A Winter Walk in Three Rivers

What passes for winter in Three Rivers usually involves sunshine and green hills. Do those folks down the hill know that the fog and gray usually ends at Terminus Dam (Lake Kaweah)?

I walked a new route yesterday. It’s been awhile since I went that way, back before peripheral neuropathy when I could actually walk that far. Now I have to drive there, which feels somewhat counterintuitive when one is seeking exercise. It is busier than my normal routes, there is more litter, and sometimes I have to cross over to the wrong side of the road in order to have a shoulder to walk on. Sometimes it is worth extra effort to experience something new.

The fountain (hard to see here) is dolphins. With those palm trees, I wonder if these folks moved here from Malibu or Florida or even Pismo.

Five Steps Closer on this One

If you receive this in your email and want to see the photos, click on the title.

This painting was waiting patiently for some attention. I gave it an entire afternoon, photographing it at 5 stages.

First, I put in some sky patches in the upper left.

Next, I strengthened the trees. They are all sort of skinny in the photo, so I will probably choose a few to fatten up. Later.

I mixed several greens and just danced around all over the canvas without a real plan.

Then I worked on the road, along with a bit more specificity in the greens.

Finally, I paid attention to the details in the closer things off the shoulders of the road.

In conclusion, the photo is mostly a suggestion of shapes and light. The details are murky, so I am just winging it, pantsing it, trying this and that with an occasional peek at the photo. Photos. I have several, and yet have no memory of taking these pictures.

Two titles are under consideration: “Take Me Home. . .” and “Somewhere in Three Rivers”.

Short Glimpse of Fall Color in Three Rivers

Fall in Three Rivers is often late, subtle, or hidden in smoke. Most of the trees are evergreens, whether a variety of oaks or even some conifers. Some of the deciduous trees are also oaks, and they simply have green leaves that fall off without any hooplah. That doesn’t stop me from hunting fall color. In fact, the few places of color really stand out against all the brown, green, and gray.

After a number of years living here, I know where to look for the prettiest colors. Here are a few of the autumn leaf displays that I anticipate each year.

Virginia Creeper
Flowering pear with a small glimpse of a brilliant Chinese pistache in the distance
Crape myrtle (some special unnamed variety)
Chinese pistache
Redbuds make yellowleaves. (Yes, I know, “yellow leaves”, not one word, but it goes with “redbud” as one word.)
Chinese pistache are the champions of fall color in Three Rivers.

By the time this post goes live, many of these leaves will be gone.

A New Place to Sell

Sales of my art have declined. Is it the economy? I assume so, since sales are an economic transaction. The specific reasons are: one of my regular vendors was not open this past summer; another one relied on a now-closed adjoining restaurant for foot traffic; the third place relied on traffic to Sequoia National Park, which was closed until July 1.

What’s an artist to do?

Look for a new place to sell, of course.

St. Anthony’s Retreat asked for some of my paintings for their gift shop. This is close to home, a place where I have painted several murals, staffed by many friends, and is an active place in Three Rivers. It brings in people from all over the valley for various purposes, many of which are not actually Catholic. It is a beautiful place, very bucolic, and they have very good food too.

I worked with two friends there to decide what to put in the gift shop. This is what we chose:

Alta, Kaweah Lake, Lupine (visible to anyone traveling to St. Anthony’s)
Winding Kaweah, almost visible from St. Anthony’s
Redwoods, painted from the same reference photo used on a mural at Santa Teresita, St. Anthony’s youth center
Yarn! Because there was a knitter’s retreat setting up when I delivered the paintings. (Mama didn’t raise no fool. . .)

Three Rivers Museum Wall Painting, Completed!

The painted designs on the wall for a new exhibit called Native Voices at the Three Rivers Historical Museum are finished!

The last day began with little green men, called “The Gathering”. The lighter green was ready for a second coat, and the rest of the shadows had to be drawn in. That should have been very simple, but I struggled a bit on some of the placement. (There was plenty of touch-up base coat paint for erasures.)

