I started this series for a friend of mine that was active in the Winters Chamber of Commerce. They were in a small section of a downtown store. People seemed to like them. They served as a nice memory of drinking wine, eating yummy food, or just spending time in Winters. I recently expanded the drawings to include a few new spots of interest. You can buy them at Yolo 365 Artisan Market in Winters or from me direct in Vacaville. Each card is $6.50.
I taught Hand Drafting (and many other interior design classes) at the Art Institute of Seattle for several years. This experience translated nicely into this type of architectural drawing. My book “Hand Drafting for Interior Design” is in it’s third edition and available on Amazon. It is still used (believe it or not) in colleges around the world. Let me know if you think there is something or somewhere else I should add to this collection. Most of the originals have already been sold. The clock, The Preserve and Yolo 365 are available at Yolo 365 Artisan Market in Winters.
A few years ago a friend of mine asked me to do a series of drawings of Winters, California. They were sold at the Winters Chamber of Commerce. People enjoyed purchasing a card to remember having a glass of wine or maybe a meal they enjoyed.
Now living in Vacaville, I thought it would be fun to do a series of drawings of the local downtown. See if you can name them all. They are for sale at “The Artisan in Vacaville” or from me directly. They sell for $6.50 per card. If I am low of your particular card I can order more.
When I first moved to Vacaville, I created a series of drawings featuring some of the beautiful old homes on Buck Avenue. Cards can be made of the ones I drew, or if you would like one of your home, contact me.
I will do a blog with my drawings of Winters, California. I started doing these drawings during the Pandemic, when we no longer went out much. I enjoyed drawing and did not yet have a studio or my oil painting supplies here in California. I took photos of many of the houses I wanted to paint. In the evening, I would work on the drawings as I watched television and had a glass of wine. Since the idea of going out was not an option, this was a great way to pass time.
I hope you enjoy them, and maybe think about buying some!
When I travel I always take something along to sketch and paint with. We recently returned from a Viking River Cruise. For some reason I had expected to see wonderful sights all along the river. That just was not true. There were a lot of trees and many concrete levies along the way.
I found we spent many hours on buses taking us to locations away from the river. We started our cruise by staying in a lovely hotel in Bucharest for three days. The river was too low for the riverboats to pass. We wanted to see the Black Sea at Constanta. So, we took a seven hour bus ride to see the sea. It was lovely, but not a seven hour bus ride lovely?
The small painting above was from a photo I took from our first night on the Danube. We were on a boat with 194 people. There weren’t many “quiet places,” so it was difficult to find somewhere to sketch. I found a table in an area that served as a dining area most of the day. It was not particularly private.
As we continued our journey, I looked for fun things to sketch. This priest was sitting outside of a cathedral that we walked by in Constanta, Romania. I’m not sure of his purpose and it was quite hot, but I thought it was an interesting sketch.
Here is the photo that I took. I was using watercolor, which is unforgiving. I wanted to make his eyes closed as in the photo, but I accidentally made him look awake. It is not something I will turn into a painting, but it was a fun sketch.
Going through the locks for the first time I found this group of workers rather humorous. They were supposed to be working, but here they are chatting and on their cell phones.
I took some other photos on the trip that I plan to paint:
I’d love to know what you think would make a good painting. It was a fun trip, but it is always good to be home.
Our yard is full of wonderful flowers that bound into bloom every Spring and continue through the summer. My husband loves to work in the yard (if it’s not too hot), but never remembers the names of the flowers. When we are discussing an area in the yard he calls it by “the pink flowers”, or the “red flowers” and etc. I thought it might be fun to put together a journal of the flowers that grow in our yard.
What I am discovering is that it will take more time than I thought it might. I started to do the journal in watercolor, but quickly learned that my paper was not nearly thick enough for that. So I got out a pencil set that I purchased several years ago for a portraiture class. I took it to my sketching group and quickly discovered I needed to sharpen all the pencils and did not have a sharpener with me.
As you can see, sharpening all of these took a bit of time! So far I only have completed two drawings. The drawings are small in nature, but considering how many different flowers we have in our garden, it might take a bit.
