Category: Sources of inspiration

Spring in Three Rivers

February is my favorite month. No wait, it’s March! Hold on a minute – I think it might be April!

Salt Creek ought to be raging about now. Instead, we are pathetically grateful for a tiny amount of flow.

My cousin loves to watch birds. I learned a ton from him and his sister in just a few days.

Green doesn’t last long around here so I soak in as much as I can.

More bird watching cousins. I am a cousin watching my bird watching cousins.

Way too much inspiration around here – this will have to be continued next week.

Sequoia Natural History Association has sold my work for many years. Great organization – they stock and man the visitor centers and ranger stations throughout Sequoia. They do a lot more, but this post isn’t about them. It is about a drawing I am working on in hopes that they will add it to their inventory in the near future.

This is how the bridge over the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River looked during my recent visit to Sequoia National Park. This bridge is in the Lodgepole Campground.

This is the pencil drawing and the photos I’m working from. The white spaces in the photo are unfinished or sunshine, not snow.

Just in case you were wondering. . .

And I think bridges are remarkable pieces of architecture. They are simple spans over space, but they can be so elegant. Stone work, rustic wood, flowing water – what’s not to like?

Visiting Sequoia

When I was a kid and there were guests from out of the area, my folks would take them up to visit Sequoia National Park. I remember thinking, “Do we have to go to the mountains again?”

What a punk. A punk in the Park. A Park Punk?

Two very dear cousins of mine were here recently. We had family business to attend to, and then, we went to Sequoia! I wanted to go, and I really wanted to go with them. They had spent much of their childhood summers in Sequoia, and many of our memories were from times there together.

It had snowed several days before and the previous night. Our first stop was Beetle Rock, which involved some fun stories and binoculars for bird watching.

It was overcast and cold. Doesn’t matter. We were in the Park, and surrounded by Sequoia trees. I love this fence, even when there is no sun on it, even when the snow is tracked.

Cousin Joel seems tall to me, but not compared to a Sequoia tree. He has binoculars, because he sees a bird. Or maybe he hears a bird and is looking for it.

We walked up toward Tokopah Falls, stepping in the tracks of some previous hikers. Doesn’t this look cold? It was 34 degrees.

This is the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River. It flows through Lodgepole. Brrrrr.

It got so foggy we descended to enjoy the foothill part of Sequoia. This is the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River as seen from a suspension bridge out of the Potwisha campground.

Isn’t this a cool bridge? When I bounced on it, it was hard for my cousins to hold the binoculars still and identify their birds. I tried to not be a punk and mostly succeeded.

Isn’t this cool?

This is an old flume and provides water for hydroelectric power. Very clean energy, and nothing gets wasted. There were no birds in the flume, so the binoculars weren’t necessary.

For the record, this former punk really enjoys Sequoia Park. I am now a California artist who loves the special places of Tulare County, and that’s the truth! (Raspberry sound, but I can’t spell that)

California Artist Sequoia Sequoia National park Three Rivers Tulare county

Walking in Three Rivers For Inspiration

People: “Where do you get your inspiration?”

California Artist: “Everywhere.”

Here are photos from a recent morning walk in Three Rivers.

The Redbud tree is beginning to fade. This is the extent of the snow on Alta Peak that forms “the elephant”.

Popcorn flower under the oaks.

Nothing to say here except swing. Or “swang” if you are feeling Southern.

Spelled “loo-pine”; pronounced “loo-pin”. Go figure.

Lady Banks Rose grows like a weed. Looks best in yellow, also comes in white. The yellow is a bit amplified here on the screen.

These may be called “Fields of Gold”, “Pots of Gold” or “Gold Fields”.

I keep taking this same photo, year in and year out and year after year. If you are sick of it, stop looking.

These are fiddlenecks, common as dirt in the spring.

For not having any flowers, this is a rather colorful shot.

Thus we conclude today’s walking tour of Three Rivers. Hope you too feel inspired! What does it mean to feel inspired, anyway??

Three Rivers

Beautiful Images from the Pacific Northwest

These are not necessarily things indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, but they are beautiful things I encountered while there. Beautiful things, views, places, all here for you to enjoy.

Puget Sound (AKA “The Sound”) as seen from Mukilteo, Washington.

The Mukilteo light house in what passes for sunshine in February in Washington.

An old architectural detail salvaged from a torn-down building and reused in a sign in Mukilteo, Washington.

Carol loves sea glass. I like it, she LOVES it. We took a little trip together for that purpose a few years ago. You can click here to see it on another page.

It isn’t very uncommon to see people decorate with lights in the Pacific Northwest. Helps alleviate depression. That, and coffee of course.

pacific northwest sea glass Washington state

Overly Excited in the Pacific Northwest

Yesterday I left you at the cliffhanger of Better Living Through Coffee in the Pacific Northwest.

Carol and I visited Port Townsend. It is a beautiful little town on the water with very stately architecture and art galleries and shops full of unnecessary items to enhance life and coffee and restaurants.

As the daughter of a citrus grower from Ivanhoe and the wife of a Trail Guy from Mineral King, cities and towns and beautiful buildings just THRILL me. It is a little embarrassing to take me anywhere because I am just THRILLED. THRILLED, I say.

Excuse me while I calm myself here.

