Still not much going on in my little world, other than enjoying some bright sunshine and starting two bright paintings. Winter is mild in Three Rivers and we are usually above the fog. (Do you want to move here? The town is shrinking, so if you don’t mind living in California’s flyover country where there is no Trader Joe’s or universities, you’d be welcome here!)
From my show Simply Home, I got a commission to paint. In spite of having 50 paintings to choose from in the show, someone requested that I paint something that already sold. Yes, I can do this.
Someone else requested that I paint a scene that I drew in pencil about 25 years ago. It was a commission, until I realized that it wasn’t a commission—it was a conversation. Until money changes hands, it is just a conversation, EVEN IF the other person says, “Yes, I definitely want you to paint this”. Because it is a great idea, I know it will sell to someone, so I began the painting.
There was an overcast day in Three Rivers this week. Maybe more than one, but we are only concerned with one of them for purposes of this post. We drove up the Mineral King road, as far as the Conifer gate. (That’s the upper gate, which is below Atwell.
Brrr
Good to know that the temporary bridge is still in place. . . hoping it is still there when we drive back down the road.
We broke into the sunshine around mile 4.5-ish.
Hello, Oak Grove Bridge! (mile 6.5-ish)
We were in that muck down there, temperatures in the 50s, and now in the sunshine, it will reach 70.
The Sweet Ranch in the sunshine. I wonder if it is called a “ranch” because of cattle in its history, cattle in its present, or just because what else does one call a spread in the foothills? (My uncle used to call his orange and avocado grove “the ranch”, which I always found peculiar.)
We think that if someone drove to this gate, then all the way back to the Foothills Visitor Center, he would be disappointed and surprised by the complete ignorance about this gate or sign on the part of personnel at the Visitor Center. Just conjecture on our part, but probably true.
Often we are above this stuff in Three Rivers, but not so on Wednesday.
Everyone recognizes Sawtooth. (I’ve painted it at least 60 times, and drawn it in pencil many other unnumbered times.)
Now the gate locks are consistently secured, we got a little sunshine, and you are up-to-date (but only as far as Conifer.)
TODAY OUR POWER WILL BE OUT FOR THE BULK OF THE DAY, SO IF YOU ORDER A CALENDAR, EMAIL ME, OR COMMENT ON THIS POST, YOU WON’T BE GETTING A RESPONSE UNTIL THE EVENING OR TOMORROW.
I decided to dig the sweet potatoes that have been growing for around 6-8 months, if you count the time I started them In the kitchen window last spring. One sent its roots outside of the gopher basket, and of course that’s exactly where my shovel went. I put my wizened aged hand in the second photo so you can see how big they got. Last year they were about the size of my thumb, so I determined if this year wasn’t a decent crop, I wouldn’t bother again. “Decent”? That’s pretty subjective, considering this is the produce of about 10 plants. (Thank a farmer, if you know one. Without them, we’d be pretty hungry.)
Someone was watching from above.
My paperwhites bloom in December. Three Rivers doesn’t experience very much winter weather.
WALKING IN THREE RIVERS
Such a beautiful day required a walk. This sycamore is magnificent! A friend told me it had the largest leaves she’d ever seen on a sycamore; we figured out that she only sees the ones that grow in town, not the natives which are old and have lived by a source of water for decades (centuries??)
DRAWING IN PENCIL
Finally, I got myself into the studio to inch ahead on this very challenging commissioned pencil drawing. That “vending machine” was potentially going to keep me awake at night if I didn’t get it figured out. It may not be recognizable to a fireman, but that’s as “right” as it is going to be. (The paper is white; it looks gray because I used the phone under low light conditions to take this photo.)
I worked a bit harder on the two little boys, size, location, and shapes. Ditto for the sunflowers. I don’t know Kansas wildflowers, but I know that the state wildflower is a sunflower. If I can fake a vending machine on the side of a firetruck, I should be able to handle sunflowers. (No, it’s not a vending machine; that’s how it appeared to my ignorant self.)
SIMPLY HOME
The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.
For the first many years (how many??) of my art career, I only worked in pencil, with occasional forays into colored pencil. The detail, the precision, the accuracy, the requirement of strong contrast and composition—all of these things held my attention. Plus, pencils are easy to transport, use, clean up—simple minimal equipment is all that is required.
