Thoughts | Cabin Art

About shows

The Perfect Gift Boutique at the Three Rivers Arts Center, November 2007

There are several different kinds of shows for artists to participate in.

The elegant type at an art gallery – a dress-up indoor event, usually with wine and hors d’oeuvres, often shared with other artists and usually preceded by a postcard mailing. These range anywhere from a nice opportunity to a Big Deal, depending on how shiny the floor is and how far apart the art is spaced on the walls. There is no entry fee, you have to be invited to be a participating artist, and the gallery keeps a percentage of the sales.
The arts and crafts fair. These tend to be outdoors, have an entry fee, and attract all manner of folks. Some are looking to spend money, and some are just looking to spend a little time. The sales can vary with the weather, the amount of publicity, or just economic times. A show can be wonderful one year and a dud the next, and it is hard to predict in advance.
Setting up art at some sort of an open house, a reception, a dinner or an annual meeting. Unless the artist is the featured speaker, I have found these to be a waste of time. Exposure is only important for a little while when starting out; after a while, a person can die of exposure. (We need sales to stay alive.)

As a regional artist, I do local shows, so I know a high percentage of the folks who visit. It is like a reunion/party combined with being tuned in to people who actually want to buy something. There is a balancing act between chit-chatting too much and missing sales as a result, or just zeroing in on potential customers and not having time for friends.

The items that sell well vary from year to year. Back in the 1990s, it was all about cards and reproduction prints. Learning to oil paint in 2006 opened up an entirely new avenue. A few years ago, coloring books were the hot item. This year at the Redbud Festival, Mineral King Wildflowers was the star.

And look at my booth 10 years later than the photo above:

Gilligan or Ginger? (at 6 weeks they are venturing outside)

In Bloom

Sometimes I have the overwhelming need to share some beauty with you that is not of my making. (I hope you know me well enough to not take that sentence as if I believe all my art is beautiful. Gotta stay real and humble here.)

What is this new-to-me wildflower, across the road and downstream from Reimer’s (the candy store in Three Rivers)?

The plant I pilfered a cutting from last summer in someone else’s yard is in bloom!

The Spanish or French Lavender is in bloom; I’m inclined to think of it as Red-Violet rather than Lavender.

Look at the Honeysuckle! Too bad you can’t do a scratch-and-sniff on your screen.

Keep Thinking

One of the many pencil drawings from *The Cabins of Wilsonia*

Yesterday I told you of some good ideas that came to me while I was organizing my storage shelves. Today I will tell you of two that aren’t complete. They are good ideas in terms of how to spend my time and energy with my art business, but will take more thinking on how to bring them about.

The Cabins of Wilsonia came out in December of 2014. Many of the 200+ drawings have sold, but many remain available. It is time to offer them at a deep discount, and then shred the remainder. They are doing no one any good in storage. Now I need to figure out how to best reach the people who are most likely to want the drawings. Keep thinking.
Sequoia Natural History Association used to be the name of the outfit that stocks the ranger stations and visitor centers in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The name changed, the director I knew retired, and now I don’t know who to talk to about buying my prints and cards to sell in the Parks. They are doing no one any good in storage. Keep thinking.

Crescent Meadow, 11×14″ reproduction print, wildflowers colored one at a time, one after another after another. . .

The kittens are getting quite busy at 4 weeks old. They tried canned food and spent a fair amount of time walking in it. It was too gross to photograph. You’re welcome.

Good Ideas

Lately I have preferred to work in silence instead of listening to podcasts, music, or the radio. I seem to need lots of quiet in order to think. I don’t have an agenda; instead, I just let the thoughts roam freely, and sometimes good ideas show up.

When I photograph my paintings on the easel in the painting workshop, I am often appalled by the state of the storage shelves behind the painting. What am I storing? Why is it such a mess? If the things aren’t useful, why I am keeping them?

Last week I went through those shelves, moving things that seldom get used to the upper levels, consolidating things, and evaluating their usefulness. I had some thoughts while doing this task, some new, some old.

Many of my art supplies and materials have been given to me. This makes me want to give things to other people, to be as generous and helpful to others as people have been to me. A cautionary thought occurred: I should be careful to keep mental boundaries in place, so that I don’t start just handing out my work. Good idea!
The 4×6″ paintings that I have been doing recently usually are priced at $50. I will be calling them “Show Specials” and offering them for $40 at the Redbud Festival. I’m not splitting with a gallery or a gift shop at that event, so why not? It is fun to offer something new and learn the response. Good idea!
After making an ordering mistake several years ago, thinking I was getting 12 2×2″ canvases and instead of getting 12 packages of 5 each for a total of 60, it is time to be finished with those. They are hard to paint, because I have to hold them in my left hand, and the opening in the back is much smaller than my fingers are able to squish. So, I will be painting quick Mineral King scenes, and offering them as a Show Special when I do the art show and sale at the Silver City Store this summer. Good idea!

