A Little Painting on a Big Painting

 

English is a strange language. In the title, the first “painting” is a verb; the second one is a noun. This makes for a fun title, and perhaps it incites a bit of curiosity on the part of you, O Blog Reader.

I painted “Yokohl Oak” in 2020 and showed it in two separate solo gallery shows. People liked it, particular local bike riders, who told me, “Hey, that’s the Bike Tree!” To me it was simply a beautiful oak tree along Yokohl Drive, and I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to recognize it if I drove past it again.

Alas, it didn’t sell. I put it in the 3 other galleries that regularly and steadily sell my work, and it didn’t sell. One astute friend told me it was lacking in my normal amount of detail. Really?? This looks excessively well-detailed to me.

Oh. He meant on the tree itself. It is too smooth for an oak tree. My drawing students agreed when I took it back home for a touch-up. I often run things past them, because they always tell me the truth. Besides, it lets me know if I am teaching them to be discerning, to truly see things accurately.

This got called “The Bike Tree” by a few different people, so I figured I’d just go with that theme.

Then I started adding more texture to the bark on the tree.

After that, I tried to photograph it.

The light was wrong, making shiny spots and making the color wrong. I rotated it multiple ways, cropped it, edited it with the photo program on the laptop, and finally decided it will have to wait to be photographed another time. 

In the meantime, this is the new and improved “Yokohl Oak”, after I did a little painting on this big (24×24″) painting.

P.S. Yokohl is the name of a valley in the foothills just east of Exeter in Tulare County. For awhile, there were big plans to turn the area into a self-contained town, but the combination of local protests and drought shut that down.

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.

 

Harder than it Looks

Being on one’s own in a completely flexible profession is not always easy. There is no specific roadmap, operator’s manual, or industry standard and even if there were, it would probably not apply here in Central California’s flyover country. The only galleries in Tulare County are non-profit, run entirely by volunteers, most of whom are good-hearted individuals without training in such matters. Artists may have some training, but generally it was decades earlier, completely outdated, or just various bits gleaned from the highly diverse internet, where one can find anything, everything, and nothing.

This brings me to a boatload of questions about my upcoming show, Images of Home. Some answers have appeared since I initially wrote this post.

  1. If the gallery is normally open on Saturday, will people be able to see the show the day before the reception?  Nope, the gallery will be closed.
  2. When will my show actually end? With December 25 on a Saturday, will the gallery be closed on the Sunday of that week? How about the following week? It will end on an as of yet unspecified date in January.
  3. Will anyone actually come to the reception? Oh Crystal Ball, where art thou?
  4. Should I have kept my art in Three Rivers in the art consignment store that is open many more days and hours than the Courthouse Gallery? Shoulda, coulda, woulda, prolly not, ain’t nobody knows nothin’
  5. Is it “Exeter’s Courthouse Gallery”, “Exeter Courthouse Gallery”, “Courthouse Gallery of Exeter”? None of the above; it is Exeter Art Gallery and Museum Association
  6. Why do I have so many questions? Do other people? Why is it so hard to find answers? Does anyone beside me actually care about these details? silence. . . 
  7. How will I decide which “occasional Fridays” to be at the gallery? I will be there four consecutive Fridays from 11-3 beginning November 26.
  8. How shall I publicize those Fridays to interested parties? Good question. . . 
  9. How can anyone think with the neighbor’s dog barking incessantly? focus focus focus on the task at hand
  10. Why doesn’t the neighbor care? Or answer emails or return phone calls? If we decided to sell and move, would we have to disclose the barking dog to the buyer? Some folks just are not community minded

And you thought all I did was sit around and draw or paint all day! This self-employment as an artist is harder than it looks. Let’s just contemplate something peaceful to calm ourselves as we wait for more to be revealed in the fullness of time.

Yokohl, oil on wrapped canvas, 10×20″, $350

Images of Home

Exeter Courthouse Gallery (Is this the right name?)

