Painting Christmas Ornaments. . .

. . . is a little tricky, because they are LITTLE!

My official White House photos, along with 3 ornaments . Only the one on the far right is available ($75).
I found another small Christmas ornament, primed and ready to paint. Isn’t this a great solution for how to hang it to dry? Notice the metal clothespins inside the 2×2″ canvases.

Those little 2×2″ canvases are tricky tricky tricky. Small metal clothespins fit inside the back, serving as handles while painting and a way to secure them to the pegboard for drying. Alas, I only have 3, but there are 6 little canvases to paint.

These giant paper clips also work well. “Necessity is the mother of invention”.
The giant paper clip was also a good solution for hanging the ornament by my wood stove for drying. ($75)
Here are the completed 2×2″ canvases, minus their cute wooden display easels. ($25 each, in case you were wondering.)

All except one of these poinsettias will be available at the Perfect Gift Boutique on Friday and Saturday this week. The poinsettia paintings come with little wooden easels, perfect for those into minimalist decorating (even those into maximalist decorating).

Layer By Layer

When I last showed you this painting, it looked like this.
It all needed work, so I started at the top with Alta Peak, worked my way down the hills, and moved into the flatlands. The original photo is not square, so I cropped it, but then squeezed in every detail I could find from the flatland area, including 2 barns.
Two matching barns looked dumb, so I tore one down.
The orange trees need oranges. The orange groves need frost protection; that means when it dries I will add wind machines.

Besides fruit and frost protection and a signature, this one needs a title. It might also need to have the fog or smoke removed, and a bit more texture and detail in all the layers of hills and mountains.

Nine Things I Learned in October

Closing the cabin meant I could finally wash my car. Pippin wanted to help.
  1. It doesn’t hurt to turn 60 when you are with good friends, doing fun things in interesting places.
  2. I really prefer the mountains to the desert; it was wonderful to see Bodie, Mono Lake, Convict Lake (and so-so to see the Devil’s Postpile), but I don’t feel a desire to return to those places. I’m glad they are there for folks to enjoy, but I’ll choose another destination next time.
  3. It is time to think about painting larger. Why? Not sure yet, just thinking it is time. More will be revealed in the fullness of time.
  4. My friend Lupe and I are almost twins–how could I not know this after 6-7 years of friendship?? Why is this so fun to know? Dunno–it just is!
  5. Symphony orchestras can rent movies without the music and then show the movie while playing the score live. What?? And who knew that the Tulare County Symphony could sound just like the London Symphony? I don’t really like action movies, but Raiders of the Lost Ark was a very fun movie to watch at the symphony (with Lupe, my almost twin!)
  6. Deer eat chrysanthemums, broccoli, comfry leaves, and sweet potato vines. Boy am I mad.
  7. I still love country music – thought I had outgrown it, but nope. My current song obsession is called “Ain’t No Grave” by Molly Skaggs, daughter of Ricky. Oh my goodness.
  8. A group called Business Networking International is working to form a chapter in Visalia. I have lost most of my Visalia business connections, and am trying the group out as a way to stay in contact with people in the seat of Tulare County. As great as Three Rivers and Mineral King are, they just aren’t quite big enough.
  9. Hiking Buddy and I talked about podcasts while on our road trip. I looked up speaker/writer/life coach Mel Robbins to see if she has one, and she does! She is like a nice version of Dr. Laura, helping people solve their problems. Mel Robbins is a wise, energetic, no-nonsense but kind person with a lot to teach people. It is actually a TV show but you can listen to it as a podcast.
Pippin settled on the roof of my clean(ish) car in the garage.

Country Girl in the City #7

My sister and I crossed 2 bridges on our “Urban Hike” of seven San Diego bridges. There were 5 to go, and it was so fun to navigate through the streets with just some written instructions, sightseeing while on the lookout for bridges.