There is a yarn shop in this building. With great restraint I did not go inside. I was already a bit overstimulated by the ferry ride and the beautiful buildings and the fantastic coffee.

No more caffeine for you Young Lady.

Get to the point already.

The point was to see Bob, my former drawing student! He and his wife and their horse (RIP, Porky Doc) and dogs (one less now, RIP Rose) moved there 4 years ago. Mrs. Bob loves it. Bob misses the sunshine and the drawing lessons. I miss Bob.

We had a wonderful visit. He drove us around town a bit, and treated us to a wonderful lunch at a very nice restaurant in a very old building. I could hardly eat from the excitement of it all. (Yeah, I know, I don’t get around and out much.)

We visited several art galleries, and the highlight was dropping by Don Tiller’s studio. Who is Don Tiller? I’m glad you asked. He paints what he calls “contemporary acrylic landscapes”. His work is whimsical and colorful and unusual. Bob took private lessons from him, and Carol took a workshp from him last month. Here, click on this to open his website in another page.

Tomorrow I’ll share some photos of beautiful things I saw while in Washington, the beautiful (and wet cold and rainy) Pacific Northwest.

Washington state

Thoughtful Thursdays – A Juiced Up Life

Now that the drawings for The Cabins of Wilsonia are finished, I’m thinking about oil painting again.

I’d like to make a 2015 calendar of paintings, and need to decide if I have any that can be used or if I need to do 13 new paintings. Thirteen? A year has 12 months, a calendar has 12 months PLUS a cover.

I’m studying some paintings I didn’t use in the 2013 calendar very intensely. Why hasn’t this or that painting sold? Is it the old “right person hasn’t come along” or is the painting just not good enough to grab those who have come along??

When I wonder about things like this of a philosophical and esoteric nature, I talk to my friend D about it. She and I have decided that we live in a time when we are all used to things being instant and awesome, or as I think of it, “juiced up”. Here are some examples:

Photos

A. regular photo – nice.

B. juiced up photos, like the ones in the link I gave you yesterday. We are impressed when the light and color are enhanced, or juiced up.

Music

A. friend playing a song on a guitar – nice.

B. juiced up, hearing it in stereo on our ear buds with all the accompaniment

Movies

A. old movie – entertaining in a dorky sort of way.

B. juiced up – big flat HD screens with stereo sound and special effects and surgically enhanced actors

What does this have to do with painting?

I can paint what I know or see, mixing the colors that match nature and reality. Nice.

Or, I can juice it up – exaggerate the colors, enhance them and show people a scene the way they remember it, because it was a juiced up memory.

Here is a non-juiced up photo:

Nice. Of course it is nice; it is Mineral King!

Here is a juiced up painting:

The colors are brighter, I added a peak, I subtracted a tree. The tree was good, but it didn’t fit the shape of this rolling trunk with a slightly warped lid.

I decided to paint this same scene on canvas. If it turns out well, I’ll put it in the 2015 calendar.

It is very wet and the color doesn’t look juiced up yet. When it is finished and completely dry, I’ll rephoto or scan it so you can see what I mean about juiced up.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, but I don’t dare turn on the comments and be hit by a tidal wave of spam. Sigh. You can use the Contact the Artist tab above or email me if we are already correspondents.

Mineral King oil paintings Mineral King photography oil paintings

Final Tahoe Posting

I know, it is Friday and I’m still talking about Tahoe. It was beautiful and this post is for your enjoyment, not because I have a compulsion to finish topics, although that may be a factor here. This post will be long so that I can finish (not that I have a finishing compulsion or anything).

Before my friend The Other JB moved away, we used to walk and hike together. She told me about a lake near Tahoe called Fallen Leaf. I thought it was a small lake with a dusty campground. I was wrong. It is about the same size as Emerald Bay, 3 miles by 1 mile, and has a fancy-pants community of awesomely beautiful lake houses and a few cabins. Who knew? the Other JB, that’s who!

In spite of it being late October, there was sunshine and fall color remaining.

Then, we visited Taylor Creek where the salmon were spawning. This means swimming upstream out of Lake Tahoe to lay eggs and die. There were zillions of dying and dead fish. It smelled like it, too.

The ducks didn’t seem too bothered by the fish and their smells.

Beaver activity – there is a dam on the creek behind this fallen tree (not to be confused with Fallen Leaf Lake).

See the dam?

See the fall colors? Weird extended summer this year – Please God, send us rain and snow!

We woke to this on the morning that we left.

With Apologies to the Veterans

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day. I messed up by posting something not about veterans. When I realized it, I painted a flag on the door to my painting studio.

What veterans have done is incomprehensible to me in its sacrificial capacity. I am in awe of their bravery, adventuresome spirit, discipline, devotion, patriotism and unselfishness. Even those who had no choice became all those things.

THANK YOU.

Fridays are for Tahoe?

Is it possible that I have run out of things to write about Mineral King? It is true that my interaction with the place is lessened once the cabin is closed for the season. I might have shown you all the best photos already. Recycling photos is a little boring. . . a cop-out method of writing blog posts, in my opinion. (Oh great – now I won’t ever be able to do a recycle or you will call me on it!)

So, for a little while, Fridays will be for Lake Tahoe. We’ll see how long I can stretch out the photos from a beautiful fall weekend. And of course, these are photos from which I may be able to paint some day, so it had to have been a business trip, right?