Bridge Paintings

My favorite bridge is currently my favorite subject for oil painting. (Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Dept.)

The Oak Grove Bridge crosses the East Fork of the Kaweah River, 6.5 miles up the Mineral King Road, out of Three Rivers, in Tulare County, California.

Some governmental agency has declared it to be unsafe. There is talk of rebuilding it, leaving it in place as a foot bridge and building a new driving bridge upstream, and even tearing it down. 

Better start saving $ for my bail, because I might have to chain myself to the bridge and then get arrested.

Nah. I’ll think about that tomorrow. I have some paintings to finish.

Oak Grove Bridge

The detail on the railing is the most difficult part of painting this bridge, especially when it is 8×10″. Too too tiny.

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Why is this upside down? Because every part except the top of the painting has wet paint on it. Okay, the back doesn’t have any paint, but you probably figured that out. This one is a commission, and the customer specifically requested detail around all four edges.

2015 Cabin Calendars for Sale

There are still a few of the 2016 calendars, “The Cabins of Tulare County” for sale. This calendar is a collection of pencil drawings of cabins in Tulare County. (Captain Obvious speaks again.) It is heavy on Wilsonia, followed by Mineral King, and there is one token Camp Nelson. These drawings are gathered from the book The Cabins of Wilsonia, and various commissioned drawings I’ve done in the past year or two.

Have a look at the unidentified months. I didn’t attempt to find seasonal pictures, other than a snowy cabin in December. Cabins, for the most part, are summer homes.

2016 calendar drawings

The calendars are $15 each, including sales tax. If you send me a check in the mail or money using Paypal, AND YOU GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS (excuse me for shouting – someone ordered via Paypal and didn’t give me her address or answer my email – how is she going to get her calendar??), then I will get your calendar to you and pay the mailing costs. (in the USA only)

 

Picking up Walnuts

One of the great benefits of living in the Central Valley of California is the availability of food. (Is that why we are so dang fat in Tulare County??)

Almost everyone has a friend with an orange tree or grove, a walnut tree or grove, fruit trees, access to packing houses. . . makes me wonder how grocery stores are able to make money around here.

When I was a little kid, it was torture to have to glean for walnuts. I used to beg my mom to not put walnuts in things for a change. As an adult, I’ve actually paid Real Money for walnuts at the grocery store!

Now I have a friend with a walnut orchard. THANK YOU, GERALD! There may be a painting or two as a result of my afternoon gleaning walnuts.

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It is along the Friant-Kern Canal.

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IMG_1891 IMG_1896 Look at this little gem. And the green sprouting weeds are an indication that we have been getting good rains!!

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All that bending down got tiring. After about an hour, I decided to not bend over for just one walnut. Instead, I kicked it to another one, so I could get a minimum of two at a bend.

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The ground slopes up to the bank of the canal. I crawled up and this was what I saw. Alta Peak is visible, if you know what you are looking for. For some reason, I enjoy seeing the same peak that is visible from my yard when I am 25 miles down the hill. Simple pleasures. . .

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Running Away With Reading Rabbit

 

Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11x14"
Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″

 

Reading has been my favorite way to run away from reality all of my life. Nose in a book, that’s my favorite place to be. Since my family had a difficult and sad summer, I returned to reading as a means of temporary escape.

Here is a list of some of the best books I read in the last few months:

  1. Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman
  2. A Million Miles in 1000 Years, Donald Miller
  3. Scary Close, Donald Miller
  4. Still Life With Bread Crumbs, Anna Quindlen *
  5. Secrets of a Charmed Life, Susan Meissner *
  6. Without You, There is No Us, Suki Kim
  7. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in No. Korea, Barbara Demick
  8. Fiddler in the Subway, Gene Weingarten

#1 is about what teevee has done to our culture, but applies to the internet too. I found it fascinating and true.

#2 and #3 – I LOVE Donald Miller’s honesty and humor and wisdom.

#4 I forgot what this is about but I liked it enough to finish and to put it on this list. Anna Quindlen is a good story teller and writer.

#5 came highly recommended by an online friend’s website and was a great story about someone who survived the Blitz in London. Fiction, but believable.

#6 is by a woman who taught English in North Korea. I heard her speak on a TED talk and was interested enough to chase down the book. It is S C A R Y.

#7 is what the author learned by interviewing defectors from North Korea. Sad and scary.

#8 is another one I liked enough to put on the list and have already forgotten.

Sigh. Guess you’ll have to trust me that these are all good enough to reserve at your local liberry, if you are lucky enough to have the fantastic reservation and delivery system like we do here in Tulare County.

Our libraries are one of the best things about living in Tulare County.

I wrote “liberry” to make you smile. Did it work?

*denotes fiction – the rest are nonfiction

Mineral King Cabins

I believe that cabin communities are a true treasure of Tulare County, here in Central California. I love to draw cabins. Don’t believe me? My business has been called “Cabin Art” since 1987.

As a studio artist, I work from photos. There is no way to get the level of detail I like while sitting outside. Besides, I’m oldish now, and need a giant magnifying light, along with cheater magnifier glasses.

So, here are a few photos of Mineral King cabins for you to enjoy. Sometimes the light is just right, so I take the same scenes over and over and over.

Mineral King cabins

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mineral king cabins

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Exciting Times While Painting in Three Rivers

Sometimes, while painting in Three Rivers, in Tulare County in Central California (not LA, not San Francisco – NOTHING like the stereotypical California), I am just minding my own business, painting along, staying calm and focused, and then stuff happens.

Smoke? I smell smoke. Hmmm, there are ashes. . . that’s worrisome. I don’t hear sirens, so I keep painting.