There will be 4×6″ original oil paintings at the Redbud Festival, priced for $40 each instead of $50. **SHOW SPECIAL!**

Thoughts on Plein Air Painting

A friend wanted to hear my thoughts on plein air painting, so I wrote to her about it. Several other friends said they hadn’t known what the words meant until I started my detour down that road. (Or maybe it will become my main road. More will be revealed in the fullness of time.)

Plein air means “open air”. (Thank you, Dan!)

There is a snobbery in the art world, an attitude that real artists paint plein air. Studio artists? Meh, anyone can do that. I had a college professor who belittled those of us who signed up for photorealism studio painting; I quit at 1/2 a semester because he didn’t teach what he dismissed as “smoke and mirrors”.

Plein air is difficult for several reasons, including bugs and weather. There are no boundaries to the scene that ultimately will be enclosed by specific borders. Artists have to be able to see and decide what they plan to paint, ignore what they will not paint, and arrange those things in a pleasing manner. In order to “erase” the unnecessary details, they squint so that nothing remains except dark and light masses. When mixing the colors, the artists come up with an average color for various areas. They simplify textures, and memorize light when it appears in order to put it in at the end. And, it is assumed that a plein air painter will finish the painting “alla prima”, which means in one session.

An aside about the art world: why the extra languages? Plein air is French; alla prima is Italian. Go figure.

In order to finish something alla prima, one has to work very quickly and finish an entire painting within 3-4 hours. Artists who are honest will tell you that many paintings are finished in the studio later. This is possible even without photos, because very little is done with tight detail. The proportions are usually in place, so it is probably just values (the darks and lights) and color correcting that happens later.

The art world loves to throw around the term “painterly”, which I have concluded simply means “messy”. Since I was 8 years old, I have worked hard to see details, to have distinct, clear edges to things, and I find it completely counterintuitive to purposely blur things. But, I am willing to learn, to try, to improve (but how will I know if I have improved or if I have added more details than are allowed?)

Painting plein air is a great skill for several reasons:

Sometimes I need to paint quickly.

There are many people who like the softer, blurrier paintings that lack detail but focus on shapes and colors.

I live part time in a National Park, where being able to paint quickly could be a great business opportunity.

Since taking the 3 day workshop in Georgia 2 weeks ago, I have been able to produce many paintings. (I haven’t shown them all to you.)

So, my conclusion is that the skills are very valuable and that I will practice them: painting quickly, focusing on good composition and correct colors (not entirely perfect, just colors that look right together in a scene). Some of this will be done while looking at a scene in person; some of it will be done looking at photos. I won’t be able to paint like Laurel Daniel, but I can paint more simply than I have in the recent past and still add enough details to retain my own “voice” (and some dignity).

MAY MEANS THE ANNUAL REDBUD FESTIVAL IS COMING THIS MONTH!

What I Learned in April

The summary of what I learned in April doesn’t seem to fit my normal end of month list. A paragraph will suffice.

In April I learned how to plein air paint. I also learned to use a cell phone, how to navigate the world of travel that is now dependent on cell phone ownership, usage, and competency, and that a green lizard in Georgia is actually called an “anole”. I learned that a small cat can have 5 kittens, that a cat with a stump of a tail can have tailed cats, stumpies, and rumpies. (We don’t know yet if the “rumpie” is healthy. Stay tuned.)

So, here is a beautiful and dramatic photo for you (because it was a beautiful and dramatic month) and tomorrow we will resume our adventures in plein air painting.

Final Plein Air Painting Day in Georgia

So many things to choose from for my final plein air painting.

More “tabby cabins”. I don’t know why that name bugs me. Maybe because it is whitewashing a segment of our history.

THIS is what I wanted to paint, but minus the palms.

Like this, but waiting for the light, which Laurel explained would come soon.

Step one, only 2 hours to complete this.

Step two, adding in the dark colors which make the light places appear.

Preparations for a wedding on the outside of the chapel. That’s unusual. I thought people got married INSIDE churches. But actually, very few do anymore. That’s a different topic for a different sort of blog.

Time for the critique. I didn’t get a good photo of this painting but have asked my hostess to photograph it for me when it is dry. I left it on top of her refrigerator.

And that’s all, folks. Suddenly, the carriage turned into a pumpkin. I told Laurel that the entire experience was so perfect that I’d think it was just a dream if I wasn’t sweating so much in the humidity.

