While at the Redbud Festival, there was plenty of time to sit and study my paintings. I put on my mental critic hat, and made a list of adjustments that would improve my paintings.
Whaddya think about the improvements on these typical Tulare County scenes? Betcha you can’t even tell the differences.
Tomorrow: More Better Than Befores
Sometimes I write things about Tulare County that sound rude; they are simply the truth.
However, in addition to the fact that we are all fat, poor, undereducated, and have bad air, we have SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK!
So, I paint Sequoia trees. Every time I go to Sequoia, which we simply refer to as “The Park”, I look for good trees to photograph. Then, I paint from the photos. As time passes and the experiences mount up, I am more able to make up trees. The photos guide me, but then I just pants it. (Did you know that “pants” can be a verb?”)
And remember, here in Tulare County we are fat, diabetic, uneducated, unemployed, and without a Trader Joe’s, although we now have an Aldi’s and a Sprouts. . . moving up in the world.
P.S. All three Sequoia oil paintings are available to view and to purchase at Kaweah Arts in Three Rivers, now located in The Dome, just downstream from Reimer’s Candies.
Tomorrow: Better Than Before
I’ve been telling you about Texas so eagerly that I almost forgot to tell you about the Redbud Festival. It is traditionally on Mother’s Day Weekend. This year it will return to the Lions Roping Arena in Three Rivers. I haven’t participated in a few years, but this time your Central California artist will be back, Lord willing, the Creek, etc.
Oil paintings, notecards, coloring books, Mineral King Wildflower books (very few remaining), and of course Wilsonia books will all be available for purchase in my booth.
Through the years I have designed, printed and sold hundreds, nay, THOUSANDS of little cards. “Notecards”, as I refer to them, are perfect to say “thank you”, “hi”, “just one more thing”, “I appreciate you”, or even “I’m sorry”. If you write real big, you can get by with just one sentence.
Designs come and go; sometimes I redraw something and then get rid of the older version. Other times, it seems as if a design has run its course and needs to be retired. Sometimes I have too much inventory, so I let a design run out for awhile. And sometimes a design that really grabs me just doesn’t speak to the buying public.
I used to sell my cards in many stores around the county. Most of those stores are now closed. Even if the stores were still around, my costs are so high that if I sell them at a wholesale price to a retail store, there is zero profit for me. This means that I am working for free. That’s just dumb business.
Nowadays I sell the cards here on my website, occasionally when I do a bazaar or if I am having an art showing or exhibit (what’s the diff? I dunno), and on consignment at a very few places. “Consignment” means that they pay me after the cards sell, which means a lot of checking in, rewriting lists to keep current on supplies, making bills, sending the bills, paying attention to what has sold and what needs to be restocked.
It’s all part of the business of art, which involves many decisions. Most of those decisions would be better if I had a crystal ball. Lacking that, I look at the history of sales, look at the current economy, look at the venue and think about the customers. If consignment, I look at the store’s record of payment, if the cards are getting shopworn and need to be repackaged, or if the store hasn’t been displaying the cards in a manner that the customers can see them.
The business of art is a complex and delicate blend of science, art, and guesswork.
For several months, I had no work. Instead of worrying about it, I enjoyed guilt-free time at the cabin. Well, guilt-free except for the fact that the road was closed, and other people couldn’t enjoy Mineral King this past summer. Life is a series of good things and not-so-good things; we do our best with what we have been given. Or I do. Most of the time. I don’t know what you do. Maybe you just complain. . .
My point, and I do have one, is to show you that I did have a few sales. One must pay closer attention when times are a little hard, because the negatives are often much louder than the positives. Here are my positives from that slow period plus a couple of months beyond.
I am guessing on the titles and some of the sizes. Closies count. . .
Obviously, I could use a little help with titles here.
