Three Rivers | Cabin Art

Redbud Festival This Weekend

My booth at the Redbud Festival 2 years ago.

Ever heard of the Redbud Festival in Three Rivers, California?

WHAT: Annual arts/crafts fair in which 30-50 makers of beautiful things gather to sell their wares.

WHEN: Saturday, May 12, 10-5 and Sunday, May 13, 10-4

WHERE: Three Rivers Veterans Memorial Building (on Sierra Drive, weird, roundish white building, screaming ’50s-’60s architecture)

WHO: Local and semi-local artists and crafters (both the cute and the highly skilled types of crafters – you decide which is which)

HOW: Just show up. Bring money. Bring a nice attitude. Bring a friend. Bring your Mom.

EXTRA FACT: The redbud tree finished blooming in March. (I just work here.)
EXTRA FACT: I will have 4 of my 5 coloring books because the one on the Parks is SOLD OUT!
EXTRA FACT: There might possibly be a few packages of those new experimental Mineral King cards
EXTRA FACT: I will bring a bunch of paintings not yet seen in public (unless you count this blog as public, which it probably is, since this is the WORLD WIDE WEB)

Professional makers have pop up tents in the parking lot – always great stuff to see and buy!

My booth 3 years ago – nice sunlight coming in the weirdly round building

The Kaweah Post Office XIV oil painting has been challenging me. By that, I mean it gets in my face each time I paint, and it says, “Whatcha gonna do about me, hunh? Hunh? Can you handle me? Betcha can’t! Besides, you don’t even know how to write 14 in Roman numerals!”

How rude.

Guess I showed him. Still plenty of detail work remaining, but that’s the part I enjoy. It is drawing with my paintbrush, so there, Art Snobs.

Then I looked out the door and decided it was time to get away from this bully of a painting subject. Besides, I’m going to win this battle, so there.

Kaweah Post Office oil paintings Three Rivers

Finished!

It is surprising how many (or any at all) paintings got finished with all that procrastinating in April. Have a look:

Poppy #54, 6×6, $60 plus 8% sales tax in California

Foothill Wildflowers, 6×18″, $150 plus 8% sales tax in California

Moro and Alta, 6×18″, $150 plus. . . in the Golden State.

oil paintings Sawtooth Three Rivers

May Flowers

April showers bring May flowers in some parts of the world; in Three Rivers, it is more this way: With April heat, May flowers are beat.

That’s okay. I can paint my own flowers.

This is going to take longer than expected. Most paintings do.

I build the background around the flowers, then touch up the flowers.

There is so much variety, and I’m trying to make it look natural rather than arranged.

I think this is finished! I titled it “April in Three Rivers” and sent a photo of it to a lady who expressed an interest during the Studio Tour. She wants it! I can paint it again for you- 8×10″, $125 plus tax.

That was so fun that I began a similar one, this time in the horizontal format.

But wait! What is all this?

This is how it looks when there is a stack of new paintings ready to begin. Sky is the farthest thing in a scene, so it goes on first.

oil paintings Three Rivers wildflowers

Flowers in My Yard

April is the most beautiful month in Three Rivers and that includes my yard. Our yard. Trail Guy is great with the big stuff like heavy pruning, sprinkler systems, and power tools. I weed, plant stuff, and do girly pruning.

Ajuga grows in the shade and is a very low ground cover, except in April when it shoots up these blue spikes, which always show up purple in photos.

Fairy Lanterns are all over the hill on the backside of the property.

Lovely lavender – I have several varieties, all blooming at once. Never can remember how to tell French from Spanish, but I know this one isn’t English.

The blurry yellow blossom is a Jerusalem sage, about to grace us with its first flowers. The iris is a fantastic light periwinkle color, and that is rock rose in the background.

Fiesta flower is wild and goes bonkers all down one side of the driveway each year.

Rock rose shrubs get kind of huge-ish, but my girly-type pruning keeps them in check.

Dutch Iris? Japanese Iris? Siberian Iris? Doesn’t matter – it is my FAVORITE.

The state flower, California poppies, always more orange than yellow when grown in a domestic yard.

P.S. I have one power tool, and when/if it starts, it is great. It is one of those “easy to use” rototillers called a Mantis. I call it other things when it won’t start. Sometimes I just use an old tool that Grandma gave me instead. She also gave me her love of flowers. Today is her birthday, but she isn’t counting birthdays in heaven.

Three Rivers

April Distractions in Three Rivers

I tried to oil paint last Friday but the greenery and wildflowers overcame my sense of duty. So, Trail Guy and I drove up North Fork Drive to the end.

After telling Trail Guy that I’d heard the flowers were great up North Fork and staring out the window a bit, he said, “Let’s go now!”

The road was longer, rougher, narrower than I remembered and all very worth the drive.

This is Yucca Creek at the end of North Fork Drive.

That’s one narrow little footbridge over a massive old culvert pipe.

Heading back down has a view of Ash Peak with a blooming yucca and bush lupine.

Looking over the edge down to the North Fork makes one glad to not encounter any oncoming traffic on that narrow road with no turnouts.

Poppies are yellower in the wild than in my yard.

The poppies on the hillsides are what gave California its name of “The Golden State”. (Bet you thought it was the gold rush)

I love Fairy Lanterns, AKA Satin Bells. Pink isn’t my favorite color, but it is rare enough in nature that it stands out.

