More Mineral King Cabin Pencil Drawings For Sale
Mineral King Cabin Pencil Drawings For Sale Now
In the last century, I began drawing people’s cabins in pencil while I lived in a cabin. These were mostly in and around Mineral King. My business name, Cabinart, was born at that time.
About ten years later, my friend Jennifer suggested that I make a book of drawings. Because this was all before print-on-demand, Amazon, assisted self-publishing, and all those other nifty tools, I called my cabin neighbor and friend Jane Coughran for help. She was a picture editor for Time-Life Books, and was thrilled to join me, as long as I allowed her to include historical photos. That decision took me about half of a second, and together in 1998, we published The Cabins of Mineral King.
All of the books and most of the original drawings sold. (You might get lucky on Amazon or eBay.)
Now that I am working on The Cabins of Wilsonia, I am looking for more space in my studio for all the new drawings. Thus, I located 18 unsold drawings from the Mineral King book (more, actually, but the others are too big for my scanner, so I’m not showing them.)
These drawings are available for anyone who would like to buy them. Six appear in today’s post with a BuyNow button; the other 12 will be in consecutive posts.
The prices are well below my current (and even my former) commission prices because I want to sell them and because they are on odd sized pieces of paper that might be a pain to frame. I’ve put the name as it appears in the book, the page # from the book, and the exact size of the piece of paper it is drawn on, in case you get lucky and have the perfect mat and frame waiting for one of these original pencil drawings.
DON’T MISS THIS!
Wow. That sounded bossy. Please excuse me – my intention is excitement, rather than shouting orders.
Wendy Miller is one of the best drawing students I’ve ever had the privilege of helping. I urge you strongly to see this show. And, many of her pieces are for sale. What an opportunity to own high quality pencil art at very reasonable prices. (Hint of urgency: I bought one already!)
Yes, I know it is Friday and Fridays are for Mineral King. However, I’m the boss of this blog, and this is Really Important News.
Move Over Mom, graphite on paper, 11×14, Wendy Miller
You are invited to
SUMMER CLASSICS
An exhibit of original pencil drawings by
Wendy Miller
July 2nd – September 22, 2013
Reception Sunday, July 7, 2-4 p.m.
Courthouse Gallery of the Arts
125 South B Street
Exeter, California
Save The Date
Lean on Me, graphite on paper, Wendy Miller
You are invited to
SUMMER CLASSICS
An exhibit of original pencil drawings by
Wendy Miller
July 2nd – September 22, 2013
Reception Sunday, July 7, 2-4 p.m.
Courthouse Gallery of the Arts
125 South B Street
Exeter, California
A Friend’s First Art Show
One of my drawing students is so good that I asked The Courthouse Gallery in Exeter ( where I teach drawing lessons) to feature her in an upcoming show.
I’m defining “so good” based on several things:
- Her work is technically excellent.
- She composes her drawings from her own photos (and occasionally from mine), carefully choosing, scooting, cropping, editing, giving great thought to composition (which is the arrangement of the elements in the drawing) as opposed to automatically copying what is in the photo.
- She does the work – studies drawing on her own outside of class, draws on her own outside of class, sketches regularly and takes practice very seriously.
- She produces one good drawing after another after another – the big word for this is “prolific”.
The Courthouse Gallery selection committee asked her to show there in July through September!
We thought they were booked further ahead, but suddenly, we both felt some time pressure. We realized we would have to work together to get her work titled, framed and priced. We decided a postcard would be a good thing. We decided that scanning her work would be prudent. We realized that this could get expensive. We remembered that I have lots of mats and frames.
We had a lovely 1/2 day together, along with her daughter Jenna, digging through my mats and frames, deciding if any of them complement her drawings. We found several that worked. We scanned, we scrutinized, we did the work.
You will be seeing more about Wendy Miller and her work in this blog as her show approaches. Without giving away too much of her work, here is a teaser. (I want you to come to her show!)
“Hey Mom”
11×14, pencil on paper, by Wendy Miller, private collection
Weird
First, I want to share something with you.
I am a spelling nut. Typos jump out and slap me between the eyes. (My own don’t – it is a fact that proofreading one’s own work is nearly impossible.) It sometimes feels as if I might have a form of Tourette’s Syndrome, except that I shout “TYPO!” in inappropriate settings instead of swearing.
Come to think of it, “typo” IS four letter word.
I’ve never forgotten the spelling rule “I before E except after C”.
Weird.
Think about that for a bit. I saw it as a pin on Pinterest. Might have been on a tee shirt:
I before E except after C.
