A Walk of Beauty

Yesterday my husband had a birthday. I remember thinking how stodgy and middle-aged my parents were when my Dad turned 50, and now I am married to a 58-year-old man! We had to stick around the house waiting for a plumber (the more stuff you own, the more stuff breaks). After getting that situation situated, we went up to the BLM land for a little walk. (All walks are little compared to last year’s training for the 21-miler.) I share these images with you because it gives you a glimpse into the life and through the eyes of a foothills artist in residence.

This is a face screaming “OOO NOOO, not 58!”

Yokohl Valley Show

Next week I will deliver a new painting to the Tulare Historical Museum. They are having a themed exhibit entitled “Yokohl Valley Revisted”. If you are a follower of this blog, you may recall a photography trip I took through the Yokohl Valley last spring – see the April 2 and April 3 postings. (I thought I was gathering info for a show in the Bay Area, but it turned out to be for plein air painters, which I am not.) There were so many beautiful photos from which to choose – I carried the best ones around to several spring shows and also polled my students. The view with the highest number of votes is the one I chose to paint. Out of respect for the Tulare Historical Museum, I won’t post the painting here until after the show opening. The title might pique your interest – “Forgive Us Our Trespasses” popped into my mind as soon as I began the painting, and it can be interpreted in two different ways. The opening reception is Thursday, January 13, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. No admission is charged (hmmm, can we peek into the museum during the reception??) and there are refreshments. Depending on the number of paintings at the show, they might also accept this painting that I did for an earlier Yokohl Valley show. (popular subject – go here to learn more: Save Yokohl Valley)

Behind Rocky Hill, 16×12″, oil on wrapped canvas

Here is something rather astonishing that I discovered on a blog I read from time to time called “Abby Try Again” – in her January 3, 2011 posting this interesting and creative photographer with roots in Tulare County showed her favorite photographs of 2011. Look at this list, and tell me what you think about the last photo. Abby Try Again

New Year Lessons

Here is a list of what I am learning so far in 2011

1. How to use the Total Gym

2. How to update my website by adding pictures

3. What a mistake it is to not photograph every piece of art

4. What a mistake it is to not label every photograph of art

5. That plantar fasciitis takes forever to heal

6. That it takes a very long time update my website

Here is a list of what I would like to know:

1. Is 1000 miles too many in a pair of walking shoes?

2. Do people actually consistently use the Total Gym?

3. When will my website be ready?

4. What should I paint on my repaired garage door, now that I feel more confident it won’t end up in the county dump?

5. Whatever was I thinking when I didn’t bother photographing some paintings or keeping a list of which was where or checking in regularly to the stores that were selling for me???

6. Will I learn from #5???

Here, let’s try to take the edge off of the hard lessons of life:

Think of it as a “bridge over troubled waters” (and no, I don’t know the title, size, when it was painted or who has it now.)

Why Artists Choose Three Rivers

First in a series called “Thoughtful Thursdays”

When my art studio was in Exeter and I lived in Lemon Cove, people assumed I lived in Three Rivers. I’m guessing this was because of my occupation of pencil artist. (Given the choices of of towns in Tulare County, this is a reasonable assumption.) Now that I actually do live here and have become a painter, I recognize a multitude of reasons that any artist would want to reside in Three Rivers.

We are surrounded by beauty that takes no effort to see. There are incomparable views from my yard, studio, mailbox, and even from in my neighbor’s pool. The beauty continues as we go to the post office, the Memorial Building, the golf course, or maybe even from the dentist’s office!

Then there is the beauty that might require a little more effort to take in: the North Fork, the South Fork, Kaweah River Drive, and the Salt Creek area of BLM land come to mind. If you are able to walk, there is so much more that becomes visible.  In fact, I wrote a series on my weblog called “Peculiar Sights in Three Rivers” documenting odd items that appear to the pedestrian in our town.

Another great enticement to living in Three Rivers is the shorter drive to Sequoia and to Mineral King. In less than an hour you can be among the big trees and in a little longer than an hour, you can be in a valley that I have heard resembles the Swiss Alps.

