1961 – 2015
STEVE was charismatic, confident, intense, competitive in many sports, and my brother-in-law for almost 30 years. It’s hard to imagine our family without him.
Trail Guy Tee Shirts
Remember the Mineral King tee shirts, AKA Trail Guy Tee Shirts?
We have almost run out completely.
However, I messed up by not removing them from my website. It was set up so people can do a backorder. Someone ordered 2 shirts in a size we do not have.
Lucky you!
This means I have to place another order for tee shirts.
Would you like to order one? Go to the tee shirt page and place your order so I can include it in the tee shirt order, which I will place during the week after Labor Day.
This is the Mineral King scene on which the tee shirt embroidery design is based:
This photo is current, and you will notice that the tall tree is now singular. In our tee shirt, there are two.
Does this make the tee shirt a “collectible” or perhaps “vintage”? Time flies, and the strangest things get called “vintage” or “retro” these days.
Dang. I’m middle-aged and that’s a sure sign. Another sign is that I’d rather hike up-hill than down-hill. Pretty soon I’ll be muttering, “Kids these days. . .!”
Lazy List of Hardworking Artists
Today I am sharing a list with you of some truly gifted and amazing artists. (Lists are a lazy way to post to a blog.) Because the internet has shrunk our world, I have had the pleasure of corresponding with and becoming virtual friends with these four women.
Diana Moses Botkin (no relation – we looked but did not find) – this link is to her website. Look down the side menu for the blog link, which reads “The Latest at my Blog”
Laurel Daniel – this link is to her website. Look down the side menu for the blog link
Nance Danforth – this link is to her blog. She also blows my mind with her knitting!
Ann Walker – this is linked to her website. To see her art on her site, click the word “Works” on the menu on the left side of her home page.
I didn’t ask their permission to post any of their work, so you will need to click their names to go to their websites. Diana, Laurel and Nance have blogs; Ann does not. Each is an outstanding painter, each painting in a different style; all are outstanding artists and wonderful people.
Lists are lazy, but they can be helpful. Hope these friends’ work brings beauty to your day.
Thank you Mr. Google for giving me the ability to connect with these inspirational and encouraging artist friends!
Jumping the Gun With Paint
Do you ever wonder about the origins of sayings such as “jumping the gun”? That is an easy one – it refers to racers (horses? people?) who take off before the starting gun.
In commissions, the “starting gun” is when the customer pays 1/2 down and we decide exactly what she wants. A conversation alone is not the starting gun.
I have had a recent wonderful reunion with an old friend (we are actually middle-aged, not old, and think we met in 4th grade but can’t remember). She expressed an interest in some fruit paintings. We didn’t decide anything for sure, and I didn’t even have the right sized canvases.
But, I’m having a hard time focusing and pushing through and following up. Sometimes life is hard, and it robs one of the ability to do everything one normally would do. Sometimes when life is hard, one just takes the easiest route.
(LBWR, feel no obligation for these 3 paintings – I just felt like tackling the project even though the canvases are thicker than the ones you saw and we didn’t cement the final look. If they don’t suit you, I’ll schlep them around to my fall shows, and I will still paint yours however you would like.)
First pass – wow, these are thick canvases. 
Next, effort into the orange because it got short shrift last time.
Looks good, and the colors are easy to morph into lemon colors. 
Wow, that pomegranate looks awesome, if I do say so myself.
“If I do say so myself” – where did that ludicrous saying originate? I did say so, myself.
LBWR, what do you think of these? I will be painting the sides dark green so they won’t need frames.
Cabin Communities Matter
In order to sell books, I need to take them to groups and talk about them. So, I will begin with the Tulare-Kings Genealogical Society on Thursday evening, this week.
My entire point of the book, The Cabins of Wilsonia, is that Cabin Communities Matter.
There isn’t much to brag on in Tulare County in terms of architecture. There’s my favorite bridge (on the Mineral King Road), the Fox Theater in Visalia is quite handsome, and there are various homes around the county that are respectable. What I think is truly remarkable is our cabin communities, particularly Wilsonia.
You knew that already because I spent 4 years making a book about it.
So, it is time for me to begin promoting my book. Here is the first event of that nature:
Tulare-Kings Genealogical Society
Thursday, September 3, 2015, 6:30 p.m.
Tulare City Public Library, Olympic Room City Council Chambers
475 North M Street, Tulare, California
FREE!
Relevant Links:
Too Smoky in Mineral King
There is a terrible wildfire roaring along in the Sierra Nevada, in Kings Canyon National Park, just north of Sequoia National Park. Mineral King is on the southern end of Sequoia, but it got plenty of smoke from the “Rough” fire. It was named for the location where it began, a place called “Rough Ridge”. The name is very appropriate, because it is a rough fire indeed.
Timber Gap and Empire are barely visible.
Okay, forget about hiking. Let’s sew instead.
Sew? Did she say “sew”?
Indeed.