Urban sketching means so many different things to different people. I love to sketch when I travel or when I waiting for something, and when I was working on my Ph.D I would sketch whatever was on the table. I thought no one was watching, but I found out later that was not quite correct. My classmates were always curious as to what caught my eye.
Sitting on the beach in Cabo San Lucas I used pen and ink and gouache to have fun painting the locals.
On this one in Puerto Vallarta I used watercolor and gouache and pen to capture the surf. I find it very relaxing.
The men at the Taco Stand was fun to sketch using pen & ink, and watercolor. You can tell I often use a small 6″ architects ruler to get straight lines.
On a cruise we took this last year, while the boat was at sea, I would often just find a spot and sketch people or furniture.
There are so many things to choose from and so many different art supplies you can choose from. When doing quick sketches I tend to stick to just pen & ink, so I don’t have to carry around a lot of “stuff”.
If I have an afternoon free, then I carry more equipment and spend more time on the drawing/sketch. This was done sitting in the shade by the swimming pool, having a Margarita using pen & ink and gouache. I like gouache as it gives you more depth than water color, and you can paint over mistakes. I find it fun to mix with watercolor for a softened effect.
I don’t take my sketches serious, but I do try to get the drawing right, or enough off that it is just fun.
This is the fountain overlooking the water at Lindo Mar in Puerto Vallarta.
i’ve sold a few sketches, but mostly give them away after I photograph them, so do not have a book of sketches per se.
I’ve been painting for about forty years. I first got a degree in art, doing acrylic abstracts. I was working in oil till a sorority sister sat on my palette right before one of our big dances, and I had to give her my dress, as hers was ruined, and mine was her replacement. Luckily we were the same size.
As I’ve had more time to spend painting and have tried many different types of art, it is interesting to watch reponses on social media of what people like and what they think I should do. If you follow my blog, then you know I did a few drawings of roosters when I was on a cruise. I gave them to one of the men that worked on the ship, as he had a farm at home with chickens. One of my friends thought that I should focus on only chickens. I like chickens, and had some of my own for a time. I do not want to draw them all the time. If you read one of my last blogs, you will see what happened to the chickens. It was really pretty wonderful.
Another friend of mine likes my mini-abstracts and tells me I should only do those! I did them as a prelude to a series of the same in a much larger format. That person told me that my larger pieces do not have the same impact as the smaller pieces? I actually like the larger ones better, and wonder how you can make that judgement from online photos?
Still another friend loves my impressionistic work, and thinks I should focus on that. So who do you listen to, or do you listen to anyone at all. Other friends have asked me to do portraits, and I have done many of those.
No one asks me what I enjoy the most. Maybe they should ask: “What sells the most?” I’ve had someone ask me “Why do I want to sell my art?” I wanted to say something not so nice, but just said that the art supplies were expensive. It was a complete lie! Artists want to be known for what they do and how they do it, and making a little money would not be bad either?
I guess the big question is: Why do people think they should tell you what to do? Or in other words, why do people want to control someone else’s life?
My conclusion is that you should draw or paint whatever you enjoy. If it sells, then great. But if it does not sell, then at least you have enjoyed doing it. I actually donate a lot of my art to local organizations.
One of my friends sent this to me the other day. It seems so true for so many things! We work so hard on our own to be successful doing what we love, and so little of the work is seen and even less is acknowledged. Moving to a new area only adds more to the bottom of the triangle. In my case I moved to a different state, where I knew very few people and literally no artists. So, not only are my connections to “my art community” changed, my collectors live in another state, the design store where I sold my big abstracts is too away to easily or practically deliver and/or to keep track of what has sold. On top of that, Social Media is constantly changing and evolving.
Have you noticed that most of the email that you receive is “junk mail”, trying to sell you something. Few people email anymore. Text is the way of the day. I don’t even begin to know or want to know all the slang that is acceptable for text. They had a quiz of the new slang words at a local Rotary Meeting, and only the members that had teenage children had any idea what most of the new slang meant. Not only do you have to move from email to text, apparently you need to learn a new world of abbreviations.
Another new way of connecting is via “Link Tree”, which I learned about, but have no clue how to do. Reels should be used on Social Media; so here is another new application that one should learn to let people know what they are doing.
