Okay, I’ll quit stalling now. This is what the Ivanhoe Library mural project gave to the potential artists.
First, I introduced myself with this.
“I am very pleased to be able to submit two designs for the library of my youth. I grew up outside of Ivanhoe, attending Ivanhoe Elementary School K-8. I credit my 6th grade teacher, Tom Stroben, with teaching me to draw, and much of my childhood was spent reading books from this library. It would be a huge honor to be selected as the muralist for this Tulare County treasure.”
And this is what I submitted for the long wall.
This is the explanation that accompanied the sample. The selection committee didn’t ask for this, but they got it anyway.
West Wall is an orange grove with the mountains in the distance and three insets. The mural shows a picker on a ladder (partially hidden), smudge pots, and a wind machine. In the distance are the Sierra Nevada as the peaks show on a clear day from Ivanhoe. The insets are (L to R) Twin Buttes (a geographical landmark north of Ivanhoe), an old citrus label from Klink Citrus (chosen because of the colorful rooster and the name “Venice Cove”, a nod to another geographical landmark, Venice Hills, east of Ivanhoe), and the old Ivanhoe School Auditorium, which housed the school library in the years I attended school there. (1964-1973).
Okay, I’m going to drag this out for another day. Next post about this project will appear on Monday, November 27.
Because Mineral King was closed to the public all summer, I chose to not post about it. There is nothing polite about rubbing people’s noses in the harsh reality of being forbidden to visit the most beautiful place in Tulare County, and in spite of my natural bluntness, I do my best to be polite.
We closed our cabin on a beautiful fall weekend, shut off the water to our little road, and said goodbye to Mineral King for the year.
Road repairs still had not begun, although the contractor was gathering equipment at the bottom of the road on Highway 198/Sierra Drive. There was also a bit of additional flagging where a few wires cross the Mineral King road.
In June, after Tulare County had their lower piece of the road repaired, Trail Guy and the Farmer volunteered many hours, marking the hazards and making the road passable. The Park gave permission for these two hardworking, capable, generous men to do the Park’s work, for free. They were instructed to not clean up anything, because the Park wanted Federal Highways to see the damage and messes.
This repair project should have been started as soon as the road was passable. In the opinions of those of us who drove the road regularly, at the very least, the Park should have sent up a backhoe operator with a shovel-wielding ground crew person to clean out the culverts and clear the gutters. However, they are extremely short-staffed, and Mineral King is not a priority.
The road to Cedar Grove in Kings Canyon has been closed all summer.
The Park hired a contractor, and all summer we kept hearing warnings to not drive the road because we would be interfering with road work. In reality, there was no road work by either the Park nor any contractors.
We were also warned against driving the road because if there was a problem, there would be no way for emergency vehicles to assist or rescue.
An off-duty Park employee thought it was just fine to drive on the wrong side of the road, even on blind curves. Silver City was able to limp their truck to the lower gate for towing; the park employee’s vehicle was still drivable.
We were warned against using our cabins because if there was a problem, no one would come help us. No propane trucks could deliver, and there was no garbage service. Somehow, the resilient and resourceful cabin community made it through these inconveniences.
Eventually, the phone company made it up the hill, but Trail Guy and I opted to not have a phone at the cabin. Several neighbors have phones, which they made available to us. This was an excellent arrangement, and since Trail Guy helps them out regularly, almost as if he is everyone’s (unpaid) resident houseman, he needed their phones in order to stay in touch. In return, we didn’t have to pay $54/month to keep our phone throughout the entire year for 4-5 months of use. Even more importantly, we didn’t have to hear it ring, interrupting our peace and causing us to wonder if yet another Fireman’s Fund was desperate for our help.
The latest missive from the Park:
A quick update on the Mineral King Road construction project. We’ve just been notified by the contractor that they won’t need to begin full road closures until October 17th. They will begin moving equipment and performing some work along the road beginning on Monday, October 9th. They will have traffic control personnel on site during this first phase of work.
Road work impacts will be from the park boundary up to the top of the construction zone at the Conifer Gate. The closure could be reduced over time but shouldn’t extend beyond that.
Work will take place Monday through Saturday, no work on Sundays.