After we got back home, I painted a little bit more. There is this commissioned oil painting of Sawtooth for a very patient customer, and it would be good to make progress.

Sawtooth’s shape is improving, and it is acquiring colors and texture.

Then, I got distracted again and thought that wildflowers would look great on a 6×18″ canvas. Can you see the possibilities here? (Put on your rose-colored glasses with me!)

commission oil painting sawtooth oil painting Three Rivers wildflowers

Easel Time

Have you noticed that the word “easel” is pretty close to the word “easy”?

It’s merely a word illusion. Nothing easy about being at an easel.

This fact, combined with April as the most beautiful month in Three Rivers, has made it even less easy to plant my feet in front of the easel recently.

But, as I pointed out in the Eight Things I Learned in March blog post, often we must parent ourselves. (“STAY IN YOUR ROOM UNTIL YOU HAVE FINISHED YOUR MATH!”) So, I planted my feet in front of the easel in spite of the distractions.

Wanna see some of the distractions? I know you are interested.

Two brodiaea, Wild Hyacinth and Pretty Face, along with Common Madia

Forget easel time and painting for today’s blog. See you on Monday. . .

Three Rivers wildflowers

More New Oil Paintings

All those paintings of Mineral King over the past several months erased the subject of Three Rivers from my mind. When I got reminded that I hadn’t yet reserved my booth for the Redbud Festival, I also remembered that people might want to see some Three Rivers subjects during that little show.

This popular shape and size is perfect for Moro Rock and Alta Peak and good practice for a possible mural of the same scene (still only in the conversation stage). This painting clearly needs many more layers.

Not sure how it will be to paint all this grass. I will put a bunch of wildflowers in it instead of the few that appear in the photo. The green time of year here is almost wonderful enough to balance out the seemingly endless dry brown hot months.

oil paintings Three Rivers Three rivers oil paintings upcoming event

8 Recent Happenings

Today there are many topics to address, so we will have a long list.

I went away with my sisters and our Mom for a family funeral. Supposed to be a sad time, but it was surprisingly fun.
Me and four of the most important women in my life feeling happy to be together
Tomorrow and Sunday is the South Valley ARTists’ Studio Tour. Will I see you there? You can buy tickets the day of the event at the places listed on their website.
I hope the studio tour has more attendance than First Saturday Three Rivers. There were 4 people covering for me at my studio while I was with my chicky-babes (see #1) and 11 visitors. ELEVEN?? Bless you, those eleven who came out in the rain. I hope you enjoyed your wildflower freebie!
What a week of learning! I actually designed a website for my friend who manages vacation rentals here in Three Rivers. She got tired of waiting for the guy who said he’d do it for her, and I jumped in with both feet but perhaps only half my brain. We will do a lot of polishing, but the site is ready to be seen. Sequoiavacationrentals.NET It was thrilling to be able to help her, to have some experience, to have all sorts of photos to supplement hers, to FIGURE THIS OUT!! It was hard. I did it anyway.
Why am I designing a site for someone and paying someone else to design a site for me? Because mine is very very complicated. There is much work ahead for me. Good thing I practiced on my friend.
It was so beautiful in Three Rivers this week that instead of working in the studio (drawings to be done for the 2019 calendar and a few more paintings, including a Sawtooth commission), I pulled weeds. It was a nice break from figuring out how to build a website.
Lots and lots of weeds.
Piper is doing well. There may be kittens soon; I hope the little guy adjusts and is polite.
Trail Guy took a day trip to Mineral King. The road has a gnarly slide across it above the ranger station.

See why I had to make a list?? And, in case you were wondering, I am not superstitious about today’s day and date combination.

First Saturday three Rivers Mineral King Three Rivers Three Rivers 1st Saturday upcoming event

Kaweah Post Office Oil Paintings 2

Thank you for returning to see the next set of seven Kaweah Post Office oil paintings. Shall we commence our tour of the growth of my painting skills through the capitalistic exploitation of an innocent elderly landmark? (That would have cracked my Dad up – is anyone else out there laughing along?)

Kaweah Post Office VIII. Obviously, the little post office was popular in 2012. This one was bought by a celebrity who occasionally comes to Three Rivers. That isn’t as a big of a deal to me as the fact that a stranger bought my work!

Kaweah Post Office IX was painted in 2013.

Kaweah Post Office X was painted in 2014. It might have been the first one sold to raise money for the new roof. I think it is wrong to see this much sky behind it, because there is a steep hill back there.

Kaweah Post Office XI is my favorite so far. This was done in 2015, specifically to help with the new roof. Another lying sky.

Kaweah Post Office XII was also painted in 2015, also painted for the roof repair. But shouldn’t there be a little sky showing off to the side? This is another thing I forgot to check when I was there in person. Frankly, I don’t think anyone else cares!

This one is simply titled Kaweah Post Office. I lost the sequential numbering momentum, so that means that #13 is actually #14. Does anyone care? Too bad I didn’t skip #13, like ships and some apartment buildings do. And yet another lying sky. . .

Kaweah Post Office XIII was also painted in 2015. It is currently available at Anne Lang’s Emporium in Three Rivers or from my website. 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125 plus tax (unless you buy it from my website which STILL is unable to charge sales tax for some irritating and unknown reason).

And thus we conclude our tour of my endless depictions of the Kaweah Post Office, popular landmark in Three Rivers, but not where I get my mail, in case you were wondering.