12 New Things I Learned in July

July was another month of learning odd facts, interesting tidbits, touching stories, and annoying experiences.

  1. A friend who knows odd facts said that the biggest danger while sailing across the Atlantic Ocean is running into cargo containers that have fallen off of ships. Eventually someone will figure out a way to locate those missing Seatrains and turn it into a teevee show.
  2. Got an answer about Iron Springs and Soda Springs from my friend Fort Worth Jim, a geologist: “The water has carbon dioxide in it which makes the water acidic. Acidic water can dissolve iron but when it flows out it loses its carbon dioxide, and iron is forced to precipitate out of the rock.” (But will I remember this info?)
  3. Remember I told you about the inefficiency of Home Depot last month? The saga continued. After not being able to fit the mini-fridge in Fernando, I took it back into the store to put it on will call. The self-checkout had neglected to provide a receipt, so it took a very long time to set things up. Trail Guy and I returned for the fridge the following week, and it was gone. They chose another model for us through lots of computer tapping and lots of wasted time, and when we went to retrieve it, it didn’t exist either. We picked a third model, loaded it up, and figured it was a done deal. Then I started getting phone calls to come pick up my “merchandise”. The first caller didn’t even identify the store, much less the “merchandise”. The second caller did, so I called back to be sure I wasn’t getting charged for two. Sure enough, I was. Much computer tapping, hold time, exchange of various numbers and dates, and now I think it is solved. THIS IS WHY I HATE TO GO SHOPPING!!! Excuse me for shouting. If it isn’t at the Three Rivers Mercantile, I don’t need it.
    Maybe we should have hooked this fridge up in the workshop instead of the new one from Home Disaster.
  4. Sometimes when our cabin neighbors leave, they give us their extra groceries. That way they don’t have to toss them or take them home. It is fun! We don’t always consume everything, of course. Last month we received a tub of potato salad, something I don’t usually eat because I just don’t like potatoes or raw onions. Trail Guy had a bite and said it was sweet. “Sweet?” I read the ingredients, and the third one on the list was SUGAR!! Really?? In potato salad?? Why on earth?
  5. Peripheral neuropathy makes toes go numb and can be helped by L-methylfolate, a B vitamin referred to as a “medical food”. I don’t know if it works yet but I do know that numb toes are a nuisance while hiking (or walking or standing to paint or just being alive). I wish I didn’t have to learn about this.
  6. If you know this amazing lady, congratulate her on a promotion to Chief Ranger at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area!
  7. There are some people who exceed the average definition of generosity in life. These are people who donate organs, people who pay for meal services for recipients of organs (one of my incredibly generous blog readers is paying for a meal service for my friends Rachelle-of-new-lungs and Steven-the-husband-of-the-century), and someone who received a heart and now helps transplant patients and their families. Her name is Ava and you can see her story (and give if you are so inclined) here: Ava’s Heart.
  8. Some customers/friends have been wanting a logo for many years. I recommended someone to them and it didn’t work out. Why didn’t they think to ask me, or why didn’t I think to offer? Because logo design is not my main thing, but after a year passed, I got the courage to offer my feeble design services. More will be revealed in the fullness of time. What I learned was this: ask!
  9. Fake Crocs cost less, have a thicker sole, are narrower, and don’t have a visible brand name; they are made in China and sold by Amazon. Lesson learned. I liked the color, but I got a blister on the TOP of my toe (hunh??) and tripped twice while walking in them so they will become hang-around shoes, not walking shoes.
  10. Sending cookies from Three Rivers to Los Angeles costs $14 via UPS and $9 via the Post Office.
  11. Is Three Rivers in a third world country? Our neighborhood went 5 days with extreme minimal water due to a failed pump and unavailable part. This coincided with the largest power bill we have ever had, while our A/C is on a voluntary rolling black-out discount because there isn’t enough electricity in California. (Can you believe that hydroelectric power – using rivers – is considered non-renewable energy??)
  12. My neighbors are very generous and let me use their swimming pool. What I learned while in the pool is that Cleveland Sage smells terrific and overpowers the smell of chlorine.
    Swamp onion does NOT smell like Cleveland Sage.

P.S. Stupid HD just sent me a check for the amount of the fridge. WHATSA MATTUH WITH THOSE PEOPLE??

 

Things I learned (and probably forgot) in previous Julys.

July 2020 ° July 2019 ° July 2018

Meandering in Mineral King

Warning: Long post ahead.

For some reason, choosing a destination and then chugging up a steep trail just isn’t floating my boat this summer. We did a quick down-the-road-and-up-the-Nature-Trail. 

Are these Baby’s Breath? Maybe.
These are fireweed. They are common in Alaska, and I recently saw them on a Russian photographer’s Instagram post. 
Sierra Currant – still haven’t formed berries. You first saw them here.
This bridge on the Nature Trail is listing downstream.
Almost back to the cabin from walking the Nature Trail. Looked as if it might rain – nope, bluffers.

