Nope, I’m not there. (Where did the word “nope” come from??) But, it is Friday, so have a look at some Mineral King art from my pencil archives:
Fret not. Summer will return.
Mineral King is one of the treasures of Tulare County, a place I love.
We break for this commercial message: This pencil drawing of Mineral King has sold. If you would like your own original pencil drawing of this (or of something else), I can do it for you. In fact, it would be a pleasure to draw for you!
Slowly inching along, climbing up and down the ladder, walking to the end of the driveway and back, studying, scrutinizing, evaluating, analyzing. I have to live with this mural, not just drive past it occasionally, so it needs to be really well done. Besides, it will be advertising for murals during the Studio Tour.
One ladder for climbing, the other for use as a platform for paints. The progress is incremental. Can you see it from photo to photo? I’m looking forward to being able to paint while standing on the ground. It is so much easier to back up and see how things look when no climbing is involved.
Wow, those ridges sure do show up. I don’t think they are quite as noticeable in person as they are in the photos.
Pretty neat-o from a distance, but there sure are lots of murals at this place. Looks sort of billboardy, or maybe a bit overdone, perhaps? Nah. Besides, it is MY house, I’m FIFTY-FOUR YEARS OLD, and I’ll have as many murals as I want. I can quit any time, you know. It’s not like I’m covering EVERY space. Besides, I can always paint them out.
There is still the garage door, which consists of mismatched panels. I told the repair guy that I didn’t care whether or not the panels matched because I planned to paint a mural. That was before Trail Guy suggested a Sequoia mural on the other door.
For some reason, it embarrasses me to admit this. So, I put it as the title of this post – practice saying it, feel it, face it. (Say it loud, say it proud?) I am a California Artist and I love Tulare County! (Is it warm in here or is it just me?)
Oranges #121, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $90, available here
My cousins visited from Northern California. She is from the Chicago area and he grew up near Buffalo. (They are married so I consider him to be my cousin too.)
We spent part of a day in Sequoia. This is where they met while working for The Park’s concessionaire. (Here in Three Rivers we refer to Sequoia National Park as “The Park”.)
Sunny Sequoias XVIII, 8×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, $75, available here
Girl Cousin has inherited a portion of an orange grove where I spend the first 11 years of my life. (Don’t worry – we lived in a house, not under a tree.) So, we visited the grove. City folks say “ranch” and Citrus folks say “orchard” or “grove”.
Oranges #121, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $90, available here
Several thoughts:
I expected that the day in The Park would be the most fun part of the time together, but
The time in the citrus grove was the most fun.
Perhaps this is because it was cold and wet and foggy in the Park and intermittently sunny in the grove.
Or maybe it is because I had my eyes opened to how special it is to have grown up as the daughter, granddaughter and niece of citrus growers.
Being a “tour guide” to Girl Cousin and Mr. Girl Cousin (sorry Bob – but you gotta laugh at that!) caused me to realize that I do know quite a bit about my county and about citrus. I was amazed by how much I had to say about it all. (I’m sure The Cousins were too.)
In the course of these days together, it occurred to me that I do love Tulare County. We are poor, uneducated, fat and have very bad air* BUT we have Sequoia and we have citrus. So there.
P.S. Three Rivers might still be the best place to live in Tulare County, but my second choice is in an orange grove at the edge of the foothills.
*I have to point these things out so you all won’t move here.
Two of my neighbors have requested that I paint slowly. They want to enjoy the process of seeing a mural develop.
With this mural of Sequoia trees on a ridgey door, I don’t have a choice. In my head the thing should be going quickly, but reality is much different.
I climb down the ladder and squint and study. It needs more light here, more detail there. I climb the ladder and then can’t figure out where the light and detail were supposed to go. I climb back down and look again. Hmmm, three ridges down, more light. More detail on the top ridge and on the 4th ridge, crossing down onto the 6th ridge. Climb back up the ladder. Add the light, and forget where the detail was needed. Climb back down, oh yeah, that’s right, climb back up, and now my brushes are all dried out. Climb back down and get them cleaned up a bit in water. Climb back up and wonder what I was supposed to do. Realize the color I need is dried on the palette, Climb down the ladder and pour more on. Squint up at the mural and see another area needs attention. Move the ladder, climb up and try to GET SOMETHING PAINTED!!
Please excuse me for shouting. This should not be so hard.
Okay Bob and Katie, I’m a slow painter for sure. And Katie, thank you for the blog post idea!
First, I mixed my main paint colors, using the primaries.
That weirdo greenish yellow (or yellowish green) is not a primary, but is an example of a color that is easily mixed using red, blue, yellow and white. Isn’t that UH-MAY-ZING?? Still thrills me. I actually use 2 different reds and 2 different blues.
First, the barest hint of where things will go. This is probably meaningless to you, but I wanted you to see how the process works.
Because I paint from back to front, the sky color goes on first. Very little sky will appear in this mural, but it provided edges for the Sequoia trees. Then I climbed off the ladder and stepped back to see if the beginning marks were the right size and in the right place. (Notice I did things in the proper order – first climbed off the ladder and second, stepped back.)
Now are you getting the idea?
The photo that I’m using partially shows in the bottom of this photo.
These ridges are making it REALLY REALLY hard to paint.
Not having a scaffolding or a platform is also a hindrance to progress. Not complaining; just explaining in advance why this one may take a long time to finish. It will provide some fun for my neighbor Bob when he checks his mail every day. He told me that he hopes I don’t finish it too quickly!
