Category: Oil Paintings

November is the Busiest Month

Happy Birthday, Shirley Goodness!

November is the busiest month of the year for my little art business called “Cabinart”.

This is a long post and it might make you tired. Better grab some coffee before settling in.

Here’s a little sampling for you.

Friday a.m. was a meeting with our state assemblyman, Jim Patterson. It was at the Gateway Restaurant, which is just upstream of the Gateway Bridge. That bridge is the bigger brother of my favorite bridge (three arches instead of one), so of course I had to attend the meeting near it. It was sort of a family reunion to visit the Gateway Bridge; wouldn’t you agree?

I got home with a little time to work on these signs. You can see the evidence of a minor paint accident.

Then it was time to head over to the Remorial Building to set up for the Holiday Bazaar. “Remorial” is how we say “Memorial” at our house. We learned it from our neighbor when she was about 6 years old.

The show was a booming success on Saturday. You can see it was a gorgeous day in Three Rivers for this annual event.

I got home in time to shove everything into the workshop and studio and head to church for the annual Harvest Festival. Details aren’t relevant to the content of this blog, but suffice it to say that the overlap of dates really kept me running.

While shoving things into the workshop, I was reminded of work that awaits.

These paintings were drying in the house by the wood stove. They need to be ready for the next boutique in 2 weeks.

Meanwhile, a commissioned pencil drawing is ready to be started.

Cats sketch

(The customer chose C. He already knows I can draw, so no one needs to call a veterinarian for these kitties.)

And, this is first time I have painted olives. These are commissioned oil paintings, as are the oranges. I think the olives are so beautiful that I ordered a 24×24″ canvas and plan to do a large painting of olives when things calm down a bit.

It won’t be this exact arrangement. Instead, after the other 5 paintings are finished, I will figure out the best parts of each and make a new design.

Meanwhile, I might need to go lie down for a bit.

NOPE. This is the harvest season, and during harvest, farmers don’t climb out of their pick-ups and go home for a nap. I am a farmer’s daughter, and I can and will push through. What’s more, I am really enjoying this season.

Is there any other job in the world with this much variety and activity and autonomy and chance for creativity?

P.S. Thanksgiving is coming quickly, I’m planning for an oil painting workshop for my advanced drawing students, have jury duty soon, am looking for a date to schedule private drawing lessons for 2 busy girls, got another commissioned pencil drawing to design and complete in time for the customer to have framed before Christmas, and practice for the church’s Christmas musical is heating up. (No, I don’t sing – I can read music, listen, and push buttons, so I run the sound board.) Also been asked to participate in a skit (I said no), judge an art contest (said yes, but keeping it anonymous) and go shopping for Operation Christmas Shoebox (just took the easy way out and wrote a check.) No nap for this little gray duck. Please pass the chocolate (the darker, the better.)

Four Little Poppies

“Four Little Poppies” sounds like the title of a book I loved as a kid called “Five Little Peppers (and How They Grew). It’s sort of a given that a California artist would paint California poppies.

This little 4×4” oil painting of poppies needed something more, so I added blue.

poppy oil painting

It wasn’t enough, so I added 3 more paintings.

4 poppy oil paintings

Did you know that California is called “The Golden State” because of the poppies on the hillsides? That might be a myth. The hills turn golden in the summer when the grasses dry up from the abundance of sunshine (and lack of water.), so perhaps that is the reason for the descriptive title.

Scanned and Ready!

Here are my latest oil paintings of Central California fruits and landscapes, dry, signed, dry again, scanned, varnished and ready to sell!

1555 Pomegranates #48 — Pomegranates #48, oil on wrapped canvas, 8×10, $125

1556 Honeymoon Cabin XXIII — Honeymoon Cabin XXIII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $55

1558 Sawtooth XVII — Sawtooth XVII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, NFS

1559 Farewell Gap IXX — Farewell Gap IXX, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55

1562 Peach III — Peach III, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55

1561 Persimmon IX — Persimmon IX, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55

To buy any of these paintings, use the contact button under About The Artist in the menu bar above.

Mineral King oil paintings oil paintings

Crazy talk?

Shows are coming this month, I’m painting with hyper-focus, and there is some crazy talk going around. With the shows coming this month, these little oil paintings are almost ready to be sold. They are finished, signed and drying. When dry, I will scan, varnish and then price them.

oil paintings

Five down, 8 or 9 to go. 5 plus 8 equals 13, but I might need a couple more. 8 or 9 or 10 to go.

About the pricing stage: I am getting messages from many places which sound like crazy talk to me that my oil paintings are severely underpriced. Not only are they severely underpriced, but if I double or triple the prices, my sales will increase.

Does that sound like crazy talk to you??

Where are these folks with big money who are just hanging out, waiting to pay me more??

Crazy talk.

oil paintings

Yes, I Still Oil Paint

Thanks for asking. Were you wondering if all I do is fund-raise, read and tile?