We took a meandering walk with some cabin friends. When Trail Guy asked where we wanted to go, the friends said anything at all was fine with them. I said, “The aspens are calling me”. 

First, we went up the canyon toward Crystal Creek. This year the wildflowers are doing very well where it crosses the trail. This might be normal, but maybe I never paid much attention before because I was always aiming toward other patches of flowers. This year I am thankful for any green and any flowers that I can find.

We meandered to Soda Springs, and along the way we saw my favorite flower: Explorer’s Gentian.

I would like to know why some of these places are called “Soda” and others are called “Iron”. They all look like bubbling water that turns the ground orange; they all have the same yucky taste. Onward to the aspens. . .

Then we meandered down the old route AKA “old Farewell Gap Trail”. Nope, not a trail – it is simply a route. It was GREEN!! As we meandered, we found some things that normally wouldn’t be seen if we were thundering along a trail. Bane Berry is new to me – learned from one of my books that it is poisonous. (Good thing our friend held back from tasting it in spite of being tempted.)

What’s this? More Iron Springs? Soda Springs? Rusty Water?

Another Iron Springs, dried up?

Back at the cabin, I admired the Corn Lilies in bloom. This is an unusually heavy year for flowers on these plants that are usually just green, looking like and getting called “Skunk Cabbage”.

And thus we conclude another Mineral King meander.

Dead Saloon and Western Bang Bang

Excuse me??

I am working on a logo design for a customer-friend (if it is business, “customer” is the right term, but they are friends too). He requested “western type”, so I went searching on the Duck. DaFont, actually.

The names of those typestyles are hilarious! Look at these: Eastwood, I Shot The Serif, Bleeding Cowboys, Insane Rodeo, Boots and Spurs, Dust West, Confetti Western, Lost Saloon, Fort Death, Tequila Sunrise, Cowboy Cadaver, Poker Kings, Texas Tango, Macho, Western Swagger, Old Bob Junior, Dusty Ranch. . . they go on and on and on. Lots of them look alike, so I will just keep sketching, figuring out which type fits with which sketched logo design. 

The logo will include something that looks a bit like this:

And that’s all I will reveal at this time. More will be revealed in the fullness of time, or as my dad used to say more succinctly, “Time will tell”.

P.S. Logo design is not my strong suit, but pencil drawing is. I have done quite a bit of work for these folks, they are easy to please, and I have a lot of ideas for them. Remember this logo design? I like it a lot, and it inspired my confidence to offer to do this job for these folks.

 

Odd Job

I’ve painted several Christmas ornaments in the past but continue to consider them to be odd jobs. 

These ornaments were sold specifically to be decorated. First they have to be primed. I use gesso, which might just be the same as flat white house paint but sold in art supply stores as if it is special. When I was experimenting with these new ornaments last year, I tried oil paint without the primer and it still scratches off the surface of the plastic.

By sticking them on the end of a paintbrush, I was able to paint all the way around in one session. It isn’t good for paintbrushes to rest on their bristles, so I was glad that the gesso dried quickly.

Next, I waited for the printed photos to arrive so I could start. This is a little bit too hard for me. Painting on a small sphere might be too hard for anyone with normal to large sized hands in addition to figuring out how to make things look normal on a sphere.

So, I started with the easiest parts – sky and water. This will need several coats of oil paint to get the color and the shapes right.

It was tricky to get them to rest with the wet paint side up. Next time I will need to rig up some sort of a hanging system.

This is going to take awhile. Good thing I started in June.

Electronic Drawing Lesson with Buck

Remember my drawing student, C? She and I have been doing drawing lessons through email since last year. I haven’t updated you on her pencil drawing of a horse named Buck, whom I referred to for awhile as Mr. Curly.  I have been posting about other things, while C has been working diligently.

The last time I showed you:

 

The mane is looking great. She has now begun “undercoating”, just laying down pencil for a base coat while she waits for me to tell her something helpful. I actually had very little to say because she is doing a great job on her own.

This is what I told her:

1. Yellow: the cheek sticks out a bit too far. I noticed because his face seems noticeably curvy in your drawing. This made me check the photo, and when I put a box around the area on the drawing and one around it on the photo, I could see the drawing had a wider box. Just carve off a little of the cheek by widening the mane on the right side of the cheek. A fraction ought to do the trick.
 
2. Orange: blur the edge between the dark and the light of this area so it looks like something is changing color instead of being 2 separate pieces ofnthe face/nose.
 
3.  Green: Obviously you aren’t finished with this yet so this is just a heads-up to be sure to have the dark parts of the coat much darker than the bright-light parts. There is a ton of contrast in the photo, which is part of the appeal.
 
GOLD STAR FOR YOU!! 
 
Here is her original photo so you can see what I am referring to:

And if you would like to see the previous posts about virtual drawing lessons with C, here is the list. (Each link will open in a separate tab so you don’t lose this page.)

Previous Lessons

The beginning

Lesson 2

Mr. Curly Becomes Buck (lesson 3)

Lessons via email (lesson 4)

Soldiering on (lesson 5)

It is possible I missed a link to a post; it is more possible that I just didn’t keep you all current.

