Drawing Sequoia, Not Just Chit-Chatting

Yesterday I showed you some oil paintings of Sequoia, the non-Mineral King part of the park. Today here are some pencil drawings (I LOVE to draw—did you know that??)

These don’t have sizes and prices. Some are sold, some might be framed, and most are probably just in a flat file in my studio. (If you want to buy any, email me at cabinart AT cabinart DOT NET—written this way so robots won’t bother me any more than they already are—and I will see if I can find the original for you.)

One or two might be available as a reproduction print. (Since I am old now, according to The Beatles, I can’t remember.)

Four Guardsmen (minus the smaller foreground trees that block these giants
Clover Creek Bridge, a fabulous structure NOT built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of about 3 pretty bridges in Tulare County. YOU CAN LEARN MORE HERE: Tulare County Treasures
Crescent Meadow
This was an experiment, and it became a blog post for my friend Carrie Lewis’s website.
This was a commission, a combination of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, showing various seasons.
This was a commission for my UPS driver, whom we saw in the Park last week. Great guy!
The Marble Fork of the Kaweah flows through the Lodgepole campground.
The Parker Group in Winter
There are impressive views of Moro Rock from the lower parts of the Generals Highway.
“Two Big” (I like this title!) This one was recently completed, is 11×14″, and can be yours for a mere $200!
I drew this from a photo shared with me by one of my drawing students (THANK YOU, JANE!). It is titled “Viewing the General”.

Gollll-eeee, I do love me some pencil. And sometimes I just cannot fathom that Sequoia National Park is visible from my house!

Fast or Good?

My drawing students get to hear me say this regularly: “You can be fast or you can be good; I get to be both.”

Now I am working on a drawing that is very very important to me, and I am choosing to be good, but S L O W.

What’s with all the pressure? This is a house I met once and immediately admired, belonging to my closest friend in the world at the time.

I began this commission pencil drawing in September.

I got this far and decided that it needs to fill the paper more, because I don’t want to just fill the bottom inch with gravel. So, I have erased the lower parts and will stretch the slate and brick walkway farther down the paper.

The shrubs are being placed willy-nilly as I see fit, because I am working from about 5 different photos, all taken at different times of the landscape development. As long as there are lavender shrubs with color at the end, my dear friend will be happy.

This is the absolute best I know how to do.

Back to the Easels and the Drawing Table

After several months of no work (i.e. lovely free time at the cabin without deadlines or guilt), work is beginning to trickle back into my days.

First, a pencil commission. (I still love to draw.)

This was the little sketch for the customer to approve or amend.

She made a couple of suggestions, and I scribbled a few notes for further verification.

This is a house I visited. Actually, I visited the people there, but the house really stuck in my memory as very attractive. It will be quite fun to draw.

I worked on the herd of buffalo for the upcoming show at CACHE, called “A Bovine State of Mind”.

It might be finished, but I will wait to sign it until I am completely sure there is nothing left to improve.

I remembered that the Holiday Bazaar in Three Rivers is coming November 18, 2023. This is the Saturday BEFORE Thanksgiving. It is time to think about beefing up my inventory of smaller paintings for this annual boutique at the Remorial Building. (Remorial, liberry, prolly. . . bet you can translate these words).

Yep, messy, but the first layers always are.

It’s great to be producing art again, both with pencils and oil paints!

Another Interruption, This Time for Drawing

 

Once again, we interrupt our broadcast for this drawing.

Ever notice the annoyance of the English language, where a noun and a verb can be exactly the same word? And I didn’t actually mean “broadcast”, because we are in a series of posts about cabin life. This drawing fits the category of cabin life but it isn’t about cabin life; it’s about pencil drawing.

Get on with it, will ya??

An old friend (that seems to be where most of my work comes from, but new friends and young friends are welcome to commission me; even friends I haven’t met yet are welcome here) expressed an interest in a drawing from The Cabins of Wilsonia. 

Alas, it was gone.

We had a few options: 1. Oh well, sorry; 2. Buy another book, Sir, and rip out the page; 3. I can draw it for you again.

My wise friend chose option #3.

Have a look at the original photo that I used.

As always, working from a photo isn’t straightforward copying. Every photo has its indiscernible parts, because real life is messy. 

Because my friend was wanting the drawing from the book, I used that old drawing to help me make decisions. (I didn’t lie: although the original is gone, it’s still on my laptop.)

Then, I thought about it a bit more and decided that I ought to be able to do a better job now. That was 10 years ago, and I was cranking out those 272 (was that really the number??) drawings at a rapid pace. This time, there was no deadline. My friend’s only requirement was specific dimensions to go with another drawing, like a matched set.

Here is the other drawing.

And here is its new partner.

(The difference in darkness has something to do with the computer reproduction, not a change in pencils or pressure on the paper.)

This picnic table appears in the chapter called “Brewer”, which is the name of the road in Wilsonia depicted in that chapter. (I got clever that way.) The funny part is that I could not remember where this photo actually was, and I just put it on Brewer because I thought it looked good with the chaise lounge. 

