Walking in Three Rivers For Inspiration

People: “Where do you get your inspiration?”

California Artist: “Everywhere.”

Here are photos from a recent morning walk in Three Rivers.

The Redbud tree is beginning to fade. This is the extent of the snow on Alta Peak that forms “the elephant”.

Popcorn flower under the oaks.

Nothing to say here except swing. Or “swang” if you are feeling Southern.

Spelled “loo-pine”; pronounced “loo-pin”. Go figure.

Lady Banks Rose grows like a weed. Looks best in yellow, also comes in white. The yellow is a bit amplified here on the screen.

These may be called “Fields of Gold”, “Pots of Gold” or “Gold Fields”.

I keep taking this same photo, year in and year out and year after year. If you are sick of it, stop looking.

These are fiddlenecks, common as dirt in the spring.

For not having any flowers, this is a rather colorful shot.

Thus we conclude today’s walking tour of Three Rivers. Hope you too feel inspired! What does it mean to feel inspired, anyway??

 

Beautiful Images from the Pacific Northwest

These are not necessarily things indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, but they are beautiful things I encountered while there. Beautiful things, views, places, all here for you to enjoy.

Puget Sound (AKA “The Sound”) as seen from Mukilteo, Washington.

The Mukilteo light house in what passes for sunshine in February in Washington.

An old architectural detail salvaged from a torn-down building and reused in a sign in Mukilteo, Washington.

Carol loves sea glass. I like it, she LOVES it. We took a little trip together for that purpose a few years ago. You can click here to see it on another page.

It isn’t very uncommon to see people decorate with lights in the Pacific Northwest. Helps alleviate depression. That, and coffee of course.

Overly Excited in the Pacific Northwest

Yesterday I left you at the cliffhanger of Better Living Through Coffee in the Pacific Northwest.

Carol and I visited Port Townsend. It is a beautiful little town on the water with very stately architecture and art galleries and shops full of unnecessary items to enhance life and coffee and restaurants.

 

As the daughter of a citrus grower from Ivanhoe and the wife of a Trail Guy from Mineral King, cities and towns and beautiful buildings just THRILL me. It is a little embarrassing to take me anywhere because I am just THRILLED. THRILLED, I say.

Excuse me while I calm myself here.

There is a yarn shop in this building. With great restraint I did not go inside. I was already a bit overstimulated by the ferry ride and the beautiful buildings and the fantastic coffee.

No more caffeine for you Young Lady.

Get to the point already.

The point was to see Bob, my former drawing student! He and his wife and their horse (RIP, Porky Doc) and dogs (one less now, RIP Rose) moved there 4 years ago. Mrs. Bob loves it. Bob misses the sunshine and the drawing lessons. I miss Bob.

We had a wonderful visit. He drove us around town a bit, and treated us to a wonderful lunch at a very nice restaurant in a very old building. I could hardly eat from the excitement of it all. (Yeah, I know, I don’t get around and out much.)

We visited several art galleries, and the highlight was dropping by Don Tiller’s studio. Who is Don Tiller? I’m glad you asked. He paints what he calls “contemporary acrylic landscapes”. His work is whimsical and colorful and unusual. Bob took private lessons from him, and Carol took a workshp from him last month. Here, click on this to open his website in another page.

Tomorrow I’ll share some photos of beautiful things I saw while in Washington, the beautiful (and wet cold and rainy) Pacific Northwest.

Thoughtful Thursdays – A Juiced Up Life

Now that the drawings for The Cabins of Wilsonia  are finished, I’m thinking about oil painting again.

I’d like to make a 2015 calendar of paintings, and need to decide if I have any that can be used or if I need to do 13 new paintings. Thirteen? A year has 12 months, a calendar has 12 months PLUS a cover.

I’m studying some paintings I didn’t use in the 2013 calendar very intensely. Why hasn’t this or that painting sold? Is it the old “right person hasn’t come along” or is the painting just not good enough to grab those who have come along??

When I wonder about things like this of a philosophical and esoteric nature, I talk to my friend D about it. She and I have decided that we live in a time when we are all used to things being instant and awesome, or as I think of it, “juiced up”. Here are some examples:

Photos

A. regular photo – nice.

B. juiced up photos, like the ones in the link I gave you yesterday.  We are impressed when the light and color are enhanced, or juiced up.

Music

A.  friend playing a song on a guitar – nice.

B. juiced up, hearing it in stereo on our ear buds with all the accompaniment

Movies

A. old movie – entertaining in a dorky sort of way.

B. juiced up – big flat HD screens with stereo sound and special effects and surgically enhanced actors

What does this have to do with painting?

I can paint what I know or see, mixing the colors that match nature and reality. Nice.

Or, I can juice it up – exaggerate the colors, enhance them and show people a scene the way they remember it, because it was a juiced up memory.

Here is a non-juiced up photo:

Nice. Of course it is nice; it is Mineral King!

Here is a juiced up painting:

The colors are brighter, I added a peak, I subtracted a tree. The tree was good, but it didn’t fit the shape of this rolling trunk with a slightly warped lid.

I decided to paint this same scene on canvas. If it turns out well, I’ll put it in the 2015 calendar.

It is very wet and the color doesn’t look juiced up yet. When it is finished and completely dry, I’ll rephoto or scan it so you can see what I mean about juiced up.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, but I don’t dare turn on the comments and be hit by a tidal wave of spam. Sigh. You can use the Contact the Artist tab above or email me if we are already correspondents.