So, back to the host and hostess’s home in Brunswick, rearrange all my supplies to pack for flying, say a quick good-bye (like ripping off a bandaid), hit the road for a silent drive back to Jacksonville (since I never did figure out the fancy radio), return the car, oops, go back to gas up the car (less than $3/gallon in Florida when it is over $4 now in Calif.), get a ride to the hotel, find some dinner (grits! because I was in the south), fall into bed for a 4 a.m. wake-up call. “Pumpkin”? More like a squash.

It was a fabulous adventure, a time of new sights, learning, friendships, challenges, new wildflowers, and, umm, sweating.

Sightseeing in Georgia

After class on day 2 and before class on day 3, I went driving around, looking for things, taking in all the sights. I love exploring!

There is always time to look at wildflowers.

Laurel told me this church, which was in the Eugenia Price novels, was a must-see. When she said Eugenia is buried in the adjoining cemetery, I asked for directions. Something was happening inside the church, so I didn’t go inside.

I wondered around among the graves, but didn’t take many photos. It was tempting, because I saw a plot called “Graves” and another one called “Coffin”. There was also one called “Outlaw”. These were people’s names, of course.

I met someone who showed me what I was looking for.

The next morning I drove through the Victorian neighborhood of Brunswick, just being a looky-loo. It isn’t often I get to see such fabulous houses or such a variety of architecture, so I was definitely gawking.

For sale. I wonder how much they are asking. I ducked it (DuckDuckGo is my preferred search engine) and saw there are 800-1600 homes for sale there. Not gonna find this one easily.

Churches on every corner. I didn’t have time to capture them all, but none were the plain-Janes of Tulare County.

I couldn’t figure out the meaning of this. Finally my host explained it to me. It means that bridges ice up sooner than the roads do.

These flowers were profuse and beautiful. I bought a wildflower guide to learn the name. None of the people I was hanging out with had much interest in wildflowers, definitely not the way we have been going gaga in Tulare County this spring.

Marsh, marsh, marsh. This is one of the draws of the area. What’s the difference between a marsh and a swamp? Do people go wading out in the marshes? Are there wildflowers out there? wildlife? Do people drown? So many questions.

My wildflower guide was grossly inadequate.

But, it did have the name of this beauty, an unfortunate moniker of “Spiderwort”. What??

Learned in March

It is possible that I didn’t learn much in March. Perhaps I spent too much time on hold with both Huge & Rude and Small & Bumbling. But now we have faster internet, so that’s a good thing.

FWIW means For What It’s Worth. (Thank you, SD!)
Donald Miller has a podcast and is a delight to listen to. I’ve always liked his writing (Blue Like Jazz, Searching for God Knows What, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Scary Close), and now he has a business called Storybrand, where he helps people market their products by telling their stories.
I figured out a new tool for teaching people to draw. (Why did it take 25 years? I didn’t have the tech skills and equipment until a few years ago – there’s one excuse.)
One of my new students taught me a little trick for seeing things when you don’t have your cheater magnifying glasses. Make a mini telescope with your fist, put it to your best eye, and look through it at the thing you are trying to read. It helps a little.
I relearned that everything is harder than one expects it to be. We have Spectrum, finally, sort of. It took 5 days of visits by 6 different installers, and another visit by some sort of technician (or more–I’ve lost track). I still have no phone in the studio, but finally bought enough gizmos to bounce the internet signal to the outbuildings. The sales boy sold this to us on February 7, and now it is April 1. Am I a fool? Nope, but I’ve been fooled by Small & Bumbling into thinking the switchover would be easy.
Posts about walks I take garner more comments than posts about drying paint (unless it is the progress of a mural).
Getting a new book is fun fun fun! (I already knew that, but just wanted to push Mineral King Wildflowers a little bit.)

My new teaching tool shows 4 versions of the same image. The students in my most recent workshop really took it and ran with it. They were very quick to pick up the techniques of drawing.

100 page paperback, flowers in photos, common names only, lots of chatty commentary, $19.78 including tax (unless you pay cash because I’m not making change or unless my website charges you, and I can’t figure out why it does that sometimes and not others.)

Heart Rock Walk

My walking partner and I walk several roads in our neighborhood, often so early in the a.m. that we need flashlights. (We’ve learned the traffic patterns, cross the highway carefully and listen for cars–thank you for your concern.) A few years ago we began noticing heart rocks in the asphalt on one particular road. On Sunday, I took my camera and we found 10 heart rocks! Today I’ll show you five, along with a little bit of scenery (yep, trespassing again.) The rock photos were taken after the scenery ones, on the way back home when the light was better. They are all about an inch high in real life.

The blurry photo caused me to keep this one small for you. We debated on whether or not it qualified.

This is early in the morning, so the light is not very conducive to great photography. But oh my, what a beautiful fence and entry gate!

At least with the poor light, you won’t know where I was trespassing and turn me in!

Tomorrow I’ll show you the rest of the heart rocks and the rest of the walk in better light.

Category: Thoughts