How To Subscribe to This Blog

Does this topic make you want to hide under this quilt and nap?

Good morning, Blog Readers.

My blog has 2 different items that you may subscribe to. This confuses many people, so today I will tackle item #1. 

How to subscribe to THE BLOG:

You may subscribe to my blog. This means that each time I post a new entry, you will get an email. The email will contain the whole post, or you can click (or tap) on it and go to the blog on my website. 

It is not necessary to subscribe to be able to read it. Subscribing means you will get an email; not everyone wants 5 emails from me per week. No offense taken. Do what works for you.

If you are looking at the main blog page instead of the individual blog post, you should see the thing circled in the picture above. If you are reading the individual blog post, the subscribe dealie doesn’t show.

If you fill out the subscribe dealie, you will get a confirmation email. Follow the instructions there, and you will start receiving an email each time I post.

Yeppers, a little bit boring today. Tomorrow will also be a little bit boring. It will explain how to subscribe to the newsletter.

Thank you for reading.

Email me if you want help! Oh no, do I need to do a whole tutorial on that?? Say it ain’t so! My eddress (in words instead of regular email format so that the Bad Boys of the World Wide Web won’t bother me) is cabinart at cabinart dot net.

P.S. “Blog” comes from “web log”. Take away the “we” and the space, and you get “blog”. The “log” part is the word meaning “journal”. It is a journal on the world wide web. 

 

The Business of Art

Where’s your mask, young man?? Thank goodness we don’t have to practice social distancing from our pets.

There is a misperception about artists, that we just sit around waiting for inspiration, and then paint what and when we feel like it. 

Artists who do that are usually hobbyists. Professionals know that life is easier when you have money, and if you want to sell, you need to paint what people want to buy, and then make yourself and your work visible and available.

Treating art-making as a business means many things are necessary:

  1. Figure out what people want.
  2. Learn to paint well. 
  3. Pay attention to online marketing – using my website, an email newsletter, Instagram (nope, no Facebook or Twitter for this Central Calif. artist – I have standards and boundaries.)
  4. Keep in touch with real people that I know in real life rather than depend entirely on “likes” and “hearts”.
  5. Make sure that people know what I do. (Do you know?)
  6. Figure out what works and what is a waste of time and money.
  7. Pay attention to trends (remember coloring books for grown-ups?)
  8. Be willing to do odd jobs. (Oh yeah!)
  9. Be willing to accept commissions (I am and I do – murals, oil paintings, pencil drawings).
  10. Keep learning new skills.

I am reading Building a Story Brand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller. He is an author whose memoirs I have enjoyed for many years, and “suddenly” (how did he pull this off from a navel-gazing author?) he has become a very wise business coach. His podcast, Building a Story Brand is one of my favorites, both for his business acumen and his sense of humor. I trust this guy and just really like how he communicates.

This is what I have come up with after spending time with his book; I think it really summarizes what I do.

Making art you understand, about places and things you love, at prices that won’t scare you.

(There is a parenthetical addition to the end of this little blurb: “because buying art shouldn’t require a degree.)

Now I just have to figure out how to incorporate that into all my marketing efforts.

I’d really rather be painting or drawing, but sometimes an artist has to do what she has to do.

(With thanks to my longtime blog reader and virtual friend Marjie who helped me streamline the words)

Tucker doesn’t have a strong opinion about this topic.

Lots of Work Right Now

“Busy” is a loaded word. People like to say they are “crazy busy”, maybe because it gives them a sense of importance or indispensability. I bet people aren’t using that word too often right now.

I am busy during this weird time. Some of it is commissions, some of it is bidding on jobs, some of it is taking advantage of more time to catch up on things like keeping my website current and reading business books.

Maybe instead I could say, “I have lots of work right now”. For that I am grateful, and I am grateful to have the time to take care of customers and my business responsibilities.

Enough chatter, Central Calif. artist. Show us some things!

11×14′ commissioned oil painting
Oak Grove Bridge XXX, 10×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $175
8×10″ commissioned oil painting
Slowly progressing on these small Mineral King wildflower paintings.

There is more, but there is also tomorrow to show and tell you.

Thanks for tuning in today!

 

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Eleven

This is the final part of our Pencil Reminiscing series. This last set of pencil notecards is Mineral King again. This one was done near the end of the last century, after I figured out how to handle the textures of landscape views. I don’t remember where this set falls in the sequence of notecard sets, but it seems fitting to conclude this series of posts with Mineral King.

