Hmmmm, this is a continuation on my amazing friend, Barbara. Should it be chapter two or chapter three?
Who cares? You’ve got to see her gardens on the Three Rivers Hidden Gardens Tour. Here are a few photos from 2 years ago to whet your appetite.
My Amazing Friends, Chapter Two
This will be a long post. I hope you will savor it, instead of filing it in the category of TLDR*.
The series, My Amazing Friends, began this week with Bob. Let’s continue with Barbara, also of Three Rivers, a gardener extraordinaire.
Barbara grows many plants, knows them all and is best known for her lavender. She is so passionate about her gardens (not just a yard, not just a garden, but GARDENS, plural!) that she works under floodlights at night in order to keep them in order.
Two years ago her lovely grounds were featured in the very first Hidden Gardens Tour of Three Rivers, to benefit the Three Rivers Union School, which is always in peril of closing or being absorbed into the Woodlake School District.
I had the honor and privilege of seeing the place on the official pre-tour, a return visit or two with my camera, and being present with my easel and paints during the official tour.
This year Barbara’s garden will be on the tour again. Tickets are still available, and you will get to see 4 places, including Angelica Huston’s place. Barbara’s will be the best on the tour, in my completely unbiased (harharhar) opinion!
Okay, getting too long, to be continued tomorrow. . .
*Too Long Didn’t Read
My Amazing Friends, Chapter One
The word “amazing” is overused these days. It is often pronounced “uh-MAY-zing” and has taken the place formerly occupied by “awesome”, pronounced “AHHH-sum”. My uh-MAY-zing and Oh-so-wise Dad was bothered by the description inflation of “awesome”. He said that very little was truly awesome, short of God or his (God’s, not Dad’s) handiwork. I’ve grown up with the word “amazing” usually reserved for God’s grace. . . heard the song?
Nonetheless, I have some friends who amaze me with their creativity and generosity and abilities. Today we begin learning of those friends.
First, there is Bob. He lives in Three Rivers and is a superb craftsman, a unique Tulare County artist (or would that be “artisan”?).
Look what Bob has made:
Fantastically beautiful and functional, oversized and modified Adirondack chairs from salvaged redwood. These chairs have arms large enough for a cat, some knitting, a plate of food, a skinny friend’s hiney to perch, or the Wall St. Journal in its entirety. When I sit in one of his original designs, my feet stick out in front of me, and I want to shout, “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!”
Bob modified his design to fit smaller humans, such as myself. I am not small, but medium. Bob is not medium, so sometimes I have to remind him that things which fit him swallow up medium people such as his sweet wife or me.
Look what else Bob made for me:
This is a GIANT easel on wheels that lock. I’m reluctant to get paint on it. When it is all set up with a canvas (AFTER I finish the year of drawing The Cabins of Wilsonia) then I will take the plunge and begin using this AHHHH-sum and uh-MAY-zing piece of equipment.
To view Bob’s work, go here: Kelbro Stoneworks
Tomorrow I will post at The Cabins of Wilsonia.
An Odd Job
As a California artist based in rural Tulare County, I am willing to do odd jobs. Odd art jobs, that is. (Please don’t call me to wash your windows – they will probably turn out odd.) Staying in the business of art in a place like this means saying, “Yes” when asked to do odd jobs.
I’ve shown you some of the unusual things I’ve been asked to do in the past. Here are a few links if you want to see some of these items (each will open in a separate tab or window): cabin sign (gotta scroll down the post to see it), chair back slat, ornament (you can read the entire story and see all the photos in December 2011), antique window, pet sign, boat sign, quilt square. There are more, but I fear I will test your patience and you will say TLDR*.
My latest job could sort of be considered a mural, sort of a commission: a faded decal on a recreational vehicle at a mobile home park in Hanford, California.
It was a challenging and fun job. (I consider a job fun when the conditions are good and the job turns out well.)
The most fun part was mixing the colors to match the non-faded sides of the RV.
This side wasn’t faded as badly but the owner requested a touch-up here too.
*Too long, didn’t read
Not Much Snow in March in Mineral King
Not much snow on Sawtooth.
Not much snow in the valley looking toward Farewell Gap.
No snow on the south-facing slopes; not much snow on the north facing slope on the Sawtooth trail.
Not much snow for March.
Commissioned Pencil Drawing, Completed
Being able to draw scenes like this is one of the main reasons I am a California artist in Tulare County. Don’t you just want to live here?
Forget it – we have high unemployment, bad air, and lots of fat people.
There. A one-woman population control committee. That’s me!
Decisions, Decisions
The commissioned pencil drawing presented several challenges. When a place is really beautiful, visually captivating, unusually interesting, my oh my it is difficult to choose the right view!
I didn’t intend to draw this view but thought it made a nice photo.
The door by which one enters a building is considered the “face” and is usually the most welcoming view.
