Fire Thoughts

Almost 3 weeks ago, there was a thunder and lightning storm in Mineral King. A lightning strike started a fire, and it looked as if it would be quick to suppress the thing.

Looking out from Look Out point, 2 days after the lightning strike.

Being somewhat cynical, perhaps because we’ve lived through the “easy to suppress” lightning strikes in 2020 and 2021, I had my doubts that the various agencies would be in agreement and just squash that thing.

While driving home from Salem one week later, I received texts from friends in both Visalia and Exeter, inquiring about my safety because they could see flames from their towns. WHAT??

Trail Guy took this photo on the day I received those texts. That single column had babies.

One friend sent me a photo her Facebook feed (“feed”? “stream”? “account”?) showing 2 areas of flame at night as seen from either Exeter or Visalia. (There is something about a photo from that platform that forbids my saving and showing it to you.)

On our next trip up the hill a few days later, it looked like this:

Each day in Mineral King began with clear air, and then somewhere around 9 or 10 a.m., the smoke would drift up the canyon and obscure all our views. Where is Farewell Gap?

On the way down the hill on Monday, this is what we saw:

We also saw BLM equipment, a Forest Service car, 2 Yosemite fire people, and a helicopter dipping water out of the East Fork.

The latest report at the time of this viewing is that the fire has grown to 850-900 acres, is not contained (well, duh, because what does “containment” mean when it was “contained” before it erupted into this conflagration?) and is heading toward the South Fork drainage in Three Rivers.

Here we go again. . . sigh.

P.S. For current info on the Coffeepot Fire, go to WatchDuty.org.

19 Oil Paintings Sold in May, June and July

Kaweah Arts in Three Rivers (now located in The Dome) and the store at the Silver City Resort 4 miles below Mineral King have been selling steadily for me so far this summer.

When times are slow, it is easy to start thinking: “I’m a has-been. My prices are too high/too low. I’ve saturated the market. It’s all over. I feel fat—maybe I should start singing.”

When sales are brisk, it is easy to start thinking: “It’s about time. I wonder if I should raise my prices. Finally, I’m starting to figure this thing out.”

The truth is that there are feasts, famines, surges, and ebbs. The economy is up, then the economy is down. (Mostly in Tulare County the economy is “downer” than in the rest of the country.) Sales are seasonal. It’s all part of the business of art.

All I can do is continue to paint the best I know how, and when sales are surging, keep producing for the wonderful stores that sell my work.

P.S. The sizes aren’t shown in relativity to one another. They vary in size from 6×6″ up to 6×18″ and 12×16″.

Assorted Photos with Chit-Chat

If you look in the shadows between (and beyond) the 2 chairs, you might be able to discern a doe with 2 fawns, probably born that very day.

While getting gas at the Four-way (local vernacular for an important intersection), I snapped this photo. Barns this classic and oak trees this majestic, quercus lobata, are standard but disappearingTulare County items, and when seen together, they should be painted or drawn or just photographed. (If I paint this, I will edit it severely.)

This is called a vitex tree. Doesn’t that sound like some sort of diet supplement? We tend to refer to these as “lupine trees”.

I finished 2 more Mineral King paintings, both 8×8″, drying quickly in the heat.

My friend with the Hume Lake cabin sent me this photo, which might possibly be the most beautiful one I’ve ever seen. Maybe I shall paint it. . . yes, I KNOW it is in Fresno/Fres-yes County but it is a well-loved place, even among us ignorant, fat, uneducated, poor, diabetic Tulare County hon-yocks.

Just a Regular Work Day

Well, not exactly regular, because it involved gathering paintings from Kaweah Arts and pricing them for the Redbud Festival. But that is all part of the business of art in the life of your Central California Artist.

I started 3 new sequoia paintings so that Kaweah Arts has back stock.

Then it was time to drive to Kaweah Arts to collect paintings that might sell at the Redbud Festival. I gathered all except one, because it was hanging on a hanger that I couldn’t figure out how to operate.

