take all the workshops you can find.

19. Don’t take any workshops – learn your own style.

20. Only use a glass palette, preferably backed by a grey cardboard piece.

21. Use disposable palettes.

22. Use a cheap palette and cover it with wax paper so you never have to scrape it.

23. Wait a year before varnishing.

24. Don’t varnish – it will turn yellow.

25. Use spray varnish as soon as you finish painting.

26. Look at your painting in a mirror – always have a mirror in the studio.

27. Look at your painting upside down.

I’m confused. Are you?

oil paintings

Get Busy

A friend gave me a sign for my studio that says something about getting busy. I’m very obedient and have been busy. Although I thought I had enough paintings for the upcoming Fall Shows and that I’d be drawing ahead for the Cabins of Wilsonia, I’m still painting for the busier selling season.

It is wise to keep paintings of Sequoia trees and of the Kaweah Post Office always on hand because I am a California artist from Three Rivers, which is right below Sequoia National Park. Part of being a Regionalist from Quainstville is always having oil paintings of my quaint surroundings available for those who appreciate such simple and beautiful subjects.

River paintings are also fairly popular with my fellow citizens of Quaintsville. We love our little area with its familiar landmarks. When you are a California artist who lives in a place called “Three Rivers” (that actually has 5 forks of the Kaweah River), how can you not paint river scenes?

Who Told Me I Can Paint??

Remember “The Most Beautiful Fruit Bowl I’ve Ever Seen“? I was ambivalent about painting it. But, something has overtaken me. Courage? Wanting to test my skill? Idiocy?

Not only did I decide to paint it, I decided to paint it 24×30”!

Ooo-ey, Girl, you bin dropt on yer head??

Maybe.

Today I decided that I am a poser who just has been faking you all out. I started the painting and just couldn’t get things to fit.

When my drawing students can’t get things to fit, I have them turn their paper and the photo upside down. Today I found myself acting as my own teacher, because I was really struggling with making these shapes fit in the space. This is how I tackled this challenge:

I even resorted to putting a grid on the canvas to see if that would help my tortured self. It did, but now I am hard pressed to tell which are the shapes and lines to keep and which are the ones to paint out.

Who told you that you can paint?

No one – I just started, I do paint, and I still don’t claim to really know how.

Come to think of it, does anyone really feel as if they know how to paint? There are a few out there, prolly those people with 10,000 hours of practice. I haven’t kept track of my hours at the easel yet, but chances are it’s not 10,000!

Tell that inner critic to just shut up and let the inner teacher take over.

Yeah. That’s what I’ll keep doing.

oil paintings

More New Paintings for Fall

Plum IV, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $40

Pomegranate 43, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $40

Told you I had been painting! 😎

These paintings are available here.

oil paintings

A Rough Summer For Cats

This post has nothing to do with being a California artist, a Regionalist from Quaintsville, a depicter of local landmarks, Mineral King or Three Rivers.

It is a peek into the heart of a middle-aged, slightly-affected-by-a-cat-disorder woman who happens to have a blog about her work but sometimes just has to talk about other subjects. Try to be polite. It’s called “ailurophilia” and it means “love of cats” and I’m not as weird as you might be thinking.

This summer I lost Kaweah, my sweet little short-tailed black kitty. The cat of my walking buddy went bye-bye. A week later, Zeke, my giant blue-eyed loudmouth disappeared. Around the same time, the cat of my cat-feeding girls was not seen again. 2 months later, the great and mighty Nipper Castro lay down and died.

This leaves me with Perkins, the gentle and quiet survivor of 13 years who has seen 13 of his yard-mates get picked off during his life at my address.

When I first retrieved Perkins from a friend’s barn, he looked so common to me that I had to memorize a few marks on his gray and white tabby self in case he was dead by the side of the road and might not be readily known to me.

Now that I am obsessed with my one remaining feline, I want to show you a few of his unique features, so you can admire his regal, strong and courageous self.

Perkins has pink toes.

If you see him from the side, you think he has a normal tabby type tail.

But, look at his tail from the top side – isn’t this special??

Thanks for sticking with me through this non-Mineral King, non-drawing, non-painting blog post. I’m glad we had this little talk. Perkins feels honored to be the center of attention for a change. And hopefully you will appreciate the new vocabulary word.

New Paintings for Fall

In spite of not showing too many paintings lately and taking a few days away from the blog, I HAVE been oil painting with the upcoming Fall shows in mind. Doesn’t looking at these just make you just want a pumpkin spice latte?