7am-Noon????Road Closed Noon to 1pm? Road Open 1-5pm ???????Road Closed 5pm to 7am ??Road Open
Access will continue to be limited to cabin owners and administrative traffic only. No public access.
In the opinion of the highly knowledgeable Trail Guy, formerly known as Road Guy, the construction zone needs to be extended above the Conifer Gate. You may recall that there was a rather alarming sinkhole in July, which was just 2 miles below the end of the road. We didn’t mention that there were also numerous “tree failures”, and the logs were just moved and trimmed to be one-lane passable.
Although it was mighty peaceful in the summer of 2023, we are not snobs nor are we elitists: we certainly hope that Mineral King is open to the public in 2024.
If you have been reading my blog for the past 2 months, you have noticed that I haven’t been doing much in the way of artwork. Something just went silent, not “artist’s block” because I never run out of ideas. What was it? Two things: spring was so beautiful that all I wanted to do was work in the yard, and sales have dropped significantly so I didn’t want to keep building up inventory. (Too much stuff stresses me out, whether it is possessions, noise, items on a calendar, or people at a gathering; please forgive me for referring to people as “stuff”.)
After working on the Yokohl Oak painting, I worked a bit more on the big painting that I was hoping to someday hang in my dining area. It was just sitting quietly on the easel next to the oak tree, patiently waiting for some attention. The heat wasn’t too bad, I had an interesting podcast to listen to, and I had just killed a mosquito. (There is always one.) Why not keep painting?
It felt a little bit too hard, but my experience tells me that putting brush to canvas is the best way to overcome the feeling of inadequacy. So I dabbed a bit at those upper marks to turn them into oranges.
I couldn’t find a paintbrush that would cooperate. All the little ones did that annoying thing of gathering lots of paint but not releasing it. So, I moved into less detailed areas, just defining dark and light clumps, and actually counting the trees that appear in the front to match them with the trees in the photo. This is not because I need to be a Xerox machine; it is because in order to understand how things look, I need to actually LOOK at them. (or at a clear photo)
Getting better, but still lots of work ahead.
I am not in a hurry. This is for me, and I can take as long as I want and be as detailed as I desire. (“It’s my painting and I’ll draw if I want to, draw if I want to, draw if. . . “)
Someday this painting of the areas of Tulare County that I find so beautiful will be completed, Lord willing, and my vision don’t expire. (How many clichés can I butcher here?)
If you came here for Mineral King news and are disappointed, you can check theMineral King websiteto see if anything new has been posted.
English is a strange language. In the title, the first “painting” is a verb; the second one is a noun. This makes for a fun title, and perhaps it incites a bit of curiosity on the part of you, O Blog Reader.
I painted “Yokohl Oak” in 2020 and showed it in two separate solo gallery shows. People liked it, particular local bike riders, who told me, “Hey, that’s the Bike Tree!” To me it was simply a beautiful oak tree along Yokohl Drive, and I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to recognize it if I drove past it again.
Alas, it didn’t sell. I put it in the 3 other galleries that regularly and steadily sell my work, and it didn’t sell. One astute friend told me it was lacking in my normal amount of detail. Really?? This looks excessively well-detailed to me.
Oh. He meant on the tree itself. It is too smooth for an oak tree. My drawing students agreed when I took it back home for a touch-up. I often run things past them, because they always tell me the truth. Besides, it lets me know if I am teaching them to be discerning, to truly see things accurately.
This got called “The Bike Tree” by a few different people, so I figured I’d just go with that theme.
Then I started adding more texture to the bark on the tree.
After that, I tried to photograph it.
The light was wrong, making shiny spots and making the color wrong. I rotated it multiple ways, cropped it, edited it with the photo program on the laptop, and finally decided it will have to wait to be photographed another time.
In the meantime, this is the new and improved “Yokohl Oak”, after I did a little painting on this big (24×24″) painting.
P.S. Yokohl is the name of a valley in the foothills just east of Exeter in Tulare County. For awhile, there were big plans to turn the area into a self-contained town, but the combination of local protests and drought shut that down.
If you came here for Mineral King news and are disappointed, you can check theMineral King websiteto see if anything new has been posted.
