Category: Three Rivers

What Shall I Paint?

Have you ever wondered how an artist decides what to paint?

Me too.

What I paint falls into 4 categories:

Things I know will sell
Things I want to paint
Commissions
Reworking old paintings

Category #1 includes Sequoia scenery, anything Mineral King, citrus, the Kaweah Post Office, the Kaweah River, the Oak Grove bridge and poppies.

sawtooth XI

Sawtooth Peak, 8×10, sold (Mineral King)

Category #2 can be flowers, fruit, an experiment, something with great light or a color that makes my heart sing, a gift for someone, or something so beautiful that I cannot resist.

Category #3 is anything a customer has requested, usually paid for up front, and sometimes working from his photos.

Sequoia painting in progress, sunflowers because I want to paint them, Buckeye Bridge as a commissioned piece.

Category #4 happens when I look objectively at a painting that’s been hanging around for awhile (literally) and decide that I paint better now.

Lake Kaweah

Lake Kaweah, or perhaps Kaweah Lake, 16×20, $350, repainted, revised, and revisited more times than I can remember. The constant improvement is bound to catch the eye of a customer. Oh – it is called “Lake View VII” on my website!

Blue Moon Sign in Situ

(Happy Birthday, Ann!)

“In situ” means in position. Isn’t it fun to learn new expressions?

The question that nagged me during the entire process of designing and painting the Blue Moon Nursery sign was this: Would it be able to complete with all the signage along that stretch of the highway in Three Rivers?

See? A whole messa signs! But, I can spot ours. . . can you?

blue moon nursery

Here is the light blue with the darker green.

This is the darker blue with the light green.

Let’s go inside the nursery.

Blue Moon Nursery in Three Rivers is a charming place with a variety of plants, including natives and drought tolerants. Check out Seger’s blog and find the hours here: Blue Moon Nursery.

Odd Job, Chapter Four

Finally, I got to the actual painting stage of my odd job.

The Blue Moon Nursery got a 4’x8′ piece of very thick plywood, built a frame around it and painted it with multiple coats of white paint. This was a result of walking out to the road and measuring the existing signs. A medium sign looks like an unnoticeable postage stamp when you pass it in a car. A big sign might get noticed. A huge sign is too much for this Central California artist, so we just went with big.

I traced our final design onto a clear piece of plastic and using an overhead projector in three stages of measuring and adjusting. I used a Sharpie marker to transfer the image, along with a square, a yardstick, and a long tape measure. It took a very long time.

Then, I traced it from Side One onto 2 18″ x 8′ pieces of tracing paper, retraced it with a very black pencil on the back side, taped the 2 sheets to Side Two of the sign, and retraced it over the top with a pencil to transfer the design to the sign. Then I retraced the faint pencil transfer with the Sharpie. This took a very very long time.

Do you need a nap yet? Hang on, color is coming!

After a very fun color mixing session with the owner of Blue Moon, I began painting.

First, a small brush to reach into the pointy places.

Then, 2 coats of the dark blue. Next the green. Hmmm, we really like the color of the masking tape with the dark blue.

I can mix that color! (This is actually side 2, after we chose a different blue for the moon and the spirals). The new blue called for a new green.

Check out Side Two, with masking tape blue and light spring green!

This is Side One, with a darker green and a lighter blue.

Isn’t this cool? The owner of Blue Moon and I both are slightly offbeat, marching to the beat of a different drummer, enjoying variety. (After being friends for 4-5 years, we discovered that we were in the same class in the same high school!)

So, we decided to let the 2 sides remain in different (but very close) colors, and then we’ll listen to people’s comments. It is my guess that very few people will even notice the difference.

Thus, I conclude my story of yet another odd job for this Central California artist. It is a pleasure to beautify Three Rivers!

Do you have a preference on the colors on Side One and Side Two? I’d love to hear your opinion!

odd job odd jobs

Odd Job, Chapter One

Is sign painting an odd job for an artist?

It depends. If you live in a city where there are sign painters, they would be a logical choice for a sign.

If you live in Three Rivers, have a limited budget, would rather not drive 35 miles and want to have input, then choosing an artist might be a good decision. Blue Moon Nursery, AKA Sierra Garden Center, is one of my top 5 places to spend money in Three Rivers. (grocery store, post office, hardware store and Sierra Subs)

My sign painting odd job began with a conversation: “How comfortable are you with lettering?”

I’ve learned to just listen and ask questions, so we moved along until I decided that perhaps I could figure this thing out.

First, I messed around with type – the styles and the arrangements seemed endless.

moon 7 moon 8

It was a progression as I experimented with different styles, different weights and different curves. The final one here was my first choice.

Stay tuned to see what the next decision was!

odd job odd jobs

Redbud Report

The Redbud Festival is a longstanding Three Rivers tradition. It is an arts and crafts fair, and it happens in May, 2 months after the redbud has bloomed. This was Redbud Festival #41! (There may have been a year or two that it didn’t happen.)

It used to happen at a restaurant at the Three Rivers Golf Course. Both the restaurant and the golf course are closed. It moved to the Lions Roping Arena. Now it is at the Three Rivers Veterans Memorial Building, a mere walk from my house.

It takes 2 vehicles to schlep my stuff. We set up the night before, and then the next morning I just walk to the show. Very cool. Bit longer commute than I normally have when I walk across my driveway, but I’m up for it.

I pass the Presbyterian Church.

