It’s been a rough few weeks. My blog will go quiet for a little while. Please enjoy past posts while I figure out how to recover some blogging mojo*. I’ll be back. . . *Is “mojo” short for “motivated joy”?
Goodbye, Steve
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]