Art On Sale?

UPDATE: All packages except the Pear Lake Ski Hut have sold.

There are so many opinions about whether or not artists should put their art on sale. I’ve done this in the past with old drawings that are doing me no good in my flat files. I’ve never done it with notecards until now.

Why now? Because when I did inventory of my many designs, there were some that aren’t big sellers and only have a few packages left.

I have minimalist tendencies, and it is an easy thrill for me to get rid of things I am not using. By “get rid of” I mean sell, give to someone who can use it, donate to the local thrift shop (called “The Thingerie” in Three Rivers) or to the Good Will in Visalia (in case the item was a gift from someone in Three Rivers), or if it is truly worn out, toss it. (Yeah, yeah, recycle, sometimes that works too).

Here are the card packages that are now on sale on my website on the notecard page of my store.

Seven packages of these remaining
Three of these are available
Only one left
Only one package remaining

The normal price is $10 for a package of 4 cards. The sale price is $6. The sale lasts through the end of the year, for no reason other than the website asks for an end date to a sale.

Will I take these sale packages of cards to the Holiday Gift Fair? Might, might not.

Cabin Life, Chapter Twenty-two (Finale)

Cabin Life: Final Thoughts

Someone’s Colorado cabin –definitely not small, rustic or rude

This is a backcountry cabin somewhere in Montana.

This rest of this post features drawings of Wilsonia cabins, where I spent 4 summers learning about that cabin community and discovering many common themes to the Mineral King community.

There are three distinct parts to cabin-ness:

  1. The building itself – small, rustic, basic, simple, often without electronic amenities. (But wait! What about the cabin pictured above?)
  2. The setting – rural, semi-secluded, in the mountains, taking an effort to get to (But wait! Have you ever been up Highway 180 to Wilsonia? And do these cabins look semi-secluded to you?)

     

A Wilsonia road

 

 

 

A Wilsonia neighborhood

The culture—slower, focused on people instead of technology; a place to play, recreate and relax, mostly outside; a place where meals and fireplaces become events in and of themselves; returning to nostalgic pastimes either of our youth or of some idealized youth of our parents and grandparents.

 

Outdoor dining is a big part of cabin life.

 

Napping is a regular method of relaxing at a cabin.

 

See? Outdoor dining area

 

Even outdoor cooking!

Fireplaces are a huge part of cabin culture.

 

Eat and run??

It seems that the culture part is the strongest determining factor of cabin life. Some of our cabin neighbors gathered in another location for several summers, due to illness of one of their group. One of them told me, “We do Mineral King things in Seattle, and Mineral King is present with us there.” (I probably paraphrased it beyond all recognition – Forgive me, Sawtooth Six!)

Thus, we conclude our 2023 series on Cabin Life. (unless I think of something else)

P.S. Most of the drawings in this post are part of the book The Cabins of Wilsonia, available here.

P.P.S. I can draw your cabin because. . .

. . . using pencils, oil paints, and murals, I make art you can understand, of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.

Well Received (Successful Opening Reception)

The opening reception to my solo show, “Images of Home” at Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery was amazingly well attended. No one was counting, but I think there were at least 100 people, and everyone did NOT come at once. It was most totally excellent! 

This is the first thing you see when you step into the entryway.

This is what you see when you step into the gallery.

Here is a comfortable corner for contemplation.

These three pencil drawings of Mineral King look just right on this wall. (How would they look all together on a wall in your home?)

Sold!

These are still available.

This child was too cute to not photograph. (Her mom gave permission).

There were a few opportunities to photograph people in the gallery, but that wasn’t my real mission.

Sold!

Sold!

Sold!

Sold!

Sold twice!

Sold four times!

Yeppers, you read that right. I have to order some canvases, and then get painting. If someone expressed disappointment at having missed out on a painting, I simply said, “I can paint it again for you”. (Do other artists do this??)

 

Custom Pencil Drawings

These are all examples from a whole lotta years at the drawing table. (Yes, I know — “a whole lot of”, but I also like to say “prolly” and “liberry” and “remorial building”).

I’ve been a long time admirer of this house and was thrilled when the owner asked me to draw it. I took many photos, looking for the best way to depict this gem.

This was a collection of favorite memories of a couple’s trip to Ireland, working from many photos that they provided. The challenge was how to put them all together.

The customer provided all the photos for these. I pushed back against the portrait; the customer said that a likeness wasn’t necessary. Good thing, because likenesses are impossible to guarantee, especially at this size.

I love to draw in pencil; however I also use…

…oil and murals to make art that people understand about places and things they love for prices that won’t scare them.

Dithering Over Decisions

Still Here, my upcoming exhibition for the month of April has me dithering about how much is enough, how to prioritize the work ahead, and wishing for the umpteenth time that I had a functional and accurate crystal ball.

