Plum IV, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $40
Pomegranate 43, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $40
Told you I had been painting! 😎
These paintings are available here.
Yes, I Cook on a Wood Stove
(This post is about life in Mineral King rather than the place itself. If that isn’t what you were looking for, you might want to change channels.) I cook on a wood stove while in the Land of No Electricity. The oven doesn’t work, the thing is not beautiful, but the stove top has served us well and it warms the kitchen. (Old photo, no bangs, same ‘ol Slop in a Skillet, and I’m sure that my baggy clothes are making me look fat.)
Twenty six years ago, Trail Guy was looking to buy a new wood cook stove. He had a brochure of the most beautiful antique reproductions ever – really elegant. We got married, I became more familiar with the cabin, and then I thought about how fine that new stove was and how much it cost.
Buying that stove for our cabin would be sort of like parking a Rolls Royce in a tool shed. I just couldn’t agree and asked if we could wait to find a good working genuine antique. Being a wise and frugal new husband, he agreed.
For twenty-six years it kept the kitchen warm, it cooked, it helped to dry paintings.
Twenty four years later, we had a bad night with our very old wood stove. We survived, the cabin survived, the stove even survived. Trail Guy did some work on the beast (said “with all due respect” which is what people say when they mean “yuck” but don’t want to offend anything or anyone and when “bless her heart” doesn’t quite fit), and although I was reluctant to use it, there was no alternative.
Our cabin neighbors had bought a stove, then changed their minds. They sold it to us. It sat in the workshop AKA painting studio for 2 years. We don’t jump into things impulsively at our address.
The weekend that I was losing my hearing and sweating my brains out at the show in Visalia, Trail Guy and Cowboy Bert installed the “new” stove. The Steiger & Kerr Toledo (that beast, with all due respect, of course) is gone and now we have a bee-yoo-tee-full Wedgewood!
A Rough Summer For Cats
This post has nothing to do with being a California artist, a Regionalist from Quaintsville, a depicter of local landmarks, Mineral King or Three Rivers.
It is a peek into the heart of a middle-aged, slightly-affected-by-a-cat-disorder woman who happens to have a blog about her work but sometimes just has to talk about other subjects. Try to be polite. It’s called “ailurophilia” and it means “love of cats” and I’m not as weird as you might be thinking.
This summer I lost Kaweah, my sweet little short-tailed black kitty. The cat of my walking buddy went bye-bye. A week later, Zeke, my giant blue-eyed loudmouth disappeared. Around the same time, the cat of my cat-feeding girls was not seen again. 2 months later, the great and mighty Nipper Castro lay down and died.
This leaves me with Perkins, the gentle and quiet survivor of 13 years who has seen 13 of his yard-mates get picked off during his life at my address.
When I first retrieved Perkins from a friend’s barn, he looked so common to me that I had to memorize a few marks on his gray and white tabby self in case he was dead by the side of the road and might not be readily known to me.
Now that I am obsessed with my one remaining feline, I want to show you a few of his unique features, so you can admire his regal, strong and courageous self.
Perkins has pink toes.
If you see him from the side, you think he has a normal tabby type tail.
But, look at his tail from the top side – isn’t this special??
Thanks for sticking with me through this non-Mineral King, non-drawing, non-painting blog post. I’m glad we had this little talk. Perkins feels honored to be the center of attention for a change. And hopefully you will appreciate the new vocabulary word.
A Thing for Old Architecture
Perhaps the reason I like cabins is more than just the fact that they are simple rustic structures, usually in the mountains. I like all old architecture, in particular the designs, materials and details from the early 1900s. They inspire me and I want to draw them. Sometimes I want to paint them (pictures of them, not cover them in house-paint!) Sometimes I even want to live in them. (Repeat until you believe it – “Thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not covet”)
There is a place along the shores of Lake Tahoe that just rings my architectural bell. Usually when people think of Tahoe, they think of a big lake, or skiing, or perhaps a fancy-pants giant home, maybe some gambling, or even a marathon (or in my case, a 1/2, which I don’t think about any more, thanks for nothing, Stoopid Plantar Fasciitis).
What place? you ask. (I can hear you thinking.)
Tallac Historic Site is a series of 3 lakefront estates, all maintained, one converted to a museum. It is under the management of the U.S. Forest Service (Dept. of Ag). I’d link to the site for you, but it really isn’t very informative or pretty, and my photos tell more than their site.
I’ve never been there between June and September when the buildings are open for tours (except when walking that 1/2 marathon but I was too occupied to stop; afterward I had blisters and didn’t care).
Instead, I walk all around them and gawk and wonder in amazed admiration.
I even like them when they are boarded up for the season.
The attention to detail must have employed many people, along with all the needs and wants of the owners while in residence.
Too late to tour the buildings, too early for real fall color. On the other hand, it wasn’t crowded and we could take our time ogling, oohing, and ahhing.
Oh please, Trail Guy, now that you are retired, could we build a pond like this? (never mind about the water shortage in our neighborhood)
New Paintings for Fall
In spite of not showing too many paintings lately and taking a few days away from the blog, I HAVE been oil painting with the upcoming Fall shows in mind. Doesn’t looking at these just make you just want a pumpkin spice latte?
