AFFORDABLE ART

Each year, our Calaveras County Arts Council hosts an affordable art show just in time for Christmas. Amador and Tuolumne Counties have similar open house events. Affordable is different for different folks. Patty Rayne does huge paintings of horses like this one in the $750 category. Her love for horses shows in her work.

On a different budget, maybe for a child’s choice, are small mini paintings that are nice for a side table.

I usually buy something at this event, but I have no room on my walls and I’m downsizing. I had a hard time passing up this rooster. I’ve had chickens in every house I’ve ever lived in and this one reminded me of a rooster we used to have that the kids named Fat King Crow.

I enjoy getting my art “fix” even if I don’t buy anything. I admired Sonya Zeigler’s landscapes and so many others. But what is really incredible about artists in our own backyard is the amazing diversity of talent.

Layered ceramics.

Etched ceramics.

Pots of every kind and shape.

Beautiful wooden bowls, platters and honey servers.

The things artists do with gourds… an art form that has become very popular in our neck of the woods.

Unique one-of-a-kind pieces like this carved skull.

Something new to me is photography on canvas from Gordy Long. I swear, Jim and I have been on this very beach in Washington State. I’m curious about how it is done? At $18 very affordable.

The gallery has jewelry makers, paintings, and cards for all occasions year around. But at this event, you can find a Christmas card for a favorite friend that is a gift in itself.

One table was given over to the feast of finger foods with cider and wine available to drink. Festive and fun because I always manage to see a friend, either in person, or on a canvas.

Enjoying the Christmas season is opening up to joy at every turn and I love it.  Merry Christmas.

 

 

TAKING TIME TO CELEBRATE.

A doctor’s appointment in Stockton with a cardiologist took five hours with driving time. As my leaving date gets closer, time seems to shrink. The whole week is devoted to medical necessities before I leave so my blog will be sporadic in the days ahead. The bright spot in yesterday was a birthday dinner with friends. Stuart Mast, his wife Delores Quyle, Margot Osborn and Pamela Quyle, friends I missed my last two visits home.

Margot’s birthday was January 1st. She is known through out wine country as a wine expert, mistress, extraordinaire. She has that same cache when she visits Sonoma, Napa wine country and everybody loves her.

Stuart and Delores are owners of Bryce Station Winery. They grow and bottle their own estate grapes.  Bryce Station is a young Winery. I’m not sure of the years, maybe  seven or eight, ten? Their wines are wonderful for such young grapes.  I’ve known them for a long time and didn’t think about who makes the wine?  As I was sipping and commenting on how good the wine,  Pamela said, “Of course, Stuart and Delores make their own wines. They sell out quickly.” I take them for granted. I always expect the best because this family is talented in so many ways. Delores and Pamela both paint and pot. Art is in the blood. Stuart’s, too.

On the opposite side of the table Marlene and Dick Bradford and  Heidi and Malcom. Heidi was also celebrating a January birthday. It was fun to try out the newest restaurant in town, Tortuga, billing itself as serving  Mediterranean specialties.

Marlene sculpts and pots and teaches classes at Quyle Kiln. Her work  adds a different spectrum of clay products at Quyle. She does figures and hands on sculpture that Pamela never attempts,  she readily admits. There is always something new and interesting going on at Quyle, either a wine event with food and music. Always potting and art shows. Wine and art, what a wonderful life. All they need is a bakery and cheese making to have what the poets insist is the best things in life. Well, along with love and friendship.

Heidi was the other January birthday. I believe I met her once before. We were both unsure. She lives part-time U.S. and part-time Germany. She is allergic to cats but inherited one from a neighbor who moved and simply abandoned the cat. She is being very thoroughly trained by this cat and isn’t quite aware of it yet as she seeks to comfort its every need. Oh, my! Such fun. The local cupcakes for desert complete with candles? Wonderful.

It was a lovely dinner with lovely people, and when you bring good wine to the table? It is a celebration.

BRYCE STATION

My friend Marll is selling her house in Forest Meadows and came to check on progress. She spent the night in her “former” home and really missed being in the foothills. She waxed poetic about musical events at Bryce Station Winery, the food the fun, the mountain air she misses.

Twice this trip home I’ve stopped to chat with sisters Pam and Delores, and the winery barrel garden was in full bloom.

One trip home to Murphys I did make one of the events, and the caterer they use is the best I’ve tasted at any of the wine events. Well, some are more fancy than this couple who barbeque and hand you an ample plate of delicious food. I’ll take the casual anytime, but I don’t know their names. You just have to go.

