Category: Sources of inspiration

2015 Cabin Calendars for Sale

There are still a few of the 2016 calendars, “The Cabins of Tulare County” for sale. This calendar is a collection of pencil drawings of cabins in Tulare County. (Captain Obvious speaks again.) It is heavy on Wilsonia, followed by Mineral King, and there is one token Camp Nelson. These drawings are gathered from the book The Cabins of Wilsonia, and various commissioned drawings I’ve done in the past year or two.

Have a look at the unidentified months. I didn’t attempt to find seasonal pictures, other than a snowy cabin in December. Cabins, for the most part, are summer homes.

2016 calendar drawings

The calendars are $15 each, including sales tax. If you send me a check in the mail or money using Paypal, AND YOU GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS (excuse me for shouting – someone ordered via Paypal and didn’t give me her address or answer my email – how is she going to get her calendar??), then I will get your calendar to you and pay the mailing costs. (in the USA only)

My Favorite Bridge

I have a favorite bridge. I love to draw and paint architecture, and the bridge over the East Fork of the Kaweah River (on the Mineral King Road) is one of the most beautiful architectural structures in Tulare County.

Currently it is in jeopardy with 4 alternatives for repairing or replacing it.

I don’t want to think about it. Instead, with my fingers firmly placed in my ears while shouting “LALALALALALA”, I continue to paint it.

3 in progress

First, I drew it on the canvas. Can you see it on the white canvas here?

new ogb @1

Next, I put a light wash on many of the areas. I ran out of time (November is my busiest month and I squoze in as much painting in little sessions as possible) so not everything is covered.

new ogb #2

Next, I began painting with strong colors and thick paint. Why strong colors and thick paint? Because I feel strongly about the bridge and think those who want to replace it are thick.

So there.

Around here, we call it The Oak Grove Bridge. I don’t know what those who want to replace it call it. I call those people “them”. Or “Them”.

This is an 11×14 oil painting on wrapped canvas. The edges will be painted so it won’t need a frame.

Sigh. Trying to be brave here.

Thankful

Here is a short list of things for which I am thankful today.

Rain that is turning the hillsides to green!

A strong healthy husband who can replace our roof.

A group of women friends who packed 84 Operation Christmas Shoebox boxes to share with children around the world.

Snow on Alta Peak.

A friend to help on the roof, and a new roof!

Fantastic fall color, suddenly and everywhere.

Picking up Walnuts

One of the great benefits of living in the Central Valley of California is the availability of food. (Is that why we are so dang fat in Tulare County??)

Almost everyone has a friend with an orange tree or grove, a walnut tree or grove, fruit trees, access to packing houses. . . makes me wonder how grocery stores are able to make money around here.

When I was a little kid, it was torture to have to glean for walnuts. I used to beg my mom to not put walnuts in things for a change. As an adult, I’ve actually paid Real Money for walnuts at the grocery store!

Now I have a friend with a walnut orchard. THANK YOU, GERALD! There may be a painting or two as a result of my afternoon gleaning walnuts.

canal 2

It is along the Friant-Kern Canal.

canal

Look at this little gem. And the green sprouting weeds are an indication that we have been getting good rains!!

All that bending down got tiring. After about an hour, I decided to not bend over for just one walnut. Instead, I kicked it to another one, so I could get a minimum of two at a bend.

The ground slopes up to the bank of the canal. I crawled up and this was what I saw. Alta Peak is visible, if you know what you are looking for. For some reason, I enjoy seeing the same peak that is visible from my yard when I am 25 miles down the hill. Simple pleasures. . .

Tulare county

Learning New Skills, Part Two

Yesterday I showed you the tile mosaic work of my friend The Tiling Genius here in Three Rivers.

I learned from him two ways to make stepping stones. I previously stumbled onto each of these methods on my own, but he had all the right materials, tools and techniques. It makes a difference, and I expect to start marching around the yard and tearing apart all my substandard stepping stones in the future.

He is a retired engineer and has built molds for the poured concrete type of stones. These don’t allow for much planning – pound the mud into the mold, and tap your stuff into it! Of course there is much more, but I won’t bore you with the details. The molds are removable by taking them apart – no wonder my version of this was substandard.

Here are my 3 – the large one in its mold, and edges of the other two, which were made on preformed stepping stones. That was my default method, but Mr. Tiling Genius The Retired Engineer had many improved techniques using tools I’d never heard of for making them far superior to my earlier attempts.

In addition, he had zillions of wonderful items from which to choose!

Here are my two on preformed concrete, pre-grouting.

Take a look at all the different ones from the workshop. Mr. Tiling Genius told us we didn’t need to create masterpieces for our first attempts, but I think it happened anyway.

It is sort of a given in The Art World that taking workshops is a great thing. I haven’t attended many and am not sure this is the sort of workshop that will advance my career.

But, it advanced my personal happiness, and that is worth something. I love to learn new things!

