All is Bright

Still not much going on in my little world, other than enjoying some bright sunshine and starting two bright paintings. Winter is mild in Three Rivers and we are usually above the fog. (Do you want to move here? The town is shrinking, so if you don’t mind living in California’s flyover country where there is no Trader Joe’s or universities, you’d be welcome here!)

From my show Simply Home, I got a commission to paint. In spite of having 50 paintings to choose from in the show, someone requested that I paint something that already sold. Yes, I can do this.

Someone else requested that I paint a scene that I drew in pencil about 25 years ago. It was a commission, until I realized that it wasn’t a commission—it was a conversation. Until money changes hands, it is just a conversation, EVEN IF the other person says, “Yes, I definitely want you to paint this”. Because it is a great idea, I know it will sell to someone, so I began the painting.

SIMPLY HOME IS RUNNING OUT OF TIME

IN THE ORCHARD, 11X14″, $300

This painting was added to the show after a customer took her painting and left a blank spot on the wall.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, IS THE LAST DAY TO SEE THE SHOW. 125 SOUTH B STREET, EXETER, NOON-4.

2025 CALENDARS – VERY FEW REMAINING

ONE Calendar available here: cabinart.net/store/

Before and After, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8

2025 CALENDARS AVAILABLE HERE.

In case these before and after posts are putting you to sleep, let’s skip the chit-chat and go right to the paintings.

Garapatta BEFORE
Garapatta, AFTER
Point Lobos, BEFORE
Point Lobos, AFTER
Carmel Mission, BEFORE
Carmel Mission, AFTER
Rocky Point, BEFORE (those aren’t birds – it is squished bug)
Rocky Point, AFTER
Pinos Point Lighthouse, BEFORE
Pinos Point Lighthouse, AFTER. This is my favorite, and I’m not alone in my assessment because it sold.

SIMPLY HOME

Sawtooth From Sunnypoint IX, 12×24″, $650

The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.

Before and After, #3

Plein air painting #3 was the only one I did that day because I spent the morning trying to solve my easel problem. A new friend at the painting retreat lent me a pochade box, which needed a tripod to hold it up if I didn’t want to paint sitting with it on my lap. I drove to another town and spent time trying to find a tripod to support the wooden box. After several attempts to find a tripod to hold the box (WHY WAS I AT A MALL SHOPPING AT BIG BOX STORES WHEN THE BEACH WAS CALLING??), I decided it was a waste of time. So I drove back to Asilomar, found a turnout, did an impressive job of parallel parking, set up my stuff at this view, and started painting.

I decided that I’d had enough frustration for one day, so I climbed down to the beach, and took a few more photos. If this painting makes your eyes bleed, please forgive me.

Phew. Much better!

Looks as if I forgot to sign it.

SIMPLY HOME

Farewell at Dusk, 10×30″, $600

The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.

2025 CALENDARS AVAILABLE HERE.

Before and After, #2

This is the second plein air painting I did in Monterey. I set up in the shade by the path to Asilomar Beach (another struggle against that easel), and this time I was determined to do a better painting.

This painting gave me hope that I might be able to paint plein air. It also gave me time to decide to look for a trash can large enough to stuff the easel into.

After I got home, I retouched it and finished it to this level.

This one deserved to be signed.

SIMPLY HOME

Heading to Eagle Lake, 16×20″, $650

The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.

2025 CALENDARS AVAILABLE HERE.

Before and After, #1

This is the first plein air painting I did in Monterey. We set up on Asilomar Beach, and I tried to concentrate on painting when I just wanted to put my feet in the water and enjoy the waves. Instead, I tried to paint while the waves kept moving and my easel kept fighting against me.

Then it was just too hot and frustrating to keep standing there, so I packed it up and took this back to my room.

After I got home, I retouched it and finished it to this level.

That’s odd—I still haven’t signed it. I wonder if I can make it better. . . maybe in another year or two. I’ll sign it next time I am painting.

SIMPLY HOME

Honeymoon Cabin, 18×36″, $1500

2025 CALENDARS AVAILABLE HERE.

2025 SIMPLY HOME Calendar, showing many of the paintings from my show of the same name. $25, and I will pay the sales tax (if you live in California) and mailing (if you order).

