The last several weeks have been full of coloring books and an oil painting commission of a Three Rivers house. Meanwhile, it is BEAUTIFUL out. Spring is fabulous in Three Rivers (everywhere, yes?) so I took a little tour. Come see these things with me.
Climbing roses are hanging upside down. See? They are on this archway.Time to do a little bit of work on our tour. This is the traffic-stopping, attention-getting sign at Kaweah River Trading Co., the excellent gift shop in town that pushed me to make the local coloring book. Soon they will also be selling colored pencils. You can buy Heart of the Hills there or at the Three Rivers Mercantile or the Three Rivers Historical Museum or here.
My friend has stunning and unusual flowers in her yard. This is what I recorded before my camera battery quit. Sometimes it is good to just be in a place, taking it in without recording everything.
Sometimes it feels as if Spring in Three Rivers lasts for about 20 minutes. This feeling causes me to not want to leave the area, not even to go to Exeter for a day to teach people how to draw, which is something I love to do.
With apologies to the writer of the song “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, I believe with all my heart that Spring is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
Have a look at a few days last week of enjoying Spring in Three Rivers. It is just photography, not art, but it is always a source of inspiration to me.
This is my favorite photo of the whole day. This is one of 3 types of lupine we saw at Kaweah Lake.
This is another type – bush lupine.
Some sort of clover was very abundant and quite fragrant.
This road made me wonder how Three Rivers might be today had Terminus Dam not been built in 1963. The road would meander near the river, and perhaps the river would be more accessible to the public, at least down at that elevation. Most of the river is locked up by private land, and trashy trespassing becomes a real problem every summer.
Visalia, down the hill, would have had massive flooding for many years. It probably would not have the population that it has now, if the dam hadn’t been built.
Like Scarlett, I’ll think about it tomorrow, because today is springtime in Three Rivers and there are wildflowers to gawk at.
While I was painting a mural, Trail Guy (AKA RETIRED Road Guy!) went to Mineral King for a day. Every time he does that, he says, “This is weird. You’re going to work and I’m going to play.” I say, “It isn’t weird. It has been normal since you retired.”
Do not feel sorry for me. I LOVE what I do and will only retire when I can no longer paint or draw or teach people how to draw. (Or edit. Have I told you how much I love to edit?)
I know. Shut up and show us some Mineral King. I can read your minds – does this make you squirm?
“Research” is a word that used to bring to mind libraries with stacks of books and the microfiche machine. Now it means Google.
In the case of this Central California artist, it means a field trip.
I drove the 6.5 miles up the Mineral King Road and spent some time walking around the bridge, climbing into areas that I avoid in the summer because I have a healthy fear of rattlesnakes.
Lots of rain so far this winter means a decent flow beneath the bridge. I really want to see it if we get a flood-like storm!
Water or root-beer?
It’s difficult to get a photo of it from a straight-on angle. The shrubs and trees keep growing and obstructing the view.
This is the most common angle that I paint.
I’ve never taken this angle before. I think it would be a weird painting.
Sometimes the last support and the abutment visually overlap in my paintings and I get confused by all the shapes.
Might as well take a strange angle of the other side. One never knows what might be helpful.
I think the “T” is for Tulare County. I also needed to see what the detailed shape of this post is, because it is always too small to show in my other paintings. This time, in the 24×30″ painting, it just might matter.
Remember, February 8 at 6 p.m. at the Three Rivers Veterans’ Memorial Building, the Tulare Co. planning commission is holding a meeting about the bridge’s future.
I believe that cabin communities are a true treasure of Tulare County, here in Central California. I love to draw cabins. Don’t believe me? My business has been called “Cabin Art” since 1987.
As a studio artist, I work from photos. There is no way to get the level of detail I like while sitting outside. Besides, I’m oldish now, and need a giant magnifying light, along with cheater magnifier glasses.
So, here are a few photos of Mineral King cabins for you to enjoy. Sometimes the light is just right, so I take the same scenes over and over and over.
