Between Jobs

That’s “between paying jobs”. I didn’t charge my church, a decision I made many years ago—I will charge people in the church, but not jobs for the church.

What does an artist do when there aren’t commissions or upcoming shows? (Besides look out the window and contemplate matters of consequence).

(Or think about joining Pippin in a nap.)

(Or look out the window and wonder why this blooming shrub has the peculiar name of “pineapple guava”.)

Your Central California artist does these chores:

  1. Plan new paintings, based on the assumption (and experience) that current ones will sell, and the sellers will want replacements.
  2. Package notecards for a custom order.
  3. Balance the checkbook
  4. Sort through piles and toss or file all the stuff that seems to multiply in the dark
  5. Go to the bank (as a few checks trickle in)
  6. Write a few notes
  7. Contact drawing students who have missed for awhile to ask if they quit and forgot to tell me
  8. Write blog posts
  9. Answer the phone, learn of a request for a QUICK, CAN YOU HELP US RIGHT AWAY?, and dive in to planning the next job.

Okay, let’s roll!

Sold in April and May

It has been awhile since I did a Brag List. Perhaps it could be called a Reassurance List, because when my business hits a lull, it reassures me to see that work has sold recently.

Two Commissions, Continued

This is the best photograph I was able to get of the Fiftieth Bouquet. (It just occurred to me that I may not have actually titled the painting!) I was able to eliminate the shiny spots but cropped the left side a bit. One of the things that is always pounded in all art advice workshops, classes, books, and websites is to hire a professional photographer for one’s work.

Fall down laughing.

That might work for people who just complete one painting a month and then sell it for $5000 or $50,000, but that is not the way things work for this Central California artist. So, I bumble along with my PHD* camera. (My more expensive cameras have broken so I no longer waste money on them.)

I also inched along a bit more on my favorite subject.

Can’t wait to get back to this one, but then I will finish and have to say goodbye to it.

Life is a series of decisions, choices and consequences.

*Press Here Dummy

Painting Fast

Redbud Festival is a long-time event in Three Rivers that I remember from childhood. I have participated many times, but was just fine missing the past two years of festivals, bazaars, and arts/crafts fairs. 

I recently learned that the Redbud Festival will be happening again this year, Mother’s Day Weekend (May 7-8) at the Three Rivers Memorial Building. 

A friend who makes felted purses can only work on Saturday; I have plans for Saturday (the drawing workshop at Arts Visalia). So, we will share a booth, which she will run on Saturday and I will run on Sunday.

Oops. I hadn’t planned on this. Most of my work these days is commissions, or it is specifically for a gallery. 

These events need large colorful pieces in order to attract attention, but they also need smaller inexpensive pieces for people to actually buy. It might not be like that in a city, but a small unincorporated town in a relatively (for California) low population rural county is a whole different animal.

QUICK–Stop on the commissions that don’t have a solid deadline and figure out what might sell at the Redbud Festival! After an inventory and survey session, I gathered some small canvases, selected a few photos that might have good appeal for the weekend crowd of browsers, pulled those seven Mineral King paintings off the drying walls, and hit the ground running.

First, finish the almost finished poppy painting that I had set aside in order to paint the carnation and rose bouquet.

Next, do something fun: 6×6″ iris, my favorite flower which happens to be in bloom right now. I was able to mix the colors accurately by looking at the real thing instead of relying on photos.

I love flowers (not just the wild kind). These little 3″ square canvases are a size I haven’t tried before, so I ordered some mini easels to sell with them, paid extra for quicker shipping, and painted 2 different sunflowers.

Still had a little time left in the day, so I “went” to Mineral King.

Sidetracked and Distracted

Since we are nearing the end of my favorite time of year, I thought I’d give you a break from watching painted flowers develop and show you a bit of the rest of my world at the time I was painting that bouquet. 

There are many distractions when one works at home. 

First, my neighbor has this incredible plant, and I don’t know the name, but the deer haven’t eaten it yet, so I NEED the name, because I NEED this color.