Because moving the ladder is interruptive, my plan is to finish the upper parts first. As a right-hander, I find it easiest to work from left to right. In spite of working from the top down, I found it helpful to locate the bottoms of the trees and lay in the shadows.
The colors I mixed (or remixed or added to from a previous mural) were:
Dark redwood
Medium redwood
Light redwood
Dirt in sun
Dirt in shade
dark green
olive green
sunlit green
To quote Trail Guy, “Boy, those lines sure show up.”
Now that the drawings for The Cabins of Wilsonia are finished and the book is in its first review session, I’ve been sort of wandering aimlessly. Organize a little, paint a little, work on the blog a little, procrastinate a little, wonder what to do.
Last fall I got a call to visit a place in Visalia and discuss a mural. I was very eager to do this mural because I know and like the business and because the subject was citrus. The ideas were flowing, so I did a couple of sketches and gave them several bids.
(FYI, I generally bid a mural based on size, the same way I price my drawings and paintings. The reason for multiple bids is so they could have me paint it all at once or do it in three sessions, whatever fit best into their budget.)
In December there was a hard freeze. It did big fat damage to the citrus crop and the trees and the farmers and the industry and the business who planned to hire me.
Bummer. No citrus mural for this artist this year.
What’s a California artist to do?
Paint Sequoia trees, that’s what.
I think this will look pretty fantastic on my garages.
Too many areas here for you to know just which one I mean. This door:
Yes, it is all ridgey metal, but I can do this. No sign that says “Parker Group” and sorry, no Brianna either. I’m fairly comfortable with citrus, Mineral King scenery and redwood trees, but little people are beyond my skill at this time.
No time frame, but it would be good to have it finished before the Studio Tour, March 21-23. Of course, if we get lots and lots of rain I won’t be able to paint the mural. That would actually be a better outcome than continued drought with a mural.
But why did I spend all that time and paint turning it dark brown if I planned to paint a mural there?
I didn’t plan it. I planned to have dark brown doors so they wouldn’t show up. Trail Guy suggested the mural, suggested the subject and chose the photo.
Last week I shared my thoughts about how the world is now wanting things to be juiced up.
Here is the juiced up version of a new Mineral King painting, with enhanced versions of two other paintings, all drying in the painting studio while it is RAINING OUTSIDE!!
It is hard to tell that the 2 top pieces have been enhanced. I might need to work harder at figuring out this juiced-up thing. I am such a pragmatist and a realist. The truth drives me. However, I have been known to exaggerate in the past to make a point or to get a laugh. Perhaps I can direct this ability to my oil painting.
The Mineral King painting (on the bottom) is quite bright. At this oblique angle it is hard to know that it is still missing a great deal of detail.
Meanwhile, I’ll wait for the paint to dry and engage in some productive procrastination.
I just learned how to make chalkboard paint – stir about 1 Tablespoon of UNsanded grout into about a cup of paint. It gets thick and it dries fast and you can write on it with chalk! A person could get carried away with this sort of information.
I don’t know why I wrote those phone #s on the pegboard for drying oil paintings. First, I know those phone #s. Second, if I forgot them and there were wet oil paintings on top of them, they wouldn’t be visible.
Is “productive procrastination” an oxymoron?
Honestly, I just couldn’t figure out what to do because when it is raining, it is too dark for painting. I could draw, but the drawings are finished for The Cabins of Wilsonia. I could draw something else, but it is oil paintings that sell the best.
So, I’ll just watch paint dry and thank God for the rain.
Reading used to be my favorite thing to do. Now it is just one of many things I love to do. In the olden days, reading was something I did after a trip to the library. In the now days, I still use the library. In addition, I buy books to read on my computer, buy books to listen to on the computer, buy books from Amazon, borrow books from friends, and read books from my own shelves.
Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″
Here is a list of recently read, read a month ago, or currently reading:
1. Room
by Emma Donahue. Wow, this is written from the viewpoint of a 5 year old boy, raised in a single room by his mother who was kidnapped at age 19. She did an incredible job of raising her child. Sounds dreadful, creepy, scary, but they escape. The 2nd half of the book is about adjusting to life outside of the room. Wonderful novel – great story, great characters, very well written.
2. Jesus Calling
A friend told me about this little book by Sarah Young. It is one of those devotionals with an entry for 365 days. I thought it would be like all the rest. It is not. It is fantastic. Look her up and read how she wrote this! Right after I started reading this, it seems as if everyone I meet or talk to is also reading it. Tremendous insight into the character of God.
4. At the Crossing of Justice and Mercy
This is an audio book (probably a paper one too) by Dan Erickson, a multi-talented guy who I sort of know via the marvelous world wide web. He is a professor, musician, writer, single dad, and survivor of growing up in a cult. His first book was about the cult and how it affected him – A Train Called Forgiveness. This is sort of a sequel, but this one is fiction. It sort of twisted my head a bit. I’d think, “You did WHAT?” and then remember it is a novel. Very good story! Here – you can visit Dan’s site and learn more and even buy it yourself.
There is more, but you’d probably rather be reading books than this blog!
HEY, California Artist, don’t you read art books?
No. I read artists’ websites and art marketing websites. Even those leave me confused with conflicting approaches to media and marketing, which creates tremendous self-doubt. Too much information, too many opinions. It causes me to act like a gray squirrel in the middle of the road: go, stop, turn, go, turn, stop, go, turn. . . See why I have to read to escape??
