Why I Went to Oregon

As you probably have surmised, I live in the sticks and don’t get out much. City things are not a regular part of my life. So, when I get to a city, I get busy. This trip to Oregon was full of purpose: a haircut, a new battery in my laptop, a box of clothing to a consignment store. This was all peripheral to visiting family (Hi Mom!) However, I had another purpose.

Fernando has received a terminal diagnosis. He’ll probably keep going for another several years, but the needed parts are no longer available except as “after market” which, rather than fitting, will need to be welded. This isn’t ideal. After 24 years in my life, it is time to let go for a better vehicle. (sob)

Fernando, Trail Guy, and I have had some fun together.

Is this a better vehicle?

Maybe after a new battery and a big wash job.

I think car washes are scary! But good results. . .

Never had an automatic. Never had a four-door. Never had a 6-cylinder. Never had a car that wasn’t green or blue. Never had a car manufactured in this century (talking about cars of my choice for my use, not the old family wagon or our good ’03 Toyota Tacoma).

Can’t say that anymore. But I’ve only owned Honda Accords, so that part is familiar.

Now I just have to stop slamming my left foot into the brake (because it is NOT a clutch) before starting the car and remember to put it in Park before trying to remove the key.

THANKS, MOM!

Trail Guy is Back on the Mineral King Trails

Who wants to hear about Oregon?? Not as many of my tens of readers as want to hear about Mineral King.

While I was on the road, Trail Guy was in Mineral King. (Are you surprised? Then you might be new here. . . welcome!) You may recognize these photos as coming from his camera, because it usually has a dark spot in the sky.

First, he saw a Western Tanager, a yearly sighting. Blurry, so I’ve made this photo small.

Then he went to White Chief.

This is Crystal Creek from across the valley.

This juniper is everybody’s favorite tree.

Here is White Chief, sometimes described as a canyon, sometimes as a valley, sometimes as a dry lake.

The flat top peak is White Chief Peak.

Trail Guy calls this “Walden Pond”. It is NOT White Chief Lake. That’s up a steep steep steep slope below White Chief Peak.

Back in the valley (the Mineral King Valley), this rock outcropping continues to impersonate a mountain ridge which we call Empire. From this angle, it appears to be the top, but it isn’t.

Trail Guy also went to Timber Gap. This is the classic view from the trail. White Chief Peak is visible, identifiable by its squared off top.

Five-spot on the left, phlox on the right.

Shooting star. Jeffrey Shooting Star. Don’t forget about Jeffrey, whoever he was.

When he got home to Three Rivers, he found this brand new, recently born set of twins, right in our yard.

Great. Now we’ll never get rid of these voracious landscape-destroying creatures.

Walking in Oregon

Walking in the mornings in Oregon was just ideal. So many interesting houses, so much to see, so many great looking yards and growies! It felt like March or April at home.

a favorite house
hazelnut shells as mulch
peculiar landscaping for Oregon
Weeds or wildflowers?

Yea, kitties!

A favorite yard.

Another favorite house.

The lavender! With yellow roses!

This color combination always grabs my attention.

Yeah, yeah, I will tell you the reason (besides visiting family) for this trip. Stay tuned.

I Went to Oregon

This is the fourth summer in a row that I have gone to Oregon. This state is pertinear perfect in the summer. The folks here complain when it gets into the 90s, but to a Central Californian, this is mellow summer weather.

There were so many paintable scenes, but never a place to even pull over to take photos. Some day perhaps I’ll not be in a hurry and take side roads and legions of pictures.

I was a passenger much of the time and shot a few scenes through the car windows. Not awesome photos, but paintable. However, I probably don’t have a customer base for these subjects.

There was much hanging around.

What is in this rose bush? Yikes, how will we retrieve it?

I learned a bit about Legos. Holy guacamole, the Lego company does brilliant marketing and has endless ideas about creating new products. When I was a kid, Legos were simply little blocks that hooked together.

The lack of sales tax tempted me beyond reason to stock up on a few items, and gas is sure more reasonable in this state.

Later, I’ll show you why I came to Oregon (besides visiting family.)

Custom Art Job—A Map

The owners of a ranch used a hand drawn map to show visitors (for various reasons) how to find the right pastures, and they decided that a pretty map would better serve their purposes. They brought the hand drawn map along with a county map showing property lines and buildings.

Think, think, think. How do I do this? I started by tracing the country map and transferring it to a large sheet of drawing paper. Then we went over it together to determine property lines, fence lines, troughs, internal roads, gates, and to list what else would be helpful to add.

When all those things were figured out, the lanes were named, the pastures were numbered, and all the gates and water troughs were located, I walked the property a second time for a sense of what belonged in the margins to prettify the map.

When all the drawings were in place, I scanned it in 2 parts, because OF COURSE it was too big for my flatbed scanner. Then hours and hours using Photoshop began. (I seriously underbid this job. . . so what’s new?) When it seemed finished, I emailed the owners to see how it would print for them, since they often need to hand one to a visitor. (Duh. That’s why they had me do this job.)

The owners thought it was great, but needed to make a few corrections and changes

We decided that the heron looked weird, the word “faucet” on the legend needed to be replaced with “trough”, a fence line was missing, the map and words needed to be darker without changing the drawings, and, get this, I drew the wrong horse at the bottom left corner.

What?? Seen one, seen ‘em all (and I think most yellow flowers and most babies look alike too.)

So with coaching from these horse experts, I turned Mr. White Nose into Hopper, a black horse (yes, I can tell the difference in horse colors, just not features).

There were many layers of tissue paper, sketches to figure out what might fit where, copies to correct, piles and piles of papers when the job was finished.