Despite my devotion to the humble pencil, I am a self-professing color junkie. Here are a few examples of colors in Three Rivers that recently have grabbed my attention.
Someone’s yard has the most brilliant Japanese maple around.
Those bright trees across the river held on until the last rain.
The enormous flowering pear is starting to color up, while mine at the studio has dropped all its leaves now.
The patterns of leaves against the wet asphalt added to the intrigue. (Easily amused, easily entertained)
I went through my yarn scraps and arranged these in the order that pleases me for a multi-colored scarf— ’twill be a gift for a friend.
Sage is blooming in this fantastic blue-violet color beneath the flowering pear at my studio, with its brilliant leaves now all on the ground.
See that piece of dried mural paint? It is a green which I used to think looked fake. When I dropped it on the ground, I was astonished to see that it is almost the identical color as the new weeds now sprouting, at least when they are in sunlight.
SIMPLY HOME
This might be the painting in the show of which I am the proudest . . . yes, I know that “pride goeth before a fall”. . . I hope this painting falls into the right hands!
ENTERING WHITE CHIEF, 12×16″, $387
*The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.
“Black Friday” kind of disgusts me. (I recognize the irony given the previous paragraph/ad). It overshadows Thanksgiving in the media, and it summarizes and epitomizes the commercialism and greed that taint Christmas. I have participated in Black Friday in the past by joining a group of artists for a boutique here in Three Rivers. It was fun for the visitors, most of whom were part-timers in town, staying at their second homes. I reached a point where the scuzzy state of the building where we held the boutique was no longer acceptable. (WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE IS NO WATER??) We borrowed some other locations for a few years, and when they were no longer available, it was a relief to let that boutique fade away.
This year I spent half a day refreshing the mural on the water treatment plant in my neighborhood, an imminently more satisfying venture than heading down the hill into the fog and the crowds to spend time and money looking for things that no one in my life needs or wants. (Not judging you—just stating the facts of my simple life.)
Yellow is the quickest fading color, so many of the greens have turned blue in the past 5 years. Some of those greens may have been mixed using a yellow that lost its high-lightfast rating (which I learned about when I tried to reorder that yellow.)
My before and after photos were terrible. It is almost impossible for me to take comparison photos when in sunlight because the camera screen is too invisible to be able to see and take the same angles. And even this last photo of the finished mural isn’t a good comparison because the light has changed.
You’ll have to trust me that it has improved.
Have a look at Alta Peak. When I went out into the road to view the mural from a distance, this is what I saw behind me.
In spite of my lack of helpful before and after photos, this picture of Alta Peak lets you know that the mountain in the mural is accurate.
It was a much more satisfying way to spend the day after Thanksgiving.
WAIT! I WENT BACK THE NEXT DAY AT THE SAME TIME AND TOOK THIS PHOTO FOR YOU!
Now, let’s look at before and after, side-by-side (11/29/24 on the left, 11/30/24 on the right). The differences are subtle, but I like it better now.
SIMPLY HOME
*The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil drawings, calendars, cards, coloring books, The Cabins of Wilsonia books, and a few pencil reproduction prints.
I’m going quiet for a little while. Nothing to worry about, just ready for a break. I’ll be back.
No image from Simply Home today, just a few final photos of fall in Three Rivers. (Check CACHE‘s website for hours, and visit the show if you are so inclined, because the paintings ALWAYS look better in person.)
Right now I have 2 pencil commissions that both seem a bit too hard for me.
One is a collage, combining multiple photos into one cohesive piece of work. I have done this many times. BUT, these are photos that aren’t fitting together very well with lots of little fuzzy-faced people in them. A hard and fast rule is to Never Draw A Face Smaller Than An Egg. Somehow I got confused as to what this job would entail, and it is growing in difficulty. I’ve done 3 versions now, along with a sample of what the fuzzy faces are going to look like. Nope, not going to show you. Yet.
The other is a single scene, compiled from multiple unrelated photos. What makes this so challenging is figuring out what size each item needs to be in relation to the others, and where they need to be place to make the scene believable. This was so tough that I used Photoshop (the Junior version). Not going to show this either.
