Three Rivers, Tulare County, central California, is GORGEOUS in the spring. Here are 4000 words worth of photos:
Looks as if Michael is leading horses to water.
He didn’t have to make them drink.
This is just an average morning, out on an average walk, on an average spring day.
My yard only looks like this for about 12 seconds a year. Good thing I had my camera!
(Don’t move here – the unemployment is awful, the air is nasty in the fall, and we are all fat.)
Hmmm, that could mean “creating a picture of tools using a pencil”. It doesn’t. It means this blog post is going to explain to you some tools used in drawing. I probably used all the techniques (except the last one) in this drawing called “Release”.
An eraser shouldn’t need explaining. It erases; you get that! But, did you know an eraser can do these things too:
An erasing shield looks like a 2×3″ metal template. It is used by architects and engineers to isolate small parts in order to erase only them and not their neighbors. (so called “friendly fire”). But it can be used for these things too:
Now that I give it thought, a pencil can do more than just draw or write.
And thus we conclude another free drawing lesson.
Can you think of any other uses for these tools?
Um, would you paint something just for me?
You betcha! I’d be happy to paint something for you! What did you have in mind?
How about a pomegranate?
How about 3 of them? Then you can decide which one you like best.
Would you ever be willing to paint a sequoia in the snow, say, 8×10″?
Would you be willing to buy it when it was finished? If yes, then yes.
What about doing an 18×24″ oil painting from your pencil drawing of “Redwood & Dogwood“?
I’d love to do that for you! What a great idea, you brilliant patron of the arts!
If you finish that 6×18″ painting of poppies, I’ll buy it.
Really? I knew that one was a great idea. (Thanks to my mailman for bringing me the photo!)
Move that scaffolding, I’m finished!
The scaffolding was in the way of photographing the completed Oak Tree mural, so until I can stop back by for photos, this is the best I can show you. We kept adding things, and found out that the cover-up paint didn’t exactly match the wall color. That seriously curtailed my sense of “Sure, let’s just try it!”. I’m hoping they will locate the proper paint bucket so I can do a bit of patching.
Miss Oak 2 and Miss Oak 3 are posing here so you get a feel for the size. Baby Pug consented to join them in this helpful exercise.
What is Baby Pug’s name??
My old house is down there! (not discernible, but still. . .!)
This is the view from where the mural is located. I try not to go outside very often because it makes me miss Lemon Cove, and it makes me forget what I am supposed to be doing!
Could hardly sleep the night before knowing the barn was too small. Mrs. Oak brought that up when I got to her house, confirming my suspicions that she is brilliant. Due to my cautious nature, I kept increasing the size in small increments, until Mrs. Oak and I were both pleased.
The men had added another railing to the top of the scaffolding, but only on one end because the ceiling was in the way. I was a little apprehensive about climbing up there, but Son #3 demonstrated the route of ascension for me to follow. On the way to the job this a.m. I heard a line in a song “You hear me when I’m calling and you catch me when I’m falling”. . . Whoa. Stop. No thanks. No falling, please!
I was able to stand where the ceiling was tall but had to kneel on the left. It was fun! Now there are 4 main parts remaining: spread the tree to the right over the balcony; add another large branch to fill the hole over the barn; extend the branches over the window to the left (not visible in this photo); add some fence in the middle ground.
Have you ever worked on a scaffolding?
This California artist began the oak tree mural by working on the middle level of the scaffolding. There is a method here: build the trunk and largest branches first, get off the scaffolding and evaluate;
build the trunk down to the ground, look again at the middle branches to see if they are appropriately stout for the distance they have to travel, climb back up and add more thickness, accidentally hit the wall with my wet paintbrush and turn it into another branch, and up and down on the scaffolding.
Eventually decide it is too hard to figure out what to do, stop for lunch. Realize after lunch that maybe working on ground level looks the most inviting.
Paint until you do something stupid (oops, wrong angle on roof of barn, oops, dropped the mixing stick with wet white paint on the tile floor), take some photos and go home to blog.
Call me “Butter” – I’m on a roll! A tree mural roll, that is. This time the wall was inside someone’s home. It began looking like this:
There was a pile of scaffolding outside, and 4 strong men available to assemble it.
And a sister on hand to tell Jeremy how dangerous his position was. (He’s been through police academy and did much scarier stuff there so this wasn’t a problem to him.)
Looks a little bit scary from this angle, doesn’t it? This California artist wasn’t scared, but ready to get started painting a Valley Oak, the largest oaks in the world, right here in Tulare County!
Watching out the window through the rain, waiting for visitors to pull into the driveway.
1. It was overcast with rain imminent. I waited inside by the fire with my knitting for the first hour. Finally moved out to the studio and listened for the sound of cars and car doors while putting color in reproduction prints of Crescent Meadow.
2. Kaweah Kitty stayed in the house by the fire.
3. I told EVERYONE to watch their step. I don’t think saying those words would have prevented yesterday’s mishap. Sort of reminds me of how people say “Be careful!” AFTER you trip. Ummm, thanks?
4. Rosa, the successor of Ruby, came by with her human.
5. Mostly people came in groups, this time a few families including some children, and there were no Bobs.
6. It rained all day. It was cold. I stayed by the fire in between arrivals of guests.
7. There were 29 visitors including 1 returnee from yesterday, 1 locally known artist and 1 musician from a nationally known band (whose wife told him he needed to get a job before he bought a painting!)
Hoping the musician finds work so this painting will find its home.
Zeke’s only appearance of the day was when the sign was uncovered in the morning.
1. It was sunny and clear and not hot and very beautiful
2. There were 81 visitors (not counting the sheriff, fire and ambulance crews)
3. People were mostly in groups, only a few women by themselves, more men than yesterday but proportionately about the same. (3 were Bobs)
4. Many commissions to paint later
5. Kaweah Kitty remained very popular.
6. Learned 3 new words – luthier, autodidactic, aberration (which I already knew but did not know it also pertains to distortions under the magnifying glass)
7. Six of my drawing students came by! (Linda, Maggie, Wendy, Anne, Sara, Cathy) Perhaps there were some future drawing students also. . .
8. A lady fell (see #2). Learned later that she broke her hip. Until then, she was enjoying herself. Major Bummer.
9. The final visitor of the day walked up the driveway with her boot heels clicking on the asphalt. From inside the studio I thought the sound was one of my cats barfing.
Some therapeutic knitting and comforting chocolate consumption took place on Saturday evening. These photos are to help me remember the beautiful parts of the day.
The ever-popular and always present Kaweah Kitty thoroughly enjoyed the visitors.
The very popular flowering quince.
The gregarious Kaweah Kitty in the painting workshop.
Just the facts, Ma’am.
1. It sprinkled when I removed the cover from my #13 sign to open for the day.
2. There were 30 visitors.
3. Most of them were women. (I think there were 4 men, and 1/2 were named Bob.)
4. 5 women came by themselves; the rest came in pairs or groups.
5. I knew 2/3 of the visitors; the other 1/3 were new to me.
6. Kaweah Kitty was very popular.
7. My flowering quince were very popular.
8. There were people from Porterville, Fresno, Visalia, Three Rivers, Santa Clara, Sandy Eggo, and Minnesota.
Friday was overcast.
Remember the chairs? Our experiment with sequoia trees engraved and painted has not yet been perfected, but the painted trees definitely dress up the chairs.
