A dear friend bought some little fruit paintings for her dining room a couple of years ago.
She decided that another painting would look good on the other side of the window. I agreed.
We discussed the options, and she thought grapes would be good there. I told her that grapes are crazy hard, so we discussed another option, maybe a collage, but the design process made grapes sound pretty good. She and I have been friends since about 5th grade, and I am willing to do crazy hard for her. Crazy hard in painting beats crazy hard in design right now. . . don’t know why, but that’s the way it is.
The pink line is just a weird thing that my computer does some times – it is not part of the painting.
Remember to contact me if you bought a 2019 calendar in person – if you bought it through the website, I have your info already.
Until I began this painting, I never noticed that the sign above the door is not centered.
Now there are chairs on the porch and geraniums in the window boxes.
And now, it is finished! Next, I’ll sign it, paint the edges, wait for it to dry, scan or photograph it, varnish it, wait for it to dry again, and then mail it.
This the season of pumpkin spice everything. This blog post is pumpkin, minus the spice.
I posted this photo of paintings in progress.
A regular blog reader said she’d like to buy the painting. I touched it up, signed it, varnished it, and mailed it off to her. I forgot to scan it, so this is the best I could do from the above photo to have a record of the painting.
And here is the email conversation I had with this friend/reader. I found it charming and appropriate for Pumpkin Spice Season.
I collect pumpkins (since I have an October birthday)
It started with my 60th birthday … instead of gifts … I asked for pumpkins … have the givers name on the bottom of each .. so when I set them out, I am remembered of how much I am loved!
I actually started with some of my own, and friends knew I liked pumpkins prior to my 60th.
And some friends gave me multiple small ones… disclaimer that I have sooooo many friends! Ha ha.
For me .. the gift of friendship was most important, and this was a reminder of those treasured friendships. I just turned 64 and at this stage I don’t want (or need) stuff. I want time with those I love.
To top it off, she shared these photos with me, which I like so much that I am sharing with you.
Thank you, Anne, for sharing your pumpkin friendship thoughts and including my painting in your collectoin.
Did you forget that I was showing you the Mineral King oil paintings that sold in Silver City over the summer? Here is the other half:
As before, the sizes shown here are a little whacky in terms of how they are relative to one another. I was shocked by the stellar rise of the Honeymoon Cabin to the top position this year and also shocked by the relative unpopularity of Sawtooth. One, maybe two, are all that sold of that subject, previously #3 in popularity. The second top seller was the view of the Crowley cabin and Farewell Gap as seen from the bridge.
What a year! If the economy keeps clicking along this way, next year I may bring some of my larger pieces. In the past, people admired them, but they didn’t sell and then I didn’t have them when I needed them for other places and events down the hill. But who knows. . .?
Since 2010, the Silver City Store has been selling my oil paintings. It began as a tentative experiment, with no confidence that visitors up that rough road would want to spend their hard-earned dollars on original oil paintings rather than (or in addition to) tee shirts and post cards.
The highest number of paintings that sold in the past summers was 16.
In 2018, the store was remodeled to a brighter more spacious place with a new elegance, and the economy is doing quite well. These two reasons together might be why THIRTY-ONE paintings sold this year! (The gracious store manager says it is also because people like my work. Aw shucks, thank you, Hannah!)
When painting the same subjects over and over, naming becomes a problem, and I rely on my inventory numbering system to keep the paintings straight. But sometimes I don’t include those numbers when I bill the store, so my records are a teensy bit wobbly. So, I won’t show you all thirty-one paintings, but here are half of the ones I was able to track down a photo of. The other half will come later.
The sizes they appear here on the blog are not accurate in terms of how they look against one another. For example, the painting of Eagle Lake was 6×18″, and the one directly above this paragraph was 4×6″.
I gathered a few ideas of what to paint in which quantities and sizes for next year, and hope I don’t lose my notes.
P.S.(If you click/tap on the link to the store website, which will open in a new tab, you may notice some similarities between our websites – I used the same web designer as they did)
Ever been to Lemon Cove? If you’ve gone to Sequoia from Visalia, you’ve passed through it. I think of it as Lemon Curve. . . a few curves on the highway, and you are outta there.
There’s a little boutique at the Lemon Cove Womans Club (yep, that’s the real spelling) on Saturday, October 20, called the Harvest Boutique, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The Womans Club is on Highway 198, and it looks like this (if you first vacuum all the color out of life):
For the boutique, I’ve painted some new small citrus oil paintings, 4×6″ and 6×6″ (priced at $50 and $60 plus 8% California sales tax). Although this is LEMON Cove, there is more than one type of citrus art here, and please take note of the highly creative titles.
I can’t find the photo that I used to paint any of these, so I have to rely on my experience of painting Sequoia trees to just improve the painting.
Here it is wet on the easel; is it improved? I think so. Will SS? I like it much better. The questions are still unanswered, but the painting is now finished (until someone else brings it to me from another antique store in another 10 years?)
Sequoia trees are one of my biggest subjects to paint. Well, duh, they are the biggest trees in the world. But that’s not what I mean – I paint Sequoias over and over and over.
A few weeks ago a girl whom I will call SS called to say she found a Sequoia oil painting by me at an antique store. (Here in Tulare County, “antique store” can sometimes be a euphemism for “junk store”, or if you are a bit more refined, a “thrift shop”; only the truly hip think of “repurposing outlet”, and probably no one in Tulare County.) SS just wanted to know if it truly was mine, if it had been altered in any way, and what I thought.
She read me the inventory # on the back, and I found it in my extensive files of oil painting photos.
Sunny Sequoias IXX, 8×10″, sold
First thought: ‘How embarrassing!” Second thought: “I paint better now, so may I borrow it back and improve it?”
I spent too much time trying to find the photo I used to paint this, but it has vanished. Why?? Where?? Who knows?
As I was composing this blog post, I discovered that in my extensive photo records, I have the wrong title on the photo. The painting is this one:
Sunny Sequoias XI, 8×10″, sold (twice)
Or is it??
This is what SS brought to me:
It’s not the same either! When did I paint this? Where is the photo? Did I decide that after using it 3 times, it was time to retire the photo? Did I lend it to someone? What happened to the photo of the painting?
The inventory # on the back does not match the inventory # in the files of photos! And, it was a paint-over from another oil painting that did not meet my standards. The edges were not painted because I framed it. I never frame them any more and haven’t for years.
“Years”, she says, as if she’s been painting for decades instead of since March 8, 2006.
In progress on my drawing table and on the easels:
This is a little tedious to draw because all the background foliage is just organized scribbling with lots of layers. I’ve been listening to things on the internet to keep myself from falling asleep.There’s a story here. . . I’ll tell you later when I figure out the ending.Oil paintings of 4×6″ pomegranate and 6×18″ Sequoia Gigantea/Redwood/Big Tree are now begun. What a mess, but each layer will bring improvement and renewed confidence in my skill. (I don’t paint well when it is hot out, and it was when I began these.)Ever draw a gas pump? (Ever use one??) After the customer approves the pencil (graphite) part, I’ll spray fix it and then use some red colored pencils. The proportions were wrong – was I sleep-drawing? No worries – I corrected things and the finished product will be fine.And on the chair behind me were these little hooligans, resting from their shenanigans.
Until I began this painting, I never noticed that the sign above the door is not centered.