Learning New Skills

A handful of years ago I went on a tear making mosaic stepping stones. By “on a tear”, I mean ninja crazy! (In spite of not knowing what that means, it continues to crop up in my vocabulary.) I made about 12 dozen stepping stones, tile-mosaic’ed (no idea if that is actually a verb or how to turn it into past tense) a lamp post, a drinking fountain, several tables, a step, a bird bath and a bowling ball.

I guessed how to do this. Found some stuff and tried it. Tried different stuff and different methods. Sold some. Gave some away. Scattered them all over my yard. Ninja crazy!

Now, many of them have tiles that are popping loose. This is annoying, disappointing and ugly.

There is a man in Three Rivers who is a genius at tile mosaic. His wife was a ceramicist, and after she died, he continued his tiling projects. He began making his own objects in her kiln, continued a project they had begun, and now teaches an occasional workshop.

I attended the workshop in the hopes of learning the right way to do this.

Before I show you what I made, look at what the tiling genius has around his place.

This has symbols for Nancy’s potter’s wheel, her glazing color samples and her kiln.

Oops. Out of time. I’ll show you what I made tomorrow.

Fall in Mineral King

We spent our last weekend of the season in Mineral King over Columbus Day weekend. The weather was beautiful – about time, after all the smoke this summer! It really seemed weird to shutter things up for the winter when we were running around in shorts and sandals, but it certainly is better than closing in a cold storm.

There hasn’t been very good color this year. It could be due to the drought, although there were 15″ of precipitation this summer (mistakenly reported in an earlier post as happening in July – thank you, Trail Guy, for keeping me straightened out on the facts!) The leaves mostly turned brown early and then fell off. Just turned brown and fell off! Sigh.

mineral king

Hey! I painted this scene a few years ago. I sort of lost track of the painting – did it sell? Who bought it? Or is it in one of the places that sell my work and I forgot to list it? (Sounds like someone needs to pay closer attention to her business. . .)

mineral king oil pianting

This is the part of the trail that looks like a yellow tunnel in some years. These are cottonwood trees. The aspens are further up the trail, but we had work to do instead of popping around chasing colored trees. Such responsible adults.

yellow

This was in 2010.

The grasses were sort of yellowish. This coming winter will be a big one, it will end the drought, put lots of white in the mountains and water in the rivers and the lakes and the aquifers and green on the hills. (You listening, God? That is actually a request, not a demand. Amen.)

Mineral King Mineral King oil paintings Mineral King photography

Random Topic Round-up

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).

1509 Barn — 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.

Bear Skin on Vandever

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.

Mineral King Road

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.

Minearl King 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!)

J+M

Perkins and I thank you for joining us in the random topic round-up.

Kaweah Postal Disaster!

UPDATE: The auction will go live at 12:02 on September 29 – I think this means just after noon. Thank you for your patience with my inexperience and ignorance!

As a Central California artist representing the good things of Tulare County, I have painted and drawn the little Kaweah Post Office many times.

It is the longest-operating, or perhaps the smallest operating post office in the United States. Really! Right here in Three Rivers! (But the people who live near it say they live in Kaweah, not in Three Rivers. . . )

KPO X 1410

Kaweah Post Office X, 10×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, suggested retail price $150

See that giant oak tree behind the post office? A HUGE branch broke off and crashed through the roof and front porch!

It can be rebuilt, and there is insurance, but there is a HUGE deductible for the building owner to pay.

I want to help.

So, this painting will be auctioned on eBay, and I will give 1/2 the $ to the owner of the oh-so-cute Kaweah Post Office.

I will begin the bidding at the nail-biting, pearl-clutching price of .01. (Yes,that’s one cent.) That ought to get the bidding wars started! The auction will go for the longest amount of time allowed on eBay.

You can see the painting in person at Anne Lang’s Emporium in Three Rivers, hours Monday through Saturday, 9 AM to 4 PM. (And I recommend her hot grilled turkey sandwich while you are there.)

Any questions? (besides my own about how to set this thing up and get the most publicity possible for the Kaweah Post Office, and no, I am NOT on Facebook, so if you are and want to post a link, until you are better paid, I thank you.)

Lazy List of Hardworking Artists

Today I am sharing a list with you of some truly gifted and amazing artists. (Lists are a lazy way to post to a blog.) Because the internet has shrunk our world, I have had the pleasure of corresponding with and becoming virtual friends with these four women.

Diana Moses Botkin (no relation – we looked but did not find) – this link is to her website. Look down the side menu for the blog link, which reads “The Latest at my Blog”

Laurel Daniel – this link is to her website. Look down the side menu for the blog link

Nance Danforth – this link is to her blog. She also blows my mind with her knitting!

Ann Walker – this is linked to her website. To see her art on her site, click the word “Works” on the menu on the left side of her home page.

I didn’t ask their permission to post any of their work, so you will need to click their names to go to their websites. Diana, Laurel and Nance have blogs; Ann does not. Each is an outstanding painter, each painting in a different style; all are outstanding artists and wonderful people.

Lists are lazy, but they can be helpful. Hope these friends’ work brings beauty to your day.

Thank you Mr. Google for giving me the ability to connect with these inspirational and encouraging artist friends!