Three Rivers | Cabin Art

New Mural in Three Rivers

Yesterday I began a new mural in the Three Rivers Museum’s new Mineral King Room. The internet was on vacation, so you get to see the beginnings today.

This is the only photo I have of the Three Rivers Museum. Paul Bunyon doesn’t belong here, except that Carroll Barnes of Three Rivers carved him from a Sequoia.

Paul Bunyon in Three Rivers at the museum.

blank wall — Blank wall in the Mineral King room designed by Gary Cort and built by Pete Crandall.

outline, ready to paint — The first step is to find the edges of the mural and mask it for painting. This is 5 feet wide by 7 feet high.

The sky is the first thing, because I almost always paint what is farthest away first.

How’s this for a sketchy sketch as a guide for the mural? Yeah, I know. It’s sketchy.

wrong gray — I mixed up Purple Mountains Majesty, plus a basic gray. It was the wrong color of gray – not enough contrast to PMM.

better gray — Better gray to complement Purple Mountains Majesty. (Why, yes, I did make up my own paint color name! Thank you for noticing!)

What am I painting? So glad you asked. This is the upper reaches of Empire Mountain, which contains multiple mines. There was a tram with a cable running on towers to carry buckets of ore from the mines down to the stamp mill. I will paint a tram tower in the front. You can see the beginnings of it tomorrow.

Meanwhile, would you like to say hello to Samson?

Mineral King mural Three Rivers

Commissioned Pencil Drawing Begun

I began the commissioned pencil drawing for Found Friend of a view out of the window of a chapel at St. Anthony Retreat Center in Three Rivers. It was pure pleasure to draw in pencil after months of book designing, coloring book drawing in ink and oil painting.

I LOVE to draw in pencil, particularly to draw architectural subjects. A friend and customer once told me that he thinks I am an art-chitect. 😎

This is the beginnings of the drawing for Found Friend. LB #1

It was fairly simply to lay out and begin the shading.

To be continued. . .

Coloring books will be available again on July 1, 2016. You may order, but it will involve a wait.

A Found Friend Commissions A Pencil Drawing

“Commissioned Pencil Drawing” is a straightforward title for a nice story of friendship and inspiration.

I have a friend from summer camp when we were in grade school. We cannot remember the summer we met. We lost touch. She and my older sister became friends as adults.

Last summer I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Happier by Gretchen Rubin. Love her writing, her podcast, her way of thinking. . . for some reason that particular post was so interesting to me that I took time to read the comments. I recognized the married name of my old friend in one of the comments! Her name was clickable, so I followed links, found a picture and recognized her! She had her own blog and a contact button, so I emailed her and she REMEMBERED ME!

But wait. It gets weirder. Would you believe that is the only time she has EVER commented on a national blog?? And it was the only time I have ever taken the time to read the comments on Gretchen’s blog?

We now have a great email correspondence and have gotten together several times. She is a fabulous human, a deep thinker, a thoughtful and kind person, and a Major Blessing in my life. To protect her privacy, I will call her “Found Friend”.

What does this have to do with a commissioned pencil drawing?

Found Friend spent a bit of time at St. Anthony Retreat Center in Three Rivers several years ago, and was struck by a view out the windows of one of the chapels. When she visited me this spring, we went there and sat inside that chapel so she could show me the view because she wanted to commission me to draw that view in pencil.

She insisted that we conduct business in my normal way, no special friend discounts or freebies. This always feels weird to me, but I remember something a wise friend told me years ago: “If your friends won’t do business with you, who will?”

Here are a few photos I took that day.

Small chapel at St. Anthony's — Small chapel at St. Anthony’s

Tomorrow I will show you the 2 sketches I did for my Found Friend to consider and choose.

Coloring books will be available again on July 1, 2016. You may order, but it will involve a wait.

commission pencil work drawing Three Rivers

Beautiful Place in Tulare County

Do you live near a beautiful place but don’t go there? I live in Three Rivers, just minutes from Sequoia National Park, and don’t go very often for a variety of reasons. It costs money, the lines are long, I am working. . . not all these things are true all the time, so I have to pay attention to when they are not true.

A few days ago, a friend invited me to join her for almost-full moon viewing, photography and sandwiches from Sierra Subs (the best food in Three Rivers).

She picked me up at 6, and we headed up to Hospital Rock, and then down the road to Buckeye Flat Campground. The yucca are in full fluffy bloom, and she was hoping to be able to photograph them by the light of the moon. (She is very knowledgeable about photography and has great gear.)

