Ten New Things Learned in December

If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title “Nine New Things Learned in December”.

One of those things is actually a relearning situation. I’ll put it last because it makes my head spin, which makes it hard to type.

  1. Did you know you can order pet prescriptions from Chewy? You need a vet to allow you to connect with them, and the vet has to approve the order, of course. But it certainly beats trying to wrestle this guy into a box or pen for a long car ride, although I did have to restrain him while my vet friend/neighbor examined his boo-boo. Jackson was very displeased with the entire situation.

2. You know all those ads for “miracle cures“, prescription-free supplements guaranteed to fix whatever your health problem is? They all employ the same tactics of “Call now with this special code for this amazing one-time offer”. Then, it turns out that you have to order a 12-month supply of their product in order to get the promised discount. They all guarantee their stuff for 90 days, but it is supposed to work after 90 days, so how are you supposed to get the refund when you don’t know if you have used it long enough? Despite knowing this pattern and recognizing the hard-sell tactics, once again hope has triumphed over experience. I ordered a 3-month supply of a “mystery herb, recently rediscovered” and expect it to fix my peripheral neuropathy.

3. apricity (noun): The warmth of the sun in winter. I find myself seeking apricity during December.

4. Apple cider vinegar is a current cure-all food trend. If it comes with the mother, it is better for you. This means it contains natural probiotics. So, if you want to use “ACV” as it is known by its aficionados, pay twice as much as store brand so it comes with its mommy.

5. The mystery of why some of my blog subscribers can see the photos in their email notifications and other blog subscribers cannot is getting closer to being solved. Those with Apple devices who use either the app that came with the device or use Yahoo to read their mail cannot see the photos. Those who use Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, or AOL are able to see the photos. After spending 1-1/2 hour on the phone with Apple, all they could say was that I need to call the host of my website. Ugh.

6. Kaweah Arts will have a new location. They will close right after First Saturday (January 6, 2024) and reopen in March at The Dome! This is so excellent—I rely on Kaweah Arts to do my selling in town.

7. When I told a bank teller that I was having trouble balancing a checkbook, probably because the ink is too faded on my printing ten-key, she taught me how to change the ink cylinder. I didn’t even know it had such a thing!

A printing 10-key is my only hope to balance
Probably shouldn’t have touched that.
It took 5 attempts to get that thing locked in place, but now look!

8. “Lido” means outdoor swimming pool. I learned this while reading the novel The Lido, by Libby Page. I’d heard the term “lido deck” in reference to a particular level on a cruise ship but had no idea what it meant. It’s been 10 years since I went on that cruise, so I can’t remember if the lido deck contained a swimming pool. I do remember a pool on the way to one of the dining areas that was always loud and splashy with children, but I didn’t photograph that one.

Is that the lido deck down there?
Or is this the lido deck? Maybe the pools are on the same level.

9. A friend once told me that Adobe and Mac are like 2 people in a bad divorce. This little piece of wisdom came alive again when it took me about 2 hours to design a little sticker using Photoshop Elements. I searched and searched for help online, and every piece of instruction said to use tools that were not there. I finally stumbled across what I needed, no thanks to “Photoshop help”, Adobe, or online tutorials. No matter how many times I have used Photoshop Junior or InDesign, or even Word, each time I return to it nothing makes sense.

10. Reimer’s Candies and Gifts in Three Rivers has sold to Stafford’s Chocolates from Porterville. I know no more regarding name changes or products, although a friend enlightened me to Stafford’s a few years ago, proclaiming their chocolates to be superior to any she had ever had in her well-traveled life. (Good grief—I’ve lived in Tulare County 64 years, and she’d only been here 2 years at the time!)

When I was new to oil painting, I painted several little scenes from Reimer’s.

Did you learn anything in December? (I hope it didn’t include frustrating head-spinning sessions with Adobe programs or non-functioning photos on Apple devices.)

In case you can’t remember what we learned in previous years, here are the past three Decembers for you.

EIGHT THINGS Learned in December 2022

ELEVEN THINGS Learned in December 2021

ELEVEN THINGS Learned in December 2020

Favorite Internet Places for You

If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title “Favorite Internet Places for You”.

A favorite place NOT on the internet (not a recent photo)

There are some places on the internet that are too good to not share with you. It is hard to find well-written blogs with regular posts, blogs without ads or with too much self-focus or excuses for not writing or no posts for months at a time. So many that I used to like have just gone splat or poof, but these have endured.

STILL is a blog with photos of natural found objects arranged in patterns. The background is just plain white without ads or words, but if you want to know what you are seeing, you can click on the tiny word “Details” on the lower right. It is simply stunning.

I took this screen shot off the site without permission. (Ahem, STILL blogger, please forgive me, and I hope this results in more followers.)

Tim Cotton Writes is a blog written by a retired policeman in Maine. He tells stories and observations about his life in a manner that feels a bit like Prairie Home Companion meets Mike Rowe (which is where I “met” him). You can read about him on his home page here. (I have his first book The Detective in the Dooryard if you’d like to borrow it.)