Weird.
Now that I’ve shared that little oddment, I can’t remember what I was going to say.
I’m on schedule for the pencil drawings of The Cabins of Wilsonia. Here is a cabin drawing.
You can read more about the project at my other blog, The Cabins of Wilsonia.
Commissioned Pencil Drawing, Completed
Being able to draw scenes like this is one of the main reasons I am a California artist in Tulare County. Don’t you just want to live here?
Forget it – we have high unemployment, bad air, and lots of fat people.
There. A one-woman population control committee. That’s me!
What Happens in My Brain While I Draw
A list is coming. First, please enjoy this drawing of a Wilsonia cabin:
Turned out pretty well, especially considering it was another one of those cabins with cedar trees blocking much of its detail.
Here is the sort of thing that runs through my head while I draw.
1. Yea! This is #________. I’m on schedule/running behind/might be getting ahead. (A continual evaluation of my progress)
2. Why are there ALWAYS cedar trees blocking the views?
3. Persistent thoughts on a loop – one day last week I ruminated about whether it is better to have work at a gallery that doesn’t sell very well but pays reliably OR work at a gallery that sells but won’t pay. The answer kept returning to me that the lesser selling gallery was infinitely better. Do you know how awful it is to try to collect from someone for 3 years, someone who sneers at you and says, “Patience is a virtue, you know!” I hope you never have to know that firsthand.
4. I wonder if I am enough on schedule or possibly ahead of schedule in drawing for The Cabins of Wilsonia to take a day off to paint.
5. It would be nice to paint instead of making yet another trip to the sneering, virtue-spouting, non-paying vendor.
6. Maybe she’ll have a check for me this time.
7. I can always visit a yarn store afterward. Wool fumes are soothing. Alpaca is soothing. Lots of color and nice people are soothing. Soothing is good.
8. Now what number am I on in my drawing progress?
9. Hmmm, I think I have an idea for a blog post. I wonder if it belongs on my “real” blog (this one) or my new blog (the Cabins of Wilsonia)?
10. This is hard. Maybe I should just go to Chicago for a few days. . .
Fear and Drawing a Book of Cabins
Fear is a great obstacle to creativity. This post lists common info about fear and a list of my personal worries (an easier word to stomach than fear, as if I’m not a Big Chicken).
Here is a list of random thoughts about fear:
1. The greatest fear that is most common to people is public speaking.
2. Fear of the unknown is another biggie.
3. “The only thing to fear is fear itself” has always struck me as mysterious, weird and hard to understand.
4. Fear of failure is another common thread running through life.
5. I’ve had friends say to me, “I only knit scarves; aren’t you afraid to knit a sweater?”
6. Seth Godin says that fear is what holds people back from making art – fears of vulnerability, being discovered to be a fraud, or not connecting honestly with people.
Drawing an entire book, The Cabins of Wilsonia, completely self-publishing (not assisted self-publishing like Lulu or CreateSpace), designing using a difficult program (InDesign is NOT intuitive and NOT anything like the Apple stuff I’m used to), marketing – all on a subject with which I am familiar in general but not specifically . . . that is PILE of unknowns.
Check out this list of worries:
1. While I spend a year on nothing but pencil drawings of cabins (reaching for a total of 230 with the start # of 86 on January 1, 2013), how will I earn a living?
2. What if the books don’t sell?
3. What if the originals don’t sell?
4. What if I don’t find a good printer?
5. What if no one comes to the book signings?
6. What if the economy tanks further and people can’t afford a luxury picture book?
What if, what if, what if?
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas.
Shut up, negative voices. I have drawing to do!
Random Thoughts on a Friday
1. Nothing to report about Mineral King. You can look at the webcam. I’m drawing in the studio, and Trail Guy is probably skiing. I think he should be renamed “Ski Guy” this winter.
2. I used to have a Blog Roll, which is a list of blogs I read. I don’t think any of my readers were checking those out, so in the interest of less visual clutter, I removed them. I still read those that post regularly.
3. I added the link to my other blog, The Cabins of Wilsonia. It is called “my other blog”. It is all I think about. I draw almost every day. Pencils, cabins, drawings, Wilsonia, the book, The Book, THE BOOK, THE BOOK.
4. No wonder Ski/Trail Guy is always on the slopes.
5. Trail Guy/Ski Guy had dinner waiting for me 4 nights last week! Isn’t that fantabulous?
6. If you know someone with the initials REC in Three Rivers, wish her Happy Birthday today!