Drawing Sawtooth and Listening

Happy Birthday, Carol!

Sawtooth Peak is figuring large in my work life lately. Sometime last week I spent a few days in the studio listening to the reassuring hum of the air conditioner and listening to my own thoughts, and finally, listening to podcasts. This was all to keep me from falling asleep while working on a new pencil drawing of Sawtooth.

While listening to podcasts, I jot notes, and when I take breaks from staring at teensy details through a magnifying glass, I look up things. Gretchen Rubin’s podcast “Happier” mentioned a dish pattern, and something called a “corkicle”. . . had to see those things. She mentioned a writer named May Sarton who has a memoir called Plant Dreaming Deep; of course I had to click on the link to Amazon, then read about it on GoodReads, and finally, look for it in my library’s online catalog system.

Victor Davis Hanson uses big words to convey large ideas, and occasionally I write notes or look up words online when I hear him speak. Usually I just replay his interviews a few times to see if I understand his concepts.

All this listening helps me get through the seemingly endless miniature details of the current drawing.

And in spite of all this listening, learning, and thinking, I still haven’t decided if it is a good thing or a bad thing to put links within my own blog. Perhaps you will be so kind as to let me know if that is helpful or annoying. . .

 

A Little Bit Too Hard

A dear friend asked me to do something almost impossible. He wanted me to draw something for which he had no photo: the Mineral King Pack Station as it appeared in the 1980s. This was before everyone and his brother carried a camera around, documenting lives as if getting paid for it. (Or is it that people now document their lives because if it isn’t recorded, they aren’t sure it happened??)

I put out the word for help. It took 6 months, but I finally located a photo that I could almost see to draw from. If I knew horses and mules, this might be adequate. Barely. However, there is a lot of detail buried in shadow and the general mushy deterioration of a photo printed on a rough surface about 30 years ago.  

I soldiered on. Gotta start somewhere, so I started with what I know – the mountains in the background. Printing the photo larger after converting to black and white helped somewhat.

Inching along – good thing there is no hard deadline.

Notice the collection of erasers. This is too hard, and a friend who knows horses offered this most welcome advice: “I think the mule may need a bit longer ears still and the dark horse in the front needs a bit of work. His face seems a bit too long and narrow to me and the front hoof seems a bit too big and clubby (that’s what we call hooves shaped like that in the horse world)”. See why I need all these erasers? Very non-forgiving subjects from a very non-visible photo by a very non-horsey artist.

Mineral King Pack station in the 1980s.

I almost finished it but forgot part of a saddle. Forgot? More likely procrastinated, because it was a blob of dark shapes. Regardless of the missing saddle, I scanned it and sent it to another very horsey friend.

I await her counsel as to whether or not these horses can be ridden or if they need a veterinarian or perhaps a bullet.

Wise artists know better than to draw or paint things they don’t know; someone who does know will know that I don’t know. Wise artists know better than to accept commissions for which there are no or poor reference materials.

Kind artists tell their dear friends they will try.

Wise or kind? This is a little bit too hard for me. And,I may not be charging enough. . .

My Favorite Bridge in Oil Paint, Chapter 6

I thought about calling this “Final Chapter”, but I hope I live on to keep painting the bridge and improving with each one.

We made it through about 23 oil paintings of the Oak Grove Bridge. There were repeated views, color adjustments and exaggerations, brighter versions, muted versions, paintings with sharp clean edges, paintings that looked sort of blurry, and the last one from a completely different angle.

Then, I began working on the commissioned oil painting that combines the bridge with Homer’s Nose, a prominent landmark granite rock outcropping. The bridge felt too hard in this one, so I decided to do a smaller version of the exact same view in order to work out some difficulties.

“Difficulties”? I might be a slow learner, or perhaps a bit simple. I’ve painted the thing 23 times and still have difficulties?

Just try to be polite here, ‘kay?

Here is Oak Grove Bridge XXIV in a few steps (although it took many more than a few steps to do this).

As you last saw it. . .
Beginning to tighten things up, like the tree/shrub on the far left that overlaps the bridge, ditto on the right, and adding light and detail to the bridge posts.
A few minor adjustments remain, but it is SOLD!

There were some shenanigans by some hooligans while I was trying to concentrate.

This photo tells me that perhaps when I have finished all the commissioned paintings and drawings, I might do a bit of shelf straightening.

Art: Inspired By Mineral King

Farewell Gap, a pencil drawing, will be available as a framed original for $400 and in card sets.

After 7-8 months of painting toward a show about Mineral King and (almost) in Mineral King, it is tomorrow!

Is it considered shouting to use bold type? Or is that only for capital letters? I’ve always always always considered italics to be whispering, so maybe this paragraph will be more soothing to your ears.

Four artists with cabins in the Mineral King area will be showing and selling our work on the deck of the Silver City Store tomorrow, June 30, 10 AM until 3 PM.

The Silver City Store is 21 miles up the Mineral King Road. It is a long way there, a long and winding road, and it is well worth the effort it takes to get there. The store is at about 6700′ in elevation, and it is no longer called “The Store” but now is “The Silver City Resort”. The store itself has been remodeled into a new rustic elegant interior; the artists will be on the spacious outdoor deck.

Linda Hengst, Joan Keesey, John Keesey and I will be there. Linda paints in acrylic (or is it oil? Hard for me to tell the difference), Joan does tight realistic botanicals in watercolors, and John does whimsical playful watercolors of somewhat stylized scenery of the area. Linda’s work makes you say “Ahhhh”, Joan’s work makes you say, “Ooooh”, and John’s work makes you smile. My work? Um, let’s see. . . “How much for this one?” 

I am taking 23 oil paintings (some of which I have shown you on this blog), 5 pencil drawings (all of which you have seen on this blog), Mineral King cards (old and new designs), a few reproductions of pencil drawings (also of Mineral King, duh) and some copies of my book The Cabins of Wilsonia. (The Cabins of Where? Yes, they have been requested.)

Let’s roll! See you tomorrow??

Art: Inspired byMineral King

Show and Sale

FOUR ARTISTS: Jana Botkin, Linda Hengst, Joan and John Keesey

SILVER CITY RESORT, 21 miles up the Mineral King Road

Saturday, June 30, 2018

10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Honeymoon Cabin #33, 6×18″, $160 inc. tax. (I like this one so much that if I saw it in a gallery, I’d probably buy it.)

What Else Did I Decide?

Remember that long list of things to do a few days ago?

I began with the oil painting commission of Homer’s Nose/The Oak Grove Bridge because it wasn’t too hot yet in the painting workshop with the swamp cooler running, there will be a check when I am finished, the heat is coming and will dry my beginning layers, and it had been a long time since I had done any painting.

When the day heated up and the decisions on the painting felt overwhelming, I switched to the studio where I draw.

In spite of having an October deadline on the calendar, I chose to work on it. Drawing calms me down, reminds me that I am a capable artist, and it feels better to inch toward a large distant goal than to just procrastinate.

The tree smack-dab in the center of the photo is not good placement. I am growing another tree (also a sycamore) in a better location.

 

This gave me confidence to tackle a pencil drawing commission that is definitely too hard for me. The customer requested a pencil drawing of the Mineral King Pack Station. After learning why he wants the drawing, we determined that the pack station as it looked in the 1980s would be most appropriate. He had no photos. I asked around for about 6 months and finally found someone with photos from that era. Alas, they are almost illegible.

After showing the customer and discussing it further, we determined that only one of these has enough information to be of any value.

Whoa. This is going to be crazy hard. I did a little cropping, a little measuring, a little pre-sketching, and finally decided to begin shading the things I know how to do.

Today’s painting for sale is not a painting for sale – it is an advertisement.

Art: Inspired by Mineral King

A showing of work by 4 artists on the deck of the Silver City Store, 4 miles below Mineral King

Saturday, June 30, 10 – 3

Mineral King 2018

Opening weekend in Mineral King in 2018 was cold, drizzly, foggy and not conducive to any photos. Besides, my camera battery was dead.

The skies cleared briefly on Sunday evening. I borrowed Trail Guy’s camera for this:

Monday was glorious, sunny, bright, and warm(ish). I took this from our friend’s porch

The little cabin is actually an outhouse. It is where I found that gigantic snowball in March. Wow, 2-1/2 months later, and now the snow is only on distant peaks.

Finally, here is the classic photograph.

Would this look like camera distortion if it was painted in oil?

And thus we begin another summer season in Mineral King.

Painting Drawing of the day:

Farewell Gap #4, pencil drawing, framed to approximately 11×14, $400 including tax

Sit On It

Have you heard that thing “Sitting is the new smoking”?

Hogwash.  

Been thinking about chairs recently. My cabin neighbors are replacing some living room furniture, and it would be awful if their old pieces went to the dump. My couch needs recovering, so why not cover theirs from the ’40s and dump mine from the ’80s? And if I move a chair from the living room to the studio, I can put theirs in the living room. . .

The neighbor’s old chair
My newly recovered chair

This blue chair from the living room could replace this red one in the studio. The red one is very hard for people to get out of, so this makes sense.

Studio chairs

The red chair is outdoor furniture. (What kind of dork puts outdoor furniture inside? This kind of dork, that’s who.) Sorry, the wooden chair isn’t for sale. I could draw it for you. . .

Today’s art is of chairs, all pencil or colored pencil drawings:

Favorite Parking Place, colored pencil, framed to 14×18″, $300, available here
Cabin Kitchen Corner, pencil, framed to 11×14″, $150, available here
Cabin Retreat, colored pencil, 11×14″ unframed, $150, available here
Willow Window, pencil, approximately 11×14″, unframed, $75, available here
Hidden in the Leaves, pencil, unframed, approximately 8×10″, $100, available here
Rock On, pencil, framed to approximately 11×14″, $200, email or use the contact button to buy because it isn’t on my website
Cabin Chair, pencil, framed to 11×14″, $150 (also available as cards here)

I could keep on going, but this is just getting embarrassing. What is the deal? Am I a closet sitter??

Too Twee

Last year about this time I lost my long time friend Jennifer, or “Jennifah” as she said her name, being English. She taught me so much throughout our friendship, including fun words. Among those words, “twee”–cutesy, sweet, precious– was one of the most useful.

When S sent me the photos of the barn where we got the kittens, she told me it was particularly cute when there were kittens in the planters by the barn. A few days later, she sent me these photos. Look closely!

After a bit of thought, I finally decided that kittens are just a bit too twee for my calendar. Here is the finished drawing.

Painting of the day (nothing twee here):

Long Way There III, 12×16″, $290 with California sales tax

Do-Over

Whenever someone approaches me about an old drawing or painting, I first hope the picture isn’t too embarrassing. Then I hope that the customer will allow me to repair, replace, and rework anything that is no longer up to my always improving standards.

While at the Redbud Festival, I met Karen, who is a new member of the Lemon Cove Women’s Club. She wanted to know how to get cards reprinted with the pencil drawing I did so long ago that I didn’t even put a date on it. (1988? 1989?). I said, “Sure, of course! I hope I can find the original drawing. . . HEY! IT’S IN MY DINING ROOM!”

I thought this was a good drawing, and maybe it was for my skill 30 years ago. But when I put it on my drawing table under the magnifying light, I was disappointed and thought, “that girl needed drawing lessons”.

I was able to find the photo and the original card. This was something to smile about, along with having the original drawing in my possession. (I haven’t kept very many, and wish I could gather all the old ones back for a do-over.)

3-1/2 x 5″ snapshot – how could anyone draw from this??
The card printed in 1988 or 1989.
Retouched with pencil, scanned, but not photoshopped
Photoshopped to printing perfection!

It probably wasn’t horrible, but my drawing students would have picked it apart, and I would want them to, because this is how we all learn to draw better. (Where was I when I needed my help back in 1988? The hubris of the young. . . sigh.)

Chicken Title Winner

Who knew that naming a chicken pencil drawing could be so mentally taxing? Look at this list of ideas:

  1. Be a Dandy
  2. Ruling the Roost
  3. Roost Ruler
  4. Rooster Rules
  5. Barnyard Politics
  6. Dawn
  7. Morning Pursuits
  8. Breakfast of Champions
  9. Starting the Day
  10. Another Day
  11. Crazy Good Chickens Not on my Dinner Plate
  12. Chicken Scratch
  13. Hen Party
  14. Rooster’s Harem
  15. Keeping an Eye on the Girls
  16. Hen Peckin’ Heaven
  17. I Know It’s Here Somewhere
  18. Can’t Find Scratch
  19. Here Come de Judge
  20. Cock o’ the Walk
  21. Where’s Wilda?
  22. Something Fowl
  23. Hectic Hens
  24. Large and In Charge
  25. Do You Know Who I Am??

And the winner is. . .

Can’t Find Scratch

Thank you, all who participated. (K, I’ll be in touch because I want to give you a little prize.)