Of course, barrel gardens take a lot of water, everyday, sometimes twice a day in this weather.

Luscious. The winery is owned by Delores and Stewart Mast, terrific people. And, just across the driveway is Quyle Kiln

Delores and Pam’s parents  have made high quality dinnerware here since about 1926.  Pam is the potter and she features 28 others displaying wares and giving classes in her pottery. The winery and pottery make a great mix. Don’t miss it if you travel between Murphys and Arnold on Highway 4. It is located just below Forest Meadows. Great wine, flowers, events with music, wine and good food, and a gift of beautiful pottery if you are so inclined.

 

NOODLES AND THE WILDGOOSE PAGODA

Before leaving the Terra Cotta Soldiers, one must visit the Provincial Shaanxi History Museum nearby. It gives visitors a timeline of Chinese civilization from homo erectus to modern China.  But, the real reason to visit the museum is for their fabulous noodle lunch. I’m not kidding. In fact watching them make the noodles is almost better than eating them.

The long noodles are made by a strong young man who grabs this huge rectangular hunk  of dough, separates it in the middle forming a dough circle, and then he stretches and stretches and stretches the dough until it’s about four feet long and it suddenly breaks into noodles. Then he plops the whole mass  into a boiling pot of broth.  It defies reason. The guy was mobbed and one could barely get close enough to get a picture as you jostle in line to get your food.
Flat noodles are made by another strong fellow. He begins with a roll about twice this size in diameter and rapidly slices noodles off with a special tool directly into a pot of boiling broth.

The other best reason to visit, in my opinion, was their exquisite ceramics. The facial expression of the driver and the posture of the camel-so realistic. (Click to enlarge pictures.)

In this glazed piece, the accoutrements and the horse’s hooves are particularly stunning.

Only in China would you find a dragon handled pot.  I took 19 photos and uploaded them at:   https://picasaweb.google.com/106530979158681190260/200610XianPottery

After lunch we visited the Small Wildgoose Pagoda.

This small, plain Pagoda survives  from the Tang Dynasty. The monks studied and copied manuscripts here. One monk walked them all the way from India. A monk here was starving. (They are not allowed to ask for food.) A wild goose flew into the pagoda and couldn’t get out. When it died, he ate it. Thus the name. A Pagoda serves as a temple. The grounds are very spacious and we saw people meeting here, and exercising here. Many shops line the area selling home crafted paintings, jade, glasswork and beads. Rings to tether horses are seen about the place from the old times.

Typical of China, the public areas are beautiful and very useful for multiple functions.

In this complex is a beautiful bell. We all took a turn trying to push the heavy timber to ring the bell. It barely made a sound. It takes about ten strong men to make it ring. It was used to send messages high up into the mountains and surrounding forests.

We left the grounds and visited a Jade factory.

The jade was beautiful, but we couldn’t help but notice the workers uncomfortable working conditions.

Lunch was 23 different dumplings cooked in this hot pot. Meals are typically served  at these round tables with a turntable in the middle where dishes are shared around the group. Dinner at our hotel was a special Thai meal of two curries, fruits, meats, stir fry and bread pudding. We were so full we couldn’t do our dinner justice.

For more information about the Wildgoose Pagoda click the link: http://www.china.org.cn/english/TR-e/43175.htm

THE DE YOUNG

On Sunday, after the Tutankhamen Exhibit, we spent time in the De Young’s permanent exhibits. Of course, permanent can change with the years. Viewing paintings and objects remembered from a long ago visit was like greeting old friends.
I could not help but ponder her clothing and how primitive the cloth and fit were compared to today’s fabrics and design. How is she holding that strapless garment up, entered my mind, as well as the sad face of her dog. Very compelling and lifelike.
Even digital photography does not render them well, but I can never resist trying. I stared at the lady in the blue veil.
A cougar? Made into a bench? Just my style. Into the bench file with this photo.
This pottery crow eating a frog is perfection.
New since my last visit was this Dale Chihuly piece I’d never seen before. Chihuly looks like such a rascal and then he produces these fragile glass pieces.
The ordinary object transformed always fascinates me.
But my favorite piece for the day was this happy clay figure which reminded me of grandson Theo who expresses pure joy with such sweetness.
The De Young is a treasure and I’m reminded I don’t visit often enough.