When Trail Guy and I went to our friend’s barn to choose our kittens, I was struck by how appealing the outer wall of the barn looked. Alas, I didn’t have my camera with me. (Just hush up about smart phones, will ya?)
2 weeks later, another friend, the amazing S, emailed me a photo of the very barn wall because she happened to be there and thought I would like a photo. She knows me well and is a very thoughtful friend.
I set aside another drawing that has been putting me to sleep and started on this.
One of the things I continually tell my drawing students is, “Pick something you love because you will be staring at it for a long time.”
This will be an excellent addition to my 2019 calendar.
I do set goals – finish X number of paintings, get website redesigned, finish drawings for the next calendar, etc.
But I don’t set big sweeping overarching business goals, or as one of those motivational speakers says, “BHAGs”, which stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goals.
And many of us have heard the acronym SMART for goals, which means goals have to be Specific, Measurable, and 3 other things that I never remember.
In thinking about goals for my art business, all I could come up with is Paint Better And Sell More Paintings.
“Paint Better”? What is this? Better than what? Better than I paint now, but what constitutes better? Tighter and more photorealistic? Looser and flowier? Plein air? Brighter colors? How is this specific or measurable? How is this even attainable when I can’t define “better painting”?
And “Sell More Paintings”? I can count, and set a higher number, but am I supposed to put them in my little red wagon and pull them around the neighborhood? Must I get a smartphone and join FaceBook? (Have mercy – Please please please don’t make me get a cell phone and join FaceBook!!)
I have no earthly idea how to sell more paintings. If I did, I’d be selling more.
Goalless suits me for now.
I wonder what all those motivational speakers would have to say to me . . . probably “Don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you”.
I am painting better each time I revisit this oil painting of the Oak Grove Bridge that is too hard for me. I am making up some colors for the background, just experimenting, trying to learn what “better” might look like, outside of my natural bent to just make things look as realistic as possible.
Will it sell? Maybe if I chant to myself while painting, “Paint better, sell more paintings, paint better, sell more paintings…”
Perhaps it is time to listen to music instead of motivational speakers while I paint.
Have you heard me say that I think white flowers are boring? There are a few exceptions, and dogwood is one of them.
Have you read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard? It is considered one of the classics of tree-hugging literature. In it, the author mentions a “tree of lights”. I am just sure that she is referring to dogwoods!
I recently went to the main part of Sequoia National Park for an afternoon, and both the yucca and dogwood were in bloom. These flowers are not boring at all; I only photographed the dogwood because there were no places to pull over for good photos of yucca. Yuccas? Yeah, those, plural.
This is dogwood. It is a tree with fabulous white blossoms that my dad used to refer to as “fried eggs”.I went with the owner of Hot Wheels, and SHE LET ME DRIVE HER CAR!! (The rumbly engine, smooth handling and coolness made up for the automatic transmission.)Dogwood grows at the same elevation as redwood trees.Crescent Meadow road is a good place to find dogwood. They aren’t around the meadow, but are along the road.What’s that red shrub off on the right??Why does the red shrub look brown at this angle?Obviously this flower will become a berry, but I have no idea what it will be.Now the red shrub is looking red again. Might be some sort of willow – it is growing along a little “crik”.
Wait. This post is supposed to be about non-boring white flowers. Here, have another look at a dogwood. I have painted these non-boring white flowers and will again.
That title might be a little bit over the top. May always feels like the end of spring with heat coming and bringing its browns. But my yard has been so beautiful in the early morning light. . . Trail Guy and his power tools, me and my girly pruning and weeding, but mostly God and his palette. . .
I could call these photos a “source of inspiration”, but while they do lift my spirits, I don’t view them as potential painting subjects. The reality of earning a living with art in a small place is that I have to paint what sells. Florals don’t sell for me. Instead, I can study the photos and figure out what makes them special in terms of light, shadow, shapes and color, and maybe apply those things to other subjects.
I tried to oil paint last Friday but the greenery and wildflowers overcame my sense of duty. So, Trail Guy and I drove up North Fork Drive to the end.
My palette was ready to go.I worked on Sawtooth a little.After telling Trail Guy that I’d heard the flowers were great up North Fork and staring out the window a bit, he said, “Let’s go now!”
The road was longer, rougher, narrower than I remembered and all very worth the drive.
The last 3.5 miles are unpaved.This is Yucca Creek at the end of North Fork Drive.That’s one narrow little footbridge over a massive old culvert pipe.Wowsa.The yellow flowers are called Madia.Heading back down has a view of Ash Peak with a blooming yucca and bush lupine.Looking over the edge down to the North Fork makes one glad to not encounter any oncoming traffic on that narrow road with no turnouts.Poppies are yellower in the wild than in my yard.The poppies on the hillsides are what gave California its name of “The Golden State”. (Bet you thought it was the gold rush)I love Fairy Lanterns, AKA Satin Bells. Pink isn’t my favorite color, but it is rare enough in nature that it stands out.
After we got back home, I painted a little bit more. There is this commissioned oil painting of Sawtooth for a very patient customer, and it would be good to make progress.
Sawtooth’s shape is improving, and it is acquiring colors and texture.