Just painting some fruit here. After all, California is the land of fruit and nuts, and Central California is where most of it originates. No big deal – just oil paint on canvas. I’m fine. I’m calm.

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Painted a raven too. I’ll tell you more about that in another post. Just painting along,

HEY! BOBCAT SIGHTING!

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Um, Perkins, my Sweet Sixteen year old cat, it would be good for you to lie low on the front porch right now.

Whoa. Good thing I keep my camera with me in the painting workshop building, door open for smelling smoke (no sirens, no worries?) and sighting cannibalistic wild felines.

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Allllrighty then, if all is calm, focused and just fine, explain why that raven is upside down.

Shut up.

Cabin Communities Matter

“Cabin Communities Matter” is the name of my presentation about, umm, cabin communities (duh) using my drawings and what I learned while making my book, The Cabins of Wilsonia.

It was an hour drive to Tulare, where I gave the talk. I chose to drive through the country, which means orange groves, fields of cotton, vineyards and walnut orchards. Boring? Nah, don’t insult farmers, especially not when you are wearing fiber and eating food.

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The talk was at the Tulare Public Library for the Tulare-Kings Genealogical Society. I wasn’t sure my presentation was relevant, and figured I wouldn’t know anyone with the exception of my drawing student who invited me to speak.

The library is beautiful, five years old, spacious and multi-functional for the city of Tulare. (For my far away readers, that word is pronounced “Too-LAR-ry” – not “Lar” as in Lars, but “Lerr” as in “Larry.” I live in Tulare County, but the county seat is Visalia. Never mind how that one is pronounced for today.)

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In spite of being only 5 years old, there were difficulties with the technology. I went a day in advance to make sure I knew how to run things. Good thing, because of the troubles, we met in the City Council Chambers – very very nice – and my main contact also had to learn how to run things. I made Very Specific Notes.

5 Wilsonia friends came, along with other people I know and a handful I didn’t know. There were lots and lots of questions, which I found very fun to answer at the end. Questions are fun for a speaker because it says the listeners are interested in the topic and it gives me a chance to get to know them a little.

Giving talks is an important part of marketing or “self-promotion”  as it is called in the art world. It’s fun, and I’m willing to do one for your group.

Use the contact button that drops down when you hover your mouse over “About The Artist” and send me an email if you’d like to hear why Cabin Communities Matter to our county.

Discovering More in Mineral King

There is more to my life than selling oil paintings of Tulare County scenery.

I spend a lot of time in Mineral King in the summer. It is a great source of inspiration, because it is the most beautiful place in Tulare County. (Go ahead and argue with me – present your case! I’m ALWAYS on the lookout for beautiful places in Tulare County!)

The last time I went to Mineral King, I photographed the official name of my favorite bridge. The sign is wrong, I just KNOW it. It is THE OAK GROVE BRIDGE, because that’s what Trail Guy told me about 30 years ago. So there.

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Sometimes being in Mineral King is about hanging out with neighbors on their very inviting front porches.

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Sometimes it is about discovering favorite flowers in new locations. Your nose often leads you to this leopard lily before you spot it.

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Here’s a weird puffy mushroom or toadstool. Whatever it is, it is large. (And yes, I washed my hands after touching it. Thanks for your concern.)IMG_6195

Trail Guy went off trail to look at the “Three Falls Below The Gate”. Nice photo, Trail Guy!

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We went off trail together to look at more damage from the flood on July 2.

Always more to see, more to discover, more to inspire in Mineral King.

2015 Calendar Reminder

The 2015 calendars titled “Beautiful Tulare County” with my current best paintings that fit the format (can you say “run on sentence”??) are available.

 



 
$15 each, including tax and mailing If you don’t use Paypal, you can mail a check to Cabinart at P.O. Box 311, Three Rivers, CA 93271. US only, with apologies to my foreign friends.
Everyone uses calendars. They used to be freebies, handed out at drug stores and hardware stores and coming unasked for in the mail. The thought of buying one was bizarre, unless you had a friend who was a nut about horses and you happened to find a horsey calendar.

Then, businesses pulled back from freebies. I refused to pay for calendars except for the custom one I made for Trail Guy each year. There were a few years when the only way I had the month on paper was to go online and print one from the internet!

Now, I print 100 a year, and hope maybe there might be just one left over for us. So far, it hasn’t happened. There was that one year that one of the calendars was upside and backwards. I kept that one. It had the days on top and the picture on the bottom.

No worries. All these calendars are done correctly on good solid cover-weight paper with my best oil paintings of beautiful Tulare County!

Ahem. This was going to be a short post. No more caffeine for you, Young Lady!

The 2015 Calendar is HERE!

The new calendar for 2015 has arrived!

 

These are my best oil paintings. Sort of. My best oil paintings that fit the calendar format and fit the months. Sort of. The best blend of my best oil paintings that sort of fit the calendar format and sort of fit the months.

It is called “Beautiful Tulare County”. (Stop laughing – there is lots of beauty in this rural place in Central California and it is my job to find it and paint or draw it!)

$15, includes tax and mailing to you!

Want one? There are several ways to get one.




1. Use this Paypal button and your Paypal account.

2. Mail a check for $15, made out to Cabinart at P.O. Box 311, Three Rivers, CA 93271

3. Come to the Senior League Bazaar on Saturday, November 15 at the Three Rivers Memorial Building from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and get yours there.

4. Call me with a better idea – maybe we see each other on a regular basis and I can just bring it to you.

THERE ARE ONLY 100 AND WHEN THEY ARE GONE, THEY ARE GONE.

Ahem. Excuse me for shouting. Sometimes I get excited when I see all my best work together in one place and then think you all might like it too.