Tag: Three Rivers

More Paintings in Place

“Painting” singular, in place, is more accurate. Yesterday I showed you paintings hanging in friends’ homes, friends who collect my art specifically, or collect the art of local artists in general. Some buy it because they love my work and then they become friends, some buy it because they love me.

It’s nice to be loved, and it is nice to have my work loved.

Now, the reason for today’s post:

Before:

After:

Beautiful room, pretty cool painting!

There was a photo of me standing on the hearth next to the painting, but I looked fat, wrinkled, and slightly overwrought. So, we’ll settle for the painting in place.

This is the commissioned oil painting of a Three Rivers home. It was privilege to be chosen to paint this. It was a little bit too hard for me, but it is good to be challenged and to push through the difficulties. The homeowners were a delight to work with.

Thank you, C & S!!

Redbud Report Continued

Heart of the Hills

Yesterday I told you that fifty-eight coloring books, Heart of the Hills, sold during the annual Redbud Festival in Three Rivers.

Lest you think I could have just skipped the booth set up and plopped myself at a card table with a stack of coloring books, plenty of other items also sold. I even had the privilege of seeing some new friends from Fresno who came specifically for pencil drawings, which I had to race home and retrieve. So glad I live close, and that Trail Guy delivered my car to me, since I had walked to work that morning.

Cards, small oil paintings and tee shirts remain popular. But the coloring book stole the show.

My booth was busy almost the entire time, and sometimes I’d see someone sort of hovering around the edges. While I’d be talking with someone else, I’d just pick up a coloring book and pass it over the the hoverer, who invariably said, “How did you know that is what I was looking for?!”

I lied and said I had read her mind. (I hope no one got freaky about that.) It was just obvious to me, taking into account the tremendous popularity and publicity the coloring book is receiving.

Besides, I’ve been doing this show off and on since 1987, so I can read people pretty well.

Wow. It was a busy busy weekend, and I am so thankful to have had this pleasant and peaceful walk to work each morning of the show.

It is truly a blessing to live in Three Rivers.

coloring book heart of the hills Three Rivers

Reminding You of the Beauty of Tulare County

Do you know why I write this blog?

It is because I want to remind us all that there is beauty here in Tulare County. Sometimes I have to put myself out into that beauty and even take my Big Girl Camera with me to get great photos so I can do my job of reminding you of the beauty of Tulare County.

The wildflowers along the lower 6.5 miles of the Mineral King Road are abundant and beautiful. There really aren’t very many places to pull over, so just drive slowly and soak it up. Better yet, have someone else drive, and you can just gawk.

This is spice bush, and it is in bloom right next to the Oak Grove Bridge.There is good water flowing beneath the bridge. This is the upstream view.

This is leaning over the bridge looking downstream. There was a pickup parked on the bridge with rafting stuff. The people were actually rafting down there! I have no idea how they got the raft down to the water or how they got into the thing without having one foot in and one foot out when it shot down some treacherous rapid.

Leaning out over the bridge is all the risk I care to take here.

This is the first time I have noticed the rock work propping up the road over there. STAY PUT, little rocks.

We did a little trespassing to get this view. Now you don’t have to. I don’t know if there is enough color here – just greens and browns, with that little place of blue in the water. The wildflowers are just too small. Maybe I could put some in the foreground, in spite of the fact that there are none there. . .? Time will tell. I still haven’t finished the 24×30″ painting that has been on my easel since January or February! Too busy being out in the beauty of Tulare County to be recording it in paint right now.

Oak Grove Bridge Three Rivers Tulare county

Three Rivers House Commission, Finished?

Is the oil painting commission of a Three Rivers house finished yet?

These are some close photos of detail that I added to the painting.

Step back a bit for the whole view, including the beginning of sycamore leaves. “The beginning” meaning the start of the leafing out of the tree. When all these other things are in bloom, the sycamore is barely showing. That’s why we can peek through its branches and see poppies on the hillsides.

Now I have turned it on its side so I can paint both the bottom and the top of the canvas.

Am I finished with this painting? Is the painting finished with me?

Time will tell. . . that’s how my dad used to say it. I like “more will be revealed in the fullness of time”.

And if I am finished, then it needs a signature, a really good official photo, and a coat of spray varnish.

commission oil painting oil paintings Three Rivers

Three Rivers Spring Mini-Tour

The last several weeks have been full of coloring books and an oil painting commission of a Three Rivers house. Meanwhile, it is BEAUTIFUL out. Spring is fabulous in Three Rivers (everywhere, yes?) so I took a little tour. Come see these things with me.

Climbing roses are hanging upside down. See? They are on this archway. Time to do a little bit of work on our tour. This is the traffic-stopping, attention-getting sign at Kaweah River Trading Co., the excellent gift shop in town that pushed me to make the local coloring book. Soon they will also be selling colored pencils. You can buy Heart of the Hills there or at the Three Rivers Mercantile or the Three Rivers Historical Museum or here.

My friend has stunning and unusual flowers in her yard. This is what I recorded before my camera battery quit. Sometimes it is good to just be in a place, taking it in without recording everything.

Three Rivers

Remember When Life was Simpler?

