cabinart | Cabin Art

Pippin

I’ve heard a few blog readers express their appreciation for glimpses of our cats. We currently have three, down from seven last spring when Scout, now deceased, gave birth to five babies, 2 of which found safe homes, and one which disappeared.

Trail Guy and I are doing our best to protect our herd. There is a strict curfew each night, and we herd them into the outbuildings where they are imprisoned during the darkness for their own safety and our peace of mind.

However, we have lost plenty of cats during daylight hours, so we are wary, leery, cautiously optimistic, and possibly slightly weird about those who remain.

Of these three, Pippin is the friendliest and the most photogenic, possibly the most loveable. (With apologies to Tucker and Jackson, but you two could try to show up more often and be friendlier, you know!)

Trail Guy took all of today’s photos. Is it possible that he is more Cat Disordered than I am??

More Oil Interludishness

Yeppers, I made up another word. It simply means that I was able to paint a few more days than expected and have more progress to show you on Mineral King oil paintings.More detail on the painting on the left, but more contemplation is needed before signing this.

What does Pippin think?Since Pippin didn’t offer any help, I added wildflowers to these two.That was fun, so I did the same to the painting on the left.Now let’s tackle this unusual arrangement of a usual subject matter, the Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King, now a little museum. Well, actually right now it is boarded up for the winter. And let’s just paint it, not tackle it, hmmm?This turned out really well, so when it is dry, I’ll photograph it minus the poor afternoon sunlight and sheen of wet paint so you can fully appreciate its specialness.

Pippin? Got anything to add here?

Guess not. He just adds cuteness to my life.

oil paintings

Oil Interlude

“Interlude” is a musical term that means in interruption with a lude.

Wait, what?

Nothing. Just messing around with words. After finishing the oak tree mural, I had days of appointments, administrative work, errands, and other things that interfered with painting, However, I did get in a few days of painting Mineral King scenes, and here are the results.

Started this one back in early January, a 10×10″.

I felt confident and hardly looked at the photo while finishing.

Is it finished? When it is dry, I’ll see if there is a believable way to add some wildflowers.

This is 6×18″, a fun format and size to paint. It forces me to distill a scene to its essence.

It will need wildflowers. The title is “Mineral King Wildflowers”, so duh.

Oak Grove Bridge # 29. Probably a higher number, but I was a little sloppy in my earlier record keeping.

In the interest of offering these paintings for sale, the following advertisement is for your convenience/to ignore – your choice.

I sell 6×18″ for $150 plus tax which brings it to about $160; the square is 10×10″ for $175 plus tax, about $190. The plan is to have a good inventory for this coming summer, but if you are interested in buying any of these paintings now, it can be arranged. Comment here or contact me with the contact button or email me or say something to Trail Guy if you see him at the Post Office or grocery store.

Road Trip, Part Five

After Sidewinder Canyon in Death Valley, we took the long drive to Dante’s View. Dante was an Italian poet in the 1200s who wrote something called “The Inferno”, an appropriate sort of name for anything associated with Death Valley. Many places there refer to death and other unpleasant sorts of things, which is fitting when one considers that most things in the desert are designed to stab, kill, or poison the visitor. And almost everything in Death Valley National Park is a long drive.

I found a very pretty rock, but experience tells me that rocks turn meh when they get home, so it was a Leverite – “Leave ‘er right where you found ‘er”.

After Dante’s View, our hostess/tour guide/dear friend showed us a magical place, appropriately called The Inn at Death Valley. It was opened in 1927, and it was truly beautiful.

There was a burned out building that got turned into a beautiful garden, ponds surrounded by palms, stone steps and paths, classic architecture, and a mysterious palm orchard, for which I can find no explanation. These aren’t date palms.

I have questions. Always.

And maybe you have a question for me. Ask away!

Okay, just two more photos.

And thus we conclude another road trip with the Central California artist, with the hopes that some seed of new creativity lodged in her inquiring mind.

Road Trip, Part Four

After our Salt Creek adventure in Death Valley, we headed to a place called Sidewinder Canyon.

This is the view looking back across the valley before we headed on foot up the canyon. The Valley. Death Valley.

That crack in the wall is our destination.

Looking ahead.Looking back.

Trail Guy helped me up the steep steps.

Then we reached a wall. Time to head back.

To be continued. . .

Road Trip, Part Three

We were able to pack many sights and sites into a short visit to Death Valley.

When our friend got off work, we headed to a place called Salt Creek. Someone told us that it gets really interesting if you go beyond the boardwalk.

This place is just so weird.

We walked across the salt fields, which were wet in some places.

So wet in surprising places that sometimes one sinks in and must crawl out, while trying to stand up but laughing too much to find a foothold. (And my friend was laughing too, but she took photos instead of helping me out!)

And this is why people are advised to stay on the boardwalks.

No worries – I just scrubbed up in the salty creek (and then rinsed the salt out of my shoes later). It was worth the hearty laugh.

We visited a mine next. I forgot the name but remember that it was in operation from 1904-1917 and produced a pile of gold.

It had a tramline like the one in Mineral King, but I didn’t feel like climbing up to it. (My shoes were wet.)

To be continued. .

Road Trip, Part Two

The first morning we were in Death Valley, our friend was working, so we took a walk to one of the many abandoned cabins, this one about a mile above her house. We saw it a year ago and found it interesting enough to visit again.

Our friend told us there are probably 100 or more such cabins in Death Valley. I find that fascinating (but no, there won’t be a book by me about this.)

As usual, my attention went right to the shiny and colorful object among all the variations of browns and grays on the rocky ground.

The cabin was located near a water source. We headed down to see it because we spotted some wildflowers, called Bitter Brush.

Of course we went off trail, which makes me a bit nervous in the desert where everything is designed to kill or poison you.

There are an infinite number of places where people used to fling their trash, now called “can dumps”, which got me thinking that the entire park is now a Can’t Dump kind of place.

To be continued. . .

Road Trip, Part One

Oh boy, there she goes again, rambling on about another trip instead of showing us what it is to be an artist in Central California. Well, artists have to take field trips for new sights and locations; it fuels creativity (so I’ve read).

We went to Death Valley to visit a dear friend. The desert doesn’t really appeal to me with all its dry brownness, but this is a very dear friend and visiting her makes this weirdly wonderful place appealing. Because of her, we got to see all sorts of things that we would not have experienced otherwise.