Merchandise and Marketing Sense

Christmas is coming, and if I had any marketing sense, I would have been telling you about merchandise that is available all through the month.

I do have sense, and I sense that it would be irritating for me to keep pounding the sales drum. However, if you need a reminder or an easy idea for a gift, and I said nothing, I would have neglected my duty to serve you, my readers.

Choices and consequences. . . here we go. . .

  1. coloring books: there are 5 designs available. Heart of Agriculture, Heart of the Hills, Heart of the Parks and Heart of Exeter are $15; Heart of Mineral King is thinner so it is $12. They are available here: Coloring Books
  2. The Cabins of Wilsonia: the price has been reduced to $50. They are available here: The Cabins of Wilsonia
  3. 2018 calendar: all gone.
  4. pencil drawings: plenty of these available, both originals and reproductions too, some framed, some not. (Did you know I love to draw?) Pencil Drawings
  5. oil paintings: landscapes, still life, lots of sizes, 27 19 paintings available at last count (which could be fewer by the time you are reading this). Oil paintings
  6. notecards: lots of designs available (I still write by hand and use stamps and the U.S.Post Office – do you?) Notecards
  7. commissions: too late for this year, but there are always gift certificates. You may use the contact dealie or email me using cabinart at cabinart dot net (someone smart in computerizing told me to always write it that way in the blog. . . I just work here.)
  8. ornaments: there is no page to sell these ornaments, but there is a story here. There are 2 that I painted like the one for the White House 10 years ago, as seen in the photo above (the center one is sold). The one on the far left is $150 (plus tax) SOLD, and the one on the right is $75 (plus tax).

P.S. If you live in the area, we can figure out a way to exchange currency for merchandise in person. If you don’t live in the area, I believe in using the U.S. Postal Service, accept checks in the mail, Paypal and can use Square.

December Oranges

Did you know that navel oranges are harvested in December? If you are from Tulare County where the world’s best (and most) navel oranges are grown, you probably knew that.

My grandfather and dad were both orange growers. I am an orange painter.

A friend/neighbor called to say that her sister-in-law wanted an oil painting of oranges just like the one in her dad’s house. I asked for a photo of the painting so I would know how to make another one.  Obviously, these people have impeccable taste in artwork. After receiving this photo, I looked through my 963 photos of oil paintings, arranged by subject, and although I recently finished Orange #134, this old painting didn’t show up in my inventory. 

That’s okay. I have plenty of photos to work from. And if I am going to paint an 8×10 oil of oranges, I might as well do a second painting to have ready for the next orange art emergency.

This is how the orange paintings looked on day one of painting in December. (The 8×10 will probably be mailed while it is still a bit wet.)

At the end of the painting day, I put them in boxes to carry into the house and prop up over the wood stove so they will be ready for the second layer. 

(I painted a second and third layer without photographing the process.)

EPILOGUE: Finished and in the mail, right on schedule!

Fruits of My Labor

I had a peach. It didn’t sell. Now it is an orange.

I had some lanterns. I didn’t like painting them and didn’t want to finish. Now they are pomegranates.

Orange #131, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $65 including tax
Five Poms, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, $160 including tax

Welcome to the land of fruits and nuts, where you can enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Old Bridge, New Angle

The oil painting, Oak Grove Bridge XXII, sold. This means it is time to paint another view of my favorite bridge. I looked through my photos and found an angle I’ve never tried before.

Is it lunch yet??

Eggs and Potatoes

Happy Birthday, Phoebe!! (23? 23!!!)

These eggs sold.

Ethan’s Eggs, 8×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, sold

These eggs haven’t sold. 

Brown Egg, Blue Plate, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $65 inc. tax
Brown Egg, Blue Plate II, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $65 including tax

At a recent show, someone asked me about this painting, “Brown Egg, Blue Plate II”. “Is this a potato?”

Ahem. No, it isn’t. Guess it is time to rethink this painting. That blue plate was very difficult. I don’t want to waste it. How about a new egg color??

List of Activity

What a boring title – “List of Activity” – I’m sure that got people tripping over the Google to find this post. 

Not.

But it has been active around my studio and art business lately with sales of oil paintings and pencil drawing commissions.

Finished and sent to happy customer:

Sold:

Sketch approved and drawing begun:

Good Painting Day

You regular Blog Readers (thank you for reading and caring!) know that my favorite thing to do is drawing, not oil painting. So, when I have a good painting day, it needs to be marked, remarked, remembered, noticed and celebrated.

