Opening Duties in Mineral King

The Mineral King Preservation Society maintains a mini-museum inside the Honeymoon Cabin. Trail Guy and The Captain (frequently referred to in this blog) are both board members of the MKPS. Cowboy Bert and I help, because we are married to these board members.

Honeymoon Cabin, pencil drawing, $300, 11×14 framed, for sale here

What are these guys doing?

We nominated The Captain to be the official Straightener of Pictures.

This is the way a cowboy sharpens pencils.

Mineral King Will Open This Week

NEWS FLASH – just received an email stating the gates are unlocked TODAY!

This week, probably on Friday, but maybe on Thursday (this is the government we are talking about here), the gates to Mineral King will open. A major source of inspiration for this California artist, that’s Mineral King!

Welcome back, people. Did you bring any new car parts for us?

I was there on May 20, and this is how it looked. Not much snow, not much water. Lots of green.

I love this view. It doesn’t seem like a strong enough composition for painting, but I find it very compelling, every single year. I photograph it every single year. Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results? Nope, just thinking that one day I will say “AHA! If I just move this tree a bit, or that log, or change the contrast or some other who knows what, then this will make a great painting”.

Nevuh, nevuh, nevuh give up.

 

 

Lots of Thoughts

Or, Loughts of Thoughts? Or Lots of Thoughts?

Clearly, this California Artist has thinking time while drawing all those pencil pictures of The Cabins of Wilsonia, where she is right on schedule.

This is some of the noise in my head:

  1. While at the Post Office, the clerk asked if I wanted cash back. While at the grocery store, the clerk asked if I wanted stamps. I wondered if perhaps I would be offered a head of lettuce at the bank. . .
  2. How can I live in a town of 2600 (so says the population sign) and go months or perhaps even years without seeing people I know?
  3. How can I live in a town of 2600 and attend a party where I meet scores of new people who live in my same town?
  4. Doesn’t it seem to you that if your phone and internet service quit for 2-3 days that the phone company should offer a discount? I think they know that they have a monopoly and won’t lose a customer because there is no other place to go. And just in case you were thinking of calling to ask for a discount for being without service, they make sure there are 47 phone numbers for them, each complete with its own maze of button punching to make you think you are getting somewhere when instead, you are just punching buttons to pass the time.
  5. How is it that saturated fat, eggs, butter, protein and coconut oil used to be Nutrition’s Worst Enemy and now they are all considered fine, in fact, beneficial?? I’m reading Young for Life by Marilyn Diamond and someone else. She has changed her mind. She thinks there is a plot to keep us from learning correct nutrition. We know it is true that in the years since non and low fat products have gotten popular, our population has gotten progressively fatter.

That’s it. I’m having ice cream for lunch. I’m sure sugar will remain the Enemy, but my fingers are in my ears, my eyes are squeezed shut, and I’m shouting, “LALALALALALA!”

Worth It, oil on board, 8×10″, sold, sorry, but not really, Hi Shannon

New Mineral King Paintings

Last summer, the Silver City Store sold a pile of paintings for me. This summer I am preparing in advance, so each time I stop by and see one is gone, I can put another in its place.

I had a stack ready to go, and then 2 of them sold. Nope, I don’t mind at all!

Vandever at sunset

Vandever VI, oil on wrapped canvas, sold, sorry, but not really

oak grove bridge oil painting

Oak Grove Bridge X, oil on wrapped canvas, my favorite bridge, and I’m ready to paint it again soon!

More Refreshment

When Sophie and Louise and I went to Sequoia National Park last week, we walked around Crescent Meadow and Tharp’s Log. Want to see?

That isn’t the meadow or the log or a big tree. It is mosses on a rock. I pet them. They didn’t purr, but I did.

This is the corral by Tharp’s Log. I’ve painted this scene several times, but now the tree is busted off. Whoa. When I talk like an idiot, you know I am tired. I meant the tree was broken. 😎 I’m not showing you the paintings because they are all sold and I don’t want you to feel sad.

However, I do accept commissions.

Both Sophie and Louise remember being able to go inside and see Hale Tharp’s stuff inside. I remember being allowed to go in, but no stuff was left. Now the visitors have to stay outside.

I don’t know these people,  but I took their photo so you can get an idea of how big The Big Trees aka redwoods aka sequoia gigantea really are.

 We had lunch at Wuksachi, which is a lodge without lodging but it does have a restaurant. Okay, it has lodging, but not in the same building.

I don’t get out much. Hence, I was so thrilled with the food (sweet potato fries are the ONLY fried food I like) that I had to take a photo. BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

Check out this dessert. If that doesn’t thrill your little heart, then maybe you get out too much.