The plantings at the Memorial Building are native and drought tolerant and thriving. Is that pop-up tents in the distance?

Indeed, it is. And the building is such an odd shape – see it on the right?

Look – all in place and waiting for the customers.

Nice morning light coming in the windows.

My view out of the windows, but no chance to visit those booths.

Paintings sold better off this side of the booth, highly visible when one stepped into the building. So, as paintings sold, I just rearranged them onto this side.

Such brilliant merchandising, dontcha think?

It was a good Redbud Festival. Thanks, all y’all!

Redbud Festival Weekend

The Redbud Arts and Crafts Festival is a long time Three Rivers tradition. It has been around since I was a little girl, and it is always long after the redbud have finished blooming.

north fork

This is how redbud looks in bloom, up the North Fork of the Kaweah River. This is a commissioned oil painting I did last year as a result of a conversation I had with someone at the Redbud Festival. Wow, was it ever fun to mix these colors and paint this scene!

Anyway, here it is again, Redbud Festival time.

Redbud

WHERE: Three Rivers Veterans Memorial Building, 43490 Sierra Drive, Three Rivers, California. This is about a mile upstream from Reimers, AKA “the candy store”, on the uphill side, not the river side of the road.

WHEN: Saturday, May 2, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday, May 3, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

ADMISSION: free!

WHAT: Lots of artists and craftsmen showing and selling their wares, music? (maybe), food (more will be revealed in the fullness of time.) There are vendors both indoors and out, and no one is allowed to bring items that they have not made themselves.

WHY: It is spring in Three Rivers, people like to come here, people like to shop, it is fun to see what people are making, it is fun to meet people who make their own products, and Mother’s Day is coming so maybe you would like to buy a present for a mother in your life.

Studio Painter with an Inferiority Complex

Studio. Workshop. Painting workshop. The building where I paint.

Who cares? It is indoors, with consistent light, an easel that holds still, and nothing blowing around. I like being a studio artist. There is a snobbery out there in Art World about plein air painting being superior. It is a specialized skill, and I admire people who can produce good work in a short amount of time with light that changes and changes and changes.

I am not one of those people.

The painting on the left is 8×8″; the one on the right is 6×6″. This is the Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King. I paint it and it sells so I paint it again. Any questions?

Sorry. That sounded belligerent. Perhaps I feel a bit inferior when I compare myself to those awesome people who can paint on location.

Comparison isn’t a good thing. It is right there with perfectionism in terms of wiping out one’s confidence.

I’m painting my favorite bridge again. This will be done with brighter than normal colors, as I did it last time. This time it will be 11×14″, not a square. Paintings that turn out well restore my confidence, in spite of the inferiority complex about being a studio painter. If I tried to paint this in plein air, I’d either get bitten by a rattlesnake or run over. It’s scary enough just taking photos of it!

This is a set of 3 6×6″ paintings, all done with brighter than normal colors because it makes me happy to mix those kinds of colors. This is layer #1 and there will be at least 2 more layers added to each painting.

From left to right: Lake Kaweah, Moro Rock/Alta Peak, Blossom Peak with the North Fork of the Kaweah River. (Long title, small painting) All three are Three Rivers scenes.

These little paintings take a long time to do, but because of their small size, their value is perceived as a bargain. Often, people mistake them for 4×4″ and expect to pay $30 each.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Each one takes probably 5 hours to paint in order to get it to the level of detail and precision that I like.

Sorry. There’s that bad attitude again. Sigh.

Painting on a Garden Tour

Back in March, I visited a home in Three Rivers that was scheduled to be part of a home and garden tour. The organizers believed that having artists painting in the gardens would add some interest to the tour (and were hoping for sales to raise more money for the school.)

I am a studio painter, not one who paints on location. People who are supposed to know these things say that all painters should practice painting on location. Why? So we can really really appreciate our studios, that’s why!

After looking through the photos from my private pre-tour, I chose 3 views and did an underpainting of each one.

“Underpainting” might not be a real word. It is the first messy layer so that later layers aren’t spent perfecting shapes. It is the same thing as my first steps in drawing – sizes and locations, blocking in, main objects first. (Gotta paint the dog before you paint the fleas!)

The top 2 paintings are the house and barn. I wasn’t kidding when I said “messy”. (The bottom painting is my favorite bridge, yes, again, because I always have one of those going.)

This one is the first layer of the view from the front porch of the house.

Good thing you already know I can paint, or you might be afraid.

Hidden Homes and Gardens

For several years, The Three Rivers Union School Foundation has organized a tour of gardens in our town to benefit the school.

The school always needs money. It is a one-school district, and the principal also teaches all day. These situations always cause me to wonder where the magical lottery money that was supposed to save our schools went, but no one brings that up or has answers. But, I digress.

On the first Hidden Gardens tour, I set up in the garden of my amazing friend Barbara. There were so many scenes to photograph and to paint! We collaborated on stepping stones a few years later. (lavender paintings on saltillo tiles)

This year, the Foundation has run out of celebrity gardens to bring in the visitors (William Shatner and Anjelica Huston both have places here in town). What to do?? Add homes!

I have the privilege of planting myself (ahem – pun intended) in a place up the South Fork with a beautiful view up the canyon, a fabulous new Craftsman style house, a classic barn, sheep, pigs, and plantings that were gorgeous in March. Not sure what I will find to paint in April, in spite of the cooler weather. March was hot and fried the hillsides to their more usual shade of brown.