I sold my treadle sewing machine to my cabin neighbor and then spent the weekend setting it up, teaching her to use it and helping her make new cabin curtains.
No electricity required for this beautifully effective piece of machinery. You just put your foot on the treadle and begin to peddle.
I didn’t photograph what we used for ironing. It was a Coleman iron, supposed to be powered by white gas, but instead we heated it on the wood stove.
I am not making this up. Did you doubt me, an axe-wielding, wood-stove-cooking, knitting, Central California Artist, surrounded by those who understand this bizarre way of life??
The day we headed back down the hill was a clear day. Why?
“Clear” is a relative term. Normally we’d call this a cloudy day, but after the horrors of breathing smoke for 2 straight days, this is wonderfully clear. The Rough fire continues to wreak its havoc, but the smoke didn’t come to Mineral King for this day.
And here is my favorite bridge on the way home. I don’t want a fire here, but it would clear the view to the Oak Grove Bridge if one happened.
Painting Mineral King
This has been a fine season for selling paintings of Mineral King scenes. Very fine! Each time I go by the Silver City Store, I stop to see what is remaining. Sometimes I bring a few new paintings along, other times I just make some notes about what to paint next.
Here are the newest 3 for you to enjoy. (You may buy them, if you beat out the others who are interested.)
Honeymoon Cabin XXII, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55 (plus tax)
Kaweah Headwaters, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55 (plus tax)
Oak Grove Bridge, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $60 (plus tax) It was twice as hard as the others and should be considered a bargain because it doesn’t cost twice as much.
Relevant links to this post:
Too Hot in the Painting Workshop
Because oil painting can be messy, I paint in a workshop building with a swamp cooler instead of inside my real studio with its more effective air conditioner.
We had some of those 100+ degree days, and the swamp cooler was not up to the task of keeping me comfortable. Heaven forbid that a Central California artist be uncomfortable! A hot artist is an uncomfortable artist, an uncomfortable artist doesn’t paint well, an artist who doesn’t paint well doesn’t sell well, and an artist who doesn’t sell well has to get a real job.
So, I took these barely begun paintings off the wall in the workshop and moved into the studio.
I managed to not make an oil painting mess in my little air-conditioned studio, a room normally used for pencil drawing, private drawing lessons, and doing non-messy businessy things.
That back wall has FIVE WET OIL PAINTINGS hanging on push-pins. It (the wall) might now be in need of a new coat of paint.
Nah. It’s a STUDIO, for cryin’ out loud!
Tune in tomorrow to see three of the paintings, finished and ready to buy.
Quail Confusion
Mountain Quail are different from California Quail. One is in the mountains, one is in the lower elevations. I don’t know the specific elevations. Both are in California, but one is the state bird and one is not.
I painted a California Quail working from a photo that I took right out my studio window. Apparently I have been sort of distracted, not paying attention with all my focus.
California Quail, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $60
Trail Guy carefully appreciates “his” quail, and pointed out my mistake while reading my blog. Yep, my husband reads my blog. (I might be more interesting on the screen than in person.) Thank you, Michael!! You catch my mistakes and I appreciate it.
Silly me. I should have figured out that dry brownish-yellowish grasses are a sign that the bird is down the hill, not in Mineral King.
You are probably wondering what a Mountain Quail looks like. I haven’t painted one yet, but do have several photos.
It would be easier if they would assume the same position, hold the same pose, so we could carefully examine their differences. But, like their California cousins, they are very skittish, and so far I can only photograph them from indoors right through the window.
Hence, quail confusion.
Reading Rabbit Returns
Here is a list of some of what I have read this summer. All were either entertaining or informative. All are worth sharing, and thank you to those who shared with me. (I didn’t list the mediocre books, of which there were several. Those I skimmed or didn’t finish.)
- My Reading Life, Pat Conroy. Nonfiction. (Thank you, Jennifer Dougan, for this recommendation.)
- The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman. Fiction. (Thank you, Cathy T., for this recommendation.)
- The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr. Nonfiction.
- Knowing God, J.I. Packer. Nonfiction
- Under the Wide and Starry Sky, Nancy Horan. Fiction (More thanks to Cathy T.)
- The Calorie Myth, Jonathan Bailor. Nonfiction.
- Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath. Nonfiction (THANK YOU, MAK, FOR THIS FANTASTIC RECOMMENDATION!)
My list of unread books continues to grow, in spite of reading 2-3 at the same time all summer long. The over-abundance (is that word wrong, like “irregardless”?) comes from finding a book recommended on someone’s blog, and immediately ordering it from the library. We have a terrific library ordering system here in the San Joaquin Valley. I go to the site, find and order the book, and when it is available, the system sends an email saying the book is waiting for me at the Three Rivers Library.
That’s good news! Libraries are just the best thing ever, and so is reading.
If you have discovered any great books recently, please share them with me in the comments! (in case my stack of unread books gets too short and then I get antsy in case I wind up without something to read.)