Another Fine Subject of Central California Art

Call me butter – I’m on a roll.

Did you know butter is good for you? Yep. Everything we learned about animal fats and saturated fats is probably wrong. But that’s for a different blog.

This blog is about what a Central California artist finds to paint in a place like Tulare County, the 3rd least educated and 13th poorest county in the state.

Mineral King! I paint Mineral King! I blog about it, paint it, draw it, and live there in the summer whenever I’m not at home painting.

Sorry. Didn’t mean to give you a heart attack with that surprising news. Maybe you should eat more butter to prevent future heart attacks.

Sawtooth Peak is visible from the valley floor (San Joaquin valley, not Mineral King, but it is visible from there too, duh.) except when the Bay Area smog blowing down through Altamont pass is obscuring the vision.

Don’t you think my oil paintings begin with a rough first layer? I show you this in case you are a painter and think your paintings always begins with ugliness. You are not alone – take heart (and have some more butter).

I work from back to front. The sky is first because it is the furthest from us. Then comes the ridge and Sawtooth Peak. I climbed it once. I also got helicoptered off it once. Once was enough for each of those experiences. However, I will paint it over and over. When it sells, I’ll paint it some more.

There are certain subjects that I try to always keep around as oil paintings – Farewell Gap, Sawtooth, the Kaweah River, the Kaweah Post Office, oranges, and poppies. That’s Central California from the viewpoint of a Three Rivers artist. (one who loves butter)

It’s coming along. I might show you a time or two more before it is finished. Or maybe not.

Now I am going to cook an egg in butter.

(Note to self: don’t blog in the future when you are hungry.)

Sawtooth on a Cupboard Door?

Usually at a garage sale I am overtaken by the desire to go home, fill a box with stuff, and bring it back, sneak it onto a table, and tiptoe away. Stuff stresses me out. Too much stuff makes me twitch, mumble to myself, and randomly toss objects into the trash or a give-away barrel.

There might be a mental disorder that is the opposite of Hoarding. I might have it.

HEY! I THOUGHT THIS BLOG WAS ABOUT ART!

I’m getting there; keep your shirt on.

I found a cupboard door at a garage sale. It was all alone, no cupboard, no twin, no handle. It suddenly looked like a canvas that wanted paint.

So, I bought it and painted it. Stuff with a clear use is exempt from my Too-Much-Stuff-Problem.

Sawtooth is one of the prominent landmark peaks of Mineral King, visible from Visalia. (I prefer to look at it, hike beneath it, photograph, paint and draw it rather than climb it or be flown off of it.)

Sawtooth oil painting on a cupboard door

Sawtooth on cupboard door, approximately  9×21″, oil, sold

It sold to a visitor to my studio on First Saturday Three Rivers while it was wet. As long as it was signed, she was happy. And if the customer is happy, I am happy.

Straight Talk About Art Fairs

When I got to the venue for the Visalia Taste the Arts, I was very very impressed by the way it was set up.  As I pulled into the fenced off area, I was handed a show packet that included a lunch ticket and directed to my booth. There were many huge canopies covering multiple spaces and I drove right up to the front of my space to unload.

Visalia Taste the Arts

 

My booth was on this end, the right side of that canopy. There was a “wall” separating me from the folks on the left end.

Visalia Taste the Arts

Everything is unloaded and my car is parked within view. This is shocking to me, because the show staff said, “Park right there” and I said, “But that’s really close – what about all the visitors?” He said, “They’ll be fine”. Umm, okay, thanks!

 

There was so much space for so many artists! All covered, and none of us had to pay AND they provided lunch and bottled water and help unloading and offered to booth-sit so the artists could take a break.

 

Visalia Taste the Arts

I was next to a very large stage with very very large speakers. It made me worry a little bit. I thought “uh-oh”, and proceded to set up my booth.

Visalia Taste the Arts cabinart booth

This is how it looked. Sawtooth is crooked. These things don’t show when one is hustling around, trying to get the right light, not have people pass in front of the lens, all the while worrying about that very large stage with very very large speakers. Notice how well-spaced the paintings are.

This is getting too long. Stay tuned for the next installment of Straight Talk About Art Fairs tomorrow.

Taste The Arts

Taste the Arts takes place on Saturday, September 29 in Visalia, California. It is a little division of a week long event called “Taste of Visalia“. Maybe. I’m quite confused on the whole shebang.

What I am not confused about is that I will be one of many artists showing and selling my work at a former lumberyard in downtown Visalia from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The former lumberyard is encircled by Oak, Garden, School and Bridge Streets. I think the entrance is on Oak. I think it is free.

I am also not confused about the fact that I did several new paintings for the event. Here is one:

sawtooth oil painting by Jana Botkin

This is Sawtooth, in Mineral King. The painting is 16×20, the price is $375. Maybe people in Visalia aren’t as interested in Mineral King as people on this blog, in Mineral King and in Three Rivers. We shall see! (Who uses the word “shall” seriously??)