Author: cabinart

Whooping it up on the Canvases

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The customer told me which mountains she wishes to see in her 11×14″ painting. So I started.

Sky, mountains, foothills, indication of distant groves, indication of closer groves. Then, it was too wet to continue. This might be an excuse; sometimes when painting these scenes, I hit a place of thinking it is too hard and that I can’t do it. (pathetic, no?)

So, time to move to the 18×36″ painting.

Working on a new sky layer gives me an opportunity to think about what I want to do here.

I think I want some overhanging branches, loaded with oranges. This means I have to make up some stuff, move some trees, bringing in some closer ones. And why not? I made up the snow-covered mountains in the distance. If I am painting this to please me, then yippee skippee, I can just go hog wild and really whoop it up.

I sure do know how to live, eh?

Happy Birthday, Little Sister!

Sunny Day, Stormy Day

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Sunny Day

Monday was a sunny day, with bright colors, and warm temperatures.

We went to church to deal with a flooded office, broken gutter, and misbehaving water flows.

Then we headed down to Kaweah Lake to see how high (and muddy and full of debris) it looked.

Looking west toward the dam, which is now too far away to see, around a corner.

Looking east at Blossom Peak (hill with 3 points)

Looking northeast toward Moro Rock and Alta Peak, which isn’t visible under the clouds.

The parking lot at Slick Rock is blocked.

Later I went walking with a neighbor. So very very green, blue, and white!

Bush lupine with poppies.

Two more kinds of lupine with popcorn flowers. We just hung out, soaking sunshine and bright colors for awhile. (It was steep, so maybe we needed to catch our breath a little too.)

Rainy Day

Tuesday was so different from Monday that it was hard to believe the two days were in the same month, much less the same week. This is how Kaweah Lake looked when I pulled over at the normal view point on my way down the hill to teach drawing lessons.

A few roads were narrowed, a main road was closed.

It rained all the way back home.

This is the Yokohl curve, where the normally dry Yokohl Creek occasionally flows. Nope, I didn’t pull over in the rain to photograph the water. I focused on my driving, while holding up the camera and hoping to capture something without looking at it. (You’re welcome).

I pulled over next to this grove of pistachios, put down the passenger window exposing the leather seat to rain, and took a few pictures. When it was planted about 7 years ago, I asked the farmer if he had a plan for planting in what is historically a pond during wet years. He thought the pump could handle it. Apparently he overestimated the pump’s capacity.

Excuse the blurriness. I just wanted you to see how tall the trees are so you can estimate how deep the pond is.

So far we have gotten about 9″ of rain at our house since this series of storms began last Thursday. It ain’t over yet, folks. . . keep your LLBean boots handy!

Maybe we can talk about making art tomorrow.

P.S. Nothing new to report about the Mineral King Road or other road closures or flooding in Three Rivers. Your photojournalist only reports on what she sees with her own eyes.

Aaaaand. . . More Orange Groves

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(More storms predicted for today and tomorrow, and if anything exciting happens, I’ll return to my post as photojournalist for you then.)

About Painting

Back in January I started eight new oil paintings of orange groves. I added a similar painting of oak trees with distant mountains (for the show Locals), and then someone wanted a painting of the groves with hills and mountains in a different size. That brought the total to ten paintings, all similar. Five are now completed (one sold), and other than the commissioned painting, there is no urgency or deadlines.

The urgency is self-imposed on the commissioned painting. As I prepped the canvas, I realized that I didn’t know which view of the mountains my customer was interested in. So I sent her these two photos (she is the photographer but I am the painter) and then put a thin layer of paint on the canvas (too boring to photograph).

Since my palette was loaded with the right colors and I had the biggish brush in hand, it seemed like a good time to begin layering paint on the 18×36″ that I was hoping to keep for awhile.

While slopping it on, I realized that maybe I want a different scene than the one I painted for myself last time. No rush; the space in my dining room is currently occupied by a painting of redwood trees.

Next, I moved to this 6×18″ with the blocks of groves that are confusing. I repainted the sky, distant mountains, and foothills.

The groves are confusing because I have not been following the photograph or the advice I give to my drawing students: “Draw the dog before you draw the fleas.”

This means figure out the larger parts before putting in the details. So, I covered over most of the lines of the groves, got out the photo, and started to pay attention. It isn’t that I have to follow photos because they are the only right way to paint; I have to follow them in order to understand how to make those blocks of trees look believable.