I piled all the paintings according to size and attached price stickers. No matter how I do this, they don’t stay on. I did it anyway, because someone(s) else would be minding my booth for me on Sunday and I wanted it to be easy for them. Sunday mornings at the Redbud Festival have historically very low attendance, but it would be wrong to leave my booth unattended while I attended to my responsibilities at church.

This doesn’t look like very many, does it? There are about 30 here, stacked on the desk.

Something happens when I am seeing them all together and studying them up close and in good light: suddenly, none of them look quite good enough. Sigh. I hate that.

It was a beautiful day, and I worked with the studio door open.

Then I painted some more until it was time to set up for Redbud.

The plan was to get all the structures in place and then take the paintings and other merchandise on Saturday morning. It was so very windy that we just unloaded the display pieces and headed home. I didn’t take any photos of the wind for you.

About the paintings: if I mix up and paint each color across three paintings at once, it goes a bit faster. It’s a continual struggle to not spend too much time on paintings, because the prices have to be sensible for the tourists, and the stores keep 30%. I often hear that my prices are “too low”, but it is good to be realistic about Tulare County. Besides. . .

I use pencils, oil paintings, and murals, to make art that people can understand, of places and things they love, for prices that won’t scare them.

Redbud Festival Today

This is not a redbud; it is a calla lily, blooming for the first time in 25 years in my yard.

Hey, friends. Today was Day One of the two-day Redbud Festival in Three Rivers. This year it has returned to the Lions Roping Arena, a great big outdoor space. There is good signage leading to it, but in case you are wondering, cross the Kaweah on North Fork Drive (just before Sierra Subs), go about a mile, turn right, cross the North Fork of the Kaweah, and turn left. Follow the dirt road to the arena. (It’s dusty, but you don’t need 4-wheel drive or a pick-em-up truck.)

It was a little hard to leave in the morning with the sun shining through the lobelia blooming on my front porch, but sometimes an artist has to do what she has to do.

There aren’t a lot of vendors, and attendance was low. This sounds bad on the surface, but as a introvert with decent social skills, I liked have plenty of unrushed time to converse with each visitor. I met some fine folks, and I reconnected with other people I hadn’t seen for awhile. There was a man with a guitar who played and sang a few songs each hour, very pleasant, not loud, and I found myself singing along because many were songs from my era (the ’70s). There was food for sale, but I didn’t get any because I don’t like to be caught with my mouth full while working my booth.

The pointed canvas top is the Redbud Garden Club’s booth, selling plants behind my booth.

All in all, it was a pleasant day, and I sold enough to hold my head up and return for day two.

You might enjoy stopping by tomorrow, Mother’s Day.

Official hours are 10-4, but I will have some booth neighbors minding my booth until I can get there, maybe around 11:15 or 11:30. (I have responsibilities at church first.)

At the beginning of the day, happy to be set up.
I took a photo of Trail Guy taking a photo of me.

Back to Business – The Redbud Festival!

I’ve been telling you about Texas so eagerly that I almost forgot to tell you about the Redbud Festival. It is traditionally on Mother’s Day Weekend. This year it will return to the Lions Roping Arena in Three Rivers. I haven’t participated in a few years, but this time your Central California artist will be back, Lord willing, the Creek, etc.

Oil paintings, notecards, coloring books, Mineral King Wildflower books (very few remaining), and of course Wilsonia books will all be available for purchase in my booth.

Screenshot

Three paintings, two discomforts, and two jobs for Pippin

Three paintings

I was able to add the branches on the left and sign the painting before heading to Texas.

After getting some input from a smart and honest artist friend, I tackled this one again. It is much better, but it needs to hang around for a bit before I decide if it is good enough to sign.

This painting of the Honeymoon Cabin has been with me for three years, and I have wondered how to improve it. When in doubt, add details. . . it might not be the best solution, but it is my default position.

In addition to adding details, I refined some edges and brightened some colors. Now I really like it (but it is still for sale.) The improvements will be more visible when it is dry and photographed with more care. At 18×36″, it is way too big for the scanner.