Liquid Ambar (yes, that is the correct spelling for the tree), 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $40
Pumpkin VII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $40
Persimmon VIII, 6×6″, oil painting on wrapped canvas, $40
All these new paintings are available on the Still Life page of my website.
Shhhhhh. . .
. . . I’m going quiet on my blog for a few days. Don’t worry, just taking some time off from blogging. I’ll be back next week, maybe on Tuesday. Enjoy the silence, but don’t forget to check back in next week!
Straight Talk About Art Fairs, Part Three
Yesterday’s post left off with a promise to tell about the good parts of the Visalia Taste the Arts show. Just call me List Lady. . .
- Very very well organized
- Great booth space
- No charge for the booth
- Shade!!
- Unloading and loading right at the booth site.
- Free lunch and bottled water
- Booth sitting so the artists could have a break
- My very dear friend spent the day there with me
- I saw some former drawing students, some old friends, and received a HUGE surprise (stay tuned)
- I sold some cards (I know, I’m really really trying to look on the bright side here)
- Everything fit perfectly and easily in and on my Honda Accord coupe. (I ain’t driving no Mommy-mobile and don’t you forget it!)
- They gave permission to pack up and leave before 6, so I was loaded and outta there by 5:30, all with hand signals because my 2 helpers and I couldn’t hear a single thing due to the loudest band of the day.
The HUGE surprise? My cousins from Sandy Eggo County have been teasing me about just driving up to surprise me at a show sometime. THEY CAME!!!
I’m still in shock and disbelief. We had a wonderful visit shouting at one another in the heat, and I will never forget the thrill and fun of suddenly realizing the couple standing outside and staring at me was my own family. (They had an unfair advantage because they both wore dark sunglasses while I was wearing a name tag.) When it was announced that a drumming group was up next, they decided it was time to go. They shall remain anonymous for purposes of privacy in this World Wide Web, but suffice it to say that this was definitely the highlight of a VERY VERY HOT and VERY VERY LOUD show.
Straight talk? Not doing this one again. We can figure out a family reunion some easier way.
Straight Talk About Art Fairs, Part Two
Yesterday we left off with a photo of my booth, which was both well-spaced and had a crooked Sawtooth oil painting with a worry about a large stage with very very large speakers.
Better – Sawtooth doesn’t show. But next time could you move that dumb-looking basket before taking the picture?
Enough paintings, not too many, well spaced with a crooked Sawtooth oil painting, open booth design so lookers don’t feel trapped, great location, wonderful organization, incredible staff of volunteers.
But that stage. Holy guacamole. It was the venue for one dance group after another, back to back, non-stop VERY VERY LOUD music, and loads of people standing in front of my booth so that lookers must really make an effort to come into the booth.
But they weren’t worried about getting tricked into buying anything (not that I have any earthly idea of how to do that), because we were completely unable to converse.
In addition to the VERY VERY LOUD music, it was VERY VERY HOT.
I soldiered on bravely, and at around 3 p.m. I remembered that I always keep a pair of earplugs in my purse. They helped, but I had to take out one so the occasional looker could shout into that ear while I tried to read lips.
Tomorrow I will tell you about the good parts of the show. There were good parts.
Straight Talk About Art Fairs
When I got to the venue for the Visalia Taste the Arts, I was very very impressed by the way it was set up. As I pulled into the fenced off area, I was handed a show packet that included a lunch ticket and directed to my booth. There were many huge canopies covering multiple spaces and I drove right up to the front of my space to unload.
My booth was on this end, the right side of that canopy. There was a “wall” separating me from the folks on the left end.
Everything is unloaded and my car is parked within view. This is shocking to me, because the show staff said, “Park right there” and I said, “But that’s really close – what about all the visitors?” He said, “They’ll be fine”. Umm, okay, thanks!
There was so much space for so many artists! All covered, and none of us had to pay AND they provided lunch and bottled water and help unloading and offered to booth-sit so the artists could take a break.
I was next to a very large stage with very very large speakers. It made me worry a little bit. I thought “uh-oh”, and proceded to set up my booth.
This is how it looked. Sawtooth is crooked. These things don’t show when one is hustling around, trying to get the right light, not have people pass in front of the lens, all the while worrying about that very large stage with very very large speakers. Notice how well-spaced the paintings are.
This is getting too long. Stay tuned for the next installment of Straight Talk About Art Fairs tomorrow.
End of Summer Photos of Mineral King
Will I continue Fridays for Mineral King once the cabin season is over? More will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .
Meanwhile, enjoy these end of summer photos.
Puh-leeze. No standing? Really? I wonder how many people have taken photos of their friends standing in front of this sign because it is just silly. Guess it was the only no parking sign available in the Park’s warehouse.
Nope, not my cabin. I just liked the light.
This is not my cabin either. It looks so simple, classic and inviting, yes?
Sometimes I see more when I just sit than when I hike.
