Across The Fruited Plain

Is the Central Valley of California technically “the fruited plain”? Not exactly sure. It has been called “the land of fruit and nuts”. Take that anyway you would like. As the California artist daughter of a farmer, I take it in a literal sense.

 

The business of art requires thought and planning. If a place with a changing clientele sells a particular subject on a consistent basis, it is common sense to paint more of the same.

Here is a peek into the painting workshop. It’s kinda fruity in there.

The smalls are for Colors in Three Rivers. I’ll tell you about the larger painting of the persimmon tomorrow.

Do you think it is weird to paint the same stuff over and over again?


Out Of The Office

So to speak. . . the blogging office, that is. Today I have a guest post over at Chris LoCurto’s blog. He works for Dave Ramsey, and his blog is a great source of information on leadership, business, stuff like that. The commenting community is full of business leaders, sharp folks who have so much to say in the comments.

I don’t really fit in because I am a regional artist from Quaintsville, not a business leader. I like hanging out with smart people from other parts of the country who are learning, sharing their wisdom and  involved in growing their businesses. Besides, they are nice to me. 😎

We have a ton of fun on Chris’s blog, and it is a great honor to be able to post there. Head on over and see what I have to say. Mostly, see what the commenters have to say – they are the brilliant ones!

oil painting of marmot

I sort of feel like a marmot –  making noise, slightly irritating, but maybe kind of cute in a dorky way. However, rest assured that I do not chew on radiator hoses or brake lines.

One More Place You Can See and Buy My Art

That is a shamelessly self-promotional title! However, it is also promoting the Silver City Resort, so perhaps “self-promotional” is a bit of an exaggeration.

(happy birthday, Deanne!)

Silver City Store

A few weeks ago I posted a list of places that carry my work. Immediately afterward, I took paintings to the Silver City Resort for the summer. (6 years ago right after printing 1000 business cards, I launched my website, so this is normal behavior for me.)

The Silver City Store is located 4 miles below Mineral King. It has a little restaurant and rental cabins. It also has been a good place to meet a future spouse for a great number of its employees. (worked for me)

Currently, they are carrying a number of little regional oil paintings that aren’t very expensive and will fit into travelers’ suitcases. Here are 4 new ones, all oil on wrapped canvas, 4×4″, available at the Silver City Resort. They are animals commonly seen in Mineral King. I’ve photographed these animals zillions of times and only came up with a small handful of paintable photos. Here are some of the best:

oil painting of buck

Mule Deer Buck

oil painting of black bear

Black Bear – sold

(They are all called this, whether they are brown, blonde, black or cinnamon colored.)

oil painting of marmot

Yellow Bellied Marmot – sold

(These are the dudes that chew on radiator hoses, belts, brake lines, etc.)

oil painting of squirrel

Golden Mantle Squirrel – sold

These little guys have a stripe (barely visible on his back) but are distinguishable from a chipmunk because the stripe isn’t on their heads.

If you would like to buy one of these the buck, he is $30, and maybe I can retrieve him before he sells. Alternatively, I can paint you another one, even of a different size.  

Now THAT was shameless self-promotion!

Which is your favorite?

Fridays are about Mineral King

By Mineral King standards, Soda Springs is a short hike. In fact, we call it a “walk”. It is all a matter of one’s perspective. I think it is 3 miles round trip and is mostly level.

If you are used to towering peaks, majestic canyons, blowing erupting fountains, roaring waterfalls and the like, this is no big deal.

If you just want to take a nice walk in the mountains and end up by a weird little orange hole of water, then Soda Springs is your walk.

Almost all walks require crossing the bridge. If you are familiar with this view, you might be wondering why there are no dead branches in the upper left corner of the photo. Wonder on. . .

After crossing Crystal Creek, the trail splits.  You take the right fork, unless you are going somewhere else like Farewell Gap or Franklin Lake.

After another 1/4 or 1/2 mile, you see this view and know you are almost there. Those are aspen trees below the conifers (which means cone shaped trees that produce cones)

Told you Soda Springs is an orange hole of water! It bubbles up from the ground, and has a slight carbonation. Some folks like to mix it with various powdered flavored drink mixes. I think it taste like fizzy metal, so I carry my own normal water to drink.

The flow pattern of Soda Springs changes from year to year. I don’t know why. Some things just are, like orange holes of water that draw us back, year after year.

Definitely a Summer of Animals

This is definitely shaping up to be a summer of animals in Three Rivers and in Mineral King.