The mail came, and it contained a package of 2 new yarns. I haven’t talked about knitting for awhile; didn’t want to lose any more readers than I’ve already lost because the emailed subscriptions don’t show photos on people’s phones. (Still unsolved; my web designer is still too busy.)

The pinkish red yarn might exactly match the few remaining flowering quince. As a self-proclaimed color junkie, I had to check, and yeppers, it matches. (Destined to be a baby blanket).

I also needed to know if the lavender matched my blooming lilacs.. Nope, not quite. This one is destined to become another sweater that I don’t need; my knitting is a continual triumph of hope over experience, just like my gardening efforts. Sometimes I get lucky and all the parts work out. Usually the sleeves are too tight or too loose, the buttons keep falling off, the ends don’t stay woven in, I find a dropped stitch after wearing it several times, the collar won’t lie down, it is too short and fat, it is too long and tight. . . you get the idea. (Baby blankets always fit their recipients.)

I really did have some work to do that day. When one is an artist in a small town (the sign for Three Rivers says 2600 but I don’t know if all those people really live here) where one’s life overlaps with friends on many levels, one is often privileged to help out. This was fun, but definitely best viewed from the back of a fast horse. (Would take too long to explain and I’ve already stretched your attention span by going on and on about color and knitting.).

On one of my trips back to the house (a 30 second trip on the Zapato Express*), the light was beautiful on the hillside.

The green and the wildflowers are so fleeting; my daffodils no longer look like this.

So, even though all this distraction and sidetraction (that’s a good word, don’t you agree?) is taking me from my real work, I believe that it is an artist’s obligation to absorb as much beauty as possible whenever it is available. That’s part of the business of art.

*Zapato Express means I walked.

Blogiversary Bonus

What is a blog? It is a web log, an online journal, shortened to blog. 

What is a blogiversary? It is blog anniversary.

Yesterday was my 12th blogiversary. That is 12 years of posting 5 days a week about the business of art, life in Three Rivers/rural Tulare County, peculiar sights, a (rare) visit to another place, things I learn, and always, Mineral King. That is approximately 3,350 posts.

Today I am just giving you some photographs of beautiful things in my little world. It has nothing to do with the business of art, other than an awareness of beauty which I believe is the basis of good art (“good” as I define the word).

 

Thank you for hanging with me through the years, or thank you for joining up somewhere along the way.

Sisters in the Orange Grove

There has been a request for a print of this drawing. I will order 2, unless other people tell me that they would like them too. I don’t know the price, but it should be lin the neighborhood of $35-50 apiece. After I hear how many people are interested, I will ask the printer for a price. The original is 11×14″, but I could get them printed as 8×10″ instead. 

Interested?

Wednesday, March 23, 1:30 p.m. I have now ordered 5 prints; 3 are spoken for.

Irrelevant?

Due to an unfortunate series of events, I cancelled drawing lessons the first two weeks in February. The third week, my first class of the day cancelled me. Well, not really. Out of 7 members (in theory/on paper) only one student could attend.

Hmmm, are drawing lessons becoming irrelevant? Am I? 

I love helping people learn to draw. I used to give lessons 3 afternoons a week, with 3-4 classes, each one containing 4 members, along with a long waiting list.

It isn’t that way anymore.

Everything changes. Figuring out how to make an art business viable means continually adapting to the changes.

Eventually, it will cost me more to go down the hill ($5/gallon for gas, rent and insurance at the gallery, and my time, which is a squishy thing to place monetary value on) than I earn from my students. But how can I justify raising my prices if there is no waiting list?

Meanwhile, I will keep helping the people who show up.

Here is an irrelevant photo of a cat whose name* I have forgotten because it was only semi-civilized and disappeared before we were able to get to know it.

*Was this Butch (abbreviated tail)? Or O’Reilly (bold and fresh)?

 

And Even More About Notecards

When I started publishing my pencil drawings as notecards, I had no idea that printing cards in color would become affordable.

SURPRISE!

I had no earthly idea that I would ever become an oil painter. 

SURPRISE!

I had no idea that someday I would be selling a package of 4 cards for $10 instead of 10 cards for $5.

SURPRISE!

All of these notecard designs (and many others) are available here: Cabinart/Store/Notecards.