98 visitors, 6 paintings sold, 2 commissions, phew! Very few breaks, great conversation with interesting people – Steve visited China almost 100 times and I could have listened to him for hours, Peg is an Irish citizen, someone else is interested in drawing lessons, TJ showed me a great photo of an old car in a field. . . it was quite a day!
This is the first time in the history of Three Rivers Studio Tour that Friday was included. I had 17 visitors including Cousin Charlotte whom I had met before but had no idea is a Marshburn cousin! I also met Abigail, a 3rd grader who wants to be an artist. When she reported to me that Father John Griesbach allowed her to paint on a painting at St. Anthony’s Retreat, I called her back into the studio to help me with some grasses on a painting. (Me, competitive??) This is how my studio looked before people arrived today.
My studio is in 2 buildings.
This is where I draw and do paperwork and occasionally teach private lessons.
This is inside the original studio, which was a shed for planing wood because the former owner used to make Cuckoo clocks!
The map is too large to put here, so just show up on Saturday at either Anne Lang’s Emporium (open at 9:00? 10:00?) or the Art Co-op (open at 11 a.m.) and get a copy. This month there is a special incentive to visit all the participating places. Each place is worth a certain number of points and there is a wonderful prize!
This is one of the most dreaded, misunderstood and boring aspects of being an artist. We artists, in general, dislike writing about our work. Obviously this doesn’t apply to me! But while I love to write, the artist statement gets me bowed up. I don’t do well with Artspeak, and I hate pretentiousness. This a.m. I read an article in the business/art magazine Art Calendar about writing an artist statement and realized it was time to update mine (yet again!) I’m still not sure if it is supposed to be a personal history, a personal philosophy of art, or an explanation. Regardless, here is my current one:
Art has been my fulltime profession for 17 years. Pencil used to be all I’d consider – it was the best way I knew to get every single detail in excruciating perfection. As my drawing students and customers asked for color, I reluctantly entered the world of colored pencil to record life around me. It didn’t resonate with me the way graphite did (and still does!), so 4 years ago I began to oil paint. As my proficiency increases, I’m able to focus more on light and color, and less on minutia. Although my medium is different, my favorite subjects remain: giant Sequoias, Mineral King, citrus, and Three Rivers. Tulare County is my home and recording its beauty is my goal.
It will probably be rewritten many more times as I learn what this is supposed to be and do. Mostly it is a requirement for gallery entries or group shows. Since I tend to be a maverick (as my college photography teacher told me back in the late ’70s), I can usually avoid this part of an art career. Yea! So, have a look at what is almost finished for the Zonta show (and they invited me WITHOUT asking for an “artist statement”):
If you are reading this in Chicago or Alexandria or somewhere else that is having a real winter, please don’t do anything rash but just try to enjoy this posting. February is spring in Three Rivers. Down the hill in Visalia those poor folks have to contend with fog and gray days, but up here there are fiddlenecks in bloom, along with something white, an occasional plum tree, and narcissus. The daffodils are about to pop in my yard, as is the flowering quince. The green kind of looks fake because it is so very intensely green. This is how things looked on a recent walk:
My husband sometimes rides his bike along with me on my long walks. It helps pass the time, and he brings water. 😎 On days like this I have my little camera; someday you may see paintings that look oddly familiar!
Ever been to Marble Falls? Until one week ago, I hadn’t. It is in the foothills of Sequoia National Park, and I’ve heard it is steep and hot; it isn’t that steep, and in January, it was pleasantly warm (low 70s) and very green. To get there, go into the Potwisha campground and drive to the far end where there is parking for a few cars at the trailhead. Walk along an interesting old flume for 1/4 mile, and then, don’t get so interested in the flume that you fail to notice the small “TRAIL” sign to the right.
This flume borrows water temporarily from the Marble Fork of the Kaweah, uses it to make electricity near Ash Mountain for Southern California Edison, and sends it right back into the river. Clean, established, historic, good!
Here is a photo of looking down while hiking – if you are prone to tripping or stumbling, sometimes it is wise to watch your feet. However, there is something else in this photo. Look at it here:
This is a tick. (Weird word in English – tick-tock, that ticks me off, this tick will bite you if given a chance, the worry of getting bitten is giving me a tic under my left eye, etc.) These little critters sit on the ends of grasses and branches just waiting to hop aboard an unsuspecting body as it passes by. The hike to Marble Falls needs to include stopping to do Tick Checks from time to time!
On the photo above, see the white near the bottom right that looks like a falls? It isn’t. Really! It is marble, but it isn’t water!
(photo above) These are falls along the Marble Fork, but they aren’t Marble Falls either.
This is Marble Falls, 3.9 miles up the trail. Couldn’t find a place to take a decent photo! The falls are most impressive if you are sitting on the marble at the top and seeing the water fall off into space.
The falls are below Eleven Range Lookout on the Generals Highway on the east, and at the base of Admiration Point on the west. This is off the Colony Mill Road (that you can no longer drive on), which connects the Crystal Cave Road to North Fork Drive.
And finally, here is a view of the trail on the way back and one more of the river back near Potwisha.
That’s the title!
Last weekend I was at the Chevron station when a man in a white van pulled up behind me. He asked if I had done the mural; I hesitated until he said he liked it. (Chicken!) Then I admitted it was mine. We visited about it for a bit, and he asked if he could make a suggestion. I said, “of course!” Then, he felt a bit embarrassed, and I had to really work to get it out him.
He suggested having more flowers extend beyond the borders, which I had considered earlier but gave up on when I couldn’t get my paintbrushes to behave in the drying wind. Hearing it from a “fan” caused me to realize that a second try was worth the effort. The man kept apologizing, and finally I had to explain that I am painting for normal people’s enjoyment, and that anything a “normal person” suggested was probably worth considering. He admitted to being a “normal person”, so Mr. Normal Guy, I thank you!!
untitled, Tulare County Fire Station #14, South Fork and Sierra Drive, 7×14′
. . . you’re in love with a bridge.
We drove our bikes to the 3 mile marker on the Mineral King Road on Sunday afternoon and rode the 3.5 miles to the Oak Grove Bridge. It was up most of the way, but not horribly upical.
The light wasn’t great on the bridge, but it was quite fun to have it be our destination and to just hang out on foot.
The hardest part about this mural is the wind! It makes the photos flap around, my hair flies in my face, and the palette and brushes dry out Very Fast. Wow, this is a windy location! The other surprising thing is that no matter how many days I have worked on it, I always think “2 more days”. More will be revealed. . .
Alta is patched and repainted a bit.
It is actually further along than this, but I had to take the photo before the mulberry tree shadow reached the image.
Today I taped off the edges in order to decrease the hassles. Good policy, don’t you think? One should always decrease hassles if given the chance! (Once again, the color is not accurate in the photo – a field trip is recommended.)