I’ve been asked more than once why I don’t paint animals. The answer is that I don’t have good photos from which to paint. It is unethical and illegal to paint from other people’s photos without their permission, so I don’t use National Geographic or calendars or even google images.  My own photos of animals rarely turn out well, and not in enough abundance to produce more than an occasional painting. And my understanding of animals (other than my cats) is limited.

Just as authors are exhorted to write what they know, artists should also paint what they know. Why? Because if you don’t know your subject, someone else will, and they will know that you don’t know it. The business of art means knowing things like this.

Authenticity is a driving force for me, and painting unfamiliar subjects make me twitch with stress about being exposed as a poser.

Back to the animals. The next door neighbors called on Sunday to ask Trail Guy (AKA Retired Road Guy) to dispatch a Snake. It was their first Snake in 9 years. Most of the Snakes come to our address. (Snake spelled with a capital S is explained here.) I’ll spare you the gory details. Suffice it to say that Trail Guy is a neighborhood hero.

And, on Monday I witnessed this in my front yard.

This is the patriarch of a flock with 12 little turkeys. Yes, I counted!

Sometimes I gobble at them. I think the last time I did that was on a walk, and I didn’t see the AT&T guy up ahead. He might have asked for a transfer to another area shortly afterward. Lost that walking partner too.

What wild animals do you have in your daily life? This rural California artist likes to hear how normal, non-gobbling folks live. 

Whatcha Working on Now, California Artist?

So glad you asked that question! Here is a peek into the current status of Put My Parents In The Painting. (I’m twitching slightly from the effort and the stress, but it’s nothing a few rows of knitting can’t cure.)

Mother’s face barely shows on the photo. I tried to see some particulars under a magnifying glass. Even tried painting under that same magnifier. All I can tell you is “don’t try this at home!”

Father’s face has no detail at all in the photo. I’m beginning to steel myself for painting them both out after Mr. Put-My-Parents-In-The-Painting sees it and his face falls to the floor in dismay. (more knitting as stress reliever ahead)

In other news, I have another odd job.

This is how I define those unusual painting or drawing requests that pop up from time to time, simply because I am an established artist who answers her phone and email and shows up and does the work on time. You can see some of those jobs here, here, here, here, here, here and here too.

The customer/collector/client (How would you like me to refer to you??) sent me an email with an image of a Scandinavian snow god.

He recently bought a cabin and wanted this image used on a round wooden sign to put by the front door. We discussed some changes (he is remarkably easy to work with and work for!) and this is the result (minus his name and cabin # because I like to protect people’s privacy):

You would not believe the logistics in painting on a round wooden sign! I could hardly believe the weird things I had to figure out.

But, I like me a good challenge. (Read that sort of wording in several blogs by Southern artists, and it tickled my word-fancy-button.) If I didn’t, I’d be turning down a lot of work. Commissions really add spice to the life of this California artist.

Read-O-Rama

This California artist has been soaking up non-fiction books, learning about local history, the resilience of a kidnap victim and an ancient prophecy that relates to America today. Phew. No wonder the Reading Rabbit looks as if he is in a state of exhaustion. No fluffy beach-reading is happening around here!

  1. Bill and I: Building William Shatner’s Belle Reve Ranch by Dalan Smith is a blend of autobiography and biography. It is an honest look into crossing the chasm between regular folks and celebrities. The book also gives a glimpse into the struggles of earning a living in a rural setting. Shatner isn’t the main character of the book; Smith is, as he tells his story of building a horse ranch for an absentee owner. He has nothing but good to say about “Bill” and lets the reader draw his own conclusions about the success of the partnership. I loved the book, but may have been biased by my familiarity with the setting and many of the people within the story. It is one of the few celebrity biographies I’ve ever finished, much less enjoyed! Buy it here.
  2. A Stolen Life: a memoir by Jaycee Dugard was a very moving story of a woman who was kidnapped and enslaved from age 11 to age 29. It is graphic and gross in places – I had to skip parts of it. What a survivor! Got it from the library, recommend it, wouldn’t want to reread it. Too painful.
  3. The Harbinger: the ancient mystery that holds the secret of America’s future by Jonathan Cahn is written simply, the relaying of a conversation between two people to a third person. It is an explanation that ties 9/11 to a prophecy in the Bible, Isaiah 9:10. It is shocking, because although it is written as a novel, every event, location and speech is actual.

Summer of Animals?

This summer is shaping up to be full of wild animals for this California artist.

