Trail Guy went to Mineral King last week. This is how it looks at this time of year.
That hardly qualifies as “Friday Fun”. What does? How about Pippin in the leaves!
November is my busiest month. For the first time in several years, I have no selling events in Visalia. However, there are plenty of other opportunities to see me and my art: a list might be the easiest way to see all the upcoming events.
1. Holiday Bazaar, Three Rivers Veterans Memorial Building, Saturday, November 23, 9-4, free (of course). Always a nice event with good stuff made by interesting people who are eager to tell and sell.
2. Perfect Gift Boutique, 41837 Sierra Drive (that’s Hwy. 198 in Three Rivers) in a borrowed empty storefront, sharing space with the other Kaweah Artisans. Friday, November 29 and Saturday, November 30, 10-4. (the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving). The address on this poster is where we were last year; this year’s will be in the next building just downstream, next to the Kaweah Commonwealth office.
3. In other events, I am teaching drawing lessons at Arts Visalia each Tuesday evening from 6:30-8:30. Five students, good times!
4. But wait! There’s more! The Festival of Trees and Globes is the annual fall fundraiser at St. Anthony’s Retreat Center in Three Rivers, this year on Thursday, November 21. My part? Judging the decorated Christmas trees, along with 2 others. It is a little stressful, knowing that people poured their hearts into these trees, and trying to be objective when I know most of the participants and every worthy organization; Three Rivers is a small, self-contained community, and anonymity is rare. The event itself is quite fun, lots of food and drink, a silent auction, and the live auction of the trees. (It’s not fancy like the similar event in Visalia – we are easy-going and informal here in 3R.) You can buy tickets in advance or at the door or from me.
P.S. First Saturday, December, is also coming up, and for the first time in a long time, my studio will be open!
It has finally stopped being hot in Three Rivers, so I get to work in the studio with the door open. Although our cats are not allowed inside the house, I let them freely wander in and out of the studio. This won’t work if it is raining, but for now it is great fun.
I tried to convince Tucker, our shy black cat, that he could use the upholstered chair for naps. He only wanted to sit there if I held him, which doesn’t work while I am working. He ran outside, and when I turned around, there was Jackson, who needed no convincing.
Pippin jumped on the drawing table (I was working at the desk behind the drawing table), so I opened the blind for him.
While I worked at the desk, Pippin napped.
As much as I love summer in Mineral King, I also love fall at home in my studio in Three Rivers.
What was I doing in the studio? Bidding on a HUGE commissioned oil painting, gathering photos for some of my drawing students, helping a friend order calendars with his photographs, editing the TB book (haven’t mentioned that in quite awhile), and working on a new pencil drawing. When the drawing is finished, I’ll show you.
Put down your brushes and walk away from the mural! That’s what I had to tell myself at the end of Day Three on the mural at St. Anthony’s Retreat in Three Rivers.
At the end of Day Two, I took a photo of the mural, studied it, and made a list of things that were not quite right. When I arrived on Day Three, I didn’t even read the list but just started working. The oak tree, the sycamores, the river’s edge. . . fixey, fixey, fixey.
Next, I peeled the masking tape from the top 2 sections to see how effectively it masked the edges. Then it was time for lunch. (I love working at St. Anthony’s!)
The tape had a few malfunctions. The pencil we used to swing the arc and the blue chalk line all had to be painted out, so I used the wall paint to cover the now extraneous guidelines.
I signed it, then added one more poppy.
Stick a fork in it; it’s done!
I started Day Two on the mural at St. Anthony’s Retreat in Three Rivers with the idea that I could finish it, maybe even in the morning.
Fall down laughing.
First, I needed to fix the slopes below Comb Rocks. It was mushy in the mural, undefined, hard to read. See?
I looked out the window to see how the hills actually look. Of course, it is the wrong time of year, the wrong lighting, and the wrong angle; that’s where I try to blend artistic license with believability.
Artistic license is also why I have made Comb Rocks more prominent in the mural than they are out the window.
That took longer than I expected, so I took a break. First, I photographed the live oak out the nearest window, thinking it might be helpful.
Go back to work, Central California artist, because you are procrastinating and it isn’t advancing the mural.
Time for lunch! I love working here. 😎
The oak tree on the left, the bank along the river, the sycamores, and the river itself don’t seem quite right to me. So, tomorrow I will see how to make these things look more believable.
It is possible that painting inside a little chapel at St. Anthony’s Retreat is the most pleasant mural painting experience I’ve ever had.
This is a scene cobbled together from several photos of Three Rivers as it shines in the spring. Look at how much I got done in one focused day of painting!
When I paint murals, there is a lot of noise in my head. Listening to Shannon’s books occupied the part of my brain that keeps yammering at me that I have no idea what I am doing, and that this is too hard for me. So, on this day of painting, the noisy and negative part of my inner dialogue didn’t have a chance. I just listened and painted, and it was lovely.
St. Anthony’s Retreat is a conference grounds here in Three Rivers, a gathering place by many people for many reasons, not just a place for Catholic retreats. I like to go there; it’s close to home, has happy memories, and most of the people who work there are my friends (I don’t know all of them. Yet.) Plus, if I am there around lunchtime, they feed me really good food.
They want to convert a small windowless room to a prayer chapel, and got the idea to have me paint a mural on one of the walls so that it doesn’t feel claustrophobic in that space.
The wall is about 14 feet long and 10-1/2 feet high.
Stay tuned. I’ll show you the mural as it grows.
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.
We have had weird unusually cool weather here in Three Rivers, and I took the opportunity to continue working on the faded poppy mural.
A list of what remains to be done, depending on the weather and my availability:
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.