Red Things in Three Rivers, Part 2

In spite of the fact that red is not that common of a color in nature, it seems that red things are prevalent in Three Rivers. Here are a few more red things that Trail Guy and I spotted on our Christmas Day walk. (And in case you are feeling sorry for us, we did go to The Matriarch’s house that afternoon and have a wonderful time with the family. Thank you for your concern.)

I saw this berry at the Presbyterian Church. It was brilliant. I have no idea what it is, and have never noticed it before.

It grows on a shrub, in clusters.

My neighbor has a bright red screen door. We had a red back door at our previous home and I thought it was wonderful. I think the color means “welcome”.

All the fire hydrants in our neighborhood are new and brilliant red. The color freaks out my little camera when I use the telephoto lens. See the glow? The camera was freaked.

The cedar waxwings and robins haven’t finished devouring our pyracantha berries yet. They get a little drunk on them. The deer like them too, but can’t reach the high ones.

What is this?? Our very own red canoe!! It’s a little faded, so I named him “Rusty”. Yes, I know boats are feminine: shall we call her “Rustie”? “Rusti”?

P.S. On the red berries, Donna said this: “Your mystery fruit is from a “strawberry bush.” The fruits are edible, although not anything to rave about.” 

Melissa said this: “I believe the berries in the first picture are ‘Arbutus Unedo’.  At least it’s what it looks like to me!!  If it is, the fruit is edible, though considered bland and mealy: the name ‘unedo’  is explained by Pliny the elder as being derived from Unum edo  ‘I eat one’ which is an apt response to the flavor!!” 

Thank you, friends who know stuff!

Red Things in Three Rivers

On Christmas Day Trail Guy and I went for a walk in Three Rivers. Because it was Christmas Day, I noticed red things. Here are my photos, along with a few thoughts about this vibrant primary color. Color is a strong source of inspiration to me; fascination is probably a more accurate word. No, call it what it is – obsession!  (I am a color junkie.)

Red isn’t a color that appears often or in great volume in nature.  These pyracantha berries were part of an arrangement that gets changed regularly on the Dinely bridge which crosses the middle fork of the Kaweah River.

Red is the favorite color of many important people in my life – Ashley, Sylvia, Robin, Melinda, Marilyn, and those are just the ones who quickly came to mind so I’m sure there are more.

I like red, but it doesn’t play a very large role in my life. When I knit something red, I usually end of giving it away (usually to someone on the list of names in the previous paragraph.)

To be continued. . .

Final Tahoe Posting

I know, it is Friday and I’m still talking about Tahoe. It was beautiful and this post is for your enjoyment, not because I have a compulsion to finish topics, although that may be a factor here. This post will be long so that I can finish (not that I have a finishing compulsion or anything).

Before my friend The Other JB moved away, we used to walk and hike together. She told me about a lake near Tahoe called Fallen Leaf. I thought it was a small lake with a dusty campground. I was wrong. It is about the same size as Emerald Bay, 3 miles by 1 mile, and has a fancy-pants community of awesomely beautiful lake houses and a few cabins. Who knew? the Other JB, that’s who!

In spite of it being late October, there was sunshine and fall color remaining.

Then, we visited Taylor Creek where the salmon were spawning. This means swimming upstream out of Lake Tahoe to lay eggs and die. There were zillions of dying and dead fish. It smelled like it, too.

The ducks didn’t seem too bothered by the fish and their smells.

Beaver activity – there is a dam on the creek behind this fallen tree (not to be confused with Fallen Leaf Lake).

See the dam?

See the fall colors? Weird extended summer this year – Please God, send us rain and snow!

We woke to this on the morning that we left.

With Apologies to the Veterans

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day. I messed up by posting something not about veterans. When I realized it, I painted a flag on the door to my painting studio.

What veterans have done is incomprehensible to me in its sacrificial capacity. I am in awe of their bravery, adventuresome spirit, discipline, devotion, patriotism and unselfishness. Even those who had no choice became all those things.

THANK YOU.

 

 

Fridays are for Tahoe?

Is it possible that I have run out of things to write about Mineral King? It is true that my interaction with the place is lessened once the cabin is closed for the season. I might have shown you all the best photos already. Recycling photos is a little boring. . .  a cop-out method of writing blog posts, in my opinion. (Oh great – now I won’t ever be able to do a recycle or you will call me on it!)

So, for a little while, Fridays will be for Lake Tahoe. We’ll see how long I can stretch out the photos from a beautiful fall weekend. And of course, these are photos from which I may be able to paint some day, so it had to have been a business trip, right?

This is my favorite. I love that little edge of light on the side of the trunks.

I took this photo because it struck me as interesting that these colors are gorgeous in nature and gaudy on manmade objects.

Hey Laurie, did you notice these leaves on the ground in your yard? They are at the base of your back porch!

Drooling Over Other Artists’ Work

On September 12 I posted about finally deciding how I want to paint.

There is still some inner conflict as the zillions of conflicting instructional voices fade away.

There is also a tremendous amount of inspiration. This is serious realism. Look at these paintings by artists whom I admire greatly (and please do click on the links to visit their websites):

Rainbow Row, watercolor, 17×35″, $3450,  Carrie Waller

Oriana Kacicek, Pointe Shoe No. 19, 6×8, oil on linen panel, $450

Water Glass With Lemon, 18×24, oil on canvas, $1070,  Nance Danforth

I contacted each one of these artists for permission to show their images and link to their websites on this posting. Each one of them is so genuinely nice, responsive, happy to help.

I’ve GOT to get my prices and sales up so I can own something by each one of them. . . or maybe I could sell my car. Never mind, I don’t think that would do the trick.