Bridge #3 was a driving bridge and wasn’t very ornate but it had a plaque that might have been important.
This was not a bridge. What a fantastic house! Who can afford to live here??
Bridge #4 was an old suspension footbridge for folks from 1st Street to be able to get to the 4th Street trolley without hiking a mile or two around the canyon.
Oh Wow! Another Little Free Library! (Yeppers, that is my foot in the reflection, wearing my trusty hiking Teva sandals.)
Bridge #5 was another footbridge spanning a canyon. I wonder if litterers and dumpers see the sign and say, “Oh no, we can’t dump things here!”
So many beautiful and interesting city things for this country girl to ogle, ooh and ahh at.
It was a long distance to bridge #6. The route took us through Hillcrest, one of San Diego’s many neighborhoods.
Finally. Bridge #6, one constructed in the 1990s. We were getting hot and tired. If there had been a stream, I would have put my feet in, but first, there are no streams running in San Diego in the early fall, and second, such behavior might be frowned upon in a city. That’s the trouble with this “urban hiking”!
This bridge had some beautifully designed signs and art along its considerable distance. There were metal cutouts with blue plexiglass behind, and this quote caught my attention.
Bye-bye, Bridge #6.
Bridge #7 was a little meh, in spite of the nice design. We were hot and tired. There was another mile to trudge back to Balboa Park, and it crossed no bridges. If we had been less hardy instead of farm girls from Tulare County who were raised to never complain, perhaps we would have called Uber. But nope, not us!

Thus we conclude our saga of my visit to Sandy Eggo, a city and county of many dear people in my life, many memories, and I hope, many future visits.

In and Out

There are juried are shows, and there are judged art shows. Juried shows have a judge or a panel of judges who decide which entries are in and which are out. Judged shows award prizes.

I entered a juried show which is to hang for a year in a Tulare County government office building lobby. Any piece had to be a minimum of 2′ per side, so I rejuvenated 2 older pencil drawings and painted a new oil of my favorite bridge. (That’s the Oak Grove Bridge on the Mineral King Road.)

“The Oak Grove Bridge”, oil, IN.
“Before M&Ms. . .”, pencil and colored pencil, OUT.
“Little Cabin, Big Trees”, pencil, IN.

Go figure. I asked the coordinator of the show if he could tell me how the decision was made. It is good to know the reasons behind such decisions, because they help me learn for the future. He didn’t know, couldn’t tell me, and I continue in a state of befuddlement.

Normally I don’t enter juried shows, because they often have an entry fee and then are a hassle to deliver the work. This is in Visalia, the county seat of Tulare County, and since my mama lives there, delivering will be part of my normal route.

There will be an opening reception to the show on Thursday, September 19, and I cannot attend, so the mystery of why 2 are in and 1 is out will remain unsolved.

Side Job

A side job is something I consider work, but not my main deal. Logo design is not my strong point, but sometimes I get asked to make a logo. Usually I have one good idea, and then the rest just get worse with every attempt. When I was asked last fall to design a logo for a church I used to attend (the only reason I have ever left a church is for geographical reasons so we were on very good terms, nothing awkward or difficult), I said I’d try.

I spent quite a few hours sketching out ideas, refining them in pencil, rejecting the weaker ones, holding on to the stronger ones, until I had 3 that I wasn’t too embarrassed of. They know I can draw, know I have a soft spot for their church and wouldn’t produce something second rate, so I wasn’t too worried about the rough presentation.

The pastor took them to a council, and they selected this one:

Oh boy, next I got to figure out how to turn my scribbles into something print worthy, using Photoshop Elements.

Not too bad, but empty without the leaves.
Alrighty then, leaves added, with a few lemons thrown in.

The council began making suggestions, and I froze. (Design By Committee is what produced a camel when a horse was desired.) They were kind and didn’t have a deadline, so I worked and worked to incorporate their wishes, which were a cross (to be expected in a Christian church) and some color.

Awkward and cluttered.
Cleaner design, but too much green looks overdone.
And the winner is #4! The cross was too visually heavy in black, and the green was looking like someone got carried away with Photoshop. (Ahem. Someone did.)

I called this one #4, but it might have been closer to #20. They are happy, so I am happy. (I don’t want to look at it too long, or I’ll keep finding ways to “fix” it.)