Ten New Things Learned in December

If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title “Nine New Things Learned in December”.

One of those things is actually a relearning situation. I’ll put it last because it makes my head spin, which makes it hard to type.

  1. Did you know you can order pet prescriptions from Chewy? You need a vet to allow you to connect with them, and the vet has to approve the order, of course. But it certainly beats trying to wrestle this guy into a box or pen for a long car ride, although I did have to restrain him while my vet friend/neighbor examined his boo-boo. Jackson was very displeased with the entire situation.

2. You know all those ads for “miracle cures“, prescription-free supplements guaranteed to fix whatever your health problem is? They all employ the same tactics of “Call now with this special code for this amazing one-time offer”. Then, it turns out that you have to order a 12-month supply of their product in order to get the promised discount. They all guarantee their stuff for 90 days, but it is supposed to work after 90 days, so how are you supposed to get the refund when you don’t know if you have used it long enough? Despite knowing this pattern and recognizing the hard-sell tactics, once again hope has triumphed over experience. I ordered a 3-month supply of a “mystery herb, recently rediscovered” and expect it to fix my peripheral neuropathy.

3. apricity (noun): The warmth of the sun in winter. I find myself seeking apricity during December.

4. Apple cider vinegar is a current cure-all food trend. If it comes with the mother, it is better for you. This means it contains natural probiotics. So, if you want to use “ACV” as it is known by its aficionados, pay twice as much as store brand so it comes with its mommy.

5. The mystery of why some of my blog subscribers can see the photos in their email notifications and other blog subscribers cannot is getting closer to being solved. Those with Apple devices who use either the app that came with the device or use Yahoo to read their mail cannot see the photos. Those who use Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, or AOL are able to see the photos. After spending 1-1/2 hour on the phone with Apple, all they could say was that I need to call the host of my website. Ugh.

6. Kaweah Arts will have a new location. They will close right after First Saturday (January 6, 2024) and reopen in March at The Dome! This is so excellent—I rely on Kaweah Arts to do my selling in town.

7. When I told a bank teller that I was having trouble balancing a checkbook, probably because the ink is too faded on my printing ten-key, she taught me how to change the ink cylinder. I didn’t even know it had such a thing!

A printing 10-key is my only hope to balance
Probably shouldn’t have touched that.
It took 5 attempts to get that thing locked in place, but now look!

8. “Lido” means outdoor swimming pool. I learned this while reading the novel The Lido, by Libby Page. I’d heard the term “lido deck” in reference to a particular level on a cruise ship but had no idea what it meant. It’s been 10 years since I went on that cruise, so I can’t remember if the lido deck contained a swimming pool. I do remember a pool on the way to one of the dining areas that was always loud and splashy with children, but I didn’t photograph that one.

Is that the lido deck down there?
Or is this the lido deck? Maybe the pools are on the same level.

9. A friend once told me that Adobe and Mac are like 2 people in a bad divorce. This little piece of wisdom came alive again when it took me about 2 hours to design a little sticker using Photoshop Elements. I searched and searched for help online, and every piece of instruction said to use tools that were not there. I finally stumbled across what I needed, no thanks to “Photoshop help”, Adobe, or online tutorials. No matter how many times I have used Photoshop Junior or InDesign, or even Word, each time I return to it nothing makes sense.

10. Reimer’s Candies and Gifts in Three Rivers has sold to Stafford’s Chocolates from Porterville. I know no more regarding name changes or products, although a friend enlightened me to Stafford’s a few years ago, proclaiming their chocolates to be superior to any she had ever had in her well-traveled life. (Good grief—I’ve lived in Tulare County 64 years, and she’d only been here 2 years at the time!)

When I was new to oil painting, I painted several little scenes from Reimer’s.

Did you learn anything in December? (I hope it didn’t include frustrating head-spinning sessions with Adobe programs or non-functioning photos on Apple devices.)

