Redbud Festival Weekend

The Redbud Arts and Crafts Festival is a long time Three Rivers tradition. It has been around since I was a little girl, and it is always long after the redbud have finished blooming.

north fork

This is how redbud looks in bloom, up the North Fork of the Kaweah River. This is a commissioned oil painting I did last year as a result of a conversation I had with someone at the Redbud Festival. Wow, was it ever fun to mix these colors and paint this scene!

Anyway, here it is again, Redbud Festival time.

Redbud

WHERE: Three Rivers Veterans Memorial Building, 43490 Sierra Drive, Three Rivers, California. This is about a mile upstream from Reimers, AKA “the candy store”, on the uphill side, not the river side of the road.

WHEN: Saturday, May 2, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday, May 3, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

ADMISSION: free!

WHAT: Lots of artists and craftsmen showing and selling their wares, music? (maybe), food (more will be revealed in the fullness of time.) There are vendors both indoors and out, and no one is allowed to bring items that they have not made themselves. 

WHY: It is spring in Three Rivers, people like to come here, people like to shop, it is fun to see what people are making, it is fun to meet people who make their own products, and Mother’s Day is coming so maybe you would like to buy a present for a mother in your life. 

Fake Painting on a Garden Tour

“Fake painting”? What means this?

It means that I was supposed to be painting plein air, and although I was painting plein air (which means on location), I have no intention of considering those paintings completed. I am a studio painter, and painting on location is a special skill for someone else.

It is sort of like handing a ukele to a violin player and saying, “Here! You’re a musician! Play this and have fun!”

It might have been more fun if it wasn’t 90º. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t productive either.

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I set up on the porch in hopes of seeing and completing this view.

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I’m in the shade, squinting out into the light, wondering what colors I’m really mixing.

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Okay, never mind. I’ll finish this in the studio. Let’s try another location. If I’m out in the sun, maybe I’ll be able to see my colors better. So what if it is hot? I’m a Central California artist, and we can take the heat. Otherwise, we’d move to a more sensible location in the state.

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Never mind. Let’s take a break and listen to some music in the shade where there is a breeze. I can finish this in my studio later.

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There were some beautiful flowers. Maybe I should become a plein air photographer.

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Guess I need to spend some time in the studio cleaning up those messy paintings. Someone else can play the ukele and stand in the heat and do plein air messy stuff because I have a studio and am not afraid to use it.

 

Painting on a Garden Tour

Back in March, I visited a home in Three Rivers that was scheduled to be part of a home and garden tour. The organizers believed that having artists painting in the gardens would add some interest to the tour (and were hoping for sales to raise more money for the school.)

I am a studio painter, not one who paints on location. People who are supposed to know these things say that all painters should practice painting on location. Why? So we can really really appreciate our studios, that’s why!

After looking through the photos from my private pre-tour, I chose 3 views and did an underpainting of each one.

“Underpainting” might not be a real word. It is the first messy layer so that later layers aren’t spent perfecting shapes. It is the same thing as my first steps in drawing – sizes and locations, blocking in, main objects first. (Gotta paint the dog before you paint the fleas!)

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The top 2 paintings are the house and barn. I wasn’t kidding when I said “messy”. (The bottom painting is my favorite bridge, yes, again, because I always have one of those going.)

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This one is the first layer of the view from the front porch of the house.

Good thing you already know I can paint, or you might be afraid.

Hidden Homes and Gardens

 

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For several years, The Three Rivers Union School Foundation has organized a tour of gardens in our town to benefit the school.

The school always needs money. It is a one-school district, and the principal also teaches all day. These situations always cause me to wonder where the magical lottery money that was supposed to save our schools went, but no one brings that up or has answers. But, I digress.

On the first Hidden Gardens tour, I set up in the garden of my amazing friend Barbara. There were so many scenes to photograph and to paint! We collaborated on stepping stones a few years later. (lavender paintings on saltillo tiles)

This year, the Foundation has run out of celebrity gardens to bring in the visitors (William Shatner and Anjelica Huston both have places here in town). What to do?? Add homes!

