Did you know that Tulare County is home to the largest oaks in the country? The valley oak, quercus lobata is not what this big oak tree is. I found this tree somewhere along Dry Creek Road. I didn’t get close enough to know what kind, but I can tell by the shape that this isn’t a valley oak. It is unusually perfect, almost symmetrical, and all without ever having been pruned (except when cattle chew on the lower leaves.)
Sky and distant ridge.
Distant waves of wildflowers, closer blades of grass.
Added wildflowers, a rock, more blades of grass and a few limbs because I couldn’t wait to get to that tree.
Details in the grass, another rock, and details in the dirt.
Finally started on the tree.
Am I finished? Time will tell.
Once it is dry, I will sign it, paint the edges, and either photograph or scan it, so you can see it with its brighter and more accurate colors.
Layer by layer, little by little, these two paintings are inching ahead in spite of the Central California artist’s desire to park indoors by the wood stove with a book.
The top one is 12×16″, an odd barn along Dry Creek Road, known as the Homer Barn. The bottom one is 11×14″, some perfect oak tree with wildflowers beneath on some perfect day of driving Dry Creek Road, in Tulare County, California’s flyover country. But don’t forget that we feed the world. (And don’t move here either, because we are all fat, uneducated, poor, and the air is terrible.)
Poppies and oranges are two of my most popular subjects. Orange and green, green and orange. Orange is yellow and red; green is yellow and blue. I’m getting more relaxed about the specific shades of each, focusing more on values, which is Artspeak for darks and lights.
This painting will take awhile, because I want it to be perfect. Do I always say that? Prolly not. I’m not a perfectionist. It takes discipline to keep returning to the same painting over and over when I just want to cross it off my list and keep going on to the next one. BUT, I have learned that it is better to be a little annoyed during the process than embarrassed later.
This one has been very fun. It seems finished now, but chances are that I will see small things to correct once it is dry.
Finally, this one has orange trees that are green but the ones on the right are really wet and shiny.
This is an excellent example of how to not photograph a painting.
All three paintings show the beautiful parts of Tulare County at the prettiest time of year. When these are finished, I will begin one in the fall season. It won’t be orange or green.
Maybe “Tulare County’s Prettiest Places” would be the right name for my show at CACHE.
But what if I want to paint other places too?
Who will want other places? My fan club (fall down laughing) is based here in Tulare County.
Enough already with the speculation and analysis—let’s paint.
This is Rocky Hill Drive, probably the most popular outdoor place to run, walk, and bikeride in Tulare County.
WAIT—”Popular Pretty Places”?
Stop it and just get on with the painting, will ya?
You can’t go up on Rocky Hill itself, only up between Rocky Hill and Badger Hill. But in the very flat land of the flatlands, this is the only place for walking uphill or downhill.
This 6×18″ oil painting needs better detail on the orange trees, the shoulders of the road, and maybe even some work on the center line once all this paint dries a bit.
Orange groves, foothills, and mountains remain my favorite subject to paint. (It used to be the Oak Grove Bridge, and who knows what it will be next?)
I painted this to hang in my dining area, but put it on my website and then, lo and behold, it sold! (off the website—I didn’t open my front door to customers)
No problemo—I just started another painting.
Then, I just left it on the easel for months.
After starting all those small paintings for Kaweah Arts, I finally went back to this painting. If I don’t get it finished soon, suddenly it will be October and then it will go to the solo show and then it will sell without ever hanging in my house first! The urgency. . . !!
Details, details. All those close trees needed details. Of course, once I’ve put all those leaves on, the oranges will need more color or shaping. Then I’ll decide to add blossoms. After that, the ground will need some debris. Next, I’ll decide to put cows on Wutchumna (the hill). Maybe all the distant rows will need refining, the hills reshaped, the mountains improved. . .
Never mind. How about starting another one?
I do love me some orange groves in the foothills with the Sierra in the distance. These subjects are a real benefit of life in Tulare County. (But DON’T move here. It is in California, where people are leaving in droves. Wait—what is a “drove”?? Aren’t people leaving in U-Hauls?)
Your Central California artist bumbles along on one Tulare County oil painting, almost finished another, and finished a commission. Let’s start with the bumble.
The differences are subtle between the before and the after version. In the after version, the lower left corner makes more sense, and there are more branches on the trees.
BeforeAfter
A neighbor-friend stopped by to bring her recyclables because we share garbage services. She works alone at home as I do, and sometimes we just visit for awhile, perhaps our version of hanging out at the water cooler. (Pay no attention to those garbage cans.) She expressed an interest in my current projects, and when I showed her my challenging painting, together we came up with a couple of ideas for improvement. I will continue to bumble along on this difficult painting.