In case you can’t remember what we learned in previous years, here are the past three Decembers for you.

EIGHT THINGS Learned in December 2022

ELEVEN THINGS Learned in December 2021

ELEVEN THINGS Learned in December 2020

Favorite Internet Places for You

If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title “Favorite Internet Places for You”.

A favorite place NOT on the internet (not a recent photo)

There are some places on the internet that are too good to not share with you. It is hard to find well-written blogs with regular posts, blogs without ads or with too much self-focus or excuses for not writing or no posts for months at a time. So many that I used to like have just gone splat or poof, but these have endured.

STILL is a blog with photos of natural found objects arranged in patterns. The background is just plain white without ads or words, but if you want to know what you are seeing, you can click on the tiny word “Details” on the lower right. It is simply stunning.

I took this screen shot off the site without permission. (Ahem, STILL blogger, please forgive me, and I hope this results in more followers.)

Tim Cotton Writes is a blog written by a retired policeman in Maine. He tells stories and observations about his life in a manner that feels a bit like Prairie Home Companion meets Mike Rowe (which is where I “met” him). You can read about him on his home page here. (I have his first book The Detective in the Dooryard if you’d like to borrow it.)

The Frugal Girl has become my favorite blog. Kristen is consistent, honest, personal, and responsive to her very active commenting community. She regularly posts lists of frugal things and things to be thankful for, encouraging her readers to do the same. She feels like a friend, and she even answers emails.

“Frugal Pear”, painting from The Frugal Girl’s photo, now sold to one of her readers.

Everyday Cheapskate has so many helpful tips about almost every aspect of life. Look under the heading ARTICLES on her site and be stunned by the tremendous amount of wisdom available. Want to clean your shower? Keep brown sugar from going hard? Want to read some “News You Can Use” articles?

GoodReads is not a blog but it is the best place to learn about any book you might want to read, WITHOUT A USER NAME AND PASSWORD! It is also a place to keep track of what you have read, what you are reading now, and what you want to read. (That requires the hated user name and password routine). I use it regularly to decide what to read next and to keep track of what I have read. And you can sign up for give-aways, when authors have random drawings for their books. (I won one once!)

Reading Rabbit, AKA Salt & Light

Happy New Year! Consider these sites and recommendations a gift to start your year off with learning and entertainment.

Inspired by Beauty

If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title “Inspired by Beauty”.

Earning a living with art in one of California’s poorest and least educated counties often causes me to reflect on the difficulty of my chosen career in this location. Art is a luxury, and most people around here are just trying to keep gas in their cars, food in their refrigerators, cell phones up to date, color on their hair, and acrylic on their nails. 

But while art is a luxury, I believe beauty to be a necessity. Art is a way to introduce beauty into a squalid place. For example, look at the before and after of my studio:

Beauty restores and heals. You cannot overdose on beauty. (I got these concepts from John Eldredge.)

Something about painting a mural sets the stage for people to have deep, personal, and meaningful conversations with me. While I was painting at St. Anthony’s Retreat, an observer told me that the reason people strive for money is so they can use their riches as protection against ugliness. Wow!

Several good conversations took place while I worked on this painting.

A friend used to send me articles by Gerard Vanderleun of American Digest. He once wrote that most contemporary art is garbage, has no soul, and is shallow. Harsh words, but they contain some truth when one considers the lack of attention to beauty in much “modern art”. Here is a direct quote:

“When I thought about why that was, a host of reasons presented themselves to me. Perhaps it was that the ability to draw was no longer taught and expected to be a basic skill of those who would call themselves our ‘artists.’ Perhaps it was that the proliferation of art schools and ‘art majors’ gave the baby boomers and their offspring a way through college that required as much intellect as a point guard, but not nearly as much talent and dedication.” (I added the bold for the part on drawing.)