Since it is actually the office of a ranching business, showing the tank with the name was a good commercial idea.
This used to be the front door. It faced the afternoon sun, and with the stone steps and the view beyond, I was a goner. But I knew it wasn’t even worth showing to the customer because this sort of view is not why people commission me to draw their houses and offices and cabins and ranch offices.
This is the view which attracted my attention to this beautiful house way back when. . . with the orange trees recently topped, the house really shows up well. Unfortunately, topped trees look sort of like a weird lumpy lawn.
Come back tomorrow to see which view the customer chose!
Commissioned Pencil Drawing Coming Up
I’m drawing my brains out, working on The Cabins of Wilsonia. (Okay, I’m not really drawing my brains out – I need them for stuff like posting to my blog. Try not to take me too literally here.) When I get commissions, I take a break from that Giant Project.
There is a house here in Tulare County that I have admired for years. It is on a road I really like – it is curvy, against the foothills, and it meanders through citrus country. A friend was hired to do some work at this house and provided the name and address of the owner.
I had the audacity to write a letter introducing myself and asking if he would like to hire me to draw the house.
He did not respond.
I was embarrassed, but got over it. If I was a really good business person, I probably would have followed up with a phone call. Alas, I don’t want to be sellsy, so I let it go.
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by the man’s wife, via a common friend. (She isn’t really “common” – she is actually quite special. But, what I meant is that she is a friend to me and to the wife. Try not to take me so literally here.) She asked if I could draw the house for her hubby’s upcoming birthday. She mentioned that I had written to her husband awhile back – I was a little embarrassed, but also pleased that my self-promotion hadn’t been too sellsy.
Trail Guy and I went to the house to get some photos. Now that he is retired, he gets involved in the more fun parts of my business. He also does errands for me so I can draw uninterrupted.
These are not the photos I am using for the drawing – because it is a birthday surprise, and because there is a 1 in 1,000,000 chance that the man reads my blog, I’m not showing you those yet.
On the off chance that he does read my blog, he won’t know which view I am drawing. Sneaky of me, yes?
Now that I only have Perkins, I am especially vulnerable to any and all cats. Try not to take advantage of this weakness, please.
If I didn’t love living in Three Rivers, I’d want to live here. Of course, I thought that when I was in Blowing Rock, Washington, and Downers Grove. Stop it.
After the birthday gift has been given, I’ll show you the photos I used, the ones I didn’t use, and the finished drawing. I think it turned out great, but given the subject matter, how could it be anything except beautiful?
Making Stuff, Chapter 5
Tile, tile, everywhere!
Anyone out there aware of Pinterest? I’ve heard it can suck you in, turn you into a materialistic and self-centered spoiled brat who wastes hours looking at stuff, wishing for stuff, and collecting pictures of stuff.
Me? It just makes me want to make more stuff. Useful, functional, beautiful Real Stuff.
I kept seeing these wonderful garden ornaments on Pinterest. They seemed like gazing balls, but they weren’t reflecting. Instead, they were . . . yep, you guessed it. . . TILED!
After chasing a few links, I learned these were bowling balls. Tiled bowling balls?
Where does a non-bowler find an old bowling ball? If you are me, you ask your friend Bill, the source of anything cool or unusual or necessary in the unending journey of Making Stuff.
After Bill sent me a bowling ball, I looked through my mosaic supplies. Whoa! Check out the teacup handle! That’s also from Bill. This is how the bowling ball looked when everything was attached but not yet grouted.
There isn’t much planning available when tiling a sphere. You just pick your colors, get your pieces together, and begin attaching.
Don’t try to pick this up by the teacup handle, ‘k?
Making Stuff, Chapter 4
Usable, functional, beautiful, real stuff that I made myself. This is the grown up version of a toddler saying “Me do it!!” No pipe cleaners (are those actually for cleaning pipes?) or glue guns for this chick!
Last time I warned you not to put tile on things that were rotting.
This time I am warning you not to put tile on rusty discs that will then contain water. This was a beautifully tiled bird bath, welded from a couple of discs, a pipe and an auger tip by Cowboy Bert. The water and the rust caused the tile to discolor, and then the tiles began to fall off. Well, bummer. Now I just repaint it blue every year. It’s time again, wouldn’t you agree?
This is a weird little table top that is secured onto a weird little concrete pipe. It is the perfect place for storing your can of Off, which is necessary when you are sitting in your Adirondack chair while BBQing in the evening. (There is an abundance of mosquitos in Three Rivers.) Perhaps you should be pulling the oxalis instead of just sitting.
My friend Bill either made or salvaged this table base for me. He is the source of many cool items, most of which are the basis for more coolness.
In fact, Bill is the source of many of the tiles I have used in my quest to cover almost everything I own with bright colors and grout.
But Wait! There’s More!
You didn’t actually think I was done showing you all the tiled items and other things I have made? I wasn’t kidding when I told you that I love to make stuff!