Life used to be simpler. We have gizmos, devices, technology now that is supposed to make our lives easier, but think about these things:

Remember when your phone didn’t follow you everywhere, demanding continual response?
Remember when you could just go to the doctor and get help without filling out reams of papers, and wondering if you would be able to afford the visit?
Remember when you didn’t have to know the name of medicines and their possible side effects?
Remember when you just ate food and didn’t think about glycemic index, cholesterol, gluten, veganism, or happy chickens?
Remember when you had never heard of identity theft?
Remember when people didn’t cuss on TV or talk about private body functions and then try to sell medicine for them?
Remember when you had never heard of a “carbon footprint”?
Remember when you never considered whether something was organic or local or sustainable?
Remember when you could have a lawn without feeling guilty about it?
Remember when a fire in the fireplace was a normal guilt-free way to add warmth and comfort to a cold evening?
Remember when you only needed a password if you were playing a spy game with a friend? Something common, like “open sesame”?
Remember when “carbs” were called “starches”?
Remember when the only thing you backed up was your car, and you did it by putting your arm across the back of the seat and actually turned your head instead of watching a little television?
Remember when you could ride in the back of a pick-up? Or drink from the garden hose?
Remember when there were drinking fountains and no one carried around expensive bottles of water? You drank when you were thirsty, not when you needed to “hydrate”. . . “Hydrate”?? What is the matter with everyone?
Remember when you wore sneakers for every activity?
Remember back before you had heard of “plantar fasciitis”, “carpal tunnel syndrome”, “irritable bowel”, “acid reflux”?
Remember when you got home from vacation, and all you had to do was collect the mail at the post office?

Yeah.

That’s why people like to color. It returns us to a simpler activity that we enjoyed in simpler times. It requires no special skill, no guilt, no medical terminology, no technology or user name.

This is why I made a coloring book. Easy. Simple. No password required.

Heart of the Hills

Heart of the Hills: a Three Rivers and Sequoia Coloring Book is available at the Three Rivers Mercantile, Kaweah River Trading Company, Three Rivers Historical Museum or here.

That last one probably will require a user name and password. If you see me around, I’ll have a few in the trunk of my car. We can do business that way. Simple.

$15 each plus tax. Easy.

coloring books Three Rivers

Three Rivers House In Spring Oil Painting

The saga of the commissioned oil painting of a house in Three Rivers in spring continues. (I know that was too many prepositional phrases but how else can I ‘splain this??)

I made progress on the landscaping last time. This is an immensely satisfying project, because there are so many different areas, colors, shapes and textures.

Weird, but true. Sometimes I have to turn the painting so my hand can move the correct direction. I haven’t learned to use a maul stick and am not interested as long as I can rotate the canvas (it’s a bit of a problem on a mural).

More tightening up of the architecture was needed. Those windows! They will need to be revisited a few more times before we are finished here. “We”? ‘Twould be nice to have a little help on those more difficult parts, but I’m speaking in the royal We here.

Can you see any improvement? The gravel walkway is looking more gravely, although in person it still resembles a stream.

Hey! A tree grows in Three Rivers. Can you see the beginnings of the sycamore on the far right? I have replanted the tree since in the photos it only has these non-sequitor-heil-hitler-arm-like branches shooting into the scene. Unacceptable.

commission oil painting oil paintings Three Rivers

List of Slightly Related Items

I’m not sure how these 4 items on this list are slightly related other than they pertain to Three Rivers, sort of.

This is my 8th blogiversary!!
I sent an email to the people who have bought or expressed an interest in my work during the past year or so to ask if they’d like to be on my mailing list. Occasionally I sent an email telling of new things or shows or just to say hey. If you would like to be on that list, leave a comment below or email me using the contact button beneath About The Artist in the menu above.
The coloring books are here! You can order from this link: Heart of the Hills. If you order using this link and Paypal, please send me an email with your mailing address because Paypal always tells me “no shipping information available” or some such baloney. Look at these heart seeking students from Westmont College in Santa Barbara. Who would think that about-to-graduate seniors would be so interested in a coloring book?? Lovely group of folks, and I was very honored to have them stop by my studio.
Have a look at some spring photos around our place in Three Rivers because it is beautiful, and because Trail Guy was Builder Guy for me this week.

This is in my herb garden, where I think of stuff and Builder Guy makes it for me. Don’t you wish you had a cute hanging thing like this? Don’t you wish you had an herb garden? Don’t you wish you had a Builder Guy in your life? Don’t you wish I’d shut up and just show you the photos?

Three Rivers

A Spring Walk in Three Rivers

Happy Birthday, Mom!

On Easter Sunday in the afternoon, Trail Guy and I took another spring walk in Three Rivers. Let’s skip the chit-chat and look at the pictures.

This is the view up toward Case Mountain.

Three Rivers

Here is Alta Peak with its elephant and Moro Rock.

Fiesta flowers

The flume above Dinely Drive; forgive us our trespasses. . .

Hen and chicks? I don’t knowwhat this is, besides a beautiful succulent.

The lupine were still going strong.

Then, I found this rose at home.

And thus we conclude a spring walk in Three Rivers.

Three Rivers

House Oil Painting Commission

commissioned oil painting

I figured out that I could paint from looking at the photos on my computer screen. It is a little annoying that I have to keep waking it up, but I can deal with some annoyance.

As I worked on this, several parts were not visible. So, I stepped out my door.

Would you look at that! Poppies on the hillside, poppy paintings drying on the steps. Poppies everywhere.

It’s pretty handy to just look out the door at the configuration and colors of the hillside I am painting. There have been California poppies on this ridge since late February, so it doesn’t matter where I put them in the painting. They keep showing up (popping up?) in new patches up there.

Painting from back to front is the normal method for oil. That means the furthest thing first – the sky; the hills come next. That paper has a sketch of the various hill details that I made while standing outside. I leaned two jar lids against it on the easel so it would stay put while I used it for reference.

Halfway through the day, the mail came and there was my long-awaited photo! Stay tuned, because more will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you more of the beauty of Three Rivers in the spring.

California poppies commission oil painting Three Rivers Three rivers oil paintings

Tag: Three Rivers

This is my 8th blogiversary!!

Happy Birthday, Mom!