Most of Exeter’s businesses will be open for the annual Christmas open house evenings. I will be at CACHE from 5-8 tonight—will you? (125 South B Street)
SIMPLY HOME
You can see this painting in person tonight.
Honeymoon Cabin I, 6×18″, $195
The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.
This is the view looking east from in front of the Mural Gallery & Gift Shop. See the awning straight ahead? That is on the third location where I had my studio in Exeter.
While at the Mural Gallery for my November shift, I painted. My goal was to be productive in between customers by completing some of the plein air paintings from the week in Monterey.
Worked out pretty well.
I liked these enough to sign them. When they are dry, I will show the before and after versions.
This one is better, but I can’t wait to put a railing on the bridge and bark on the sycamore trees.
As I was moving everything out to my car, I looked east and remembered many reason I always loved being in Exeter: tractors in downtown, the water tower with EXETER on it, seeing Sawtooth and Homer’s Nose, trees with fall color, the Post Office, all visible from where I used to have my studio.
One of the three places my studio was in Exeter was in the second story of this brick building, which houses the terrific store Rosemary & Thyme.
One last view in case you didn’t get enough photos today.
SIMPLY HOME
OAK GROVE BRIDGE #28, 24×30″, oil on wrapped canvas, $1800
The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.
In the olden days when my studio was in Exeter and I was the president of the Mural Team, we opened a little store called the Mural Gallery. The idea was to have a place for visitors to learn about the mural project, take home mementoes of the murals, and for the Mural Team to have some income. Only mural artists were invited to show and sell their work.
This past summer, the store closed for refurbishing. Many of Exeter’s muralists are far away, don’t make lower priced art for sale, are retired, or have assumed room temperature. So, upon reopening, the Mural Gallery invited many local artists (whether or not they have murals in Exeter) to participate. A new option is for the artists to work one day a month in order to lessen the bite that the Mural Team takes from the sales (still much less than a commercial gallery, which starts at 50% and is rumored to be as high as 90% in some cities, no thank you).
I worked one day in October, met some new people, had some customers, caught up with some old friends, enjoyed being surrounded by pretty things while spending time in the town where my studio was located for 9 years, PLUS I finished one of the paintings from Monterey.
When we started the gallery, we didn’t have very many murals or artists to participate, so I did this drawing of Yokuts baskets and had prints made for the Mural Team to sell. I wasn’t a muralist, but we needed merchandise, and when we started the project, I told my teammates that I would do whatever it took to make the project succeed. Those first years were tough—the equivalent of having a second job without a second paycheck, a second job which shoved my business onto a back shelf—but the project made a HUGE difference in Exeter.
Since then, the Mural Gallery has sold many paintings and cards for me. I appreciate them enormously!
Today is my November shift. Want to come say hi?
SIMPLY HOME
Big Oak, oil on wrapped canvas, 11×14″, $300
Gallery Hours are Friday, Saturday, Sunday, different each day, in the middle of the day. Might want to call first!
The flowering pear tree is also beautiful in the fall. It is the skinniest 20+ year old tree imaginable, and it leans.
In the spring and in the fall, when it isn’t hot, I am struck by the beauty and charm of where I get to work.
When my studio was new here at home, I participated in a studio tour. Many guests asked if my husband built the studio. My answer was, “No, he already has a job”. The studio was a planing shed for the clock builder who owned the property before us. We used it to store avocado green sinks and other unnecessary miscellany from remodeling our house in 1998. A dear friend, now gone the way of all flesh, did the interior remodel on the shed in 2001. About 15 years later, he and Trail Guy added shingle siding. A few years ago, I had the cement floor covered with fake wood laminate flooring.
This is where I draw and do administrative things, along with give private drawing lessons.
When I began painting, I didn’t want that mess in my studio, so I set up in the adjacent workshop, which now also serves as the three cats’ home base. Two were born there, and Tucker moved in at around 8 weeks of age, so they are very comfortable with it as their dormitory and cafeteria.
Since most of my paintings are hanging at CACHE, I had to dig out all my framed pencil drawings to put up on the walls. I also had to spend time measuring them, determining prices, making sure the prices match the prices listed on the website and are consistent with size and framing quality. Sometimes I would like to have an administrative assistant for such tasks.
The few paintings here were done recently in order to resupply the places that sell my work.
Because this post is full of complaints, I will intersperse the verbal bummerations with nice photos.