This is how the whole wall looked.

Next, I had to figure out how to put the shadows on the far right diamonds, called “Rattlesnake”. Instead of transferring the pattern a bit to the right of the existing diamonds or drawing it in pencil, I used masking tape to “draw” it. This took a lot of thought and measurement. I would think that it was ready to paint, stand back, and see yet another missing strip. Sometimes I was protecting the diamond edge, and sometimes I was shaping the shadows.

Everything took two coats of paint. I wasn’t sure the tape would peel cleanly, but it did fine. While looking here on my computer screen, it appears that some of my spacing is off. Some of those lines got eyeballed, so the entire thing is bound to look hand-painted rather than like applied vinyl. My customer, the Mineral King Preservation Society, looked into vinyl but chose paint instead, a choice which suits me very well.

While the paint was drying, I started touching up the drips and wobbles, along with covering the visible pencil lines and smudges from the graphite transfer paper. The smaller red diamonds called “Quail” had no shadows. Thank goodness, because these were small and detailed. Maybe I should have taped them, but every job is a completely new challenge, and I just bumble through, wishing that sometimes I could have a couple of jobs the same so that the new knowlege wouldn’t be wasted.

Finally, I decided to peel off the tape, risking disaster. (That’s an exaggeration, because as long as there was paint remaining in the necessary colors, anything could be fixed.)

I peeled and only saw a few parts that needed retouching. Acrylic paint (or latex or whatever non-oil paint is) dries so fast, which is a real bonus on a job like this.

Finally, here is a look at the whole wall.

The display will have cabinets in matching colors placed strategically beneath the colorful wall designs.

A few more facts:

  1. The colors were chosen to not clash with the other 2/3 of the room. (The red is magical—sometimes it looks red, sometimes it looks rust, and sometimes it looks pink, and get this: the name is pumpkin spice!)
  2. The other 2/3 of the room is for the Mineral King exhibit, a thorough look at geology, mining, the Disney era, and cabin life in, of course, where else, Mineral King.
  3. The Native Voices exhibit is put together by the MKPS for the Three Rivers Historical Museum. That 1/3 of the room isn’t the responsibility of the MKPS, but the MKPS has paid employees who are real go-getters. They know how to find money, and they wanted the entire room to look cohesive.

This is going to be a great display, and I encourage you to visit the museum!

Designs on a Museum Wall

I enlarged these designs onto kraft paper, ordered some very large sheets of graphite transfer paper, gathered a few tools, and drove to the Three Rivers Historical Museum. My job bosses had prepped the wall for me, and they also blocked it off in a very serious manner, along with providing a ladder and a couple of tables. (They are TERRIFIC to work for!)

I had previously tested some carbon paper to see if I could transfer through the kraft paper, but had to go searching at Blick Art Materials for some large graphite sheets. There were two to choose from, and instead of accidentally ordering the wrong one, I bought both.

We measured the wall very carefully to mark the center and then figure out where the first design was to go. Then I taped the smallest design up, trying to see through the kraft paper to place it exactly on the mark I made, adjusting it until it was level.

The design was drawn in pencil, so you can’t see it on this photo. I kept the bottom untaped so I could lift it up to place the graphite paper.

MASKING TAPE WOULDN’T STICK TO THE GRAPHITE PAPER!!

The museum came to the rescue with old-fashioned brown masking tape instead of the easy-removing blue type.

This design is called Quail, taken directly from a Yokuts basket design. I used a straight edge and traced over the pencil lines with an obsolete tool from the olden days of phototypesetting that my students and I refer to as a “spatula”. (Too hard to explain.)

Squint hard, and you can see how it landed on the wall.

What next? I’ll show you in two days.

Are All Wall Paintings Murals?

Nope. Some are designs, created for museum displays, by exhibit designers. The Three Rivers History Museum hired a museum designer, an exhibit designer, whatever the title is, to create a Native American exhibit, and they (or is it the Tulare County Historical Society? Or the Mineral King Preservation Society? I should pay more attention!) to execute these designs.

