A Walk in Three Rivers (or Forgive Us our Trespasses)

Trail Guy and I go for walks from our house in Three Rivers. I’d say its just what old people do, but we’ve been doing this for 20 years, and we still go steep places that may or may not be considered trespassing.

Here is how things looked yesterday afternoon.

The decorations on the Dinely Bridge might be considered a Peculiar Sight, but we are used to them and look for them.
The star gets placed and lit by Southern Calif. Edison each December. It might be considered a Peculiar Sight to a newcomer. (I consider the dark spots in the sky to be a peculiar and annoying sight; it might be time for a new camera.)
Some retired guys wear short pants almost all year around. At least this retired guy has nice legs. . .
Sycamores along the river below have more color this year than in a long time.
Edison is releasing water instead of sending it down to the power plant. I don’t know why.
The clean air is such a relief after the rains, which we are so very grateful for.

Then we walked home, and our mulberry tree was just lit up with yellow. This is a fruitless mulberry, the type that gets hacked back to knobs by most folks. Not us – we need the shade and love the yellow (never mind what it has done to the grass beneath or is doing the ferns by the front porch).

Tucker and Scout were happy we returned. We have to sneak off so they don’t notice and follow us.

Scout is always ready for action (which is why she is slightly blurry in this photo.)
Yellow eyes, yellow leaves, 2 black cats.

P.S. Today’s Anne Lang Emporium featured oil painting 

Navel, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $60

The Perfect Gift Boutique

For the past 20 years or so, I’ve been part of a group called the Kaweah Artisans. We put on a little boutique-sale-show-event each year on the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving. We’ve been at the Three Rivers Arts Center for many years, but this year we will be somewhere else in Three Rivers.

We will transform this empty building into a Christmas boutique.

THE PERFECT GIFT BOUTIQUE

41849 Sierra Drive, Three Rivers, California

Thursday, November 23-Friday, November 24

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

If you are heading uphill/upstream and get to the Chevron station, you’ve gone too far, so turn around, head down, and this time it will be on your right. If you get to the candy store, you’ve gone another mile too far, so buy some chocolate, then turn around, head downstream, and it will be on your right, a few buildings after the Chevron.

PARTICIPANTS: Nikki Crain (weaver), Anne Brown (potter), Carole Clum (metal sculptor), Sam McKinney (gourdista), Elizabeth Mitchell (jeweler) and maybe even a few surprise guests. Oh, and me! Me too!

Teensy Forgiving Oil Painting

I find most painting subjects to be just a little bit too hard for me. Is this because I am mostly self-taught? Maybe. Is it because I have only been painting for 12 years? Maybe. Is it because I don’t know when a painting is “good”, or “finished” or “overworked” or “incomplete”? Yeppers. That’s it. 

After struggling through figuring out how to blend Snozz Rock Homer’s Nose with the Oak Grove Bridge, how to work from 2 photos with different light, how to just make stuff up, all on a GIANT 18×24″ canvas (well, it IS giant compared to my normal 6×6, 8×8, 6×18 and 11×14 sizes!), I decided to work on the “teensy” forgiving 8×8″ oil painting of the South Fork of the Kaweah (“kuh-WEE-uh”) River.

Scary Scribble Stage
Better sky, better upper foliage (painting back to front)
Slowly working my way down the canvas, or forward in the scene

Cool! I’m starting to like this!
Scout wondered if there was any reason to be alarmed
Nah, just normal human things
Tucker wondered if there would be any treats soon.
Finished painting, signed, edges painted, and drying!

And thus we conclude the teensy forgiving oil painting of a common well-loved Three Rivers Kaweah River view. (Hey Uncle Google, how did I do on all those key words??)

Starting Over Again

That is the name of a country song by Dolly Parton. Only the title applies to this post.

If my record keeping is correct (and it rarely is, but closies count here), then I am beginning oil painting #75 in 2018. 

I didn’t mean to begin another oil painting, because hot weather is here and the swamp cooler is barely adequate for the really hot days. But I was flipping through some photos, looking for something now forgotten, and I saw a photo of the South Fork of the Kaweah River (here in Three Rivers, pronounced “kuh-WEE-uh”). It has been awhile since I painted water; last year I obsessively drew water in pencil, but this year only painted it when it appeared beneath a bridge or in a Mineral King painting.

The photo is upside down. So is the canvas. Can you tell? Nope, you can’t. The way I know is by the hanging wire, which you cannot see.
Basic shapes and sort of the right colors, just smeared on, is the way I begin paintings sometimes.
Right side up, does this resemble a river scene?

Why did I begin this when I have the large commissioned oil painting of Homer’s Nose with the Oak Grove Bridge?

  1. Because I am 58 and I can do what I want. . . OR
  2. Because the 18×24″ painting was too intimidating. . . OR
  3. Because sometimes I just drift and flail and fly by the seat of my pants. . .OR
  4. I dunno; your guess is as good as mine.

Someone around here needs to parent herself a little better. Or boss herself. Or not.

Today’s oil painting for sale:

North Fork of the Kaweah IX, 10×10″, $150 plus Calif. sales tax.

Redbud Festival This Weekend

My booth at the Redbud Festival 2 years ago.

Ever heard of the Redbud Festival in Three Rivers, California?

WHAT: Annual arts/crafts fair in which 30-50 makers of beautiful things gather to sell their wares. 