Was selling your art ever easy? Probably not, but you sold it via people you knew, their connections and perhaps a gallery or more with whom you associated. Living in a town with only one gallery, that is “out of the way” of most street traffic, and a town where art does not seem to play an important role certainly changes how and how much art you are able to sell.
I’ve been lucky to sell a few pieces to people I’m meeting, and by putting a sign on the sidewalk that says: “Artist at Work”, as you cannot have an “Open” sign if you have a home business where I live. In the Spring and Summer when I am working I open the garage door to my studio, and occasionally someone comes in from the street and talks, or buys cards and on a rare occasion buys a piece of art. It is a good way to relinquish some older pieces, as everyone is looking for a “deal”.
I’ve donated pieces to local events, but never hear much about it. I am always glad to support a good cause, but sometimes think I am a good cause too! Ha Ha
Being an artist, if I have not sold something in a while I might not feel like spending so much time in my studio making art. Then someone buys a small piece and the enthusiasm comes back. I wonder if most artists feel that way.
What I really wonder is why some works make it into shows and others don’t? Is it totally up to the juror and what they personally like, or is there more to it. I’ve been accepted into several shows, but never won a prize. Looking at winners I often wonder what makes the difference? Please let me know if you know.
Every morning we would go down to a small Coffee Bar on the cruise we just finished. Marvin, from the Philippines would remember our orders and greet us cheerfully each and every day! His smille and amazing attitude was one of many we encountered on our Viking Cruise. He poured our “Green Drink” and we would chat for a while. He was working to grow his own farm back in the Philippines. He said he loved his chickens, goats and a couple cows. I wanted to say “Thank You” for his wonderful, cheerful attitude! As an artist I thought what might he enjoy the most as a remembrance of our trip together?
When I travel I now take a variety of pens, watercolor and gouache. I found a nice photo of a rooster online and decided giving him a drawing of the chickens he loved might be something he would enjoy! We tipped well too, but I wanted to give him a little more. So I drew this rooster and gave it to him the next morning. He said it was the nicest gift he had ever received since working for cruise lines.
As I gave it to him, several people at the coffee bar enjoyed it too! One woman asked me if I would do two for her, and did not blink at the price I quoted. That was all well and good, but I never saw her again on the cruise?
As our cruise was coming to an end, and our friend, Marvin had enjoyed the one so much, I decided to give them to him our last morning. He caught me off-guard, by crying when I gave him my additional two drawings. I was a little embarrassed, but warm inside as I knew I made the right decision giving these to him.
So the Roosters were a big hit and it was fun giving them to someone that made our trip so delightful. I think this may be something I will continue doing!
It had been over a year since I enjoyed a “Life Drawing” experience. I call it an experience, as it is not a class, but more of a session. A model is provided, and you bring everything you intend to draw with, and sit and sketch. In this session, it started with four minute sketches, went on to five minute sketches, then ten and finally twenty minute drawings. Our model had strong facial features, so I decided to focus on that. I brought a variety of tools to use. This drawing uses 8B, 6B & 4B pencils that can be manipulated (somewhat) with water. Since I had never tried this before, it was a bit challenging.
This was my first twenty minute drawing, using only charcoal and little pen and ink. I did not get the eyes right, but like the fierce look it gave the drawing. Need to practice a lot more!
This is the same model, but I wanted to show the softer side to him. He looked so very serious, till he took a cellphone call on a break and gently started laughing. I do realize his eyes are looking in two different directions, so a bit of an error on my part, but now too late to change.
I do suggest joining a session like this to loosen up your drawing skills. I firmly believe that if you cannot draw, you cannot successfully paint.
Today is the first time l’ve joined a Craft Fair in Vacaville and realize people don’t buy fine art or even cards at an event like this. I am amazed what people do buy, mostly things i would not think to buy. They buy Sensy from the booth on one side, walk by and say “pretty” then buy a net wreath or fake flower arrangement at the next booth.
Okay, I take that back, I just sold five cards It will be interesting to see if I even cover my entry fee! I know intellectually you have to get your art out somehow, but not sure this is the venue. The lady selling cat toys gets a lot more interest than my art!
If nothing else, it is interesting to see this cross-section of Vacaville! And an interesting experiment that I will most likely not repeat! Its for a good cause, but hard in a new town to figure out where to sell your art?
