Mineral King: 1 Hike, 2 Canyons

Last week we took in the 2 best canyons, White Chief and Farewell, with a friend on one long mostly off-trail day. The flowers were spectacular.

 

The lupine were at their peak.
Almost there – a steep climb. The fit folks would say “just a short hop over the ridge”. The sort of fit would say, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” The unfit wouldn’t even be present. (Putting it this way makes me feel better about my own personal struggles in the fight against gravity.)
The wildflowers were truly stunning on the south side of Farewell Canyon where the old route is.
The photos never do the real scene justice; however, I bet your legs aren’t sore.

My Favorite Bridge in Oil Paint

There will be several chapters in this series about my favorite bridge, the Oak Grove Bridge on the Mineral King Road in Tulare County, California. (All those specifics are just in case you are new to the blog; if so, welcome!)

Yesterday we looked at three pencil drawings of the bridge. Today I will show you some of my earliest oil paintings of this wonderful subject.

First oil painting of Oak Grove Bridge (or at least the first one I kept a record of), 11×14, 2009. I oil painted for 3 years before I had enough confidence to tackle this subject.
Oak Grove Bridge III. What happened to #2?
Oak Grove Bridge IV hangs in my friends’ guest bedroom, a great honor.

Keep your seat belts on – it is a long and winding road with about 20 more oil paintings of this beautiful Tulare County landmark to go!

My Favorite Bridge

My favorite bridge is the Oak Grove Bridge, 6.5 miles up the Mineral King Road. It is also my favorite subject to draw and paint. There are three reasons for this (maybe even more, but we’ll go with 3 for now):

  1. A bridge is the perfect blend of architecture with landscape.
  2. This bridge is a fantastic surprise on a winding mountain road, one that is so rustic that it doesn’t even bother with a center line or fog lines.
  3. This bridge is a bright spot of architectural dignity in a county sorely lacking in such landmarks.

I used to only draw in pencil. This is the first time I drew the bridge, from a view upstream of the bridge. I didn’t draw very well back then, but people were polite and encouraging.

First pencil drawing of the Oak Grove Bridge, 1990

I drew it at least once more, but was very casual about keeping records of my work.

After learning to oil paint using only the primary colors, I decided to see if it was possible to do a full-color pencil drawing using a box of only 12 colors. It sold. (I think I could do a better job now.)

Oak Grove Bridge in colored pencil, 2006

The most recent pencil drawing of the bridge also sold. This one is a popular design on notecard packages that I continue to reprint. 

“Rural Dignity”, the Oak Grove Bridge in pencil, 2011

I would draw it again, but pencil drawings don’t sell very fast. People prefer oil paintings, or color, or both.

Come back tomorrow and you can see some of my paintings of this beautiful bridge in Tulare County.

 

Sort of Working

In July and August, I don’t teach regular drawing lessons. My students often say “enjoy your vacation” or “have a nice summer” as they are leaving (and several cannot resist the urge to sing “See You In September”).

Although I do spend much more time in Mineral King in those 2 months, I am still working. Sort of. There was the show Art: Inspired by Mineral King  on June 30. I deliver paintings to the Silver City Resort (AKA “The Store”), work on commissions (both pencil and oil), blog, keep track of what is selling, work on my new website design, work on the upcoming calendar, plan for any upcoming shows. That’s sort of working, isn’t it?

Sometimes the kittens become a tad bit distracting.
This subject matter is getting easier in its architectural parts, but I still struggle with the rocks beneath the bridge. This is because they are hidden.
This commissioned oil painting got a few licks on the canvas, but those rocks beneath the bridge really hang me up.
The smaller bridge is drying and awaits more layers. Sawtooth and the river are also both drying, and are now for sale.

Sawtooth #33, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $65 includes sales tax (welcome to California)

Productive Procrastination

The oil painting commission of Homer’s Nose With the Oak Grove Bridge felt too hard. Was I low on sleep? (That was both my parents’ question and/or conclusion any time there was a problem both growing up and as an adult.) Distraction was present in the form of some cats, a friend or two stopping by, the heat, lots of unfinished projects. . . but the main problem might have been fear.

So, I listened to the song “Fear is a Liar” by Zach Williams on repeat for an hour or so, and then I started a new painting of the same bridge from the same angle.

When I don’t know how to do the next step on a project, I often begin a new project. This may be the first time I’ve started a second painting of the same subject, the very one that has me handcuffed.

This 10×0″ painting of the Oak Grove Bridge is serving as a warm-up for the larger version in the commissioned oil painting of Homer’s Nose with the Oak Grove Bridge.

During this time of unfocused indecision, all my Mineral King paintings were crated up, ready to go to Silver City for the Art: Inspired by Mineral King  show. This gave me a sense (albeit a false one) of not having enough paintings to sell. On top of that ridiculousness, I began the magical thinking of “What If Everything Sells and Then I Have Nothing of Mineral King?”

My response to that was to begin another 6×6″ painting of Sawtooth. Here they are on the drying wall in their sloppy scribble stage, along with the completed river painting.

 

Yep. Good decision. When you can’t get your work finished, just begin more work.

Aren’t you glad you stopped by for this uplifting, realistic, encouraging piece of artistic wisdom?

 

Variety in Mineral King

My recent time in Mineral King was varied. Have a look:

The art show and sale, “Art: Inspired by Mineral King” was a hit! 