Then, I got distracted again and thought that wildflowers would look great on a 6×18″ canvas. Can you see the possibilities here? (Put on your rose-colored glasses with me!)
Have you noticed that the word “easel” is pretty close to the word “easy”?
It’s merely a word illusion. Nothing easy about being at an easel.
This fact, combined with April as the most beautiful month in Three Rivers, has made it even less easy to plant my feet in front of the easel recently.
But, as I pointed out in the Eight Things I Learned in March blog post, often we must parent ourselves. (“STAY IN YOUR ROOM UNTIL YOU HAVE FINISHED YOUR MATH!”) So, I planted my feet in front of the easel in spite of the distractions.
Wanna see some of the distractions? I know you are interested.
In my backyardTwo brodiaea, Wild Hyacinth and Pretty Face, along with Common MadiaThe South Fork of the Kaweah RiverPretty FaceFairy LanternsAnother distraction, AKA Piper
Forget easel time and painting for today’s blog. See you on Monday. . .
Last summer I had a hankering to draw some new Mineral King pictures in pencil. I did four of them without a plan for reproduction or framing. Artists make art, and I am a Central California artist making art of the flyover center of California, my main source of inspiration (along with liking to drive and to eat.)
This spring I decided to test the marketability of these drawings as cards. These are packages of 4 different cards, 5×7″, blank inside with envelopes, $15 per package. There are only 95 packages available. Through this blog post and Saturday’s open studio, I will decide if these are popular enough to print in greater quantity.
This sort of thing is just part of the business of art. Make the art I want, and then figure out if there is a market for it. . .
This is the insert that goes inside the package of cards. The drawings are too small to really appreciate on the insert, so I’ve placed them underneath. Scroll on, Gentle Blog Reader. What?? No Honeymoon Cabin?
Nope – sometimes an artist’s gotta do what she’s gotta do. (But she is willing to listen to customer requests, within reason.)
P.S. I thought at first that $15 was a little high-ish for 4 cards. Then I went inside a real store and looked at real cards that are sold one at a time. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? I was astonished at the prices, so believe these are a bargain.
The lanterns languished. Finally, I reminded myself that I am the Mayor of Realville, the lanterns were too hard for me at that size (a paintbrush will never quite behave like a pencil), and it was time to make them go away.
So, I turned the painting into one of pomegranates.
Five Poms, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, $160 including tax
Still, I wanted to do something with those charming little lanterns. If it was too difficult a subject in oil, then surely I could draw them!
This time I had to change the format, because my intention is to use them in the 2019 calendar. I squished them closer together, eliminated a board at the bottom, and began.
When they were in progress, I took them to my students and said, “Do to me what I do to you – evaluate this drawing honestly!”
They told me to forget all the grass and turn the entire background into boards. Being confident that I have taught my students well, I followed their directives. You can see that the grass on the left side is boards; the grass of the right side is still grass (or hair or a weird texture of something?)
I also hadn’t yet decided how much color to include, so the lantern on the far right needs more blue. The shadows aren’t dark enough, and the drawing isn’t finished yet in the top picture.
Now it is finished, photoshopped for best reproduction, and I really really like it!!
P.S. The 2019 calendar will be called “A Touch of Color” and will be pencil drawings with a little bit of color in them, probably all Tulare County subject matter.
Ever heard of a studio yard? In my case, it is the yard area around my studio, a shabby little shed on the property. I suppose the proper and popular term is “garden”, but that feels wrong to me. The place is only partially planted, definitely not professionally landscaped; I’m not growing tomatoes and zucchini around the studio, and I don’t “putter about”. It is a haphazard yard, and sometimes it has flowers in it.
The iris are little things, a dwarf variety, blooming 3 at a time in an otherwise bare pot. They mostly just look good in photos. This is because I don’t know what I am doing, other than occasionally succumbing to impulse buys at the grocery store. “Hey look, bulbs, I wonder if there are any iris. . . look, here are some iris, must be fate that I buy them”.
The New Year’s Day walk could have been a hike, had we taken food and more than one measly little water bottle. Alas, we did not. We went to the Salt Creek/Case Mt. BLM recreational area and walked from the Salt Creek road (rather than Skyline Drive) up, up and up. It was a smoggy hazy day, and the land wanted rain. We encountered about 8 different walking and biking parties; 4 were folks we know. Three Rivers is small. (A friend recently said to me that the good thing about Three Rivers is that it is small; the bad thing about Three Rivers is that it is small.) Going places, even those close to home, getting outside, looking around–these are all sources of inspiration, a requirement to this Central California artist.
We started here by the loading chute.The road isn’t too steep here. It goes past 2 ponds full of slime.Up and up and up; that is the first waterfall across the canyon.The first waterfall.The sycamores sure held their color this winter.The second waterfall is barely visible in the shadows; guess you had to be there.
I am so thankful for the rain we have received since New Year’s Day, but we still need more. Alas, those folks in Montecito. . . yikes.
One of the things I continually tell my drawing students is, “Pick something you love because you will be staring at it for a long time.”
Is “goalless” a word? 
What?? No Honeymoon Cabin?
Now it is finished, photoshopped for best reproduction, and I really really like it!!