I heard an artist interview several (many?) years ago. Sherie McGraw said this: “There is a beauty to solving a problem.” She also said something that could have come straight from your Central California Artist’s mouth: “I am somewhat of a dinosaur but what I am inspired by is beauty.”

So, in this unlikely place to earn a living as a professional artist, this place I’ve called home for 64 years, this place of high unemployment, low education, and low income, I persist in doing my best to capture the most beautiful parts and places, on paper and on canvas.

Kaweah Oaks Preserve, as seen from Highway 198 in the spring, east of the Farmersville exit.

Boxing Day, Bonus Week

If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title “Boxing Day, Bonus Week”.

Boxing Day is what the English call December 26, because that is the day all the unwanted and excess gifts get boxed up to donate to the poor people.

In America, people probably box up the extras and ship them back to Amazon.

That’s not what I came here to tell you. The week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day has always felt like a bonus week to me. It doesn’t really have any obligations, many people are not at work, kids are not in school, and it seems as if the entire world is just on vacation (and driving through Three Rivers).

So, this week I will write about topics that are out of the ordinary. Tomorrow I will tell you about being inspired by beauty. Thursday I will give you links to five internet places that I really enjoy and hope you will too. On Friday, well, let’s see. . . it’s close enough to the end of the month that it will be our monthly Learned List.

Next Tuesday I will return to showing you paintings in progress.

Thank you—Inconclusive Conclusions

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE TIME YESTERDAY TO TELL ME WHAT THEY SEE AND DON’T SEE IN THE EMAIL BLOG NOTIFICATIONS!!

Please excuse me for shouting. I am so touched by your responses and willingness to help.

In my attempt to see a pattern about who can and who cannot see photos in the email notifications, I learned this:

  1. Mac laptop – some can see the photos, some cannot
  2. Mac desktop – some can, some can’t
  3. iPhone – some can, some can’t
  4. iPad – some can, some can’t
  5. Android phone – all can see the photos
  6. Non-Mac desktop – all can see the photos

There must be some settings that we don’t understand on our iPhones, MacBooks, Mac desktops, and iPads. Now I might have to dig around on settings for Mac mail on every device they manufacture.

This hurts my apple-shaped heart. At least I know it isn’t a problem with my blog (using WordPress.org) or the subscription form.

One more thing: I sent out the blog post and left for the day. All your wonderful comments arrived, but I wasn’t at my computer to approve them. So, if you commented and wondered if it “went through”, it did, and once I approved it, it appeared.

You deserve a beautiful picture as a thank you for making it to the end of this post. (I hope you get to see it!)

Sequoias in Winter, 16×20″, oil on wrapped canvas

(I didn’t put the price because I don’t want you to think I am thanking you by trying to sell you something.)

Requesting Help From My Subscribers

My blog has a technical problem that I have been ignoring because it just seems impossible to solve. Today, I am giving it a try.

I am specifically addressing those of you who get notifications of blog posts in their email. Many of you think you are reading my blog when you are actually reading an email with the blog post in it, because you subscribed. (THANK YOU!) Almost everyone who reads my blog in their email cannot see the photos.

I have not been able to figure out why subscribers aren’t getting the photos in the emails. I no longer have a web designer; there is someone who helps me if I am in a pinch, such as getting hacked, but she has forty-eleven other jobs, and my website is not on the top of her list.

So, I have begun the unpleasant and distasteful task of trying to figure this out. Since most of my subscribers are even less techie than I am, this may not be possible. I might snatch myself bald or scream a little bit and then quit, but here is my first attempt.

Pippin is the most compliant of our 3 cats; Tucker is skittish and comical; Jackson is unfriendly and demanding.

If you are willing, please email or comment to let me know two things:

  1. Can you see the picture in this email notification?
  2. What device are you using? I need to know what brand (Apple or HP or . . .?) and what kind of thing it is (laptop, desktop, tablet, iPad, cell phone, etc.)