First, we were hiking in Mineral King and saw this:

While on that hike I thought of doing these oil paintings:

They are each 4×4″, and from left to right are a mule deer buck, golden mantle squirrel, yellow-bellied marmot, and a black bear. (They are called that even when they are brown or cinnamon or blond.)

After that, I painted this bear for the Sierra Lodge in Three Rivers:

After which, they asked me to refresh this bear:

So that he would look like this:

With all that wildlife around, particularly the ferocious bear, you might be a bit concerned about unfriendly encounters or a bit of danger. There was one small incident that ended up looking like this:

I love teal. It looks particularly striking with brown.

P.S. The bear on the flag of this California artist’s state is a grizzly, not a black bear. I’m happy to report we don’t have them in California any more. This is not an environmentally correct view, but I am more concerned with personal safety than being correct. This might make me a pig. See? animal summer!

Mineral King

As promised, Fridays are for Mineral King.

White Chief is a short but very steep hike.

The largest patch of snow is called “Bearskin”. It is on the side of Vandever Mt. and probably won’t make it until the snow falls in Autumn this year. Some years it does, and other years it does but binoculars are required to prove it.

Perhaps Retired Road Guy should now be called "Trail Guy".

 

White Chief sink hole

There are about 5 of these in the White Chief canyon. In person, they are quite interesting (maybe it is the lack of oxygen there that makes me think so). They photograph poorly, as you can see. If Trail Guy was down in the hole, you’d get a better idea of the scale, but you can see in the photo above that he was busy with lunch.

Pussy Paws

These are boring flowers that seldom show up against the dirt and gravel. The Artspeak explanation is that they are the same value as the dirt, so there is no contrast. This particular patch was unusually bright.

This photo took forever. The flutterby was a bit too fast for my shutter-finger, and I was thankful to not be wasting film!


How Many Hours a Day Do You Paint?

An old friend asked me this last week. We only see each other once a year or so, so we aren’t close. I think he thinks that art is my hobby that I sort of fit in around my life. When I told him what all I do, he was very surprised. This means a couple of things: we really don’t know each other very well, and I’m not getting the word out very effectively that I am a full time professional artist.

Marketing, you say? Nope. I’m too busy working right now.

Check out this list from the other day:

  1. I posted to my blog. While in the house on the puter, the phone rang. My neighbor/friend works at a local motel. She was calling to say some people from New York were stopping by the studio in 10 minutes.
  2. Raced to the studio (after brushing my hair – sort of forgot to do that or figured it didn’t matter). The New Yorkers were a no-show.
  3. While in the studio I put together a bank deposit and read the mail.
  4. The mail included a Call For Entries form for an Ag Art Show. It has been 4 years since I last entered, and the rules have changed. It seems worth considering again.
  5. Went through my photos and compared them to the categories of the Ag Art Show. Calculated the cost. (entry fees, mailing or driving 200 miles round trip to deliver the pieces, returning to Madera to see the show, returning again to retrieve any unsold pieces) Got some good ideas, decided to do the show.
  6. Painted three 4×4″ oil paintings.
  7. Remembered I was supposed to go to the Sierra Lodge to get another bear to paint. This one had to be delivered to my studio and I was supposed to show them the way, so I walked/jogged over.
  8. Upon returning with the bear delivery guy, I painted a fourth 4×4″ oil painting.
  9. Chose the sizes for each of the paintings to enter into Madera, added them to my inventory list, put the wires on the back.
  10. Remembered the bank deposit, trotted to the house for my keys, remembered the keys were hanging in the studio door, trotted back to the studio to lock up and then back to the house to lock it, and then drove to the bank. Figured I might as well hit the Post Office and the grocery store while I was out. Tried not to run in the aisles. Tried not to make eye contact with anyone who might want to have a lengthy conversation.
  11. Returned home to photograph some completed work and some works in progress.
  12. Began working on the (in)famous Paint-My-Parents oil painting commission.
  13. Wrote 3 more blog posts in my head while painting.
  14. Suddenly it was almost dark, so I had to photograph Paint-My-Parents, close up the workshop, and go home.
  15. Wrote those blog posts on the computer before I forgot them while something that could sort of pass for dinner was burning on the stove.

Apparently, I’m too busy to paint or do marketing. (the kind that gets the word out about business, not the kind that puts groceries in the frig so I can burn them for dinner while I work on the puter.)

Preparing canvases for 5 paintings for the Ag Art Show