These views still look the same today. Well, not TODAY, but last summer, and hopefully the summer of 2020, after all the snow melts.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Ten

Somewhere along the path of creating notecard packages, I did a set of Mineral King scenes, a mini-set of four instead of five, without the identifying label. Instead, I inserted a photocopy of what was inside.

Judging from the quality of the background landscaping, this was still early in the sequence of notecard sets.

The old Ranger Station was from a postcard; the others were from my photos, so they were current at the time (and still look almost the same).

I think these were tied up with raffia, oh so very elegantly rustic.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Nine

This is the second set of Sequoia National Park scenes, chosen with the help of my wonderful contact in the Park. These are designs that I still like, in spite of them being about 20 years old now. The cards sold well, but alas, by this time, personal note writing was in its final stages. These sets are gone, and there are no plans to resurrect them.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Eight

With a good contact in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and success with the Sequoia sets of cards, together we chose scenes for Kings Canyon.

There were probably 5 drawings, but I can only find these 4 samples. You can see that I finally got comfortable drawing the textures of landscaping.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Seven

After publishing the notecard set of Backcountry Structures of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, I moved into the front country of the park. That’s where most of the people visit, and now I had connections in the organization that stocked the ranger stations and visitor centers in the parks.

I didn’t save any labels, so I don’t know if this is when I switched to 4 cards per package instead of 5, or if I lost a sample card along the way. I remember taking the photos for these drawings, because my niece went with me. There was a long line for photos in front of the General Sherman Tree, so Ashley and I got in line. When it was our turn, she went up to the tree and then laid on the ground behind the sign so I could take a photo without any people in it. The other visitors were quite puzzled by this, but I was thrilled by Ashley’s innovative solution. I think I actually drew her into the picture of the Four Guardsmen, but now I can’t see details that small.

To be continued. . .

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Six

Confidence grew with each set of cards I drew, printed, and sold. Tulare County was too small – look out California, because the Central California artist is heading your way!!

In the 4th grade, we studied the 21 California missions, which were built in the 1700s and 1800s by Franciscan priest, Junipero Serra. Even back then I loved old buildings.

I chose 5 of the 21, with some sort of logic that I can no longer remember. There are 2 missing pictures here – San Juan Bautista, and the one near Oceanside, whose name I have forgotten.

This California mission idea was suggested by a friend, and although my inner cautionary voice told me not to do it, I ignored that intuition, dismissing it as pessimism. 

Should have listened.

I printed the largest quantity yet, and went to my regular outlets, which bought them in small cautionary quantities. Next, I hit the road with my best friend to sell these. Alas, none of the 5 missions wanted them because they only cared about their own place. I wasn’t willing to break up the sets, and it was crazy hard to find gift shops in towns where I knew no one. I tried Harris Ranch, a huge tourist place along Interstate 5, smack dab in the middle of the state. It took many phone calls, several appointments, lots of free samples, and finally I realized that this was not profitable, because in addition to the distance, their gift shop buyers quit every few months.

I finally consented to selling the cards individually to some of the missions, had one very nice gift shop in Carmel who wanted the variety pack, and kept selling tiny quantities to the local stores.

Eventually I got real, and gave all the remaining cards to every fourth grade teacher I knew. 

The lesson there was to listen to that inner cautionary voice and not dismiss it. Although one might not be able to articulate why something doesn’t feel right, there are usually solid reasons behind the reluctance, even if it is only manifested as hidden sense inside the intuition.

At least Judy and I had a great time on our road trip.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Five

In 1993, Trail Guy went from being seasonal Maintenance Guy to Road Guy, a fulltime job with Sequoia National Park. This meant I could really focus on my art, since he had a better income. A friend invited me to move my studio into her gift shop in Exeter, and I was ON MY WAY!!! To where?? I didn’t know, but I was going, so there.

The friend was instrumental in teaching me about selling, marketing, display, professionalism, and even how to dress better. I will be eternally grateful to her for her tutelage.

My next notecard set was Backcountry Structures in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. I had been to most of the cabins but didn’t have photos of them all. The Park’s “History Boys” were helpful in providing pictures and information about these charming little cabins in remote locations, and excited that I had chosen this subject for drawings and cards.

You can see that my focus remained on architectural subjects, and the textures and shapes of nature were just too hard. I did my best, but yikes. To save some pride, here are my recent drawings of two of these cabins. They were on the blog in December, but here they are again.

More next week on pencil reminiscing. . .