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I have the privilege of planting myself (ahem – pun intended) in a place up the South Fork with a beautiful view up the canyon, a fabulous new Craftsman style house, a classic barn, sheep, pigs, and plantings that were gorgeous in March. Not sure what I will find to paint in April, in spite of the cooler weather. March was hot and fried the hillsides to their more usual shade of brown.

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The Tour is Saturday, April 18. A good article about it is here. Tickets may be found here. (will open in new windows)

Wilsonia Book Signing Saturday!

Do you remember that I made a book on the cabins of Wilsonia? It is called The Cabins of Wilsonia, because I am Mrs. Captain Obvious.

Cabin Fireplace

Cabin Fireplace, pencil on paper, matted and framed to 11×14″, $200

Available here (will open in new window)

Notice the expression “made” a book . It is a picture book, with 272 (give or take a few) pencil drawings of, yep, you guessed it, the cabins of Wilsonia. There is writing, but it is minimal. It sounds funny to say I drew a book. Sounds too much like drawing the short straw. . .

On Saturday, April 4, from 3 – 6 p.m. I will be at the Three Rivers Historical Museum with my dear friend Louise Jackson, who has written many books. We will have our books with us, along with our pens for signing. I will also bring the original drawings from the book, some framed, some not.

Any questions?

You can read about the making of this book on my other site The Cabins of Wilsonia.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Captain Obvious

 

Painting and Painting

Language is so confusing. “Painting”, a noun (a stretched piece of canvas with a picture depicted in oil paint)? Or “painting”, a verb (the Central California artist at work)?

Both. It means both.

I’ve been painting and painting and painting. Oil painting. Studio Tour is coming, and people like to see new things. I’ve repainted some subjects, painted over the top of others, and begun and completed entirely new oil paintings, some of old subjects, and some of newer ones.

That should have covered it, but just in case confusion lingers, here are some pictures of oil paintings. (I keep saying “oil paintings” instead of just “paintings” in case it helps someone find my blog and website.)

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If this photo doesn’t confuse you, perhaps you are unconfusable.

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Some are finished, some are not. Guess you’ll have to attend the Studio Tour or the upcoming Redbud Festival (unless they all sell at Studio Tour) to see these.

 

Studio Tour Coming Soon!

In the past, there has been a tour of Three Rivers artists’ studios every other year. Now the event includes artists all over Tulare County. Central California artists, unite!

 

studio tour

 

Tickets are also available in Visalia (too much info about addresses, phone #s and hours to type out here) and through this website.

2 more things: my studio will NOT be open on Friday of the tour and I don’t take plastic, just cash and checks.

Studio Tour Preview Exhibit

The Arts Consortium in Visalia is sponsoring the South Valley Artists’ Studio Tour. For the first time, Three Rivers artists have been invited to participate. (Long story, probably not worthy of a blog post.)

There will be a preview exhibit of works from participating artists (ME! I’m one of them!!).

ARTS VISALIA GALLERY

214 East Oak Street, Visalia, California

RECEPTION: FRIDAY, MARCH 6

5:30 – 8:30 PM

SHOW RUNNING MARCH 4 – MARCH 27

GALLERY HOURS: Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 5:30

Each artist is allowed to exhibit one piece. Guess you’ll have to go there to see which one I chose!

P.S. Tickets, called “passports” will be for sale at the gallery during the reception and their regular hours. $15 gets you access to about 40 artists’ studios all over Tulare County over the course of 2-3 days, March 20-22. (My studio will NOT be open on Friday, March 20, but many others will be.)

for more info: South Valley Artists’ Studio Tour

Book Signing December 23

The Cabins of Wilsonia

Book Signing

Exeter Courthouse Gallery

125 South B Street, Exeter, California

12:30 – 5:30

Yes, I know 5 hours is a long time. That is the normal time for drawing lessons, and there are none in December so I decided to use the space and time for The Cabins of Wilsonia. Besides, the more spaced out it is, the more time I have to spend with each guest! Will you be one of them?

The Cabins of Wilsonia, $81 including tax (mailing adds $5)