If you tuned in to this blog for the Mineral King Bridge update, I’m sorry to disappoint you today. Instead of watching my husband work on the bridge project, we spent the weekend at the coast in honor of 25 years of marriage. This gives me a chance to show you a few more paintings, even though I suspect you might be wishing for bridge photos. Just be polite, ‘kay?
Sold. (But I can paint another for you)
Here is proof that I actually do work in addition to watch the marshmallow-heads at the bridge in Mineral King. Yes, my business and website and car license plate and studio and business cards all say Cabinart, but sometimes Cabinart brings you kitchen-art. (I said “kitchen”, not “kitsch”). This California artist has to paint items that sell to those of you with gorgeous yellow/golden/reddish kitchens. These paintings are currently for sale at Colors, the art gallery and studio of Wendy McKellar in Three Rivers.
Oh yeah, I forgot I was supposed to be painting and showing them to you. Got kind of caught up in the excitement of the bridge project and the wildlife and wild weather. I AM painting, just not showing and telling. The lemon and the pomegranate were grown in Tulare County, California. (I am a California Artist, Mr. Google!)
All of these paintings are available for sale at Colors, an art gallery and studio in Three Rivers. Owner/artist Wendy McKellar and I know many women with red and yellow and gold colors in their kitchens. These women often like their colors to coordinate. I also like my kitchen colors to match – anyone know of bright blue and white fruit??
They’re very good for you. I think they overtook blueberries, but might have now fallen behind green tea or acai berry. Not sure, but they are certainly beautiful, and make great jelly!
Pomegranate 35, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $40
Sort of “daily”. Sort of not. Painting daily, or drawing daily. Not showing daily. Okay, whatever, just enjoy! 😎
Pomegranate 34, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $40
This is the final posting of this series, Why I Make Art. READER WARNING: I will talk about God in this so if it bores/irritates/offends you, skip this post.
I am made in the image of the Creator. He, the Ultimate Creator, created me to be like Him, which includes the desire to create. (No, no, no, I don’t think of myself as Godlike!!)
Clearly I do not have the ability to speak things into existence, nor the ability to make something entirely original. “What was will be again, what happened will happen again. There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing.” Ecclesiastes 1:9-10, The Message
I also do not have the unlimited ability to make millions of variations of the same item, nor endless items.
My work is imitative, derivative, just a way I have of reflecting back a little glory to God. It is my way of expressing the joy I find in light, shadow, shape, color, texture, scenes, and gratitude for ordinary daily gifts.
(Clearly I am missing the cooler temperatures, brighter colors and higher water of Springtime!)
Reason #4: It shows off Tulare County.
My art provides a way to share beautiful places and moments of time with others. This is a natural thing – aren’t you just dying to tell someone or show someone or lend a book or see a movie with someone else? Me too. (You should have seen me running down the street to share the book “The Help” with my neighbor!)
And, living in Tulare County with its bad rep, I feel an obligation to share the good parts with those of us who are “trapped” here. Sharing our beautiful spots helps our self-esteem as a county. It helps our self-esteem as residents of this place (“You live there? WHY???”)
There are 4863 square miles in Tulare County. Really! I read it on the internet, so it must be correct, right? Although a great deal of it is un-roaded mountains, there are many roads to explore. And, there are roads to re-explore, because I forget stuff.
This summer I’ve made 4 trips to Kings Canyon National Park. Although it is in Fresno County, the bulk of the travel happens in Tulare County. Each time I have taken a different route, sometimes by choice and sometimes by accident. I wasn’t lost, because I still had my sense of direction and a working steering wheel.
On my most recent trip, I tried 245 out of Woodlake. There are a number of roads that resemble one another along the foothills. They have enough variety to make it worth the effort to change my routes. Besides, I like knowing how they connect. The traffic is usually light, and mostly I see pick-ups or out of state license plates. This is because the roads look reasonable on a map, rather than the remote serpentine almost-endless routes that they really are.
As I drove, I wondered why I couldn’t remember one road from another and why they get so intermingled in my head. In addition, I had lots of other thoughts:
1. There is the road where Bob used to live. I wonder where the sycamore that he drew is. . .
Roble Lomas, oil on wrapped canvas, 14×11″, $175
2. OH! There is that stone gate and barn I painted from a 20 year old snapshot! Shoot, wish the light was better so I could photograph it again. Either they built some new structures, or I did some serious editing!
3. Hey! There is the 2-1/2 acres of avocados that Dad used to farm. Now it has a crummy looking mobile home sitting in the middle of the property.
4. That must be Baldy. Michael and I skied there. It’s not the one that slides in the winter – that is Little Baldy.
5. When did the Badger Store close? I remember getting mail there for Hartland Camp, misidentified on the map as “Hartman”. Don’t these folks actually travel to the places they are mapping?
6. THERE’s the Badger school I remember! Â I’ve passed Sierra School on my last several trips. How can an area this rural support 2 elementary schools??
7. AHA! Hogback Road. I knew if I just kept trying different routes, I’d be able to find it from the lower end.
I love Tulare County, and I love exploring! Do you explore areas around your home? Do you look for differing rural routes? Do you have any recommendations? Please share!
Hidden Gardens 2, 8×8″, $75
Historic adobe house, lavender farm, fabulous garden, and a view of the fake Comb Rocks. The real Comb Rocks is out the the frame to the left. (It’s a Three Rivers thing, with apologies to those of you who are wondering what I’m going on about.) The number of available views to paint from that one location would seriously cut into my gardening time if I lived there! I do a great deal of gawking while I walk past that particular location.
Sold
“One ton tomata, I ate a one ton tomata, one ton tomata, I ate a one ton tomaaaa- ta.”
(Hint – it’s a song that you hear while eating chips and salsa)
Okay, that’s it, that’s all for these daily painting posts. Too confining to my smart-alecky, free-spirited, non-routine-loving self.