WHEN: Saturday, May 12, 10-5 and Sunday, May 13, 10-4

WHERE: Three Rivers Veterans Memorial Building (on Sierra Drive, weird, roundish white building, screaming ’50s-’60s architecture)

WHO: Local and semi-local artists and crafters (both the cute and the highly skilled types of crafters – you decide which is which)

HOW: Just show up. Bring money. Bring a nice attitude. Bring a friend. Bring your Mom.

  1. EXTRA FACT: The redbud tree finished blooming in March. (I just work here.)
  2. EXTRA FACT: I will have 4 of my 5 coloring books because the one on the Parks is SOLD OUT!
  3. EXTRA FACT: There might possibly be a few packages of those new experimental Mineral King cards
  4. EXTRA FACT: I will bring a bunch of paintings not yet seen in public (unless you count this blog as public, which it probably is, since this is the WORLD WIDE WEB)
Professional makers have pop up tents in the parking lot – always great stuff to see and buy!
My booth 3 years ago – nice sunlight coming in the weirdly round building

A Bully of a Painting

The Kaweah Post Office XIV oil painting has been challenging me. By that, I mean it gets in my face each time I paint, and it says, “Whatcha gonna do about me, hunh? Hunh? Can you handle me? Betcha can’t! Besides, you don’t even know how to write 14 in Roman numerals!”

How rude. 

Guess I showed him. Still plenty of detail work remaining, but that’s the part I enjoy. It is drawing with my paintbrush, so there, Art Snobs.

Then I looked out the door and decided it was time to get away from this bully of a painting subject. Besides, I’m going to win this battle, so there.

Springtime beckons.

May Flowers

April showers bring May flowers in some parts of the world; in Three Rivers, it is more this way: With April heat, May flowers are beat.

That’s okay. I can paint my own flowers.

This is going to take longer than expected. Most paintings do.
I build the background around the flowers, then touch up the flowers.
Enough greens; time for flowers.
Wild Hyacinth and Chinese Houses.
There is so much variety, and I’m trying to make it look natural rather than arranged.
I think this is finished! I titled it “April in Three Rivers” and sent a photo of it to a lady who expressed an interest during the Studio Tour. She wants it! I can paint it again for you- 8×10″, $125 plus tax. 
That was so fun that I began a similar one, this time in the horizontal format.

But wait! What is all this?

Lots of skies.

This is how it looks when there is a stack of new paintings ready to begin. Sky is the farthest thing in a scene, so it goes on first.

Flowers in My Yard

April is the most beautiful month in Three Rivers and that includes my yard. Our yard. Trail Guy is great with the big stuff like heavy pruning, sprinkler systems, and power tools. I weed, plant stuff, and do girly pruning.

Ajuga grows in the shade and is a very low ground cover, except in April when it shoots up these blue spikes, which always show up purple in photos.
Lilac smells fantastic.
Fairy Lanterns are all over the hill on the backside of the property.
Lovely lavender – I have several varieties, all blooming at once. Never can remember how to tell French from Spanish, but I know this one isn’t English.
The blurry yellow blossom is a Jerusalem sage, about to grace us with its first flowers. The iris is a fantastic light periwinkle color, and that is rock rose in the background.
Fiesta flower is wild and goes bonkers all down one side of the driveway each year.
Rockrose!
Rock rose shrubs get kind of huge-ish, but my girly-type pruning keeps them in check.
Dutch Iris? Japanese Iris? Siberian Iris? Doesn’t matter – it is my FAVORITE.

The state flower, California poppies, always more orange than yellow when grown in a domestic yard.

P.S. I have one power tool, and when/if it starts, it is great. It is one of those “easy to use” rototillers called a Mantis. I call it other things when it won’t start. Sometimes I just use an old tool that Grandma gave me instead. She also gave me her love of flowers. Today is her birthday, but she isn’t counting birthdays in heaven.

April Distractions in Three Rivers

I tried to oil paint last Friday but the greenery and wildflowers overcame my sense of duty. So, Trail Guy and I drove up North Fork Drive to the end.

My palette was ready to go.
I worked on Sawtooth a little.
After telling Trail Guy that I’d heard the flowers were great up North Fork and staring out the window a bit, he said, “Let’s go now!”

The road was longer, rougher, narrower than I remembered and all very worth the drive.

The last 3.5 miles are unpaved.
This is Yucca Creek at the end of North Fork Drive.
That’s one narrow little footbridge over a massive old culvert pipe.
Wowsa.
The yellow flowers are called Madia.
Heading back down has a view of Ash Peak with a blooming yucca and bush lupine.
Looking over the edge down to the North Fork makes one glad to not encounter any oncoming traffic on that narrow road with no turnouts.
Poppies are yellower in the wild than in my yard.
The poppies on the hillsides are what gave California its name of “The Golden State”. (Bet you thought it was the gold rush)
I love Fairy Lanterns, AKA Satin Bells. Pink isn’t my favorite color, but it is rare enough in nature that it stands out.

After we got back home, I painted a little bit more. There is this commissioned oil painting of Sawtooth for a very patient customer, and it would be good to make progress.

Sawtooth’s shape is improving, and it is acquiring colors and texture.

Then, I got distracted again and thought that wildflowers would look great on a 6×18″ canvas. Can you see the possibilities here? (Put on your rose-colored glasses with me!)

Planning a wildflower oil painting.