Cowgirls

I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of hanging out with cowgirls over the past several weeks and have made these observations:

  • They are very practical (Cowboy Bert always called this “cowboy logic”.)
  • They are strong, capable, and willing to work hard.
  • They can handle heavy feed sacks, bags of wood pellets, and maneuver heavy hay bales with hay hooks like a boss.
  • They can drive manual transmissions, little “mules” and ATVs, and haul trailers of live loads; they prefer diesel trucks.
  • They aren’t afraid of gross things, none of which I will explain to you out of sensitivity to your non-cowgirl selves.
  • They are crazy generous, protective, helpful, and loving toward their friends, ready to feed animals or people, always hugging and proclaiming their love for each other.
  • They are modern, texting as a way to stay in touch and ready for any emergency.
  • They LOVE their horses (and miniature horses, mules, cows, sheep, goats, chickens, dogs and cats.)
  • Cowgirl fashion: They all have hair long enough to put through the loop of a ballcap, wear all manner of boots, but never the pointy-toe types for work, and always wear bluejeans, never the skinny kind and NEVER leggings, because leggings are NOT pants.
And sometimes cowgirls like to go to the beach.

Eventually I will get serious about work again; I can’t count on those cowgirls keeping my face fed forever.

Radio Silence

We are in the midst of an emergency, so I won’t be posting for a little while. I’m okay and so is Trail Guy, but coping with a difficult situation is taking precedence for the time being.

Thank you for understanding.

I’ll be back. . .

‘splorin’

Three Rivers is a very spread out community with the Middle Fork, South Fork, North Fork and East Forks of the Kaweah River flowing down long canyons. (Yes, I know this is four rivers; I don’t think the town namers were paying full attention).

Trail Guy and I went exploring; we wanted to find a road and see if it connected to another road. (Vague enough for you? Gotta protect privacy. . .) We found the road, but our key didn’t fit the locks, so we kept driving up South Fork. There is a campground that is part of Sequoia National Park at the end, and we hadn’t been there in many years.

The road is terrible. Truly terrible. Rough, rutted, rocky. Unmaintained.

This isn’t the rocky rutted part; it was too messed up to pull over, get out and photograph in those places.
There’s a view of Homer’s Nose that makes it look deceptively accessible.

In the campground is the trail to Garfield Grove, Giant Sequoias 2.9 miles away. And a footbridge, across which is the trail to Ladybug and to Clough’s Cave (with a gate across the opening).

The footbridge was icy. Trail Guy crawled underneath to see if it was the same one he helped build back when the Earth was young.
Brrr, I’m heading to the sunshine.
Good thing I went walking this morning already, because I only want to sit on the tailgate and contemplate things in the sunsine.

We ran into someone we knew from Three Rivers, just home from a yearlong assignment in Macedonia. As we were catching up with him, some people came off the trail, overheard us, and came over to say that one of them got home from Macedonia yesterday. What?? This sort of thing just gobsmacks me. Ever been gobsmacked? It is sort of fun.

Wildflower Book Update

Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names 

This is the title of my next book. “My next book” – What? do you think you are an author? Well, I make books, so maybe I am an author. My books are picture books, so maybe I am an artist who makes books. “Maybe”?

Sigh. It is hard to talk about oneself and sound informative and not self-absorbed.

Wait. I’m not talking about me; I’m talking about my next book.

Fine. Then get on with it, will you?

The design is solidified, finished, stick a fork in it and call it done.

The main blocks of words are the Preface and the Conclusion; both have been sent away for editing.

The cover’s first draft, has been sent to my designer nephew to make sure I haven’t made any gross errors. He said, “The layout is pleasing. It reminds me of some of my old calligraphy and lettering book covers.” I believe it was his polite way of letting me know my sense of style is out of date. I doubt that my customers will notice. They are all older than he is.

Next tasks: buy a bar code, write the back “blurb” (when did “blurb” become a word? AND I continue to puzzle over this most difficult task), rework the parts that have been changed during the editing, refine the cover design (oh boy, this involves downloading a template to use with Photoshop Elements on my old laptop, can’t wait), and finally, send it to the printer for one proof copy.

Working & Wondering

A view from a home in Three Rivers that I will be drawing soon.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day has always felt like a freebie to me. I don’t work much, but spend time thinking about the previous year (did I actually do anything noteworthy?) and about the upcoming year (do I look as if I have a plan?).