Apparently my friend thought the same. He has actually had a strong influence over my art career, so this makes sense.

Thank you, DB!

Drawings: Finished and Begun…

… both drawn for fun, while I cowered in the studio with the air conditioner roaring. 

First, Slim’s Grandson is finished.

Second, Samson is begun.

The beginnings are always rougher looking than the finishes.

 

Cabin Life, Chapter One

 

How I Got a Cabin

Welcome to Cabin Life, my way of staying in touch during this odd summer of Mineral King being closed to the public and my accidental stepping into a sabbatical (or something akin to it.)

Thirty-eight years ago I met Trail Guy. In a rash moment of bald honesty, I said, “I’d kill for a cabin in Mineral King”.

He replied, “There is another way”. (Maybe he said “better” or even “easier”.)

We got married the following year (in Mineral King, of course), and nobody has gotten killed.

This was all pre internet, pre personal computers, pre continual connectivity. (The first summer of marriage, we got a landline at the cabin, since we were living in two different places. Fancy.)

Nowadays (isn’t that a classic Old People word?) we live in an era of total convenience, instant gratification, continual connectedness, and complete comfort. 

So why do people go to a rustic shack up a terrible road to spend time without conveniences, ultra-comfort, electricity, cell phones, or the internet? What in the world do people do??

This series, called “Cabin Life”, will give you a glimpse, maybe a few answers to those questions, or maybe just more questions.

 

Drawing for Fun

 

Because I earn a living with art, I rarely draw just for fun. This is not a bad thing, it is just the way it is. 

A few weeks ago, Trail Guy and I were visiting with a packer for the Park. He is quite interesting to look at. The sun was shining perfectly on his shirt, and his hat looked imminently drawable (no excess straw weavings like so many hats have). Besides, I have avoided portraits for a long time, and with the current lack of real work, this might be a good opportunity to try faces again. (Hey, maybe I AM on sabbatical for learning!!)

Without him knowing, I took his photo. Later I converted it to black & white, because this helps me be sure it isn’t the color in a photo that is creating the interest.

Then one hot afternoon, I sat in the studio with the A/C roaring, listened to a few Mike Rowe The Way I Heard It podcasts, and did this.

The background will take some thought, because in reality, it is busy and messy. 

It doesn’t matter. There is no deadline, nor is there payment awaiting at the end of the job. That’s why I call this “drawing for fun”.  And as far as portraiture, there is precious little face that is visible in this picture.

Drawing and Thinking

The business of art is fickle, always changing. An artist can just make whatever she feels like making and hope it sells. However, if an artist wants to earn a living, she needs to pay attention to the ever-changing world of what people want, what they can afford. She also needs to pay attention to selling opportunities, another ever-changing set of circumstances.

For a handful of years, there have been three places that sell steadily for me. One was next to a popular restaurant, which has now closed, diminishing foot traffic by the gallery. Another is a seasonal store in the mountains, and it most likely will be unable to open this year due to a ruined road. The third is in a building which recently changed hands, the lease will expire so things will go month-to-month, and with Sequoia National Park being closed so long, the traffic in town has diminished tremendously.

This may or may not be connected, but I have no commissions.

The murals which I thought were in the bag have fallen into indecision on the part of the customers.

So, I am drawing simply because I want to.

I will continue to think, and continue to share my thoughts.

Two bird stories

Bird Story #1

I am working on a book, doing the transcribing, editing, and book design. This is for a friend of a friend, and the book will only have 25 copies, distributed to the friend’s friends. The friend of a friend’s friends.

Never mind.

The book is a collection of stories over ten decades of an extraordinary life. The writer and I have only spoken on the phone once, after I published her first book. By “published”, I mean everything: transcribing, arranging the stories into an order, editing, choosing photos and editing them with Photoshop, proofreading, helping someone to write a foreword, formatting the interior, designing a cover, writing the synopsis (“blurb”) for the back cover, sending it to the printer, proofing it for the umpteenth time, getting it printed. It was fun!

She doesn’t email or text, so when I have questions, I write her a letter, and then wait for the response. This is a slow but good way to communicate, because if one forgets what was asked or answered, the information can be found on a tangible piece of paper.

There are a few references to birds, and a poem about birds is included. So, as a surprise for the writer when she receives her book, I am including a drawing of a bird above the poem. Why not? I love to draw!

The process of shepherding a book from typewritten pages to an actual book is complicated, challenging, and very rewarding. It is a privilege to be able to do this kind of work, especially for such a remarkable person.

Bird Story #2

The title of this post is “Two birds”, so here is the second bird story (no photos).

Pippin was carrying a scrub jay in his mouth while another one was squawking overhead. I grabbed little Mr. Orange Bob Square Pants, shook him, and the bird fell out of his mouth and flew away. Sorry, Buddy. Birds, no. Rodents, yes.