This feels like slow going, perhaps because it is. When I draw, a day flies by. When I paint, it crawls. Maybe someday with enough experience this will change. Meanwhile, tick, tock, tick, tock. . .is it lunchtime yet?

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MORE WEATHER (Instead of Art)

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When there is an event, everyone is a photojournalist. I am your photojournalist reporting from the middle fork of the Kaweah River in Three Rivers. There is a lot of action in other parts of town, but it is fairly sane in our neighborhood. I continue to be thankful that we couldn’t afford riverfront property when we moved here, and thankful to have a house that was here pre-1955 when The Big Flood happened.

Middle Fork

This is also known as the main fork of the Kaweah. We live about 1/2 mile above it and often walk to the Dinely Bridge to see how it looks.

Lots of snow is still hanging in there, in spite of the warm rain.

We took a walk, and Trail Guy carried a big rake. He tried to free up some gunk clogging a culvert so that mud stops flowing across our road.

Moro Rock is visible up the canyon while the Alta Peak elephant hides behind clouds.

Back to the Dinely Bridge, looking upstream

Looking upstream to the Dinely side of the bridge (makes me think of Olivia Newton John’s song “The river’s too wide now for crossing. . .”)

Looking upstream to the Sierra (Hwy. 198) side of the bridge

Looking downstream

Looking downstream toward the highway

Looking downstream with Comb Rocks in the distance

Back home for a brief moment of sunshine (hi Pippin!)

East Fork (also known as the Mineral King Road)

We got a call from an adventurous friend who rode his bike up the Mineral King Road. (He likes to do things like that. . .ride to Mineral King, run to Eagle Lake, and ride home in the summer). He took many photos for us where the road is “gone-zo” (his term) about 4.5 miles up.

These are some of his photos of various washouts and blowouts and gone-zo-outs. I’m not sure where each one is, but know that the county has a ton of work ahead.

He also sent videos, but those don’t work here. Many similar photos were posted on the Book of Faces by one of his traveling companions, and several friends sent me screen shots. Our friend called us before they went public. Thank you, Dennis V!!

Three Rivers

Big Water Update from Three Rivers

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Many friends have checked in to see if we are okay. We are definitely okay, and touched by the many inquiries.

We took some bags to a friend who lives along Salt Creek so he could fill them with sand. The creek flowed over his bridge so he needed to prep more for the next wave, or “atmospheric river” as everyone loves to say these days. Looking upstream

Looking downstream

Looking down

Looking across It didn’t rain during the day yesterday and there was much to appreciate.

My neighbor wanted to go for a walk again.

Looking downstream at the Dinely Bridge (on the Middle Fork).

Looking upstream

The water is lower than yesterday.

Someone didn’t want to get her feet wet.

Equipment was working on that washout.

Looking upstream

Moments of sunshine, appreciating the early wildflowers and green.

Did I not notice those cones on our way toward the washout? I did notice the puddles. . .

If I lived by the river, I would waste an enormous amount of time just staring at it.

Looking downstream off the Dinely bridge one more time.

Yesterday we had thunderstorms around 5 p.m.

Town is still mostly closed, no church today, but people are allowed to leave town and return now.

Fearsome, Ferocious, Frenetic Water Report

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Thursday night brought 4-1/2″ of rain.

My neighbor asked if I wanted to go looky-looing on Friday morning. Her car is higher than mine, and I immediately replied YES.

She manages a vacation rental on the North Fork. This is the view from the backyard at the normally mild fork that often dries up in the summer.

This is the North Fork flowing over the top of the Airport Bridge (there used to be an airport nearby). The whitewater is where the water hits the railing that the county used to remove when floods were predicted. Now they prefer to leave the railings up, which causes the water to flow around and wash out the approaches. This happened in January. Here we go again.

This is by my studio and workshop.

Later in the afternoon I went walking with another neighbor to survey the ongoing excitement and damages. This usually dry drainage was roaring over the road by her house, so we went another direction.

Same drainage, farther down, closer to the river.

Looking upstream from the Dinely Bridge.

Looking downstream on the Dinely Bridge.

No, really, LOOK AT THIS!!

Pretty little drainage coming off Edison Road.

In a friend’s yard, where the water is usually a bit of a distance away. Not so today.