Last week I thought about blogging, marketing, what to paint, what to draw, the 2020 calendar, and mostly about the upcoming book, Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names.  I wondered how I got selected as the Best Artist in Three Rivers in 2018 and didn’t know it.

I made lists, calculated a year’s worth of mileage on my car, vacuumed the studio, called Huge & Rude (the telephone company) because the internet isn’t working very well (what’s new about that?), rehung paintings in the studio from Anne Lang’s Emporium (now closed), updated lists of available paintings, delivered paintings to the Mural Gallery in Exeter, put new art on the website, and generally wondered about my art business.

Where will I sell my work? What shall I paint? Is there a way to draw more? Is there a reason to draw more? How do I tap into those thousands of people blowing through town on their way to Sequoia National Park? Should I hire someone to teach me how to reach a wider market? Are little boutiques the right place for my work? If not, where is? How do I find more customers? Do I post to my blog too often? Why do so many people not even know what a blog is? Do I have to join the dreaded Facebook? Will this be the year I have to get a cell phone? Should I get my good camera repaired? Should I buy a better small camera? Who’s on first?

I often wonder about my art business, in case you were wondering.

Final Final Cabin Thoughts, Maybe

Someone’s Colorado cabin –definitely not small, rustic or rude

There are three distinct parts to cabin-ness:

  1. The building itself – small, rustic, basic, simple, often without electronic amenities. (But wait! What about the cabin pictured above?)
  2. The setting – rural, semi-secluded, in the mountains, taking an effort to get to (But wait! Have you ever been up Highway 180 to Wilsonia? And do these cabins look semi-secluded to you?)

    A Wilsonia road

    A Wilsonia neighborhood
  3. The culture – slower, focused on people instead of technology; a place to play, recreate and relax, mostly outside; a place where meals and fireplaces become events in and of themselves; returning to nostalgic pastimes either of our youth or of some idealized youth of our parents and grandparents.

Outdoor dining is a big part of cabin life.

Napping is a big part of relaxing at a cabin

See? Outdoor dining

Even outdoor cooking!

Fireplaces are a huge part of cabin culture.

Eat and run??

It seems that the culture part is the strongest determining factor of cabin life. Some of our cabin neighbors gathered in another location for several summers, due to illness of one of their group. One of them told me, “We do Mineral King things in Seattle, and Mineral King is present with us there.” (I probably paraphrased it beyond all recognition – Forgive me, Sawtooth Six!)

P.S. Most of the drawings in this post are part of the book The Cabins of Wilsonia, available here.

Boutique Ahead, Paint Fast

The Lemon Cove Womans Club’s Harvest Boutique will be on Saturday. This coming Saturday, October 20, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Gotta get some things ready to sell!

These fruit and blossom paintings are on 5×7″ boards, to be displayed on mini easels. This is how they looked after the first pass over the boards.

 

Then, I decided there weren’t enough oils on canvas, so I quickly finished the 4×6″ pomegranate and added the pumpkins and Redwood with Dogwood. These are all forgiving subjects, so I can paint them a bit faster than architectural subjects, or Mineral King scenes with recognizable peaks.

Hot Wheels

Does it seem as if I am obsessed with Hot Wheels? My older sister’s first car was a ’68 Mustang, which was thrilling after only having giant station wagons and farm pickups at our address. Then I discovered Honda Accords, and have owned nothing but since about 1981. (This topic doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the business of art, but I do like good cars, and this is my blog. So there.)

My friend has a great looking 2007 Mustang convertible. Her mom bought it for herself on her 80th birthday, and my friend inherited it.

Samson liked it.

It appeared in my coloring book.

It was parked outside the workshop when I handed my friend the binder of drawings for the first coloring book. She is a quiet person, and when she was finished looking through the pages, she looked outside and calmly said, “Did I see my car”? I’d like to be calm, but I probably said something like, “HAR HAR HA HA HA IT SURE IS!”

And I like it.

But, I still wouldn’t dream of owning a car that my mechanic of the past 35 years won’t work on. Foreign Auto Works in Visalia only works on Honda, Acura, Toyota, and Lexus. So, Hot Wheels is just for fun, not something I aspire to. And it is fun, indeed!

More Solds

“Solds”? Is this really a noun? It is my world. Clearly the 6×18″ size is hot right now. Good thing I just ordered more canvases that size. I have several new ideas to paint in that format, so stay tuned.