7 New Oil Paintings, 6 of Sequoia

In one day! That’s because only the fun “gravy work” was remaining on 6 of them, you know, the part where I get to draw with my paintbrushes, which were behaving well that day.

The 2 on the easel just needed the edges painted and my signature. The 2 little Sequoias needed better colors, more detail, edges, and signatures.

Being a frugal person, I didn’t want to waste the remaining oil paint on my palette, so I made the impulsive decision to paint this meadow. There is a large painting of Crescent Meadow that is garnering much attention at Kaweah Arts but the price is scaring customers. So, maybe this little one will satisfy that itch.

Here are all the completed paintings, drying in the painting workshop, which won’t take long in the 100 degree days of July, here in Central California. Top to bottom: 2 sequoia paintings (6×6″ each), Crescent Meadow (maybe) (6×18″), Moro Rock (8×10″), Tunnel Log (ditto), Kaweah Post Office (ditto), Giant Sequoia (6×18″).

Hikeless in Mineral King. . .

. . .but quite busy. The annual Mineral King Preservation Society Picnic in the Park was on Saturday. The presenters told us about some prominent women in Mineral King’s history, and the new Park Superintendent introduced himself.

The superintendent was accompanied by someone who is in charge of the upcoming road repair project (2023? who knows?) so I asked her about the juniper in the parking lot. She said that the Park’s tree guy took a core sample and concluded that the tree wasn’t healthy enough to remain. Now my only hope is that it stays in place until the last minute, which could be another handful of years.

Next we convened at the Honeymoon Cabin for a memorial service for Jim Ingram, long time cabin friend. It was a fitting tribute in a beautiful location.

We had rain on Sunday afternoon; afterward we took a walk. Can you name this flower? Do you need a copy of Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names?

Those are grouse on the road, not litter. Here, have a closer look. They are drying out after the rain.

It is still green up the hill. The parking is awful, but there is always room in the Tar Gap parking lot.

This little guy was comfortable in our yard in Three Rivers when we got home.

Good Sales of Sequoia & 3 Rivers Art

I’ve told you that sales have been brisk. Let’s look at the pieces that have sold recently and REJOICE! I haven’t included commissions or the large panels of Giant Sequoias. I might have even forgotten a few.

I have no false illusions about becoming a Big Deal, or that this is “The New Normal”. It is a surge, and I appreciate the business. When stores sell my work, they don’t tell me who bought the pieces, so I don’t have a way to personally thank anyone. Thus, this blog post (which might also be a bit self-promotional, but then it IS the blog of my art, and this IS how I earn a living.)

THANK YOU for reading, for buying, for liking my work and my words.

Painting in Mineral King

That was a confusing title. I was in Mineral King, painting non-Mineral King subjects. The heat in Mineral King is less uncomfortable than the swamp-cooler situation in my painting workshop. Sometimes in the past when I have been painting non-Mineral King subjects while in Mineral King, people have asked why I am not painting Mineral King. The answer is because there is a check, a customer, a gallery, or a store waiting for these particular paintings. (And, would you like to commission me to paint something here in Mineral King? This can be easily arranged.)

It is a little difficult for Joe Bag-of-Doughnuts from West Undershirt to accept the reality of art as a business. I do my best to educate him.

Moving on. . . here is how it looks to be painting non-Mineral King subjects while in Mineral King.

None of these are finished, all needing more details, edges painted, signing, and I have to pick some bugs out of the sky of the Moro Rock painting.

The wet paintings go on the stairs inside the cabin until time to take them home to be finished.

It isn’t ideal, but we make it work. I am very happy to have a place to sell my paintings and grateful to Nancy at Kaweah Arts for her terrific work on behalf of Three Rivers artists.

 

Good Sales Means New Paintings Needed

Big Tree #2 on a panel needed to be touched up and Big Tree #3 needed to be painted. On a morning before the swamp cooler began to feel useless, I worked on these giant paintings of giant trees on panels. These new panels, cobbled together by Trail Guy from scrap lumber, are all different proportions. Neither of these lent themselves to showing an entire Giant Sequoia; the tree would have been far too skinny on the panel and not filled up the “canvas” well.

When I finished these, they were lined up in the painting workshop and I noticed a theme: paintings on salvaged and reclaimed items. The trunk holds cat food, and the shutter is for a fundraiser for the Mineral King Preservation Society.

The owner of the art consignment shop Kaweah Arts has been selling very well for me. We had a conversation about the sorts of customers she is seeing and what they are drawn to. This led me to conclude that I need to keep Sequoias in different sizes and shapes and prices always ready to go, along with the Kaweah Post Office, some Mineral King, the river, and some standard scenes that people see when visiting Sequoia.

This is a salvaged canvas from a plein air painting that I did at home after taking the 3 day plein air workshop in Georgia 2 years ago. I liked the scene, but no one else cares. Now it is becoming something new. (Bye-bye, patriotic chairs.)

Here are all the newly begun paintings.