Faded (poppy) Love #3

Let’s get those pinkish poppies re-oranged. (Funny, they don’t appear pinkish in this photo.)
Can I be finished now? There are 5 kittens, some knitting, weeds, and a stack of good books at home.
I put back the branches on the tree to the left of the door but am ignoring the dreaded door itself.

Truthfully, this mural is not in a highly visible place, it is rarely noticed, and no one cares if I refresh it or not. I don’t think anyone will notice if I leave the dreaded door. So, maybe I am finished. I didn’t sign it this time, so maybe I am not proud of it. Sigh. Maybe I am not finished after all.

Faded (poppy) Love, #2

We have had weird unusually cool weather here in Three Rivers, and I took the opportunity to continue working on the faded poppy mural.

You can see the lower section needs refreshing.
I started with green among the lower poppies. You can see that the middle ground of poppies is pinkish.
The lupine haven’t faded, so I am working around them. I did add some white tips to the blossoms on the far left in this photo.

I keep backing up to see if it looks as messy far away as it does from up close. The way a mural can look so terrible up close and so tight and photographic from a distance never ceases to amaze me. Feels magical.
Now I have added green to the lower right AND greens to the next layers of hills, fading as they move back. (If you are interested in ArtSpeak, this is called “aerial perspective”.
I worked more on the poppies, all the while lamenting how much was left to be done and getting COLD in May!! The pinkish colored ones haven’t been retouched yet.
There are some poppies remaining, along with the dreaded door. A friend (a very important person) really likes the tree, so I will retouch it on the left side and probably tackle the dreaded door, as long as the weather cooperates.

A list of what remains to be done, depending on the weather and my availability:

  1. The dreaded door
  2. The tree
  3. Pinkish poppies, both close and far
  4. Adding more popcorn flowers (or painting out the ones I just added)
  5. More grasses to overlap the poppies
  6. The lowest horizontal edge, which is currently covered in dirt and splatters from the rain.
  7. Brightening the lupine, just because I love those colors and want more, more, more

I think that the distant Alta Peak and Moro Rock, along with the rocks on the hillsides can be left. Their fading makes them look farther away than they did when I first painted the mural, which is the way it is supposed to look.

This is KitCarson, who always goes first, like his mama, Scout.

In Bloom

Sometimes I have the overwhelming need to share some beauty with you that is not of my making. (I hope you know me well enough to not take that sentence as if I believe all my art is beautiful. Gotta stay real and humble here.)

What is this new-to-me wildflower, across the road and downstream from Reimer’s (the candy store in Three Rivers)?
So glad you asked! It is Globe Gilia.
The plant I pilfered a cutting from last summer in someone else’s yard is in bloom!
The Jerusalem Sage is in bloom!
The Spanish or French Lavender is in bloom; I’m inclined to think of it as Red-Violet rather than Lavender.
The Rock Rose is in bloom!
Look at the Honeysuckle! Too bad you can’t do a scratch-and-sniff on your screen.

Redbud Report 1

The 45th Annual Redbud Festival in Three Rivers took place on a very nice day, not crazy hot or cold as we’ve experienced some years. Today I’ll show you the beginnings of Saturday.

Trail Guy and I filled a vase of flowers from the yard before heading out to walk the 1/4 mile to the Memorial Building.
There weren’t as many outdoor booths as in previous years.
I felt happy with my booth and displays.
Clearly, flowers make me happy.
There was live music, most of it too loud for conversing with guests, but when Buddy (center) played a drum piece for me, I didn’t mind! (We used to be neighbors, and still are friends 20 something years later.)

Tomorrow I’ll tell you a list of 7 observations and experiences.

45th Annual Redbud Festival


There will be 4×6″ original oil paintings at the Redbud Festival, priced for $40 each instead of $50 as a SHOW SPECIAL! Here are 2 samples of the 8 available paintings:

Salt Creek Road
Poppies on Dry Creek Road

More Heart Rock Walk

Should that be “Rock Wock” or “Ralk Walk”? Isn’t English weird?

This is the first one I ever noticed. It is the only pink one and appears to be a broken heart.
When the sun is finally up, oh wow.
But the sun makes the hills in sunshine look weird and washed out. This is another beautiful decorative gate (remember yesterday’s? Probably the same mason.) We seem to live in a gated community.
Doesn’t this make you wish you got up in the dark to go walking in Three Rivers?

Heart Rock Walk

My walking partner and I walk several roads in our neighborhood, often so early in the a.m. that we need flashlights. (We’ve learned the traffic patterns, cross the highway carefully and listen for cars–thank you for your concern.) A few years ago we began noticing heart rocks in the asphalt on one particular road. On Sunday, I took my camera and we found 10 heart rocks! Today I’ll show you five, along with a little bit of scenery (yep, trespassing again.) The rock photos were taken after the scenery ones, on the way back home when the light was better. They are all about an inch high in real life.

The blurry photo caused me to keep this one small for you. We debated on whether or not it qualified.
This is early in the morning, so the light is not very conducive to great photography. But oh my, what a beautiful fence and entry gate!
At least with the poor light, you won’t know where I was trespassing and turn me in!
Look at this fence!

Tomorrow I’ll show you the rest of the heart rocks and the rest of the walk in better light.

Watching Paint Dry

When I show paintings in progress on my blog, they don’t cause people to comment. Comments are fun for a blogger, show that people are reading and care enough to say something, and provide a way for a bit of interaction. When I talk about places I walk or hike and show photos, the comments come in more often.

Funny how that works – it is more enjoyable for my readers to see where I walk and what I see than to watch paint dry.

So, today there will be a little bit of drying paint, and a little bit of scenery.

2 in progress
3 drying

Since switching to Spectrum, there is no longer a telephone in the painting workshop (or in my studio, but that is a very long, annoying and boring tale). So maybe it is time to erase the phone #s on the chalkboard. But this is long and boring and annoying, and I’ve promised you other photos.

The top of Blossom Peak as seen from a friend’s driveway. I want to go there but don’t know a good route. Besides, I have waited a bit too long. The grasses are tall so they hide the footing, and the snakes might be out. Next January, perhaps?

The 2 left points of Blossom. It has 3 parts as you can see in the next photo.
Like the power lines? Phone lines? Whatevs, the point is to see the 3 points.
Looking upstream on the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River.
Looking downstream from the same bridge.
Just loving the green with the fiddlenecks and popcorn flowers.

That was just a regular Three Rivers walk on a popular road for walkers. A friend who lives below Blossom Peak had neck surgery and has to walk a certain distance each day in a flat place. She got tired of circling her house, so I brought her to a flat place near my house to get in her steps. The pace was much slower than my regular morning walks, the light was much brighter, and it made everything look even prettier than normal.

There. Aren’t you glad you made it through the paint drying session?

Spring Walk in Three Rivers

About a week ago on a chilly afternoon with brilliant sunshine and puffy white clouds, Trail Guy and I went for a walk. Nothing much to say – just enjoy spring in Three Rivers with me.