The Pause That Refreshes

Sometimes I find myself procrastinating, resisting what I know needs to be done, finding other things to do instead, stalling, and in general, wasting precious time.

Why? Tired, I think.

A cure seems to be to take a day off. Not just a day to catch up on chores, but a day to refresh. “The pause that refreshes” was an advertising slogan when I was a child, but it might have been referring to cigarettes. I got a better offer than having a smoke.

Sophie and Louise invited me to accompany them to Sequoia National Park to see the dogwood in bloom. This is one of the advantages of being a California artist in Tulare County, particularly in Three Rivers. Just sayin’ – not trying to rub it in.

They were in bloom at the lower end of the forest, and we mistakenly thought we’d find them at Crescent Meadow. When we drove back down the Generals Highway, it was raining, so no photography took place other than this shot through the windshield. It was beautiful, because the sun was shining in front of us.

It’s okay that I didn’t get any good dogwood photos. I can go back. Besides, I’m drawing this year, drawing my little fingers to the bone, drawing and drawing and drawing The Cabins of Wilsonia.

 

 

 

Hidden Object, Contest, Prizes

Remember this mural?

mural at Sequoia Outdoor Sports in Three Rivers

Now, there will be a hidden object painted in this mural, visible Saturday, May 11, 2013.

No clues. You are on your own to find it.

It does not appear in this photograph. You need to go there in person.

I apologize to those of you who do not live near by. However, you can have a little fun any time you are in Three Rivers, checking the mural to find what is hidden and where it is.

The first three people who find the hidden object and go into Sequoia Outdoor Sports to tell Carolyn what and where it is will receive a prize!

  1. First finder: day pack with water bottle, hat, mug, beverage coolies, frisbee, map handkerchief and notecards featuring the mural
  2. Second finder: water bottle, hat or visor, mural notecards 
  3. Third finder: water bottle, hat or visor, mural notecards

These are good prizes, so we are making you work a little. You have to get yourself to Three Rivers and LOOK and go into the store. 41891 Sierra Drive, 561-1190, open 9-4:30.

Have fun! 😎

 

A Friend’s First Art Show

One of my drawing students is so good that I asked The Courthouse Gallery in Exeter ( where I teach drawing lessons) to feature her in an upcoming show.

I’m defining “so good” based on several things:

  1. Her work is technically excellent.
  2. She composes her drawings from her own photos (and occasionally from mine), carefully choosing, scooting, cropping, editing, giving great thought to composition (which is the arrangement of the elements in the drawing) as opposed to automatically copying what is in the photo.
  3. She does the work – studies drawing on her own outside of class, draws on her own outside of class, sketches regularly and takes practice very seriously.
  4. She produces one good drawing after another after another – the big word for this is “prolific”.

The Courthouse Gallery selection committee asked her to show there in July through September!

We thought they were booked further ahead, but suddenly, we both felt some time pressure. We realized we would have to work together to get her work titled, framed and priced. We decided a postcard would be a good thing. We decided that scanning her work would be prudent. We realized that this could get expensive. We remembered that I have lots of mats and frames.

We had a lovely 1/2 day together, along with her daughter Jenna, digging through my mats and frames, deciding if any of them complement her drawings. We found several that worked. We scanned, we scrutinized, we did the work.

You will be seeing more about Wendy Miller and her work in this blog as her show approaches. Without giving away too much of her work, here is a teaser. (I want you to come to her show!)

 

“Hey Mom”

11×14, pencil on paper, by Wendy Miller, private collection

Painting Preparation or Procrastination?

It has been about 2 months since this California Artist did any oil painting. When I take a long hiatus*, I wonder if I will be able to paint any more.

I used to have that little niggling worry about drawing when several weeks would pass without my picking up a drawing pencil (unless I was using one to balance my checkbook).

Because the season of Mineral King is upon us, it is time for me to supply the Silver City Store with oil paintings to sell.

This happens in steps:

  1. Inventory existing paintings
  2. Make a list of subjects that should always be on hand and for sale
  3. Go through photos
  4. Choose photos to paint now and ones to paint later.
  5. Write the titles and inventory numbers on the inventory list and backs of the canvases
  6. Turn on the swamp cooler. Yes, in April. This gives me hope that we will have a shorter summer in terms of heat.
  7. Find something to listen to while painting. If the internet is working, I can listen to podcasts online. If it isn’t, I can listen to the radio or to my iTunes music.
  8. Wonder where Perkins is and if he’d like to hang out. Miss Zeke a little. Miss Kaweah a lot. