Shutter For Sale

Trail Guy helps me with my art business in lots of little ways, and a few bigger ones too. He likes power tools, and by using one he was able to secure a wire to the back of the shutter so it can hang on a wall.

Will it hang on your wall?

For $250 plus shipping (oh my, it is heavy compared to my normal paintings) plus tax (welcome to California unless you live in another state, in which case I would advise you to count your blessings) this one of kind painting can be yours.

And remember, EVERYTHING looks better in person (except those aforementioned news babes – see the post titled “Farewell at Dusk” if you are wondering when they were mentioned “afore”).

That Old Shutter

There were lots of cute suggestions for what to do with that old shutter.

Being the Central California Artist, I decided to simply use it for a painting.

Because it obviously came from an old cabin, I decided to paint a cabin on it.

Because I try to be businesslike, I decided to paint the most popular cabin* from the most popular place** on it.

That is one rough surface. Who thought this was a good idea, anyway?? Lots of layering ahead to get this up to snuff, whatever that weird little saying means.

*The most popular cabin I paint is the Honeymoon Cabin.

**The most popular place I write about is Mineral King.

P.S. The blue is tape, and the white is primer where it overlaps the tape.

Cabins and Flowers

My assembly line method of painting the Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King was a challenge in several ways. Breaks to look at flowers helped. Maybe March is my favorite month.

This was fun because of the pink and purple, two rare colors in my landscapes of Mineral King.

Can you see the changes from the previous photo?
Flower break!
These now need to wait to dry so I can put in the flags and some wildflowers.
Time to work on these three little ones again.
Another flower break!
All five oil paintings of the Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King are now drying so they’ll be ready for flags and wildflowers.
Final flower break! All day I wondered what smelled a little different, and when I crouched down to photograph these flowers just outside the door, I had my answer.

A Metaphor Free Post

Today will be less metaphorical than yesterday’s post. It was a cold and dark day when I painted this, so the photos of paintings aren’t as thorough.

The day began with a touch of sun on my pot of irises.
Storm coming – very dramatic light on the front yard. And that is mowed weeds; we had to abandon the lawn, so it is simply a springtime luxury to pretend we have one.

Get to work, Central California artist who is distracted by the beauty of her favorite month. Today’s painting subject is the Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King, the only cabin left from Disney’s era.

This is another Squish-the-Subject-While-Making-It-Believable painting. This one is 8×8″.
I kept it loose because it got too dark to see well. Just got those shapes in place with the general colors.
This one is 6×6″. It was sort of too dark to see, so I quit for the day.

Opening Duties in Mineral King

The Mineral King Preservation Society maintains a mini-museum inside the Honeymoon Cabin. Trail Guy and The Captain (frequently referred to in this blog) are both board members of the MKPS. Cowboy Bert and I help, because we are married to these board members.

Honeymoon Cabin, pencil drawing, $300, 11×14 framed, for sale here

What are these guys doing?

We nominated The Captain to be the official Straightener of Pictures.

This is the way a cowboy sharpens pencils.

Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King

The Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King sits at the beginning of the Eagle/Mosquito/White Chief trailhead.

 

oil painting of Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King by Jana Botkin
The Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King, 6×6″, $50, available at the Silver City Resort

It was part of the resort, back in the days of a store and rental cabins in Mineral King. That era ended in 1969, when an avalanche took out the store. By then, Walt Disney owned the place, and what the snow left behind, Uncle Wally’s people  finished with fire.

This is the only remaining structure from the resort, and now it serves as a museum of Mineral King history. It is maintained by the Mineral King Preservation Society.

I paint it over and over and over. (I mean I paint canvases with its image, but I’m guessing you were tracking with me well enough to understand that.) This is #12, maybe. Since it is at the Silver City Resort and I am not, I can’t flip it over and check for you.

The List

To make a oil painting here is what I have to do:

  1.  paint it to establish the shapes and colors and get the canvas covered
  2.  repaint it more carefully
  3. paint it again
  4. put in the tiny details
  5. name, number and record it on 2 lists
  6. sign it after it dries
  7. photograph it
  8. add a wire
  9. enter it on the computer and do all the prep to post it on the blog and on the website
  10. add it to the website
  11. varnish it

Did I hear someone say “charge more!”? Nah, not until I can’t paint fast enough to meet the demand. There is this bad economy happening out there (hard to see the difference here in Tulare County yet), and I want to be able to offer people a good deal!  Currently I have 12 paintings in some stage of this process. This one is waiting to dry so it can be signed. honeymoon-iii.jpgHoneymoon Cabin III – oil – 8″ x 10″ – $80  honeymoon-2.jpg Just for fun, this is the first picture I posted on my blog. It was called Honeymoon Cabin II (note the maximum creativity in the titling process). It appears that perhaps my abilities to paint and to photograph my paintings have improved!