When Arts Visalia asked me if I’d move from January 2022 to April 2021, I decided that I would finish 4 of the 5 paintings in progress and not try to add anything else. The fifth could just wait for another opportunity.

This might be finished now.

Because I am painting larger than normal for me, I am not able to guess how long a painting will take to finish. The ones on the easels seemed almost impossibly far from completion. Then suddenly 3 of the 4 looked ready to sign. So, I pulled out #5, because it will be a nice addition.

Maybe there is time to finish this one.

 

Incrementally closer to completion with each painting session.

Meanwhile, I went through my framed pencil drawings and decided a bit more variety will be good. So, I delivered 3 more drawings to my framer with the usual instructions of “Make them look good and call me when they are ready.” I believe in hiring the best people for the job and then just getting out of their way.

I wonder if Arts Visalia will rethink the decision to hang my work in Gallery 2 and move me into the Main Gallery. I could fill it up. My work could fill both galleries. HEY, ARTS VISALIA, DO YOU READ MY BLOG?

Probably not. Guess I’ll head back to the easels.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Ten

Somewhere along the path of creating notecard packages, I did a set of Mineral King scenes, a mini-set of four instead of five, without the identifying label. Instead, I inserted a photocopy of what was inside.

Judging from the quality of the background landscaping, this was still early in the sequence of notecard sets.

The old Ranger Station was from a postcard; the others were from my photos, so they were current at the time (and still look almost the same).

I think these were tied up with raffia, oh so very elegantly rustic.

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Seven

After publishing the notecard set of Backcountry Structures of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, I moved into the front country of the park. That’s where most of the people visit, and now I had connections in the organization that stocked the ranger stations and visitor centers in the parks.

I didn’t save any labels, so I don’t know if this is when I switched to 4 cards per package instead of 5, or if I lost a sample card along the way. I remember taking the photos for these drawings, because my niece went with me. There was a long line for photos in front of the General Sherman Tree, so Ashley and I got in line. When it was our turn, she went up to the tree and then laid on the ground behind the sign so I could take a photo without any people in it. The other visitors were quite puzzled by this, but I was thrilled by Ashley’s innovative solution. I think I actually drew her into the picture of the Four Guardsmen, but now I can’t see details that small.

To be continued. . .

Pencil Reminiscing, Part Four

After my booming (in my own little mind) success with the original set of notecards for Tulare County, Mineral King, and Visalia landmarks, I moved on. My memory is fuzzy about which card sets came next, and at what point I quit my job in the print shop. I worked from our little house in Lemon Cove and supplemented my income with a summer job baking at the Silver City Store, helping out at a friend’s Exeter gift shop for Christmas, and filling in at the printer when they had need. 

The ideas continued to flow. Now it was time for Tulare County Landmarks II, which moved into other towns of the county.

 Since this set included Lindsay, Tulare, Porterville, and Exeter, I found stores in all those little towns to sell the cards. I may have spent as much in gas expenses to drive around calling on the stores as my profits.

(The little circles are holes; these cards were samples for customers to see what was in the variety packages.)

To be continued. . .

Pencil Reminiscing, Part One

This could also be called “Notecard Reminiscing” or even “Back in the Olden Days”. 

Back in the olden days, I worked in a print shop and drew in pencil. Pencil drawings of Tulare County landmarks printed on notecards were my “side hustle”, now the cool way to refer to a second job. It was a hobby to make money, a business that I hoped would outpace my real job. 

Because I have always been a note and letter writer, finding stationery and cards with local art was what I looked for any time I traveled. It came to my attention that there weren’t any for Tulare County in spite of the fact that we have Sequoia National Park, and that we feed the world. From my viewpoint in Ivanhoe, then Visalia, and eventually Lemon Cove, it seemed that we had subjects that were good enough to be proud of and drawn. At that time I was only capable of drawing architectural subjects, so that is all I thought of. (Looking back at my work, I’d now say I was barely capable of such things, but growth is good, unless you are a tumor.)

 

In the past year or so, I pulled the original drawing of the Lemon Cove Women’s Club out of its frame to touch it up. It isn’t too embarrassing, but it did benefit from some tightening up. This was a drawing I just didn’t want to let go of, so it hangs in my dining room.
The original of the Silver City Store also hangs in my dining room.
This one I now use as an example for my drawing students so they can feel better about their own beginning work.

This was back in 1987, and I knew nothing about branding oneself (yikes, as if we are cattle?) or marketing. I loved to draw, and felt lucky to be able to work in a print shop and know people who helped me figure out how to make my idea happen, along with people who owned shops that wanted to sell my merchandise.

There was a distant foggy hope that someday I could be self-employed as an artist, but that was far off in the future, along with having a real studio, owning a home, and being old like a real grown up.

To be continued. . .