A Day in Exeter

This is the view looking east from in front of the Mural Gallery & Gift Shop. See the awning straight ahead? That is on the third location where I had my studio in Exeter.

While at the Mural Gallery for my November shift, I painted. My goal was to be productive in between customers by completing some of the plein air paintings from the week in Monterey.

Worked out pretty well.

I liked these enough to sign them. When they are dry, I will show the before and after versions.
This one is better, but I can’t wait to put a railing on the bridge and bark on the sycamore trees.

As I was moving everything out to my car, I looked east and remembered many reason I always loved being in Exeter: tractors in downtown, the water tower with EXETER on it, seeing Sawtooth and Homer’s Nose, trees with fall color, the Post Office, all visible from where I used to have my studio.

One of the three places my studio was in Exeter was in the second story of this brick building, which houses the terrific store Rosemary & Thyme.

One last view in case you didn’t get enough photos today.

SIMPLY HOME

OAK GROVE BRIDGE #28, 24×30″, oil on wrapped canvas, $1800

The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.

Plein Air Painting in Three Rivers

Krista asked me to paint again with her at the airport bridge in Three Rivers on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Before I went, I hung out with Jackson a little bit.

He wasn’t very hungry because he let the gopher live. Didn’t even pounce.

I drove to the same place with its multiple No Parking signs.

This time, I had a tripod that the little cigar box pochade attached to. Gear management is one of the great challenges of plein air painting. I won’t be buying a $700-1000 easel set-up for plein air painting unless something really changes in my abilities and interests. But I will continue to experiment and try various arrangements.

My roommate in Monterey won this brush clip in a raffle and passed it to me. It’s pretty useful, but I only use one or two brushes when I paint plein air and don’t plan on needing more. I don’t like to own stuff that I don’t need, so I passed it to Krista, who is very determined to learn this method of painting.

With a tripod, I was able to stand to paint and use my stool as a shelf. The big wooden box was passed to me by a friend who changed his mind about wanting to paint, and it is a handy way to carry my stuff. It weighs more than I’d like, and it seems as if it opens backwards, so it may go the way of all excess equipment—into the hands of someone else who needs it. The verdict isn’t in yet.

This isn’t too bad, and maybe I will like it after fixing and finishing it in the painting workshop at home.

When the sun was off the scene, we started packing, and I turned around and saw this.

It’s all about the light. Always.

One thing that is happening to my abilities as a result of plein air painting is that I am noticing new scenes to paint, looking at sunlight instead of just the subject matter. Maybe this alone is worth the time, effort, and money spent on this adventure.

Simply Home

Bike Tree, 24×24″, $1400

Complaining and Painting

Because this post is full of complaints, I will intersperse the verbal bummerations with nice photos.

We had a week when the internet went out 2 or 3 times a day on 4 days, and one of those days it was down all day long. This meant that neither the cell phone nor the landline worked. We also had an unscheduled half day without electricity and another day without power from 9:30-6:15. All of this took place during the week when I was preparing for my demo/talk How To Draw. In addition, I had people waiting for emails, with proofs, sketches, and price quotes to approve. It was also a week that I had set aside to make multiple phone calls to a tech service in order to repair and understand my wonky website.

Without power or internet, how does one print drawing exercises? or scan things necessary for handouts? or print one’s own notes? or let inquiring customers know you are not a flaky artist? How does one repair a website that one cannot access?

One waits. One uses a yellow legal pad and a pen. One waits some more. One composes emails and puts them in a folder called “Drafts”. One keeps waiting. One works in quiet, without tunes or podcasts. And one waits some more.

When the power came on, the printer wouldn’t print anything in color until I cleaned the heads about 6 times. Then I had to replace the ink, of course. I believe that printers were designed by ink companies. The next one I get will be a laser printer. I don’t know what that actually means, but people who have these say they are very reliable and use less ink. Everything uses less ink. EVERYTHING. (Excuse me, I need to leave this blog and order some more ink while thinking about it.)

Okay, I’m back, $48.70 poorer.

Eventually, I was able to get everything printed and scanned in time for the talk. Eventually, the emails went through. Eventually, I was able to make one phone call to repair one thing on my website. I also got a bit of painting done on one disrupted day before it got too dark to see.