125 South B Street, Exeter, California
November 14 – December 30 (Is this the actual closing date?), 2021

Opening Reception – Sunday, November 14, 1-4 p.m.

I know the title of the show is correct, as is the address and the date of the opening reception. Now, what am I going to wear? Should I get my hair cut? Why do we say “hair” when it is all of our hairs that get cut?

I need a cigarette.

WAIT! I don’t smoke! Never have, never will. 

If you see me out in front of the gallery pulling weeds, just be polite, okay?

 

A Day Without Texture in the Air

On Thursday night, I woke up a zillion times wondering if it was raining yet. It wasn’t. Mid morning, it rained! Not much, but enough to clear the air. I don’t know the effect on the inferno, but the air stopped having texture.

I can paint another day with the doors flung open and I feel happy! Let’s get started on Yokohl.

Sky and clouds first.

Hills next, painting back to front.

And creek and ground last. Then I set it in the waning daylight to photograph it. After that, I painted the edges.

It isn’t signed yet because of that waning daylight. In brighter light I will probably find a dozen things to fix. This one doesn’t really call for much drawing with my paint brushes, but I will probably figure out a way to do that. Fence posts, wildflowers, grasses, an alligator in the creek . . . 

 

Unsettled

The way I decide whether to paint or to draw is: (1) Is someone waiting for this? (2) Is there enough light to paint? (3) Is it too hot or too cold in the painting studio?

Someone has commissioned me to draw 5 different cabins belonging to 5 different friends, all of whom lost their places to the wildfires all over the Central California mountains. This is an uncommonly generous man, and each one of these drawings will be a surprise, so I am not going to show you any of them. It is a little tricky for him to get photos from these friends and then to get answers to questions about the photos without giving away his surprise.

While I waited for the next batch of helpful answers and maybe some better photos, I returned to the easels. The smoke was abating some, and the weird dark orange-ish light was changing to a bit more normal color so I could paint (to the unsettling sound of helicopters overhead.)

Where to begin?

This one? (The greenery is lemon geranium, supposed to help keep the mosquitoes from chewing me to pieces while I paint.)

No, I need green. (The orange on the table got a green streak on it, so I touched it up first.)

Sky first
Distant hills next
Not sure what is next, so I just bounce around the canvas
When in doubt, add detail. Lower left, lower right, mud banks, and main tree. 

This bouncing and detailing too soon approach is not the usual artistic method – it is just the way I cope with indecision at the easel. The helicopters and continuing fire were unsettling, it was getting too hot to paint, and I lost focus.

There is no rush on any of these paintings, but I have 4 large ones in progress and a fifth one in mind. I figured that any progress was better than just quitting. 

Will it ever rain again? No fires? No smoke? No helicopters? Will we see some green?

See? Unsettled. I shut myself in the studio with the roar of the A/C to drown out the helicopters, write this blog post, and maybe just hold my pencils for awhile. 

P.S. Still not finished.

 

 

2013 Calendars Now Available

The first 2 orders of 2013 calendars were all spoken for. Now I have the calendars available for order, right here on my bl0g!

The price including tax and shipping is $21. The earlier price was less because that’s just the way things roll. . . sigh. (Worm, anyone?) If you reserved one by email earlier, I will let you know when the calendars arrive and you can mail me a check.

 

oak grove bridge painting for cover of jana botkin's 2013 calendar




To see the pictures of each month, here is the link to the blog post that showed each  painting.

If you don’t want to click that link right now, here is a summary: Mineral King, Three Rivers, Sequoia, oranges, Yokohl Valley. What else would you expect from a regionalist from Quaintsville, a central California artist?
P.S. The type on this blog post is all in different sizes because sometimes it won’t fix, no matter how many times I try. I give up!

Over And Out

The show, Images of Home, is over, and I’m out of these paintings. The museum tells me that was a very good response. If you feel disappointed because your heart was set on one of these, I can paint any of them over again. Won’t be exactly the same, but it will be close. (There I go again, being pushy. Sigh. Sorry.)