This little painting was a loser because it wasn’t good enough for anyone to part with his hard-earned dollars, despite the fact that my works sells for prices that won’t scare anyone.
It is titled “Tulare County’s Best”, and although it shows what I believe to be the best that our rural Central California county offers, it wasn’t my best work.
It was my best plein air work at the time, because I was new to that style of painting.
But plein air painting isn’t my best work.
Shut up about “best”!
I repainted it, and here it is, now deserving of its title.
Tulare County’s Best, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125
One day we had no internet. This also meant no cell service (because we don’t have cell service at our house the cell phone works off the wifi) and no landline. So no podcasts, just concentrating on the current painting in silence.
I remembered my stereo and popped in a CD when I got tired of my loop-di-loop thoughts. Just sat and drew with my paintbrush and listened to music while painting this classic Tulare County scene for the Long Way Off show.
After goofing off for most of the month of May instead of painting and drawing, I found a new motivation to return to the easels: a solo show to prepare for! It’s a long way off, but I want it to be the best work I have ever done.
An orange grove painting is supposed to be destined for the dining area of my house, but since I hung this painting of Sequoia trees, there isn’t an empty space nagging at me. However, it might be good in the Long Ways Off show, and I’ll need to paint many larger paintings, so it is TIME to go back to work.
This is how it has looked for months. (I cleaned off the spider webs for you.)
Better sky and distant hills first.
Then I began working my way forward.
When I got to that distant curving road, I flipped it over to better focus on the correct shapes.
Finally, I was tired of mosquitoes and my knees hurt, so I sat down to work on the dirt.
There are still miles to go. I actually took twice as many photos as you see here but deleted every other one so you wouldn’t fall asleep.
Things learned:
Morning light in the painting workshop is better for photographing the work.
Mosquitos are a real hindrance to concentrating.
After not painting for weeks, my knees hurt after standing a few hours.
With the doors opened for better light, sometimes my photos blow onto my palette.
I wonder how long this new motivation will hold. That show is a long ways off: October 2024.
After I took a plein air (on location) painting workshop, I tried to incorporate some new techniques into my normal studio method of painting. I didn’t like the results, and apparently, no one else did either, because those paintings didn’t sell.
This one in particular was troubling, because I thought the subject matter would overcome any difficulties.
After goofing off for weeks, I decided to warm up to painting by improving this little loser.
Better sky
Better snow
Betterdistant mountains and hills
Better Painting
When it is dry, I will scan it so we can all scratch our heads in bewilderment about how I could have ever thought the painting might sell in its earlier state.
Guess I was blinded by love for the subject matter of Tulare County’s best features.
P.S. I didn’t mess with the orchards or wind machines because they look fine.
Tulare County roads department is supposed to finish making the lower part of the Mineral King Road passable this week. Whether or not it will be open to the public is not known.
When it is hot, the cats lie on the concrete of the front porch.
Front to back: Pippin, Jackson (whose tail is always up), Tucker.
When the heat backs off a bit, I hope to return to this painting. Yeah, yeah, I could use the swamp cooler, but you may have noticed that I’d rather be gardening. When I actually do work on it, you will get to see some photos.
This place has the most beautiful views of Moro Rock and Alta Peak. 6. So does this place:
It is good to live in Tulare County this time of year (but remember, you don’t want to move here because often we have terrible air, we are all fat and undereducated, and there is no Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods.)
I almost fell asleep at my drawing table one afternoon because:
I got up really early to go walking.
Here is the lower Salt Creek crossing on the BLM land; I turned around here.
It was so beautiful out, not hot yet, and I was moving enough for the mosquitos to not catch me.
There are a few Farewell-to-Spring flowers alongside the road, along with Common Madia, and some Elegant Clarkia. (Just practicing the names so I don’t forget; only the Farewell-to-Spring show in this picture.)
We went to see the river.
Trail Guy and I walked to see the river, which is flowing fast and full.
The March floods took away the measuring stick. Since I didn’t know what those increments actually referred to, I don’t miss it. Yes, feet, but so often the river wasn’t touching the stick at all, and it still had measurable water in it, so go figure. . .
The buckeye are in bloom.
Rocks.
And then we moved a pile of heavy rocks. No photos.
And that’s why I almost fell asleep drawing for fun.