Some of my paintings on the display screens; everyone else’s were on the other side.
Botanical watercolorist Joan Keesey demonstrated.
Watercolorist John Keesey told another disappointed potential customer that the piece they wanted was not for sale. . . sigh.

Trail Guy couldn’t get out of the driveway to come help me bring the show home and I couldn’t get in with all my stuff because 2 cars parked directly at the end of our road.

If you recognize either of these cars, please explain to the owners that it is a bad thing to block a driveway.

We enjoyed a bonfire with our neighbors (and we were a bit short on sweets so I went to them a-beggin’).

We shared our roasting forks and they shared their marshmallows.

We walked the 4 miles to the Farewell Gap/Frankin Lakes junction. It felt like 6. Who moved this spot that we call “The Wildflower Cafe”??

It was worth 8 miles round trip to enjoy the wildflowers.
Franklin Creek was crossable – Trail Guy rock-hopped, and I walked straight through.
I learned a new (and difficult to photograph) flower called “Blue-eyed Grass”.

I had some fun going to Soda Springs and then to a swimming hole above Soda Springs with some friends/neighbors.

This is how a crazy 7 year old enjoys cold water with his grandma, who is not very traditionally grandmotherly!

When we could exit our driveway, we went to Silver City to retrieve my display screens and were happily surprised by dear friends/neighbors, who helped Trail Guy rehang our wedding photo. (We were the first to go on the wall, because the former owner was a great romantic and felt she had a hand in our meeting and marrying.)

Just a few of the many wedding photos, 2 couples with whom I worked at the store and married the same year.

Another hike ensued, but you’ll have to wait until next Friday to learn about it.

 

 

Teensy Forgiving Oil Painting

I find most painting subjects to be just a little bit too hard for me. Is this because I am mostly self-taught? Maybe. Is it because I have only been painting for 12 years? Maybe. Is it because I don’t know when a painting is “good”, or “finished” or “overworked” or “incomplete”? Yeppers. That’s it. 

After struggling through figuring out how to blend Snozz Rock Homer’s Nose with the Oak Grove Bridge, how to work from 2 photos with different light, how to just make stuff up, all on a GIANT 18×24″ canvas (well, it IS giant compared to my normal 6×6, 8×8, 6×18 and 11×14 sizes!), I decided to work on the “teensy” forgiving 8×8″ oil painting of the South Fork of the Kaweah (“kuh-WEE-uh”) River.

Scary Scribble Stage
Better sky, better upper foliage (painting back to front)
Slowly working my way down the canvas, or forward in the scene

Cool! I’m starting to like this!
Scout wondered if there was any reason to be alarmed
Nah, just normal human things
Tucker wondered if there would be any treats soon.
Finished painting, signed, edges painted, and drying!

And thus we conclude the teensy forgiving oil painting of a common well-loved Three Rivers Kaweah River view. (Hey Uncle Google, how did I do on all those key words??)

Leaving the Scary Scribble Stage

I worked for awhile on the oil painting commission of Homer’s Nose With The Oak Grove Bridge (WHAT shall this one be titled?? Snozz Rock? Sue’s View? The Nose And The Bridge? The Bridge and the Nose? Don’t Blow Your Nose On My Bridge?)

Second layer finished!

And thus, we have successfully covered the great desert of a scary semi-empty canvas with another layer of oil paint.

 

7 Things I Learned in June

      1. I could be doing something called “affiliate marketing” on my blog by listing products I use and like and then putting the link on the site so that if you click and buy, I would earn money. It is called “passive income”, but that term fails to take into account all the work of signing up and staying current with the various companies, along with doing all the copy/paste work on a blog post. 
      2. There is a wildflower shrub, native to the west coast, and also the state flower of Idaho, called Mock Orange. It grows along the Mineral King Road, is in the hydrangea family, the genus name is Philadelphus and it is called Mock Orange because it smells good like orange blossoms.

        Mock Orange, as pilfered picked from the lower end of the Mineral King Road in early June.
      3. If you swish oil around in your mouth every day, it could repair all your damaged teeth and gums. I thought this was an internet hoax, (called “oil pulling”, often done with coconut oil) until I talked to a neighbor who had been doing this and got the best dental check up of his entire life. Weird.
      4. There are insect repellent bracelets! Yeppers, and they look like curly old phone cords. Some company called “Gorgeous Ranch” makes them, says they are all natural (citronella, lemon grass and geraniol) and last up to 300 hours. I wore one and it might have worked! WAIT! I can try that affiliate marketing thing! See if this takes you there and makes me “rich”: They smell good, in case you are wondering. A box of twenty costs $11.99 on Amazon. 

    1. Life is funny. At the same time I am paying someone big bucks to rebuild my website (Way Too Difficult for my website building skills), I designed a website for a friend (much simpler than mine). Check this out: www.sequoiavacationrentals.net
    2. I found a new enjoyable podcast by Gimlet Media. “Heavyweight” has a host who tries to resolve old problems or lingering questions. He chases down people, asks questions, and has a very direct but caring conversational style (but why do people cuss so much??) The description is “Jonathan Goldstein goes back to the moment everything changed”. Fun to listen and learn while painting or drawing.
    3. Also on Gimlet is a podcast called “The Recappery” by The History Chicks. They have three 2-hour episodes talking about a PBS version of Little Women. I found it more entertaining than actually reading the book, which I’ve done many times. These two women are so fun to listen to – completely unrehearsed, just talking about a program as we eavesdrop.