The Frugal Girl has become my favorite blog. Kristen is consistent, honest, personal, and responsive to her very active commenting community. She regularly posts lists of frugal things and things to be thankful for, encouraging her readers to do the same. She feels like a friend, and she even answers emails.

“Frugal Pear”, painting from The Frugal Girl’s photo, now sold to one of her readers.

Everyday Cheapskate has so many helpful tips about almost every aspect of life. Look under the heading ARTICLES on her site and be stunned by the tremendous amount of wisdom available. Want to clean your shower? Keep brown sugar from going hard? Want to read some “News You Can Use” articles?

GoodReads is not a blog but it is the best place to learn about any book you might want to read, WITHOUT A USER NAME AND PASSWORD! It is also a place to keep track of what you have read, what you are reading now, and what you want to read. (That requires the hated user name and password routine). I use it regularly to decide what to read next and to keep track of what I have read. And you can sign up for give-aways, when authors have random drawings for their books. (I won one once!)

Reading Rabbit, AKA Salt & Light

Happy New Year! Consider these sites and recommendations a gift to start your year off with learning and entertainment.

Inspired by Beauty

If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title “Inspired by Beauty”.

Earning a living with art in one of California’s poorest and least educated counties often causes me to reflect on the difficulty of my chosen career in this location. Art is a luxury, and most people around here are just trying to keep gas in their cars, food in their refrigerators, cell phones up to date, color on their hair, and acrylic on their nails. 

But while art is a luxury, I believe beauty to be a necessity. Art is a way to introduce beauty into a squalid place. For example, look at the before and after of my studio:

Beauty restores and heals. You cannot overdose on beauty. (I got these concepts from John Eldredge.)

Something about painting a mural sets the stage for people to have deep, personal, and meaningful conversations with me. While I was painting at St. Anthony’s Retreat, an observer told me that the reason people strive for money is so they can use their riches as protection against ugliness. Wow!

Several good conversations took place while I worked on this painting.

A friend used to send me articles by Gerard Vanderleun of American Digest. He once wrote that most contemporary art is garbage, has no soul, and is shallow. Harsh words, but they contain some truth when one considers the lack of attention to beauty in much “modern art”. Here is a direct quote:

“When I thought about why that was, a host of reasons presented themselves to me. Perhaps it was that the ability to draw was no longer taught and expected to be a basic skill of those who would call themselves our ‘artists.’ Perhaps it was that the proliferation of art schools and ‘art majors’ gave the baby boomers and their offspring a way through college that required as much intellect as a point guard, but not nearly as much talent and dedication.” (I added the bold for the part on drawing.)

I heard an artist interview several (many?) years ago. Sherie McGraw said this: “There is a beauty to solving a problem.” She also said something that could have come straight from your Central California Artist’s mouth: “I am somewhat of a dinosaur but what I am inspired by is beauty.”

So, in this unlikely place to earn a living as a professional artist, this place I’ve called home for 64 years, this place of high unemployment, low education, and low income, I persist in doing my best to capture the most beautiful parts and places, on paper and on canvas.

Kaweah Oaks Preserve, as seen from Highway 198 in the spring, east of the Farmersville exit.

Boxing Day, Bonus Week

If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title “Boxing Day, Bonus Week”.

Boxing Day is what the English call December 26, because that is the day all the unwanted and excess gifts get boxed up to donate to the poor people.

In America, people probably box up the extras and ship them back to Amazon.

That’s not what I came here to tell you. The week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day has always felt like a bonus week to me. It doesn’t really have any obligations, many people are not at work, kids are not in school, and it seems as if the entire world is just on vacation (and driving through Three Rivers).

So, this week I will write about topics that are out of the ordinary. Tomorrow I will tell you about being inspired by beauty. Thursday I will give you links to five internet places that I really enjoy and hope you will too. On Friday, well, let’s see. . . it’s close enough to the end of the month that it will be our monthly Learned List.

Next Tuesday I will return to showing you paintings in progress.

The Most Popular Mineral King Oil Painting Subject

Five steps closer to completing a new painting of the classic Mineral King view, but still about 60 steps from actual completion.

Remember this?

It is 30″ high, and I can’t reach the top very well. That’s okay, because it is movable.

The cabin is too wide.

Better.

I’m not trying to be exactly true to the photo. I am trying to make it look believable, and after looking at it for 39 years, drawing it about a dozen times in pencil and painting it at least 64 times*, I can recognize when things aren’t quite right.

However, I am making free with the locations of the rocks in the river.

Now there is a base coat on almost everything. Maybe two more layers will do the trick: one to fill out and finish covering the shapes and another to detail it. But then I’ll have to detail it more. And then it will need more correcting. After I show it to my most discerning critics, I’ll need to correct it even further. (See? 60 more steps ahead)

Changing the sizes, the lighting, the cropping—these things keep me interested when I continue to paint the same scenes over and over.

*Really! I counted my photos of the completed paintings, so I know this is true, and there might even be more that I didn’t photograph. Curious? Here they are up through 2016, when the count was at 32.

