Beach Birds or Shore Birds?

I got to know someone from New Jersey when I attended college in San Diego. Most of us said “beach”, but our New Jersey suite mate said “shore”. Actually I think she said “sho-ah”. The owners of my pier drawing asked me to draw some “shore birds”, but I think they are both native Californians. […]

July is Here!

I don’t remember what pier this is. It is somewhere on the Central California coast. I might be at jury duty today. After I got the summons, I sent in the excuse form which said that I am unavailable most months of the year except July, August, and December, when I am not teaching drawing […]

Nine More New Things Learned in June

2. Learning to use an iPhone 14 is more difficult than I expected. It doesn’t have a push-button, and the whole swipe-thing just doesn’t work very well for my fat clumsy ever-so-slightly numb fingers. There is also a charging problem—the portable charger? the cord? Elevation? Sigh. And although the camera is far superior to what […]

Cleaning up the Jackpots

Cabin Life Behind and around our cabin is what firefighters call a “jackpot”. This is a conglomerate, a tangle, a giant mess of downed trees and limbs. Let’s not think too hard about their nomenclature. I’ve been raking, dragging, cutting and organizing this in incremental sessions throughout the past 2 years. It is gradually decreasing, […]

Who Moved Franklin Falls? (in Mineral King)

Walking in Mineral King (Not a hike because we didn’t take packs) Instead of the now normal down-the-road-and-up-the-Nature-Trail walk, or the wussy turning around at Crystal Creek, we went past Crystal to Franklin Creek. It was a little bit farther this year. Don’t you just hate that? The flowers were most totally excellent. This was […]

Eager to Draw

Last year some fine folks of impeccable taste bought this pencil drawing. A few months later, they saw this drawing on my blog and decided it would be a nice companion to the pier. It would, but whoever owns it would likely disagree. Fortunately for these fine folks of impeccable taste, I accept commissions; fortunately […]

A Day of Pencil | Three Drawings

On a recent hot day, as I was preparing to go down the hill to teach drawing lessons, the gallery curator texted me to say the A/C wasn’t working. So, I immediately texted (almost) all my students* and cancelled. We had some chitchat, and one of my most motivated students said she had started a […]

Walking Down the Mineral King Road and Up the Nature Trail

Gird your loins—this is a long post. With my new-to-me iPhone 14 in hand, I walked down the Mineral King Road to Cold Springs Campground (STILL CLOSED—CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN OR SOMETHING!) and back up the Nature Trail. This is about 2-1/2 miles total. Let’s look at the flowers I found along the road. I actually […]