More Yardening Photos

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

This post about yardening is not about procrastination; it is about pure enjoyment of one of the most beautiful springs in recent memory. Is it just Three Rivers? 

Our cats have always loved feather grass. They try to kick the stuffing out of it when they are kittens, and then lie on top of it or try to hide in it when they grow up.

Basil was the only item that the fantastic plant nursery did not have; I found it at our local hardware store the next day.

Here is the studio to make this post a little bit about my art business.

It is a mystery as to why hollyhock keep volunteering when the deer bite them down to nothing.

In the past several years, I have weeded all around the baby poppies and ended up with a nice showing. This year I decided to skip that task, maybe because it rained almost every weekend. The result is tall weeds and almost no poppy plants.

Chances are there will be very few blossoms.

Had to end with a studio photo (and a bit of the painting workshop) to remind myself to get back to work.

 

Finding Information (Instead of Woo-woo Inspiration)

If you receive these posts in email and the pictures in the post don’t show for you, tap here janabotkin.net. It will take you to the blog on the internet.

I was procrastinating (and yardening) in order to think. Sometimes procrastination is simply waiting for inspiration. If you are a person of faith, that is a time of waiting for the Lord to show the way through some of life’s more puzzling situations.

One of my puzzling situations was how to paint the mountains accurately on a commissioned oil painting when I didn’t have the right photos. Sure, Part A is in Photo A, Part C is in Photo C, but then Photo B doesn’t match or fit because it was taken from a different location or there is a tree blocking what I need to see.

I can fake mountains and foothills pretty well, but this particular painting is calling for accuracy. Well, actually, Mr. Customer is calling for accuracy in the mountains, and I fully understand and endorse his desire. The point of the painting for him, besides recalling a moment in time, is to be able to see specifically which peak is where. 

I had a good start, but there were some significant difficulties, such as what happens between Castle Rocks and Sawtooth. I could make a few white dabs, but when Mr. Customer and I try to name peaks, our efforts would be stymied by misleading information. (Heaven forbid that we participate in dis and mis information!)

The answer came while having lunch on Rocky Hill.

Let’s crop and enhance it.

Nope, this isn’t the span of mountains I am seeking. It’s in this photo, but those beeves are in the way.

I cropped out the cattle, messed with the exposure so the mountains were very distinct against the sky, and VOILA! (That is French for THIS IS WHAT I WANT AND NEED! Maybe. I don’t speak French.)

Was I seeking inspiration?

Maybe. People who aren’t artists think there is some sort of woo-woo inspiration thing that causes artists to do our thing.

I am more practical. There is beauty everywhere, subjects that would make great paintings, but as a professional, I have to take into account what my customers (and potential customers) want.

So, more than inspiration, I was seeking information, but needed help to find it, and then, right on time, the Lord provided. (If you are not a person of faith, you might credit “the universe”. That’s too woo-woo for me.)

 

 

 

Experimenting with Alien Pencils

As a professional artist, it is important to keep my work consistent and to meet deadlines. This doesn’t leave much room for experimenting, something that I view as a luxury for hobbyists. Hobbyists can do anything they choose, whatever inspires them, no deadlines, no need for a signature look (called a “voice” in Art Speak).


A number of years ago, a drawing student/friend gave me a super generous gift of some pencils that I had never heard of. “Graphitint” by Derwent are water soluble pencils, described as having “a hint of earthy color”, but are neither graphite nor colored pencils. After making a chart to see what this “hint of earthy color” looked like, I tried a bit of water on the swatches, drew a small picture, decided it was hideous, and just put it all away.

Recently my friend Carrie Lewis asked me to write another article for her digital magazine, Colored Pencil Magic. At first I told her that I had already written everything I knew about colored pencils. Then I remembered my Graphitints, right there in my stack of colored pencil boxes and tins.

I couldn’t very well write an article stating I had tried them ten years ago and then shoved them aside. 

So, I decided to learn more about these alien pencils. I chose a photo to work from and started another chart to pick the right colors and get a feel for them.

What alien creatures – soft like 6B graphite, but still different than colored pencils. I thought back to a great drawing teacher I’d had who only let us use 6B pencils, keeping a super sharp point. That gave me the confidence to dive in here. After all, it’s only paper, and I do know how to draw.

It was enjoyable, because I listened to Peggy Rowe read from her book Vacuuming in the Nude and Other Ways to Get Attention, (on her son’s blog “The Way I Heard It”). And it was enjoyable because I love to draw, even with alien pencils.

Enough. Many layers, like colored pencils. Lots of ad libbing, along with severe editing, and this little 5×7″ drawing with alien pencils was finished.

She Loves Flowers, Chapter Three

I wasn’t joking about loving flowers.

My yard is huge, and these represent little dots of color, scattered all around. It is not like some classic English garden, or as if everything is perfectly placed and professionally landscaped. But oh my goodness, I do love me some flowers.