My high school buddies with whom I had lunch on December 31 will undoubtedly recognize several of these, since they helped me choose the subject matter. Thanks, Redwood Rangerettes, because many of the ones you chose SOLD, as you can see!

You can also see that Sequoia trees and oranges were very popular. Hmmm, guess I’m a California Artist!

(In case you are wondering why this post looks like Captain Obvious put it together: Mr. Google Who Knows All likes to have words that match the hidden words that help him to find me. So, the silly labeling is for Mr. Google.)

Thank you for putting up with this techno-jive-stuff.

Mostly, thank you so much for taking the time to attend the show, read about it here, and buy my paintings. Without all you all, I might have to be a waitress or a secretary, so I deeply deeply appreciate you! And get this – it WASN’T all my friends and relatives because they felt sorry for me – there were some people I’ve never met who bought my work! ISN’T THAT WONDERFUL??!!! (deep breaths, calm down, breathe. . . .)

This posting is so long that I will take tomorrow off. You can read this one again, or maybe go through the archives. Or, maybe just lie down from exhaustion at all the information presented here.

Yokohl Valley

Oranges

Mineral King

Kaweah Post Office

Orange

Sequoia Trees

Sequoia Tree

Sequoia Trees

Forgive Us Our Trespasses

This is 16×12″ oil on wrapped canvas. It represents 2 days of exploring Yokohl Valley last March at the height of wildflower season. I spent an inordinate amount of time on it, and almost had to break out my blow dryer to have it dry in time for the show! “Yokohl Valley Revisited” at the Tulare Historical Museum opened last night.

The title of this paintings has 2 meanings: a fair amount of trespassing was involved in gathering my photos. Number two: in the Bible “trespasses” means sin; I think it would be a sin to turn this gorgeous place into a city. I can just hear my Very Wise Dad saying in his overly calm voice meant to soothe but also a bit infuriating, “Everybody has to live somewhere.”

Yokohl Valley Show

Next week I will deliver a new painting to the Tulare Historical Museum. They are having a themed exhibit entitled “Yokohl Valley Revisted”. If you are a follower of this blog, you may recall a photography trip I took through the Yokohl Valley last spring – see the April 2 and April 3 postings. (I thought I was gathering info for a show in the Bay Area, but it turned out to be for plein air painters, which I am not.) There were so many beautiful photos from which to choose – I carried the best ones around to several spring shows and also polled my students. The view with the highest number of votes is the one I chose to paint. Out of respect for the Tulare Historical Museum, I won’t post the painting here until after the show opening. The title might pique your interest – “Forgive Us Our Trespasses” popped into my mind as soon as I began the painting, and it can be interpreted in two different ways. The opening reception is Thursday, January 13, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. No admission is charged (hmmm, can we peek into the museum during the reception??) and there are refreshments. Depending on the number of paintings at the show, they might also accept this painting that I did for an earlier Yokohl Valley show. (popular subject – go here to learn more: Save Yokohl Valley)

Behind Rocky Hill, 16×12″, oil on wrapped canvas

Here is something rather astonishing that I discovered on a blog I read from time to time called “Abby Try Again” – in her January 3, 2011 posting this interesting and creative photographer with roots in Tulare County showed her favorite photographs of 2011. Look at this list, and tell me what you think about the last photo. Abby Try Again

Exploring further afield

Instead of confining my adventures to Three Rivers and Mineral King, I went into Yokohl Valley. Not sure if this beautiful place will survive because of the plans of Boswell to create a new town. The building up of Orange County in my childhood horrified me – it looked less rural every time we visited Grandma or Grammy. It would break my heart to see that happen here in Tulare County. Yes, I know everyone has to live somewhere; please, let it be somewhere else! Michael came along as my driver so I could fill my eyes and decide where to stop without causing wrecks. We worked the first layer of the road along with a wee bit of trespassing over the course of 2 days. The flowers were fantastic. It is hard for me to compose shots of just hills and grass; my better pictures involved fences, trees and/or flowing water. Here are a few ideas for upcoming paintings:

 

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