But wait! I made two more adjustments, and then photographed it more carefully. My neighbor approved, which gave me hope. (There will be more adjustments, corrections, and added details.)
I thought I was finished on the Lower Dry Creek Road oil painting. However, the closer fence posts might require some wire. On the other hand, I might not be capable of such minuscule detail. It still needs a signature and the edges to be painted.
Better detailing and color on the golden hills, the dam, the trees. Cattle, fenceposts, wildflowers, done. Maybe I can put in wire on the fence. Maybe I can do a little brain surgery while I am it. . . not feeling capable of wire. . . will it matter?
Better detailing, stronger colors, and a signature now done on Sawtooth #34, a commissioned oil painting for JL’s son. This one is only photographed, not scanned, because it is wet.
Dry Creek Road is one of Tulare County’s gems. At the bottom of this country road, there are cattle, irrigated pastures, wildflowers in spring, and views of layered hills (beer cans too, but we will ignore those). This painting combines several of these elements, and depicts late spring when a hint of green remains while summer’s golden hues are emerging. I used two different photos, and combined the pieces that best represent this route in my 60+ years of driving it. (Fear not—the first 16 years I was just a passenger.)
sky first
farthest hills next
moving closer, working forward on those hills
closest hills
all the greenery
By the time the painting was this advanced, the cold was advanced on my feet. I brought the painting into the warm house to dry, and the next time I work on it, I expect to draw a few details with my smallest brushes.
P.S. Is that Terminus Dam back there? Yeppers, it is!
This painting has been in a bit of a time-out. I was a little bit stuck in the messy middle. There are too many instructors in my head, telling me things like “loosen up” and “stop drawing with your paintbrush”.
After studying it a bit, I remembered who is the boss. The Central California artist is known for drawing details, having begun her art business with pencils, drawing cabins and homes and eventually landscapes in minute detail.
Now that she paints in oil, if she leaves out those details, she doesn’t like her paintings and her friends and family ask her if she is finished because it just doesn’t look right.
Allll-righty then.
The trees are too smooth, the foreground is messy-looking, and oy vey, those upper leaves.
Bark texture! Better rocks!
Notice anything peculiar about the painting here? (I have no idea how this happened.)
More sky holes, more bark, better contrasts, branches growing more believably, more details in the distance.
There is still work to be done in the bark, branches, and upper leaves but now I believe this eventually will be worth signing. I don’t remember where I took the photos, but I know it was in Tulare County, most likely right here in Three Rivers.
In 2023, I participated in exactly one art boutique/fair/bazaar. ONE. It was in Exeter on a Saturday at the history museum/art gallery, CACHE. This was the inaugural event, the reviews are mixed, and I am guessing it won’t become an annual event.
However, I had a good day! One painting sold (Citrus Row) and many smaller items too, all adding up to YES IT WAS WORTH IT.
Being sort of accidentally semi-retired this year*, I decided that a good day of work deserved a good day of hanging out with friends. Because I still live in the same area where I was reared (children are reared, vegetables are raised), when long-time friends return to the area, they often request a get-together. This isn’t always practical, but it is usually a real treat.
I left the house at 10:30 AM and got home at 5:30 PM, just to “go have lunch”. This is why I often turn down such requests, unless I have recently had a good day of work and don’t have any looming deadlines.
The drive was interesting (I actually left Tulare County!), the company stellar, and lunch was delicious.
Our post-lunch walk was exactly up my alley.
The dead tree was interesting, but I won’t paint it.
I will probably paint this. If I really squint, I can see the mountains. We were too far north to be looking at Alta Peak.
I will paint this, minus the white spots (whitewash against thrip?) and pokey little twigs. I’ll probably fake in a navel.
My friend had to help me with these: pistachios! She said that the crop was left to fall on the ground this year. What a terrible waste.
Of course I will be painting a version of this. Shall I make the hill green?
Two outings: one work, one semi-work related, both social, one closer but more taxing (talking to people all day makes me tired), the other far but entirely up my alley with 2 close and long-time friends in the country surrounded by foothills and oranges.
“The Best View”, 10×20″, $400, currently my favorite subject matter
*Because I had no work this summer I may have forgotten how to work.
Today I will show you what I submitted for the 2nd mural on the Ivanhoe Library.
For review, here is what the selection committee provided.
Here is what I submitted for this entry way.
Here is my explanation.
“Mural B shows 2 Valley Oaks, quercus lobata, which is the largest American oak, native to Tulare County. In and beneath the trees are local birds, all seen in and around Ivanhoe, along with a few wildflowers at the base. This could be used as a fun method for children to learn their local birds.
Now, we shall see if I actually get to paint these two murals.
P.S. The commenting part of the blog has been misbehaving but comments are coming through anyway. So to those of you who soldiered through, thank you!