Two discomforts

It was hot in the painting workshop, which meant mosquitos. I put a vase of lemon geranium (it has “citronella” in the official name) by the easel, but supplemented its weak efforts with repellent. (Sigh. Scratching bites anyway.) Summer’s coming, and the painting studio isn’t very comfortable in the summer. That’s why I poured it on all winter and spring.

Two jobs for Pippin

In addition to the heat and the mosquitos, I had the added bonus of listening to Pippin growl over a dead gopher and then crunch it for awhile. Nice job, you fantastic hunter! He has two jobs in life: be cute, and keep gophers from wrecking the yard.

One Final Peek at Spring in Three Rivers

May Day! Happy May Day, which I think traditionally includes flowers. (Then why do captains of planes and ships yell “MAY DAY!” when they are about to crash?)

A few days before I left for Texas, I spent a day working in the yard. Whoooo-eeee, it was hard to leave home.

Tucker joined me in the herb garden. He likes to meet me there for coffee in the mornings.

Snowball bush
Snowball up close
Tucker
Pippin
Jackson
On the slope behind the house

Good thing it was almost dark when I left home because otherwise I might have been tempted to cancel the trip.

Farewell to Spring in Three Rivers, Part II

By the time you are reading this, I hope to be on a flight to Texas. The way flights get cancelled these days, who knows? I could be sitting in a airport, fuming. I hope you are not fuming; instead, I hope you enjoy these last photographs of the most beautiful month in my yard and around its edges a bit.

Stop scratching your screen—it won’t make the scent of the lilacs come alive.
“Lilac” and “lavender” —two words for light purple with origins in very scented flowers, both in bloom at the same time in my yard.
Dutch iris all around my yard, and just a few with the yellow parts; not my favorite, but certainly nothing to ignore!
This one was falling over, so Trail Guy picked it, added fairy lanterns to the vase, and put it on the kitchen window sill.
This is a tiny weed/wildflower down the street; this is the first year I’ve noticed it.
Lemon geranium was taking over the herb garden chair. Too bad you can’t smell this.
I pruned it, and then put many clippings in pots to root and share with friends.
It makes a little pink flower. If it doesn’t look like a normal geranium to you, that is because this is a true geranium, not a pelargonium. (As if you care. . .)

Man oh man, the hillside will be all brown and/or weed-eated by the time I get home, and the Lady Banks rose will be finished, and so will the lavender. . . it is SO HARD to leave home, especially in the spring. (But I haven’t ever visited my dear friend in Texas during the 30 years she has lived there; I always wait until she comes here for a reunion, so it is past time.)

Farewell, spring in Three Rivers; hello Texas!

Farewell to Spring in Three Rivers

Maybe. Maybe not. However, I am heading to Texas tomorrow*, and when I return, I think the green in Three Rivers will be finished, or close to it.

My dear friend the Texan and I planned this visit to coincide with the blooming of the Texas bluebonnets (a variety of lupine). I think someone miscalculated, but I didn’t want to bump my trip earlier because there was just too much to adjust, AND I didn’t want to miss spring in Three Rivers.

So, let’s just enjoy the last hurrah of spring in Three Rivers. I might post while in Texas; I might not. More will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Instead of doing his business, this tom kept stepping on the hen’s tail while strutting around.
Bird’s Eye Gilia
Ithuriel’s Spear
Middle Fork of the Kaweah
Jackson, you will miss sleeping at my feet while I paint. No more campouts, you delinquent! You’d better be around when I come home.
Pretty Face
North Fork of the Kaweah
North Fork of the Kaweah River with Blossom Peaks in the distance.
White Crown Sparrow

I hate leaving but am so eager to see The Texan, another dear friend who is also a Texan, and yes, The Silos in Waco.

P.S. The Things I Learned post will appear on April 30. The Blog Equipment allows me to schedule posts ahead of time.

*Normally I would not post about being gone in real time on the World Wide Web, but the house won’t be empty so no squatters will take up residence while I’m away.