We had a week when the internet went out 2 or 3 times a day on 4 days, and one of those days it was down all day long. This meant that neither the cell phone nor the landline worked. We also had an unscheduled half day without electricity and another day without power from 9:30-6:15. All of this took place during the week when I was preparing for my demo/talk How To Draw. In addition, I had people waiting for emails, with proofs, sketches, and price quotes to approve. It was also a week that I had set aside to make multiple phone calls to a tech service in order to repair and understand my wonky website.
Without power or internet, how does one print drawing exercises? or scan things necessary for handouts? or print one’s own notes? or let inquiring customers know you are not a flaky artist? How does one repair a website that one cannot access?
One waits. One uses a yellow legal pad and a pen. One waits some more. One composes emails and puts them in a folder called “Drafts”. One keeps waiting. One works in quiet, without tunes or podcasts. And one waits some more.
When the power came on, the printer wouldn’t print anything in color until I cleaned the heads about 6 times. Then I had to replace the ink, of course. I believe that printers were designed by ink companies. The next one I get will be a laser printer. I don’t know what that actually means, but people who have these say they are very reliable and use less ink. Everything uses less ink. EVERYTHING. (Excuse me, I need to leave this blog and order some more ink while thinking about it.)
Okay, I’m back, $48.70 poorer.
Eventually, I was able to get everything printed and scanned in time for the talk. Eventually, the emails went through. Eventually, I was able to make one phone call to repair one thing on my website. I also got a bit of painting done on one disrupted day before it got too dark to see.
From this:
To this:
To this, when I finally decided it was too cold to leave the door open, but too dark with it closed.
Thus, we end today’s complaint session with a vague sense of productivity and thankfulness for autumn beauty and electricity and internet and telephones.
Simply Home
Alpenglow on Homer’s Nose, 8×16″, $275
CACHE Gallery hours are Fridays 1:30-4:00, Saturdays 10:00-4:00, Sundays noon-4:00.
Last week was a rough one for tech. My blog croaked, which led me to realize that my entire website was AWOL. This led to many phone calls, and a large expenditure. Then, when I had things working again, thanks to Rowland, Mario, Eva, and Ken Joe Sam (Really? No, really??), we had a day without internet, cell service, telephone, or teevee. (I didn’t miss that last thing.)
So, I painted, after spending a bit of time in the studio making plans and taking care of administrative tasks. Those necessary parts of an art business are too boring to tell you about.)
Mr. Antisocial Jackson was suddenly interested in everything I was working on.
This painting is either 11×14 or 12×16, but I don’t remember. I am painting it so that if someone needs to take a painting from Simply Home, I will be able to put something in the hole.
Tucker took a break with me.
This lighthouse painting, done mostly plein air, still needed to be finished in the painting workshop. (I draw in my studio and paint in the workshop, because painting can get messy.)
It will look better when it is scanned. This was photographed with my inferior phone camera. And as always, it will look better in person.
Pippin was happy to sit behind me while I painted.
REMINDER: Tuesday, November 12, 6:30-7:30, I will give a demo/talk called How To Draw at CACHE. Contact me if you are interested, because seating is limited.
SIMPLY HOME
Homer Barn, 12×16″, SOLD
CACHE Gallery hours are Fridays 1:30-4:00, Saturdays 10:00-4:00, Sundays noon-4:00.
These three turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself, which I just did.
Tom-ato’s Last Mater, 6×6″, private collection
Lemons on the Tree, 6×6″, $65, oil on wrapped canvas
Pomegranate on the Tree, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $65
Don’t be scared; these will also turn out well.
Simply Home
Ed’s Herd, 11×14, oil on wrapped canvas, $300 (This is the only painting that comes from outside Tulare County, but since I met Ed in Tulare County, this qualifies.)
CACHE Gallery hours are Fridays 1:30-4:00, Saturdays 10:00-4:00, Sundays noon-4:00.
How To Draw, Tuesday, November 12, 6:30-7:30, at CACHE, 125 S. B Street, Exeter. Admission is FREE, but seating is limited, so email me cabinart@cabinartdotnet (do it the real way, not this bizarre spelling designed to thwart spammers).
We arrived about 15 minutes before the reception began, and the light was so nice coming around from the side of the gallery.
This is the early moment of Is It All Ready? before people arrive, the moments when I think, “Oh no, what if no one shows up??”