Here is the final map of the Bar-O Ranch. Really challenging job, very satisfying results, lots of new experience in problem solving and design that I probably won’t get another chance to use. However, if you know of anyone who wants a pretty map, I’m the one to call.

New Notecards Coming Soon

Notecards have been a mainstay of my art business since 1987 (maybe you weren’t born yet). There used to be many stores throughout Tulare County that sold these steadily, and I spent copious amounts of time packaging cards, sometimes with the help of my parents or my friend Gnat.

The packages had two each of five designs and retailed for $5.00. It was possible to make a profit because I worked at a print shop and received a discount, but had to order large quantities to make this work. “Large” means 1000 or more of each design, instead of the 100 or so I now order. Since this was before email, most of polite society used cards. (Impolite society didn’t send thank you notes.)

Now notecards can be ordered online, and if I wait for a discount sale from the company who prints the cards, I can make a small profit selling four cards (all same design in a package) for $10.

Have you picked yourself back up off the floor? Okey dokey, let’s see the new designs coming soon. These were chosen to please my higher selling stores’ customers, many of whom are visitors to the area in the summer. The pencil drawings aren’t new; the paintings were completed recently (within the last year).

Kaweah River
Generals Highway
General Sherman Tree
Lake Kaweah
Sawtooth #65 (such an elegant title!)

These are all scenes drawn or painted from my* photos, sometimes embellished and made up from several photos and my memory, all specific to eastern Tulare County: Three Rivers, Sequoia National Park, and Mineral King.

The notecards will be available at Kaweah Arts in Three Rivers and on this page of my website.

*Except Lake Kaweah, generously supplied by my friend Rachel.

Two Weeks Ago in Mineral King

I’ve been gone. These pictures were taken two weeks ago. The snow was still plentiful on Farewell Gap, and the water was high.

Someone left his boots in the parking lot. They were gone the next day. Glad they were retrieved.

The light was very beautiful.

I saw the tiniest wildflowers and it was a reminder to keep a dime in my pocket to photograph these little ones so that you can understand the size (also in case I do a second edition of Mineral King Wildflowers.)

The wildflowers were decent along the Nature Trail, if you kept your eyes open, always a good policy when walking a trail (or a city sidewalk, or a rural road, or your hallway or. . .) These are both violets. (I just work here.)

This is a different sort of currant, but I forget the name.

Forget me nots are the most wonderful blue, a color that is hard to find in domestic flowers.

Mineral King, I won’t forget you. I’ll be back soon!

Two Starts, One Finish, One Start-to-Finish

Translation of the title: I started two new paintings, finished one painting, and completed one in a single painting session (called alla prima in ArtSpeak, which means you layer wet upon wet).

With a sequoia painting in the queue but not wanting to waste paint in non-sequoia colors on the palette, I chose to begin another little beach painting. Why not? I have the boards, and the colors were just waiting to be used. (Fret not—this will look good eventually. I made it really small here so you wouldn’t get scared. I’m thoughtful that way.)

A sequoia gigantea painting sold and needed to be replaced quickly at Kaweah Arts, because this is Sequoia Selling Season here in Three Rivers.

Another painting hasn’t garnered proper appreciation, so rather than just wait indefinitely for the right customer, I will turn it into something else. What else might that be? The Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King, the little museum of the Mineral King Preservation Society.

Finally, here is our alla prima painting, another speedy piece of work because one sold and needs to be replaced quickly at the Silver City Store.

The paintings were all painted during a not-too-hot day when the swamp cooler was adequate, while knowing very hot weather was coming, perfect for quick drying. Paintings need to be dry before getting scanned (duh), and they need to be scanned (or photographed at the very least) before delivered to stores and galleries. This is particularly important when one paints the same scenes over and over and over. . .

A Little Painting Session

Recently, I had to leave Three Rivers at 10 a.m. This presented two choices: A. waste time until 10, or B. paint for an hour or two before leaving. Being the responsible mature adult that I am (oh hush, you!), I wisely chose B. Creating Tulare County-based paintings is what I do; wasting time is normally not what I do (or want to admit to doing here on the world wide web.)

After viewing this on my screen while it was still wet, I decided it needed some leaves.

It looks better in this photo because the previous photo was taken at the end of the day. Morning light makes better photography conditions in the painting workshop.

That’s better. When it is dry, I’ll scan it and maybe remember to show you.

There was paint left on my palette and time left on the clock. It is prudent to always have a 6×18” sequoia painting ready for Kaweah Arts to sell to the thousands of visitors who pass through our town on their way to see Sequoia National Park’s sequoia trees AKA redwoods AKA the Big Trees. (These are sequoia gigantea, not to be confused with sequoia sempervirens, which are coastal redwoods.)

Yeppers, I worked from a black and white photo and began the painting upside down. I can fake these trees, so I can certainly guess how this snowy scene might look in summertime.

I started this one differently than usual. I “drew” it on the canvas rather than completely covering the canvas with thin sloppy paint.

It’s a little sloppy, but this was as far as it got when my internal chronometer said to make like a tree and leaf. Or was that to make like a cowpie and hit the trail. . . such colorful images and language from that internal chronometer.

Growing an Oak Tree (in Oil Paint)

Let’s review. I really liked this painting, but no one was willing to give me green pieces of paper with dead presidents’ faces on it in exchange. So, after going through some photos and thinking about my current inventory, I decided to grow a big oak tree on the canvas.

Jackson required some attention. He had a lot to say, but he wasn’t commenting on the painting.

Am I finished? Or shall I add some leaves?

More will be revealed in the fullness of time.