My horsey friend didn’t respond to my request for help on the drawing that is too hard; my horsey drawing student did, and we experienced a serious role reversal! She offered detailed advice and supplied photos to help me understand the things that weren’t visible in my photo. I followed her instructions as best as […]
A Little Bit Too Hard
A dear friend asked me to do something almost impossible. He wanted me to draw something for which he had no photo: the Mineral King Pack Station as it appeared in the 1980s. This was before everyone and his brother carried a camera around, documenting lives as if getting paid for it. (Or is it that […]
My Favorite Bridge in Oil Paint, Chapter 6
I thought about calling this “Final Chapter”, but I hope I live on to keep painting the bridge and improving with each one. We made it through about 23 oil paintings of the Oak Grove Bridge. There were repeated views, color adjustments and exaggerations, brighter versions, muted versions, paintings with sharp clean edges, paintings that […]
My Favorite Bridge
My favorite bridge is the Oak Grove Bridge, 6.5 miles up the Mineral King Road. It is also my favorite subject to draw and paint. There are three reasons for this (maybe even more, but we’ll go with 3 for now): A bridge is the perfect blend of architecture with landscape. This bridge is a […]
Art: Inspired By Mineral King
After 7-8 months of painting toward a show about Mineral King and (almost) in Mineral King, it is tomorrow! Is it considered shouting to use bold type? Or is that only for capital letters? I’ve always always always considered italics to be whispering, so maybe this paragraph will be more soothing to your ears. Four artists […]
What Else Did I Decide?
Remember that long list of things to do a few days ago? I began with the oil painting commission of Homer’s Nose/The Oak Grove Bridge because it wasn’t too hot yet in the painting workshop with the swamp cooler running, there will be a check when I am finished, the heat is coming and will […]
Mineral King 2018
Opening weekend in Mineral King in 2018 was cold, drizzly, foggy and not conducive to any photos. Besides, my camera battery was dead. The skies cleared briefly on Sunday evening. I borrowed Trail Guy’s camera for this: Monday was glorious, sunny, bright, and warm(ish). I took this from our friend’s porch Finally, here is the […]
Sit On It
Have you heard that thing “Sitting is the new smoking”? Hogwash. Been thinking about chairs recently. My cabin neighbors are replacing some living room furniture, and it would be awful if their old pieces went to the dump. My couch needs recovering, so why not cover theirs from the ’40s and dump mine from […]
Too Twee
Last year about this time I lost my long time friend Jennifer, or “Jennifah” as she said her name, being English. She taught me so much throughout our friendship, including fun words. Among those words, “twee”–cutesy, sweet, precious– was one of the most useful. When S sent me the photos of the barn where we […]
Pick Something You Love
When Trail Guy and I went to our friend’s barn to choose our kittens, I was struck by how appealing the outer wall of the barn looked. Alas, I didn’t have my camera with me. (Just hush up about smart phones, will ya?) 2 weeks later, another friend, the amazing S, emailed me a photo […]