Everywhere I look there are subjects to paint. The wildflowers could keep my brush flying for several seasons. The gates alone could occupy my pencils for a year. I could produce an entire series of drawings and paintings simply of loading chutes. Curves in the road, bends in the river, the autumn leaves, light on the rocks, Moro Rock from every possible angle, Alta Peak from every attainable viewpoint, sycamores all around town, the grand oak trees of every variety, the assortment of fence styles – every one of these subjects could be depicted in pencil or paint.

It is true that there is beauty in almost any location if one learns to recognize it. I certainly had plenty of subjects available in my former locations.  Now, the accessibility of paintable scenes is almost overwhelming!

A little plan

In reading other blogs, I see patterns of posting. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has “Random Mondays”, Jon Acuff has “Serious Wednesdays” and Abby has “Five Senses Fridays”. As an original thinker (sort of, maybe, mas o menos) I am hereby now instituting “Thoughtful Thursdays”. Starting this week, I will republish articles written by me for the Kaweah Commonwealth, the local paper. They call my articles “Artist in Residence” and they are similar to what you see here, only a little more formal and a bit longer. In republishing them here, I will refine them a bit for a wider audience and thrown in some photos or paintings or drawings. The first one will appear Thursday, January 6. Enjoy!

What I did in the Nonweek

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is sort of an off week. People are off work, school, schedules, diets, and budgets. (Hopefully they aren’t off base or off track too.) I think of it as the Nonweek, when there really aren’t many obligations.

During the Nonweek my expectations of myself are low. Write a few thank you notes, put away the Christmas decorations, get the number off my odometer, pay a few bills. Maybe. Maybe not.

This year I set a higher goal. Murals fade. My very first one, a Mineral King scene, was looking sort of tired, so I repainted it during the Nonweek.

If I had taken a before photo, you’d be shocked at the difference. Oops. Didn’t do that. Sometimes I just do my work without thinking about all the ramifications of possible blog posts.

See? Shabby buildings, fancy murals, and a wreath on the studio door to validate the time of year.

Now the California poppies mural looks faded to me!

On aging and other weird-word thoughts

Sometimes it seems as though it is just as satisfying to create with words as with pictures. Here is an example of the thought process that leads to messing around with the language that we call our own: I am aging. Everyone is from the moment we are born. Aging has a sense of ickiness, of something that should be fought, particularly in women. As I was putting stuff on my face that was almost but not quite guaranteed to protect it from aging (too late!), it came to me that perhaps I was saving my face from the ravages of the world. Then it occurred to me that perhaps I was saving the world from the ravages of my face! Then, I realized I don’t know what the word “ravages” actually means. Here is the definition: “severely damaging or destructive effects of something.”

And think about this: when you are young, “maturing” is a good word. It means growing up, learning, becoming less self-centered, more goal oriented, able to see the longer views, becoming more self-controlled. When you are “mature” and middle aged, it means you are starting to look weathered.

“Weathered” is sort of good in a man’s face. It is never good in a woman’s face. Women seldom like their pictures taken; men don’t mind as much. Have a look at the first portrait I ever painted in oil. A normal woman would have HATED this view of herself, but this man was overcome by emotion that I had chosen to paint him!

“Walk This Way” – 11×14″ – Private Collection

Year-end, Year-beginning

Ever notice how all those lists appear at this time of year? Here are two lists of mine:

1. Some of the things I did in 2010 that are worth noting:

Didn’t accept any more weird sweaters from my knitting needles – instead I ripped all the ones that were heading in the wrong direction.

Painted 2 more murals (So what if one is on my studio door? It is still a mural!)

Visited (and fell head-over-heels in love with) North Carolina

Trained for and completed the 21-Mile Big Sur Power Walk

Wrote and published regular articles on art in the Kaweah Commonwealth

2. Some things I hope for in 2011:

A working website

A working garage door opener

Another mural (or 3 or 4?)