P.S. This post comes to you after a very full busy weekend. I will tell you a bit about it later this week. Now, hold it down, will ya? I want to take a nap.

More Citrus Paintings

This 6×12″ oil painting. . .

. . .held my interest more strongly than the 6×18″ of a Sequoia tree. I am having a thing for these pictures of citrus against the hills. 

It is now drying, so I started another one, this time 18×36″.

Yeppers, upside down. This one feels huge, there is no deadline, and I really think it will look excellent in my dining room. Dining area — it is just an area, not a separate room.

What is it about these scenes that floats my boat? They are truly a source of inspiration to me right now. But, as a nod to a popular piece of advice, I’m not going to overthink* it. I’d rather paint.

*Have you noticed the popularity of this? The word “overthink” keeps appearing in book titles and songs, and now of course, in people’s speech patterns (along with “literally” when “figuratively” is meant, and “at the end of the day”). Who starts these fads??

P.S. It costs a fortune to have a transplant, and while insurance covers much, there is much more that it does not cover. If you feel generous and inclined to help my friend, Rachelle, this is the best way to do so: HelpHopeLive.Org

What is an “Artist Statement”?

An artist statement is not a biography, nor is it a list of accomplishments and awards. It is a few paragraphs meant to cause someone to want to view the artist’s work and provide a bit of insight into the reasons the artist makes the art.

The most helpful questions I’ve read about writing a statement are these:

What do you want people to see in your work?

What is a distinguishing characteristic of your art?

Based on your conversations, what do people find delightful or surprising about your art?

The least helpful “advice” I’ve read about writing an artist statement are these questions:

What informs the color in your work?

What are the paradoxes in your work?

How do your cultural roots inform your practice?

This is what I have come up with. Does it make you want to see my work or help you understand why I do what I do?

My artistic goal is to show people that Tulare County has beauty, and we can feel proud to call it home. I also want my art to ignite the viewers’ curiosity about the places that I paint and draw.

Using pencil and oil paint, I am a studio artist who makes art that people can understand. My style is straightforward realism with tight detail, a somewhat cleaned up and brightened version of real life. I like my paintings to look good both close up and from a distance, which is a result of having used nothing but pencil for the first decades of my career.

My favorite place, Mineral King, is clearly a huge influence on my choice of subjects; I think it is the most beautiful place in our county. Recognizing art of familiar places brings delight, so to that end I gladly accept commissions of the places and things that people love.

And you thought I just sat around drawing all day.

Pippin would like to know what in the world I am going on and on about.

 

Red Things

Recently, I noticed red things in my yard. Maybe that is just what artists do. That’s what this one does.

Big Ideas

As I continue to paint larger, the bigger ideas continue to come to me. I’ve been drawing more than painting lately, because I can shut myself into the studio with the air conditioner to filter the smoke.

Meanwhile, I do a little bit of preliminary work on the big ideas. Here are 2 of the latest. The top is 24 x 48″, and the bottom is 22×28″, leaning up against the 18×36″. 

“Man-aze a lotta work ahead!”

P.S. HB, JC!

Decisions, decisions

My very wise dad used to say, “Life is a series of choices and decisions”. (My very wise friend still says, “Choices and consequences”.) 

In preparing larger paintings while hoping for a show at a local-ish gallery, I have to keep in mind my mission, which is to show off the best parts of Tulare County with my art. One would think that choosing the best scenes would automatically result in sales; one would be wrong. 

It is painting the scenes that people love, scenes that ring a bell, touch their hearts, resonate, remind them of good memories, and doing all this in the most excellent way possible that MIGHT result in sales. (Anyone have a crystal ball that I can borrow?)

There is a scene that draws me back, in any season with water in the creek, and I want to paint it on an 18×36″ canvas. It is Yokohl Creek.

This version isn’t quite it, and won’t fit on 18×36″ format. So, have a look at the cropped version:

Better, so I started on the canvas.

But wait! Spring is the most beautiful time of year!

Shall I try to convert the view I cropped to spring colors? First, let’s crop this view.

This still doesn’t have the same visual pizazz to me as the brown version. What’s a Central California artist to do?

More will be revealed. . . (and I bet you can complete that sentence.)

Irresistible Subject

Ever painted a circle? I have. It was a heavy saw blade with sharp teeth. Sawteeth? Yeppers, Sawtooth with sawteeth.

This one is much kinder to work with. It isn’t heavy, the surface is very smooth, the top is clearly marked, and it fits on an easel.

The paper photograph hadn’t arrived, but I couldn’t wait a moment longer to begin. A scene with citrus and mountains, a true source of inspiration, is just irresistible to this Central California artist!

Good thing my customers have faith in my ability, because as always, things start out looking rough.

HURRY UP, PRINTED PHOTO!!