P.S. If you want to see the photos, you need to click on the title of the blog post as it appears when you open the email. It will take you to my actual blog on the internet where you can read the post and see the pictures. (The blog is a page on my website, www.cabinart.net) You can do this if you want to see Pippin in this post, but first, please answer my two questions above.

THANK YOU!!

A Pleasant Walk Through Exeter

A week or two ago, I had some time to kill in Exeter. (That is an unpleasant metaphor—forgive me!)

So, I went for a walk. We think we know a place because we drive through it, but walking is the best way to really take in our surroundings. It’s also a good way to find new ideas for drawing or painting. These aren’t necessarily subjects that will sell, but they will be useful to my drawing students who are learning to accurately see shapes, proportions, perspective, values (darks and lights), and textures.

First, I passed a park that someone once told me was called “Spit & Whittle”. However, there were no benches for old guys to sit on, so maybe I had the wrong park. However, I saw this curious structure, imminently drawable in my view.

I walked along a basic neighborhood street. The yards all had little lawns in front, some green, some unwatered, and only one lawn-parker. I wanted to relandscape, but no one requested my opinion. So, I just admired the view of Rocky Hill.

And of course there were some trains. Exeter is a little catty-wompus on a map because it was built around railroads, which follow the shortest route rather than an exact N-S-E-W grid.

From downtown, there is a view of Alta Peak. There are also American flags, Christmas decorations, fall color in some trees, and markers in the middle of the street, warning against parking on an upcoming evening because of the Christmas parade.

Then I felt compelled to visit the building where my studio used to be. I paid for that brick step, so sometimes I like to just visit it.

It was a real privilege to be located in the building of the poppy mural.

And sometimes I miss being there in the heart of such a great little town, sharing space with a terrific gift shop (Rosemary & Thyme), enjoying the patio outside.

On my way to retrieve the pick-’em-up truck with its new tires, I passed this building. The details on older buildings are so charming, and always strike me as good subjects to practice drawing or painting. Bricks aren’t easy, nor is shrubbery but when one is learning to draw, it’s all hard.

Then it was time to go to the Courthouse Gallery CACHE to teach the final drawing lessons of 2023.

I love to teach people how to draw, love my drawing students, love this location in this little town that I also love.

Aw shucks, isn’t that just sweet?

And remember tomorrow, the little holiday gift bazaar at CACHE, from 10-4.

Thoughts About the Misuse of Words

Occasionally I feel the need to blow off some steam. Today is one of those occasions.

A friend once told me that editors are guardians of the language. Someone certainly needs to be—look what is happening to the world of communication.

Have you noticed that everyone is advised to “do research” now? No one I know is actually conducting experiments to learn what works or interviewing witnesses to learn what is true. Instead, we cruise through the internet, looking for opinions and ratings. How did we learn about products, services, current events in the olden days??

When did people stop being crazy about things, or simply enthusiastic, and become “passionate” about whatever topic they are pursuing? Did everyone read the same marketing material, the instruction manual on how to present oneself as sincere, earnest, and genuine? Someone has said that the secret to success is sincerity, and once you learn to fake that, you’ve got it made. Now it seems the secret to success is to declare that one is “passionate”.

When did giving become “gifting”? The verbization of nouns really bugs me. I personally do not “gift” people; I give to them.

Why did we stop graduating FROM places and now simply graduate places? Who started this ridiculousness?

When did “literally” lose its true meaning and come to mean its very opposite, “figuratively”? “I literally shot myself in the foot.” Oh yeah? How are you walking these days? Maybe you should have taken gun safety training more seriously.

Why do so many otherwise well-educated people insist on using the article “an” in front of the word “history”? It begins with a consonant, and the proper indefinite article is “a”. Really, I have noticed that those who have advanced degrees seem to be the most guilty of this. Maybe they think the real way to pronounce “history” is “istory”.

As you can see, I am passionate about language and have been since graduating high school, an historic event now; I literally have lost my mind doing research on the best ways of gifting you, my blog readers, with this vital information.