This is a spot where lots of people trespass at the river on this little beach. We could hear boulders banging around beneath the current.

Another little drainage along Kaweah River Drive. This is where overflow from the flume occasionally flows.

A yard where the flume flows is very exciting right now.

Well, oops. This is where we turned around. There was a roaring stream across the road. I tested it with a stick, and it was about a foot and a half deep.

Looking upstream at this drainage, wondering where it came from. A man who lived above was out walking and explained that someone built a pond incorrectly, the dam on it broke, and the result is that many people are trapped on the other side.

Walking back, you can see that the water is very close to the road. In the early 2000s, I saw it closer. I was scared then, and I shouted at my neighbor who was driving, “GO FORWARD, GO BACK, OR LET ME OUT, BUT DON’T JUST STOP HERE!”

What’s this??

Mandatory evacuations.

This is the view upcanyon from the Remorial Building. I said “Remorial” because another neighbor thought that was the correct pronunciation when she was a child. She is getting married in 21 days, but we still pronounce it that way.

A sheriff was going through the neighborhood around 7 p.m. last night to tell us about evacuation orders. But Trail Guy met him at the bottom of the driveway and said no, we aren’t going anywhere. The sheriff gathered our name, phone numbers, address, and went on his way. Our house was built before the ’55 flood, so we feel fine.

Three Rivers

Painting my Obsession

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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.

citrus art citrus paintings oil paintings Tulare County art

Decisions to Get Ready for a Show

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“Locals“, is hung now at Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery, now called CACHE. I hadn’t planned to enter, because I have never lived in Exeter. But then I learned that having my studio in Exeter for 9 years was qualification enough.

Because I had a solo show at the end of 2021 and then participated in a group show in 2022, I chose pieces that the likely audience won’t have seen yet.

Two of the five pieces are pencil, only shown to you and to my drawing students. I dug around through existing unsold pencil pieces to find mats and frames that might work and found two, so I unframed the old drawings. One of the new drawings needed to have its boundaries extended to better fit in the mat. Then, I put the newer drawings in those mats and frames, a tedious task.

In thinking about three oil paintings to enter, I decided to use one of the new orange grove paintings, one of Sawtooth (the view that was so very popular in my 2021 solo show), and a new painting of a new subject (shown to you in an earlier post).

This photo (2 taped together) was taken through my windshield on one of those fabulous clear days. It is shown here at an angle because otherwise it is too shiny to see here.

This got painted on a 6×18″ in spite of being proportioned differently from the photo, because I just cropped off the bulk of the sky. It was easy to paint, because the mountains are the same as on most of those orange grove scenes.

I considered the title “Heading East on 198”.

Then I reconsidered.

Locals is at 125 So. B Street in Exeter, Saturdays and Sundays, 11-4, until April 23, 2023. OPENING RECEPTION—MARCH 26, 2-4 PM (Yes, I know it opens prior to the reception.)

oil paintings

Sold in January and February

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Sales were slow in those two months.

I expected to have had completed several murals by now. Instead, there are endless delays on the big Catholic church murals, my proposal on another mural was not chosen, yet another mural sounded all urgent back in August but the “customer” doesn’t return calls, and a public office which chose my art for its new building had a change in management so everything is on stand-by.

I also expected to have sold a piece or two in a show called Tulare County: Varied Impressions. Only one piece sold in the entire show, and it wasn’t mine. Bummer. Maybe I should have gone to the reception. . . nah.

Self-employment as an artist is easier after a few years of seeing patterns of sales and understanding that conversation is simply conversation until money exchanges hands.

These sold*:

(This one is in acrylic, on a large wooden panel.)

*Sold includes one given as a gift, and 3 on layaway at Kaweah Arts.

Finishing a Plein Air Drawing

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Plein air means “on location”. Last summer I sat by the stream in Mineral King with a set of 12 colored pencils to see if I could complete a drawing on location.

Not a chance.

My friend Carrie Lewis posted the project on her blog, and recently someone asked if I would complete the drawing.

Since nothing is pressing right now, I decided to finish the drawing in the studio, but this time using the entire set of 120 colored pencils (Polychromos by Faber Castell)

I’ll just show you the photo, then all seven progressive scans, minus any jibber jabber. (But you can ask me questions in the comments, if you want to know anything specific about the process.)