My Amazing Friends, Chapter Two

This will be a long post. I hope you will savor it, instead of filing it in the category of TLDR*.

The series, My Amazing Friends, began this week with Bob. Let’s continue with Barbara, also of Three Rivers, a gardener extraordinaire.

oil painting by Jana Botkin

Barbara grows many plants, knows them all and is best known for her lavender. She is so passionate about her gardens (not just a yard, not just a garden, but GARDENS, plural!) that she works under floodlights at night in order to keep them in order.

wisteria oil painting by jana botkin

Two years ago her lovely grounds were featured in the very first Hidden Gardens Tour of Three Rivers, to benefit the Three Rivers Union School, which is always in peril of closing or being absorbed into the Woodlake School District.

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I had the honor and privilege of seeing the place on the official pre-tour, a return visit or two with my camera, and being present with my easel and paints during the official tour.

This year Barbara’s garden will be on the tour again. Tickets are still available, and you will get to see 4 places, including Angelica Huston’s place. Barbara’s will be the best on the tour, in my completely unbiased (harharhar) opinion!

Okay, getting too long, to be continued tomorrow. . .

*Too Long Didn’t Read

Signed, Sealed, Delivered. . .

. . . it’s yours!

Some artists don’t like to do commission work. Maybe they don’t like to eat, either. Or maybe they aren’t very good at understanding what other people want. Maybe they are rebellious adolescents trapped in the bodies of adults.

I like commissions.

It is a fun challenge to make a visual representation from a person’s verbal description. It is very gratifying to have a happy customer at the end of a job. It is a wonderful thing to have a sale without all the will-she-won’t-she.

During the Three Rivers Artists Studio Tour Ten, several folks asked me to paint specific things for them. As a California artist, naturally I was thrilled to receive confirmation that California poppies and giant Sequoias are always a popular subject.

These poppies were unfinished, sitting on the easel, looking like little butterflies when Amy spotted them. She asked if she could buy it before it was completed. I think I said, “Um, sure!” (Hopefully I was more polished that that.) This was painted from a photograph that my very generous mailman brought to me; he’s just thoughtful like that.

Christine asked me if I thought I could get inspired to paint a Sequoia in the snow. I said, “I’m always inspired if someone wants something.” (Hopefully I was a little more polished than that.) I went through my photos, picked one, and happily dove in, well inspired and eager to do my best for Christine. She now has it and is very happy.

That’s the goal of commissions in my little business.

Too Much Beauty?

One of my favorite authors is John Eldredge. In Journey of Desire, he writes this about beauty:“We need not fear indulging here. The experience of beauty is unique to all the other pleasures in this: there is no possessive quality to it. Just because you love the landscape doesn’t mean you have to acquire the real estate. Simply to behold the flower is enough; there is nothing in me that wants to consume it. Beauty is the closest thing we have to fullness without possessing on this side of eternity. “Try to grasp these two huge ideas:1. You simply cannot have too much beauty. It is one thing where you do not have to worry about overindulging. It isn’t illegal, immoral or fattening, although it might be addicting! If so, it is definitely a healthy addiction. 2. You don’t have to own, accumulate or acquire anything to appreciate beauty. It can be found almost anywhere, and no credit card is required! ONE FINAL CLOSING THOUGHT: This too comes from a John Eldredge book. Of course we long for beauty! Our original home was the Garden of Eden!

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Sunny Sequoias IX – oil on wrapped canvas – 16 x 20 – SOLD