I gave my tripod to my nephew because he needed one and it no longer fits my life or cameras. So I decided to just try and hold still for the low light. My camera has lots of controls that don’t make sense to me, so I just experimented. The experiments, combined with some computer adapting, gave me these results.

Looking up the canyon of the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River toward Castle Rocks, early evening

Castle Rocks are the 2nd mountain name I learned. The first was Moro Rock, and my dad showed me Castle Rocks while we were on top of Moro Rock. See the rusty trees? They are dead, most likely pines of some variety.

This is a little side falls that my friend had photographed earlier and sent to me. Made me want to see and photograph it myself, so I did.

Yucca and middle fork — Fluffy Yucca in bloom above little side falls on Middle Fork of the Kaweah River.

Moonrise above Castle Rocks — The moon suddenly appeared from behind Castle Rocks.

Yucca — We didn’t get to see yucca lit by the moon, but by holding very very still, I was able to photograph it in very low light.

I relearned some simple good things.

It is good to visit beautiful places that are close. Makes me feel as if I’ve had a mini-vacation.
It is good to do simple things with friends.
It is good to just spend time in a place, sitting, looking, listening, feeling, (slapping mosquitoes, not so good), eating simple food, visiting. No rush. The more time you spend, the more you notice and appreciate. Just be there. (Danged mosquitoes!)

Three Rivers

More Paintings in Place

“Painting” singular, in place, is more accurate. Yesterday I showed you paintings hanging in friends’ homes, friends who collect my art specifically, or collect the art of local artists in general. Some buy it because they love my work and then they become friends, some buy it because they love me.

It’s nice to be loved, and it is nice to have my work loved.

Now, the reason for today’s post:

Before:

After:

Beautiful room, pretty cool painting!

There was a photo of me standing on the hearth next to the painting, but I looked fat, wrinkled, and slightly overwrought. So, we’ll settle for the painting in place.

This is the commissioned oil painting of a Three Rivers home. It was privilege to be chosen to paint this. It was a little bit too hard for me, but it is good to be challenged and to push through the difficulties. The homeowners were a delight to work with.

Thank you, C & S!!

commission oil painting oil paintings Three Rivers

Redbud Report Continued

Heart of the Hills

Yesterday I told you that fifty-eight coloring books, Heart of the Hills, sold during the annual Redbud Festival in Three Rivers.

Lest you think I could have just skipped the booth set up and plopped myself at a card table with a stack of coloring books, plenty of other items also sold. I even had the privilege of seeing some new friends from Fresno who came specifically for pencil drawings, which I had to race home and retrieve. So glad I live close, and that Trail Guy delivered my car to me, since I had walked to work that morning.

Cards, small oil paintings and tee shirts remain popular. But the coloring book stole the show.

My booth was busy almost the entire time, and sometimes I’d see someone sort of hovering around the edges. While I’d be talking with someone else, I’d just pick up a coloring book and pass it over the the hoverer, who invariably said, “How did you know that is what I was looking for?!”

I lied and said I had read her mind. (I hope no one got freaky about that.) It was just obvious to me, taking into account the tremendous popularity and publicity the coloring book is receiving.

Besides, I’ve been doing this show off and on since 1987, so I can read people pretty well.

Wow. It was a busy busy weekend, and I am so thankful to have had this pleasant and peaceful walk to work each morning of the show.

It is truly a blessing to live in Three Rivers.

coloring book heart of the hills Three Rivers

Reminding You of the Beauty of Tulare County

Do you know why I write this blog?

It is because I want to remind us all that there is beauty here in Tulare County. Sometimes I have to put myself out into that beauty and even take my Big Girl Camera with me to get great photos so I can do my job of reminding you of the beauty of Tulare County.

The wildflowers along the lower 6.5 miles of the Mineral King Road are abundant and beautiful. There really aren’t very many places to pull over, so just drive slowly and soak it up. Better yet, have someone else drive, and you can just gawk.

This is spice bush, and it is in bloom right next to the Oak Grove Bridge.There is good water flowing beneath the bridge. This is the upstream view.

This is leaning over the bridge looking downstream. There was a pickup parked on the bridge with rafting stuff. The people were actually rafting down there! I have no idea how they got the raft down to the water or how they got into the thing without having one foot in and one foot out when it shot down some treacherous rapid.

Leaning out over the bridge is all the risk I care to take here.