The gallery board is so welcoming, and Trail Guy seemed to know everyone.
It started to fill up. Say hi to Paula!
Then the gallery got full, the art director introduced the gallery board president, who went on and on about me, making me look good. It was a little embarrassing, and kind of fun too, because we interacted a little, as we like to do. Then I said my little spiel, ending oh so cleverly with how I always return to Tulare County after seeing other places, because it is “simply home”.
When the gallery was full, I didn’t take any photos, of course.
Lots of visiting with old friends, meeting a few new folks, and then when no one was left except gallery board members, when there was just 17 minutes remaining, this couple came in. It was an old friend of mine from about 30 years ago, and her husband, whom I had never met!
They bought three paintings. Insert a big goofy grin here, as I remind myself that is exactly why I NEVER NEVER NEVER close up my booth early if I am doing an art bazaar. NEVER close early. Besides, I was really happy to see my old friend, because we only email from time to time.
Finally, I took a photo of the guitar man, who filled in all the awkward pauses and set the tone for a nice evening.
CACHE Gallery hours are Fridays 1:30-4:00, Saturdays 10:00-4:00, Sundays noon-4:00.
I finished these two oil paintings, to be held in reserve for when the Mural Gallery in Exeter needs to be resupplied with citrus paintings.
Navels on the Tree I, 6×6″, $65
Navels on the Tree II, 4×6″, $45
Mineral King
The Mineral King road and recreation restrictions were scheduled to be lifted on Saturday, September 21. By now people who need to know will know for sure if that has happened.
This is how Mineral King looked in September of 2023. At the time of composing this blog post, I hadn’t been up there in almost 3 weeks.
The Book About TB
The TB book index problem is not repaired but we now have a plan. Instead of an index that can adjust itself to repagination, we will have a static index. This means that after the manuscript is formatted, I get to go through the index word-by-word and make sure the right page numbers are listed.
This is my favorite photo in the upcoming book. (Historic Saranac Lake Collection, 2022.4.6. (Courtesy of the Trudeau Institute)
2025 Calendar
Is it a good idea to show you the calendar now? They have arrived, are now for sale, and here is the part I am unsure of: they are a sneak peek into my upcoming show, Simply Home, which opens on October 19, a month from now. Wait, this isn’t truly a “spoiler”, because I have been showing you the progression of paintings for almost a year now!
2025 Calendar Front Cover — Simply Home, $25
The Mineral King road and recreation restrictions were lifted at 10 a.m. on Saturday, September 21.
I’m in a bit of a holding pattern, waiting for several things: the Mineral King road to open, a week-long plein air painting trip to Monterey, the indexer to finish repairing the index on the TB book, and my show, Simply Home, to open.
Tucker loves the unmowed lawn, which is part of one of my gardening experiments.
What’s a person to do while waiting? Stuff, both personal and professional. (What word did people use before “stuff” became a ubiquitous filler?)
Oh-oh! Where will Tucker hide now?
Personal stuff: enjoy being home, work in the yard, do some work on the landscaping at church, read, organize some messes, hang out with the cats, you know, just stuff.
Such a sorry excuse for a pomegranate. The tree has not produced a single edible normal sized piece of fruit in over 15 years.
Professional stuff: my art has been retrieved from the Silver City Store and also from the Mural Gallery. This means that I have to change information on my inventory lists, and put card packages away.
Finally, some time to think about and design a calendar for 2025. This will be based on the upcoming show, Simply Home. Yeah, yeah, I KNOW that people care more about Mineral King than my art, but I am trying to earn a living here. (My farmer dad used to say that he “scratched his living out of the dust of the earth”. Maybe I just scratch mine out with pencils, or smear it out with paint. . .) So, because I am an active citizen of Realville, I have ordered fewer calendars than in previous years. This means if you snooze, you lose, unless the demand warrants a second order.
Why is my vitex tree blooming in September? Why is it called “vitex”, which sounds like some sort of nutritional supplement?
Oh that’s right—it is time to design a new Christmas card. Yeah, yeah, I KNOW that fewer people send cards every year, except for those flat ones full of tiny photos of themselves doing glorious things throughout the year. Not me. Each year I design a new card and send them to my drawing students (and a small handful of distant friends), using the United States Postal Service.
And while putting away the paintings that did not have a chance to sell at Silver City, I studied them and decided that they each deserved more attention.