Every new job I take on has an entirely new set of challenges. How does one take this little PDF and turn it into a wall design? These exhibit designers may not have completely thought through the execution phase of the display. However, maybe they do know how to do such a job and just didn’t tell the museum. Maybe it involves equipment and technology that I don’t own.

No problem. I figured it out.

The designer sent it with a ?”=1′-0″ grid over the top.

I turned it to black and white, isolated each group, and printed it. (These samples don’t show the whole designs—just wanted to give you an idea.)

Next, I got some giant kraft paper (looks like brown butcher paper on a great big roll, and if you have ever received a wrapped gift from me, you know what I’m talking about) and laid it out on my drafting table. This was quite a big jump from my normal 11×14″ pencil drawings.

And then, I started measuring and drawing.

It took an entire day.

What next? I had to figure out how to get the patterns on the wall. I’ll show you next week, after our monthly Learned List.

Extended Yardening Season

 

At the time of this writing (a week or so before you see it) it hadn’t gotten hot like normal summer yet, and  our cabin wasn’t yet opened. In addition, I had nothing pressing on the work front, so these conditions provided plenty of time for continued yardening.

I sprayed all the pomegranate blossoms with Deer Out, and then I saw a deer eating on the tree, so I sprayed it again. Too bad I didn’t count the blossoms when I sprayed the first time, but I was more intent on thinning and spraying. So, I don’t know if the deer was eating leaves or blossoms. One of the reviews I read for Deer Out said that deer might try to eat something sprayed but wouldn’t return for more.

Then I sprayed the hollyhocks, which the deer hadn’t yet bothered this year.

Finally, I sprayed the roses that haven’t yet croaked.

I caught a deer in the act of biting off a fully bloomed geranium, but it hasn’t returned for a second course.

P.S. I have actually sprayed all these multiple times because I just can’t seem to believe the claims. Time will tell…

If you came here for Mineral King news and are disappointed, you can check the Mineral King website to see if anything new has been posted.

A Little Bit of Design “Work”

 

“Work” is in quote marks because this was simply a gift for a friend. She has had just one too many cars come flying up her driveway instead of following the curve of the road and is ready for a gate.

I drew a few ideas, then we looked at them together. She picked one she liked the best, and together we worked on it, adding a tree here, a rock there, moving a line, adding a line. Then we looked at her second favorite and did more of the same.

First favorite:

Second favorite:

After studying them, the second favorite became The Favorite. I sent it to the gate builder, and next we will learn if it is a design that he can build. I think some parts might need a bit of modification for strength. I also wonder if perhaps I shouldn’t have used the back side of something printed (but I bet you can’t read it).

It will be thrilling to see this as an actual gate.

We did get things a little bit backward, because if her driveway is so wide that it requires a double gate, we will have to redesign it. 

She mentioned to me that gates in Three Rivers are so interesting that she has thought they might make a fun calendar. I have often thought it would be possible to do a photo (or drawing or painting) book of the gates here, and simply call it “A Gated Community”. 

It might be fun. Speaking of fun with gates, check out this photo.

If you came here for Mineral King news and are disappointed, you can check the Mineral King website to see if anything new has been posted.

Six Garden Meanderings

 

Apparently I haven’t gone back to work yet. But I am throughly enjoying late springtime in Three Rivers.

  1. I looked up online why garlic bulbs grow too small and the reasons are legion. Planting too close together, too early, too late, too shallow, too deep, beginning with small cloves, not weeding enough, and the most likely: poor soil.
  2. The roses are getting tired.
  3. The bugs are eating the basil in some places and not in others. Good thing someone taught me about rooting cuttings in water so I haven’t completely wasted my money buying these plants.
  4. I am determined to get these cuttings of myoporum rooted so I can plant this hardy groundcover in a rough area of our church grounds.
  5. You are curious about the porch plants that showed up with the cats last week? They are called “Queen’s Tears”.
  6. This is the pile of rocks that I helped move the other day. Maybe I’ll go back to work soon.