This is the first time I have noticed the rock work propping up the road over there. STAY PUT, little rocks.

We did a little trespassing to get this view. Now you don’t have to. I don’t know if there is enough color here – just greens and browns, with that little place of blue in the water. The wildflowers are just too small. Maybe I could put some in the foreground, in spite of the fact that there are none there. . .? Time will tell. I still haven’t finished the 24×30″ painting that has been on my easel since January or February! Too busy being out in the beauty of Tulare County to be recording it in paint right now.

Oak Grove Bridge Three Rivers Tulare county

Three Rivers House Commission, Finished?

Is the oil painting commission of a Three Rivers house finished yet?

These are some close photos of detail that I added to the painting.

Step back a bit for the whole view, including the beginning of sycamore leaves. “The beginning” meaning the start of the leafing out of the tree. When all these other things are in bloom, the sycamore is barely showing. That’s why we can peek through its branches and see poppies on the hillsides.

Now I have turned it on its side so I can paint both the bottom and the top of the canvas.

Am I finished with this painting? Is the painting finished with me?

Time will tell. . . that’s how my dad used to say it. I like “more will be revealed in the fullness of time”.

And if I am finished, then it needs a signature, a really good official photo, and a coat of spray varnish.

commission oil painting oil paintings Three Rivers

Three Rivers Spring Mini-Tour

The last several weeks have been full of coloring books and an oil painting commission of a Three Rivers house. Meanwhile, it is BEAUTIFUL out. Spring is fabulous in Three Rivers (everywhere, yes?) so I took a little tour. Come see these things with me.

Climbing roses are hanging upside down. See? They are on this archway. Time to do a little bit of work on our tour. This is the traffic-stopping, attention-getting sign at Kaweah River Trading Co., the excellent gift shop in town that pushed me to make the local coloring book. Soon they will also be selling colored pencils. You can buy Heart of the Hills there or at the Three Rivers Mercantile or the Three Rivers Historical Museum or here.

My friend has stunning and unusual flowers in her yard. This is what I recorded before my camera battery quit. Sometimes it is good to just be in a place, taking it in without recording everything.

Three Rivers

Remember When Life was Simpler?

Life used to be simpler. We have gizmos, devices, technology now that is supposed to make our lives easier, but think about these things:

Remember when your phone didn’t follow you everywhere, demanding continual response?
Remember when you could just go to the doctor and get help without filling out reams of papers, and wondering if you would be able to afford the visit?
Remember when you didn’t have to know the name of medicines and their possible side effects?
Remember when you just ate food and didn’t think about glycemic index, cholesterol, gluten, veganism, or happy chickens?
Remember when you had never heard of identity theft?
Remember when people didn’t cuss on TV or talk about private body functions and then try to sell medicine for them?
Remember when you had never heard of a “carbon footprint”?
Remember when you never considered whether something was organic or local or sustainable?
Remember when you could have a lawn without feeling guilty about it?
Remember when a fire in the fireplace was a normal guilt-free way to add warmth and comfort to a cold evening?
Remember when you only needed a password if you were playing a spy game with a friend? Something common, like “open sesame”?
Remember when “carbs” were called “starches”?
Remember when the only thing you backed up was your car, and you did it by putting your arm across the back of the seat and actually turned your head instead of watching a little television?
Remember when you could ride in the back of a pick-up? Or drink from the garden hose?
Remember when there were drinking fountains and no one carried around expensive bottles of water? You drank when you were thirsty, not when you needed to “hydrate”. . . “Hydrate”?? What is the matter with everyone?
Remember when you wore sneakers for every activity?
Remember back before you had heard of “plantar fasciitis”, “carpal tunnel syndrome”, “irritable bowel”, “acid reflux”?
Remember when you got home from vacation, and all you had to do was collect the mail at the post office?

Yeah.

That’s why people like to color. It returns us to a simpler activity that we enjoyed in simpler times. It requires no special skill, no guilt, no medical terminology, no technology or user name.

This is why I made a coloring book. Easy. Simple. No password required.

Heart of the Hills

Heart of the Hills: a Three Rivers and Sequoia Coloring Book is available at the Three Rivers Mercantile, Kaweah River Trading Company, Three Rivers Historical Museum or here.

That last one probably will require a user name and password. If you see me around, I’ll have a few in the trunk of my car. We can do business that way. Simple.

$15 each plus tax. Easy.

coloring books Three Rivers

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