Continued excellence in knitting (and finishing all those recalcitrant sweaters)

Continued weeding out of Stuff (I might have whatever is the opposite of that Hoarding problem)

A new fitness goal that doesn’t involve blisters or plantar fasciitis or 10+ hours a week when I should be painting

Business growth – increased skill, blog readers, customers, students, good ideas, pencil commissions (remember, I LOVE to draw!) and income

Of course there are piles of other things on both lists, but this is the very public internet, we all have short attention spans, and now I have to show you a piece of art because this is an art blog, not a place for personal aggrandizement. (Sorry – I just wanted to use another Big Word – can you find and understand the first one?)

Untitled (because Cotton Fleece is too obvious and A Good Yarn is taken), colored pencil, 9″x12″, private collection, took 4 years to complete, phew.

The Canoe and The Elephant

This is our view when transporting the canoe.  Can you see the elephant in the distance?

We put in at Slick Rock and paddled upstream awhile for a better view of the elephant.

Ever wonder what Slick Rock looks like up close? (Sorry, no elephant in it)

The reason we were able to put in at Slick Rock is because the recent storms raised the level of Lake Kaweah significantly. (The elephant is behind us now.)

That is the Horse Creek Bridge in the background. We’ve never paddled up Horse Creek before, because normally we only have the opportunity to canoe when the water level is too low for that area.

Michael spotted this Belted Kingfisher; I’m thinking it should be called Whiplashed Kingfisher.

Almost back to the car. See the elephant? For a few days there was so much snow that it was hard to see him? (Mickey, is it a boy or girl elephant?)

We found an easier way to load the canoe at the end of our excursion. Good thing, because my arms felt like limp spaghetti.

Various, sundry and random

This is Mom’s tree – mine is blue and silver.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day has always felt like a freebie to me. When a school kid, it was the week of goofing off, playing with new stuff, going to the snow, just hanging out with no particular purpose. When in retail, it was often a week we just closed up. It is a week that Michael tries to take off work, unless it is storming and he is needed to push snow around with big yellow machines. Here is a list of this off-the-calendar week so far:

1. Yardwork!

2. Shred papers from 10 years ago.

3. Take the canoe out. Notice I said “the” canoe rather than “my” or “our”. This is because we jointly own the little jewel with some friends. They granted us 50% because we are able to store it out of the sun. I’m thinking they might have forgotten about their 50%

4. Thank you notes. Yep, I actually write them with a pen on paper and put them in the US Mail.

5. Sweets – Don and Shirley’s Southern Comfort Cake, Margaret’s fudge, Melinda’s pfefferneusen and biscotti (one is German and one is Italian; she is my sister, and we are neither of those ethnicities but love the food), Laura’s sugar cookies, mint/dark chocolate from Reimer’s (thanks, Honey!!), mint Hershey kisses from Janet, a Panetonne from Bill and Peg (is it sweet? dunno, but it is REALLY REALLY GOOD), Trader Joe’s hot cocoa from Kylie, and pie with whipped cream left over from Christmas dinner with our family.

6. Major thankfulness – we served lunch at the Visalia Rescue Mission on Christmas Day. It was Michael’s idea, and I wholeheartedly agreed. Wow. He and I are filthy rich by contrast. The volunteers just do what they are told, greet people with authentic concern and a genuine smile, and focus on getting the food to them. I tried not to think about why they might be there and felt great hope for those who were in a rehab program.

7. Main Gallery – Wednesday is my last day working and having my art there. It was fun to be part of such a highly organized group in such a nice location and to get to know other area artists a bit.

8. Friends – there is a class reunion on Saturday p.m. I won’t be going but will be meeting Melissa, Ann, Renee, and Rose for lunch that day. That is always a treat, especially when so many of my old friends no longer have parents in the area. I’m sure the official reunion will be great; Michael and I decided long ago that we don’t belong at each other’s class reunions. Since this is on New Year’s Eve, it will be better to be home with him than down the hill having a late night out.  I may regret missing the reunion, but life is full of choices, not all of them clear.