So, today we are going to escape into some fall photos. We had lingering heat this fall, then WHAM! It got cold and the colors got bright.
SIMPLY HOME
Swinging Oak, 12×16″, oil on wrapped canvas, $275
CACHE‘S hours are different each of the weekend days, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and posted on their website under the “Visit” tab—scroll to the bottom and look on the right.
The flowering pear tree is also beautiful in the fall. It is the skinniest 20+ year old tree imaginable, and it leans.
In the spring and in the fall, when it isn’t hot, I am struck by the beauty and charm of where I get to work.
When my studio was new here at home, I participated in a studio tour. Many guests asked if my husband built the studio. My answer was, “No, he already has a job”. The studio was a planing shed for the clock builder who owned the property before us. We used it to store avocado green sinks and other unnecessary miscellany from remodeling our house in 1998. A dear friend, now gone the way of all flesh, did the interior remodel on the shed in 2001. About 15 years later, he and Trail Guy added shingle siding. A few years ago, I had the cement floor covered with fake wood laminate flooring.
This is where I draw and do administrative things, along with give private drawing lessons.
When I began painting, I didn’t want that mess in my studio, so I set up in the adjacent workshop, which now also serves as the three cats’ home base. Two were born there, and Tucker moved in at around 8 weeks of age, so they are very comfortable with it as their dormitory and cafeteria.
Since most of my paintings are hanging at CACHE, I had to dig out all my framed pencil drawings to put up on the walls. I also had to spend time measuring them, determining prices, making sure the prices match the prices listed on the website and are consistent with size and framing quality. Sometimes I would like to have an administrative assistant for such tasks.
The few paintings here were done recently in order to resupply the places that sell my work.
Krista asked me to paint again with her at the airport bridge in Three Rivers on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Before I went, I hung out with Jackson a little bit.
He wasn’t very hungry because he let the gopher live. Didn’t even pounce.
I drove to the same place with its multiple No Parking signs.
This time, I had a tripod that the little cigar box pochade attached to. Gear management is one of the great challenges of plein air painting. I won’t be buying a $700-1000 easel set-up for plein air painting unless something really changes in my abilities and interests. But I will continue to experiment and try various arrangements.
My roommate in Monterey won this brush clip in a raffle and passed it to me. It’s pretty useful, but I only use one or two brushes when I paint plein air and don’t plan on needing more. I don’t like to own stuff that I don’t need, so I passed it to Krista, who is very determined to learn this method of painting.
With a tripod, I was able to stand to paint and use my stool as a shelf. The big wooden box was passed to me by a friend who changed his mind about wanting to paint, and it is a handy way to carry my stuff. It weighs more than I’d like, and it seems as if it opens backwards, so it may go the way of all excess equipment—into the hands of someone else who needs it. The verdict isn’t in yet.
This isn’t too bad, and maybe I will like it after fixing and finishing it in the painting workshop at home.
When the sun was off the scene, we started packing, and I turned around and saw this.
It’s all about the light. Always.
One thing that is happening to my abilities as a result of plein air painting is that I am noticing new scenes to paint, looking at sunlight instead of just the subject matter. Maybe this alone is worth the time, effort, and money spent on this adventure.
Another set of days without the internet sent us on a walk in the middle of the day. When virtual life isn’t accessible, try real life.
The star of autumn in Three Rivers is the Chinese pistache tree.
Excuse me? This is indeed a peculiar sight.
The Remoria*l Building has tremendous Chinese pistache trees.
This is the largest flowering pear tree I know of. It is the first to bloom (usually mid February) and the last to turn in the fall. There are a couple of tiny hints of red near where the big cable emerges on the right.
Rumor has it that this former playground for children will become a playground for grown-ups. (You can’t see in this photo, but the sparkly thing I hung on the gate last week is still present.)
I commented to Trail Guy that the abundance of acorns is rather remarkable this year. He said, “Oh yeah? You ought to look behind our work shop!”
So, I did.
We hear them hitting the metal roof and rolling down at night.
Finally, here is the largest buckeye tree I know of. It turned bronze in late June, or maybe early July. These native trees run on a different schedule.
Simply Home
Red Barn, Big Oak, 16×20″, $650
*Remorial is how our neighbor taught us to say “Memorial” when she was 9.
