Month: April 2009

Looking progressively less icky, we hope! It was a gusty windy day, not the best for hanging onto the palette and photo while wondering if the umbrella’s bungy cord would hold. Many people were pleased to inform me that the “photo” was crooked; I have straightened it out somewhat for you here:

Today Betsy asked what she could do to get me to slow down. After thinking about it, the answer is a multi-faceted one: 1. Clean my house for me 2. Buy 2 tanks of gas and 3. Guarantee that the weather won’t get hot before your desired finish date. My guess is that I will just continue painting at the current pace.  However, today I was temporarily slowed down by forgetting the keys to the truck, studio where I use the facilites and gallery where I store my wagon of supplies! Even with 2 days off last week, I seem to be on overload here. So today I knocked off early to get some things done at home and in the studio and was greeted by these sights:Guess Zeke is showing me how much he has missed me lately.  Meanwhile, back at THE WALL, today I had a wildlife encounter with a very interested, aggressive and determined bumblebee. After I finally coldly swatted him out of the sky (he was completely in my personal space!), I squatted down beneath the truck to verify that he had assumed room temperature. While down there, this is what I saw:Look at this tire – it is floating in unsupported on thin air! Isn’t this truck a marvelous item?? (Too bad it isn’t a Toyota so it could go to Foreign Auto Works) Made me forget about finding the dead bee. (I kid you not, this thing was the B-52 of the insect world!) And finally, I bring you the day’s completed work: Today a nice man named William Smith gave me a book of his poetry, published in the 1970s. I’m not a big fan of poetry, but he was a very thoughtful guy and I will give it my best shot. Thank you, Mr. Smith. 

Today I backed the truck to the end and painted to the end! It isn’t finished, of course, but paint reached the end of the wall. Shoot. I had all kinds of ideas for the blog and I’m back to Uhhh, photo, look.    

Rain reprieve yesterday. I’m of two minds now: starting to slow down, reluctant to finish while at at the same time looking forward to not taking the car out of the garage all day and staying home to paint little bitty oil pictures! Uhhh, photo, look: 

As I paint in silence (relatively speaking) and solitude each day, ideas come to me for this blog. Sometimes 2-3 hours go by with no visitors; they usually appear in groups, right around the time I break for lunch (all 3 minutes of it) or while I am trying to put it all away around 3 or 3:30 p.m. By the time I get home in the evening, I seem only capable of showing you a photo or two and grunting out a couple of syllables! Uhhh, photo, look.Here is the whole wall this a.m. so that you can see how close to the end I am.And here is a day of painting.  (Uhhh, photo, look.) 

Whooo-eee, it was a hot one today! Pleasant unless standing in the sun on the back of a truck in or on the asphalt next to a south facing wall. I gave up around 2 p.m. because the paint was drying too fast in the brushes. “Postcard” #6 is finished, leaving just the last one to complete. Got a few mountains to cover first. . . and that crack is the 3/4 mark, so that means I am perhaps 13/16 finished 8-). And just because inquiring minds like to know, this picture is about 13′ x 4′ – almost a mural unto itself. Rain is forecast for this week! How would you like a coffee mug with this old scene of Timber Gap and the Mineral King valley?? They’re coming! 

Great weather! Sounds like a cliche, but when one works outside, it is EVERYTHING. Had many visitors today, including my dear husband who set up that umbrella so that it can not blow over. It also can’t really be moved very easily, but at least for an hour or two it will be useful!  I had ridiculously high hopes of finishing this photo inset today, which is day #4 on this piece. In this type of meticulous detail I have 2 choices: paint or talk. Today I talked a lot. If you come to visit, I can and do listen while my back is turned to you. What’s more, I appreciate the entertainment of hearing your stories! Please forgive me for turning my back to you but that is where my work is, and no, you are not interrupting! Jared, thank you very very much for fixing my cell phone today – you are a genius!!! 

Thank you, Dick and Dawn, for the coffee today! Just in case anyone tried to call me today, my cell phone has quit working. Too bad it isn’t a Honda, because I’d take it to Foreign Auto Works. Alas, it isn’t, so I will do without one until it either rains or I run out of cat food, whichever happens first, thus allowing or necessitating a trip to Visalia. If you need to tell me something, call 561-7606 and I will retrieve the message in the evening. If it can’t wait, come to the wall. It is on E Street in the 100 north block. Today Keith turned the truck around. I’m sure I could have, but he showed up and offered so I said “Yes, please!” Turns out that the cab blocks the gusts of wind that have been blowing over the umbrella – this is a good change!  It was a day of great detail, so not much forward progress happened but it was oh so fun. Not hot out either! Had so much fun painting that I forgot to watch the time (not that I could without my phone/clock) and painted until 5:15! I love doing detail, just love it! 

First, we interrupt our regular programming to bring you a shameless commercial for Foreign Auto Works in Visalia. If you drive a Honda, Toyota or Nissan, you NEED these guys. Really! Forget about wasting time and money at the dealer; go see Mark and Pete. I wouldn’t dream of driving a car that they don’t work on (oh, Acura and Lexus too) . They saved me yesterday, got my broken window thingie repaired even though they had a full day of work already scheduled. This was not unusual – they have been doing a wonderful job keeping my old Accords going since 1983 (I’m on #4) and my husband’s Toyota pickup going since he and I got married in 1986.(same truck, same wife) Foreign Auto Works, 559/734-8285. Now we return to our regular broadcast. First, it has been awhile since you’ve seen the wall in its entirety. Have a look:You can see that it is getting close to turn-the-truck-around time, perhaps another week. Had a little difficulty finding the right sepia tone for this long panoramic “postcard”.  This was too gray and blended into the mountains. I mixed in a touch more red and got a beautiful burgundy, entirely wrong, but beautiful anyway. Next, I put all the browns on the wall so that Betsy and I could make a decision:  In this photo it is mighty hard to see the difference. Turns out I had to mix a new color altogether, and it looks like this: Reddish, but not too. Got so doggoned hot up on those black anti-fatigue mats that I had to knock off early this afternoon. The umbrella is not my friend, and tomorrow I will have to come up with a new plan for painting in the heat. I can do this!