“Oranges in a Blue Bowl” is too obvious; maybe I can think of a title that has to do with the fact that orange and blue are complementary colors. This means they are opposite one another on the color wheel—”complementary”, not “complimentary” such as “Oh my goodness, you are looking gorgeous today!”
Normally we think of ducks being in a row (WHY??), but I could call this “Citrus in a Row”. Nope, too obvious. “Citrus Variety” is boring.
Any ideas for me??
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I thought this painting was finished and was about to scan it when I realized it was missing something important.
Snow covered mountains in the distance! White is the slowest color to dry, so it will be a week or two before this one is ready to scan.
This one needs definition in the distant groves and detail in the foreground branches. 
I am just making stuff up now. As long as it is believable, it’ll do.
This will take awhile, lots of painting sessions to try this, that, and something else.
Saturday night, remember to spring your clocks forward because Daylight Saving Time begins. It isn’t saving any daylight, merely shoving it an hour later so that mornings are dark again. There is talk of making it permanent, but those who think that is a good idea aren’t thinking ahead to waiting until 8 a.m. to see any daylight in the fall and winter months. I say leave the time right where it belongs and quit jerking us around.
So there.
In my time of waiting to begin those murals, I have grown accustomed to lots of free time. This includes errands, taking walks, baking bread, helping friends (so many friends in a tough spot all at the same time), reading, knitting, yardening, and just working a little bit every day, but only a little bit.
One day I started on this 10×20″ painting that shows the mountains from Sawtooth on the left to Homer’s Nose on the right. I condensed the distance and faked some mountains, probably just left out others. (My excuses: the photo was blurry and there were clouds; besides, almost no one cares.)
Sky first (no photo of that because my camera battery needed a recharge), mountains second, foothills third.
Fourth, start on the distant groves.
Fifth, keep working down to the lower/closer groves.
Oops, gotta go! Errands: library book available, delivering the very last calendar to the friend who was in a convalescent hospital with a thieving front desk, taking bread to a couple of friends. (When life is hard for people, bake and deliver bread; it sort of helps.)
Good thing there are no pressing deadlines right now. Helped a friend find songs and burn a CD for her husband’s memorial service (lots of friends with troubles. . . sigh.)
In my next pass over this canvas, I will add detail to the mountains, foothills, distant trees, orange trees, etc. I hope my friends get breaks from these awful things soon. It is a good thing to have the time and resources to help where and when I can.
All my paintings begin this way. It no longer causes me distress, that continual uncertainty about my skills. With approximately 1300 paintings (not counting murals) completed since 2006 and most of those sold, I am learning to just flow with the mess.
With the Holiday Bazaar happening soon (Saturday, November 19, Three Rivers Veterans Memorial Building, 9-4), I needed to take inventory and plan. I counted up the number of available paintings by subject, tallied them by size, and came up with a plan.
Three Rivers subjects are in the shortest supply. 8×10 and similar sizes are the most likely to sell at a one day bazaar here in town. So, two 8×10″s, one 8×8″, and a 6×18″. (Priced at $125, $100, and $165)
I went quickly through my photos, going on “gut instinct” rather than evaluating to the same degree that I evaluated sizes and subjects, and without hesitating, assigned inventory numbers and titles, wired the backs for hanging, and started painting.
These will turn out just fine. Most paintings do. If not, I will just add more layers or turn them into Sequoia tree oil paintings. It’s just the business of art.
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Again, I say that painting elevation while down in the heat has no benefits, other than in one’s imagination. Sawtooth, visible from Mineral King in this painting, is 12,343′ in elevation; Three Rivers (where I live) is 1000′. They say (“they”? who is this?) that the temperature drops 3 degrees for every 1000′ gained in elevation. You can do the math if you’d like; I’m too overheated.
This isn’t quite finished. When it is dry, I will do some nitpicking, careful evaluating, and then will make corrections and plant wildflowers. Of course I will plant wildflowers—do not doubt me on this!
P.S. The color looks washed out here – does heat affect photography too??