If you aren’t too disgusted by my diatribe, perhaps you will benefit from this information about the upcoming Holiday Gift Fair. (This is the proper use of the word “gift”.)

2024 Calendar is Here

This year’s calendar is photographs of Mineral King from the odd and beautiful summer of 2023.

“Odd” because the damaged road limited access to only a handful of intrepid cabin folks, but not the public. (Stay safe, all y’all, but you cabin folks are on your own.)

“Beautiful” because the winter had been phenomenal, with water running in every possible drainage and going strong most of the summer, the tallest grasses in memory, abundant wildflowers, and greenery through September.

I chose to not post about Mineral King in the summer because it just seemed wrong to rub people’s noses into the fact that it was gorgeous but inaccessible.

When it was time to choose the calendar theme, I decided to share the beauty that many people missed. Good idea? Bad idea? Everything is a mixed bag.

As the back of the calendar explains, seeing Mineral King at its most beautiful reminds us all that even when we can’t get there, this beloved place endures.

The calendar is $20 (including tax), plus $3 shipping for one, $4 for two, and $7 for three (shipped in 2 separate packages). If that sounds pricey, be thankful that I am not charging for those overpriced cardboard mailers, and that I am not charging the entire mailing price. Just wanted you to know this, in case you were thinking of making do in 2024 with one of those freebie calendars that advertise a business or show you places that you will probably never see.

There are several ways to get a Mineral King 2024 calendar:

  1. From me in person (no mailing costs that way) either just around, or at the Holiday Bazaar at the Three Rivers Memorial Building on November 18
  2. Order from my website store
  3. Visit the Three Rivers Historical Museum, either in person or on their website.
  4. Put an old-fashioned check in the old-fashioned mail to old-fashioned me (P.O. Box 311, Three Rivers, CA 93271)
  5. Be related to me and wait until Christmas

Best or Worst Critic?

“You are your own worst critic” is something I hear from time to time. That is actually a positive trait, because who else is going to be completely honest to help me improve my work?

Today’s post is one to help me think about how to make this painting be the best possible. This painting is a conglomeration of a stack of many photos, in an attempt to make it the most colorful that I can.

These are my thoughts as I study the painting:

  1. The two pomegranates look good, which makes sense because I’ve painted many pomegranates.
  2. The orange needs a bit more brightening.
  3. The tangerine is a good idea, but doesn’t look quite right; maybe it is Sumo, maybe a mineola tangelo. (Are those even grown anymore?)
  4. The hidden plum is a little weird with that highlight–maybe it should just go dark.
  5. The upper left plum looks almost finished, only lacking some highlighting on the left side.
  6. The grapes need more variety in their color, along with highlights on the left edges.
  7. The lemon needs better color, highlights on the left, detail in the stem. (I took away the shading from a previous iteration because the light source was on the wrong side.)
  8. The persimmon looks too red here, but that might be the way it photographed. Worth checking. It needs detail in the green thingie, called a “sepal”, and the green is wrong.
  9. Both pears need detail; the yellow one has been shrunk and only has a base coat, and the green one lost its freckles.
  10. The peach needs fuzz and it needs those ghost grapes to get buried.
  11. It won’t take long to finish the apple.
  12. The background needs the glow to be more subtle so it doesn’t look like a halo around the plum and grapes.

Good thing there is no deadline on this. It’s a great exercise in making things up and keeping them believable. It is also a great exercise in patience, in reining in my natural bent to git-‘er-dun. So much in life is better when we see it as an opportunity to learn rather than a nuisance.

Here you can see I improved the background, light on the upper plum and grapes, the tangerine, persimmon sepal, the flower ends of the pomegranates (in spite of thinking they were finished), the green apple. Of course, it is wet and shiny so doesn’t photograph well.

Perhaps I am my own best critic, rather than worst critic?