I squoze a little painting in. Thirteen little paintings, actually. There are shows in November, craft fairs and bazaars and boutiques, all requiring that I have things to sell.

Not finished.

Finished, not signed,

Finished, not signed, and too wet to photograph well. All that shine looks messy!

Even looks messy when I step back.

Added blue to an existing poppy. Looks so good I started 3 more!

Liked the fruits for my friend so much that I began 2 more, incorporating some blue, of course.

I need to learn if adding blue makes paintings more appealing.

When these are finished, signed and dry, I’ll scan them and show them on the blog. There are 13 in progress, in spite of only showing you 7 here.

“Squoze” – did it make you smile like the word “liberry” did last week?

oil paintings

Turning Leaves

A few years ago I began painting autumn leaves. Because I often couldn’t decide which way they looked best, I would turn them around and around as I decided which end to put the hanger on and where to sign.

“Turning Leaves” seemed to be the perfect title for the subject. Sometimes I just amaze myself with my cleverness. I try not to laugh too loudly at my own jokes, but sometimes I have to repeat them because people don’t laugh hard enough. Sometimes they even look a bit baffled.

TURNING LEAVES – GET IT?? HAHAHAHAHA

Excuse me. Got carried away there.

New turning leaves this year:

1551 Turning Leaf IIXX — Turning Leaf IIXX, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $55 plus tax

1550 Turning Leaf XVII — Turning Leaf XVII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $55 plus tax

These match a Turning Leaf from a year ago:

1437 Turning Leaf XIV — Turning Leaf XIV, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $55 plus tax

The title “Turning Leaf” doesn’t have the double meaning with these, because the stem gives the direction away.

Now I can’t decide if they are dogwood leaves or persimmon leaves!

oil paintings

Three Rivers is Bear Country

One afternoon I was painting in the workshop. Trail Guy stopped his work on the house to rest a bit. What am I working on?

Another Kaweah Post Office, because it is my policy to always have one ready to go. Pomegranates because they are beautiful to paint and sell well.

Trail Guy reported a bear sighting. So, I went to investigate. They are so fascinating to watch – something about their size or furriness or proportions or way of moving or something. Here, you can see for yourself. If you want to see a bear any day of the week in Three Rivers, you can just go driving around and find one! Truly!

Okay, bear break over – back to work. Get painting again, Central California Artist in Bear Country.

oil paintings Three Rivers

Kaweah Post Offices

The eBay painting went to a very happy lady!

Kaweah P.O.

Chuck’s painting progressed quickly.

IMG_1798_2 IMG_1214_2

This is a photograph of it while it was drying. Hang on, Chuck, it’s coming soon!

My Favorite Customer bought this painting and I split the sale with the Kaweah Post Office fund.

1293 KPO VII

Several friends gave cash toward the project. Some of them received a package of these cards. (The others didn’t receive cards because I was caught by surprise and didn’t have them with me.)

pencil KPO

Something just occurred to me as I think about this project: EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO CONTRIBUTED IS NOT FROM THREE RIVERS!!

Isn’t that amazing? That may be part of what has blown me away – so many people from other places have a soft place in their hearts for the Three Rivers landmark of the Kaweah Post Office.

Kaweah Post Office oil paintings Three Rivers

Spare Canvas, Stray Fruit

Oops.

Yesterday’s “Fruity” blog post had an UFO – unidentified object.

It was a pear.

You probably knew that. But, I showed you a hint of it in progress and then left the more observant reader wondering why I was ignoring it.

When I special ordered those thick canvases for the commissioned oil paintings of fruit, they came in prepackaged quantities. There was a spare one, so I painted the pear.

An artist never knows when a customer will say, “Sure, I’ll take that one too.” An artist needs to be prepared for such contingencies.

Thus, a stray piece of fruit. . .

Pear

It is wet, so you will have to tilt your head to see it correctly.

I bet you figured that out too.

If you would like to own this little fruit painting, contact me with the button “Contact the Artist” under the drop down “About The Artist” tab above. It is 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas ready to hang without a frame, $55 plus tax.

oil paintings

Fruity

Remember seeing these commissioned oil paintings in progress?

1546 Orange 124

1547 Grapes VIII

1548 Pom 47

The customer was very happy and asked for more!

Remember these three commissioned oil paintings?

1545 Orange #123

1544 Pomegranate #46

1543 Lemon #19

This customer was also very happy and asked for more!

Here they are in their infancy.

commissioned oil paintings

And here they are finished: detailed to the nth degree, signed, scanned, and now with varnish drying!

Peach Plum Tammie's Plum

As a Central California artist, I have access to wonderful fresh fruit. Every one of these was painted from photos that I took while the fruit was on the tree or of fruit that came from a friend’s packing house.

citrus art commission oil painting oil paintings