Same Mineral King Scene

More Farewell Gap Mineral King Oil Paintings

Mineral King Oil Paintings, Continued

Still Oil Painting in Mineral King

And Yet More Mineral King Oil Paintings

The Last Oil Paintings in Mineral King

One More Mineral King Oil Painting?

Quickety Update on Calendars (and a Little More)

Please excuse this interruption in your day.

1. The 2024 Mineral King calendar is still available. At the time of this post, there are 8 left, available through my website or if you email or call me. The Three Rivers Historical Museum no longer has any.

2. I spent 1-1/2 hours on the phone with Apple today to learn why blog subscribers using MacMail or AppleMail cannot see the photos in my blog posts that come to their email. (A few can, but WHY??) No answers came other than that I now need to spend an interminable length of time on the phone with the host of my website. Later. Today’s session used all my reserves for bad hold music and helpers who cannot help.

3. The new painting of fruit is in its home and is just right for the location.

4. The Native Voices exhibit at the Three Rivers Museum looks fabulous!

And that’s all. Just didn’t want you to miss out if you need a calendar.

Finished and Unfinished

Yesterday we saw two brand new paintings on the easels, looking like they’ll never get finished. Eventually most paintings do. Layer after layer, keep studying, figuring out what to do next and how to improve it every time I pick up the brushes.

Today we will see some finished and some unfinished paintings.

This is how the bright fruit painting has settled into its new home.

This is a good showing of the progression of my colored art: First I worked in colored pencil, then I practiced mixing colors by painting many pomegranates. Now I get a real kick out of mixing all colors, combining lots of photos, and just pantsing it on the canvas.

The new fruit painting for my friend/customer is completed, signed, and moved into the house for drying.

This is in the painting workshop just before I moved it into the house. I am very happy with this one and glad I did a new painting for my friend rather than just messing with the older one by changing some of the fruits.

There are three unfinished pieces waiting for attention.

I was hoping to keep this when it is finished, but I will put it in the 2024 show and it WILL be for sale. (I can always paint another one of my favorite type of subject.)
This one has had several do-overs and a very long time-out; I’m still not convinced that I can do the subject justice but I will continue to try.
First, the wire needs to be moved. Then I will commence to draw lots of golden colored ferns.

All of these paintings started out as the same sort of vague mess as the ones we looked at yesterday. Nevuh nevuh nevuh give up.

Beginning Two New Paintings

Here is a look at two new paintings, begun for the solo show in October of 2024. Seems very far away, but it takes awhile to paint enough pieces to fill a gallery on one’s own. I have about 30 available (several unfinished but in progress which I will show you tomorrow) so I need to paint another 10-20 pieces. I’m thinking 20 is better, because I paint small. Even when I think it is HUGE, such as 18×24 which feels ENORMOUS and takes FOREVER, it looks like a postage stamp in a gallery.

This one is 16×20. I can’t find the photo on my computer, don’t remember where or when I took this, and can’t really discern the details on the little photograph.

So why bother? It has wonderful light and the road pulls the viewer in.

It will involve some “artistic license”, and I will focus on the contrast between light and shadow. Slow layer after slow layer, lots of thinking and evaluating—that will be the process on this one.

I decided to do something different with something familiar, using a 10×30″ canvas that I had on hand. The sizes of canvas on hand often dictates what I paint. If it isn’t a tried and true subject, I keep the painting small. This is a tried and true subject, even if you can’t tell what it is at this early stage.

Can you recognize what this mess is?

Lots of painting ahead for your Central California artist as she plans the best way to show off the parts of Tulare County that keep her from moving to the beach. (As if she could afford that; besides, she’d miss Trail Guy.)

Practicing Painting

Practice Painting? Painting Practice? Paint Practicing?

Never mind. Doctors practice medicine, attorneys practice law, and this artist practices painting. Some days I feel as if I am brand new, with no idea how to tackle a subject. Some days I think I’m figuring it out. Only once in awhile does the process feel easy.

I have a solo show coming up a year from now, and I want to be ready. No last-minute panic painting, just a well-planned body of work that is cohesive, looks good together, represents my best efforts, and most of all, represents the best parts of Central California, specifically Tulare County. Or perhaps is the best representation of Tulare County, a place of superlatives, both great and terrible.

Hey Central California, stop your bloviations and show us some work.

Ahem. Would you like to see what I was practicing on?

About time.

I started with more detailing on the trees.

Then it was time to work on the background. All those vague and messy branches and clumps of needles were a bit confounding, but that’s okay, because I was just practicing. It helped to put in the sunlit strips of ground.

I had to turn the canvas sideways in order to place the tip of my brush WHICH I WAS DRAWING WITH, SO THERE, in the right place to get accuracy. In order to paint those ferns in detail, I DRAW WITH MY PAINTBRUSH.

Finally, I hung it on the wall to dry, and that’s when I realized I had begun the scene upside down but hadn’t actually reversed the canvas. Oh well. A wire is easy to move.