From this:

To this:

To this, when I finally decided it was too cold to leave the door open, but too dark with it closed.

Thus, we end today’s complaint session with a vague sense of productivity and thankfulness for autumn beauty and electricity and internet and telephones.

Simply Home

Alpenglow on Homer’s Nose, 8×16″, $275

CACHE Gallery hours are Fridays 1:30-4:00, Saturdays 10:00-4:00, Sundays noon-4:00.

Plein Air Painting in Three Rivers

For about 2 years, my friend Krista has been asking me to paint with her in Three Rivers. Last week we had an entire day without electricity, phones, internet, so it seemed like a good time to leave home and paint outside. Besides, it is always a pleasure to hang out with a friend, especially outside on a nice afternoon in our scenic foothill town.

I thought about places to paint, and it is tricky when every shoulder of the road is marked with NO PARKING signs. I decided that I didn’t care, and if anyone wanted to tow Fernando away, we would have a conversation about it, and it would turn out just fine. (Our sheriff is an artist.)

This view shows the curve on the right side of the road as it heads to the bridge.

This view shows the tall sycamore trees on the left.

I wanted both, so did a sketch to see if I could squish them both in. Good thing you know that I can draw, or you might be a little worried about the quality of this sketch.

Here is my substandard plein air equipment, perfectly functional for my limited interest in this method of putting paint on canvas.

Here we go, another sketchy messy beginning.

The light changed quickly, and then all the color was gone.

That’s fine, because I took the painting as far as I could figure out while painting on location. I just don’t understand how to smash all sorts of details together; maybe someday I will, but I can’t imagine that I would like the results. I think I will like this painting after reworking it in the painting workshop at home.

Krista and I had a great time together; it is very likely that we will do this again.

Simply Home

Silage, Silos, and the Sierra, 6×12″, $145

CACHE Gallery hours are Fridays 1:30-4:00, Saturdays 10:00-4:00, Sundays noon-4:00.

Trying to Work in Three Rivers

It started out to be a fine day. The time change was over, my neighbor and I had a good morning walk, the election was behind us (phew, what a stressor that has been), and I had a list of phone calls to make, my website to keep repairing, some sketching/designing to do, and of course, paintings to finish. On top of that, there was planning to do because of a scheduled all-day power outage the following day.

The grove needed something.
I added orange blossoms.
The Sequoia Gigantea is drying.

I reworked the Asilomar beach path. This was my second painting during my week of plein air painting, and it is one I liked, probably because the scene held still, as opposed to those manic ocean waves.

 Tucker was enjoying the sunshine and keeping me company (this cat LOVES me).

Then the power went out. WAIT, WHAT?? It’s not tomorrow yet.

A friend from about 2 miles below me said it was out for her too. She was driving down the hill and reported that there was a fire at the dam. (Turned out to be more in Lemon Cove than actually at the dam.)

It wasn’t dark out, so I worked on the Marble Fork Bridge painting for awhile, using enlarged photos on my laptop for details until the battery needed charging.

Life in Three Rivers: Within one week, the internet went out for a day and thus, no phone either. Without internet, no cell phone for me because we have no signal. Then we had a scheduled power outage, but it went out a day earlier. Currently we have road construction causing 10-15 minute delays in town.

At least our water hasn’t gone out in awhile.*

Simply Home

Peach Orchard, 10×10″, $200

CACHE Gallery hours are Fridays 1:30-4:00, Saturdays 10:00-4:00, Sundays noon-4:00.

Today, 6:30-7:30, I will give a demo/talk called How To Draw at CACHE. The spaces are all full.

*WROTE THAT TOO SOON. A DEER BROKE A HOSE BIB, WE STARTED WASTING WATER AT A RATE OF 6 GPM, SO WE DREW SOME WATER AND SHUT OFF THE MAIN. THE PLUMBER WASN’T AVAILABLE, AND EVENTUALLY TRAIL GUY FOUND A WAY TO BYPASS SOMETHING, BLOCK SOMETHING ELSE, AND GET WATER BACK TO THE HOUSE. Excuse me for shouting. This has all been so annoying.