Here’s a catch-all, catch-up post for you on random topics. My blog post ideas are triggered by pictures, and these were just languishing in the file without purpose.
This painting was very difficult. I worked on it from real life, and from several different photos taken at different times of year. This is the final iteration (unless someone has a suggestion for further improvement).
Three Rivers Barn, 8×10″, oil, $100
We are in year #4 of a drought. In spite of 15″ of precipitation in July, there was no snow on Bear Skin, the almost-year-around patch on the side of Vandever, which forms one side of Farewell Gap in Mineral King.
My favorite bridge was built in the 1920s and is supposed to be replaced. This fills me with dread. The current plan is to keep this one as a footbridge/landmark and push the road further up the canyon with some sort of newfangled, modern, probably-not-very-attractive contraption that will destroy the simple beauty of this scene. But I am neutral to the subject, keeping an open mind. . .
Sometimes when I drive down the Mineral King Road, I am struck by new scenes. You’d think that after 31 summers of driving it almost weekly that I wouldn’t notice a thing. You’d be wrong.
At the end of the Mineral King Road is a bridge. (It was rebuilt in Sept. and Oct. 2011 and the process was documented fully on this blog.) The abutment gets a lot of water abuse on one side, and was piled with rocks to protect it. However, kids love to use rocks to build dams in the stream, and most of those rocks got scooted away! So, the men in uniform and heavy equipment had to come redo the rocky protection underneath the bridge.
Some new friends joined us in Mineral King early in the summer. Mister New Friend was an outstanding photographer, and he took this photo of Trail Guy and me. (Thank you, MAK!)
Perkins and I thank you for joining us in the random topic round-up.
Trail Guy has really become quite the Mineral King photographer. He was back in the olden days of 35mm SLR cameras with film (remember those??). After we married, I stole his camera because I needed 2 going at all times. (black and white in one, color in the other, or prints in one and slides in the other) He didn’t mind, but I sort of wished he’d take photos too.
Now he carries a little digital camera with him on his hikes. Without my hogging all the good scenes, he is finding his own photographs of Mineral King and the surrounding trails.
If you want specifics, you can ask in the comments or email me using the contact button under the About the Artist menu item.
Random is a good word for unrelated items piling up in my head.
Thank you for visiting my other blog this week. I hope you poked around and discovered things that interested and entertained you a bit while over there.
Most of my sunflowers escaped the ravages of the voracious deer in the neighborhood.
The same flower looks different at different times of day. I think there may be 2 paintings in this flower.
I looked out the living room window and saw this:
i looked more closely and saw this:
My herb garden is a source of inspiration and a place of solace:
I am in need of inspiration and solace these days while we navigate rough waters as a family. Here is a link to a video of my brother-in-law talking about his future: Neighborhood Church Facebook.
Steve made the video around August 1, but I have been taking refuge in drawing and gardening rather than talking about reality. (If you know him, you probably already saw the video.) Thank you to all who have been praying and expressing your kind concern.
White Chief is my favorite place to hike out of (in?) Mineral King. So far this summer, it has rained often, I’ve been preoccupied with family matters, and often I only want to sit, knit and/or split (wood) while in Mineral King.
We have a tradition with a friend who spends time with us at our cabin each summer. This was summer #13. Our traditional visit includes barbecued pizza, Yahtzee (I may have one once in 13 years), M&Ms, and a hike to White Chief. There are other traditions, but they aren’t quite as sacred as our White Chief hike.
White Chief can be 4 miles round trip or it can be as long as 9. No matter how far you choose to go, it is always beautiful, always interesting, and always challenging.
I’ll refrain from further chatter. If you have questions about any of the photos, ask in the comments or use the contact button under About the Artist to ask.
Time to do a little bit of work on our tour. This is the traffic-stopping, attention-getting sign at Kaweah River Trading Co., the excellent gift shop in town that pushed me to make the local coloring book. Soon they will also be selling colored pencils. You can buy Heart of the Hills there or at the Three Rivers Mercantile or the Three Rivers Historical Museum or here.