An oil painting has been hanging around for awhile. Both Trail Guy and I wonder why it hasn’t sold yet. . . I’ve named it, of course, but it hasn’t really become a pet. A few years ago I reworked it, knowing I could do a better job.

On my good painting day, I reworked it again. In this photo, it is the one on the bottom. I had planned to work on the painting on the top, but on impulse (WHAT?? I am not a very impulsive person – what happened??) I pulled it out of the studio and moved it into the painting workshop.

Then, I redid the background, which meant that some of the middle ground needed to be retouched. 

Do you see 2 photographs in the photo below? I used the upper one the first time and  the bottom one in the do-over. Maybe it hasn’t sold because the colors were overly brilliant and/or because it looked more like a telephoto-type photo instead of a realistic painting.

Since I live in Realville, it was time to bring the painting along. This was a good decision, because it attracted attention and good comments at the recent Perfect Gift Boutique when in the past it was just ignored (poor old thing. . .) Even being as non-objective about it as I am, I can see that it is better than before.

Long Way There, 12×16″, oil on wrapped canvas, $300 including sales tax in California (This is the Mineral King Road, just above Lookout Point.)

But what about the painting I had initially planned to work on? Got the sky and the back mountain ridges done (maybe) and the top of White Chief Peak begun. Looking good on a good painting day, and looking forward to moving forward in the painting!

Now that was some poor writing (used the words “looking”, “good”, “painting”, and “forward” twice each in the same sentence). Does this mean that a good painting day makes for a bad writing day?

Life is full of unanswered questions.This thing looks okay but it smells funny.

Realville, Not Maybeland

I have referred to myself as “A Realist from Quaintsville”, but most of the time I am more of a realist from Realville, because Tulare County isn’t really all that quaint. Really.

This definition means not living in a dreamworld, a place of what-if, maybe and perhaps. This sounds like “What if I put more time into it, maybe I can fix this oil painting, perhaps it will sell. . . ”

The bald truth about this lantern oil painting is that I don’t like any of these things: working on it, trying to see detail that is ambiguous, and attempting to make paintbrushes behave like pencils. More time probably won’t fix anything, make me like it, or cause it to sell, because it has been in a time-out for 7 months, and none of these things have changed.

I’m 58 and I don’t have to finish this if I don’t want. So there.

Sometimes it is good to just act on a decision instead of waiting to be sure. I’m sure I don’t want to paint this, because I’ve been waiting to work on it for 7 months, hoping I might be able to turn it into an appealing painting.

Reality is that I like painting pomegranates, can actually see the detail, know how to paint them, and know they will sell.

The business of art requires frequent reality checks, and remembering to live in Realville rather than Maybeland.

I’d really enjoy drawing the lanterns, but am not convinced that this would be a good use of my time. Pencil drawings are my strongest artwork, but the reality is that oil paintings sell better.

Realville is where I live.

Better Than Before?

Happy Birthday Jenny and Debbie!

First there was this version:

Why didn’t I like this? Other people did, but they chose other sequoia oil paintings instead of this one, so maybe they were just being polite.

I thought it over while at a show, with time in between visitors to evaluate things.

My main conclusion was that it needed something, but I wasn’t sure what. So, I took it home and started messing with it.

Sunny Sequoias XXVIII, oil on wrapped canvas 8×10, $135 including tax

Does it look any more appealing now? I added more sky, dulled the distant trees a tad, and brightened the small foreground trees a teensy bit. The whole thing is much brighter in real life than on my screen here. And at the recent Perfect Gift Boutique, it attracted more comments than it did before renovation. However, it is still in my studio so it didn’t stir anyone to part with any money. Yet.

There is no way to be fully objective about one’s own work. 

In and Out

Happy Birthday, Shirley, Connie and Hailey!!

What do I mean by “in and out”?

These paintingsare now IN my inventory.

“Flock”, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, $150 + tax
“Dinnerbone”, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125 plus tax.

This painting is now OUT of my inventory. (Does that make it outventory?)

WHAT?? Are you telling me I have to paint my favorite bridge again??

It will be Oak Grove Bridge XXIII. That means #23, although I have painted it more times than that – I didn’t begin numbering them right away, and then I lost track for awhile and may have used a number twice, so who really knows?

Square? Vertical? Horizontal? Small or medium? I have the large one hanging in my dining room, but am willing to sell it. Maybe.

More will be revealed in the fullness of time.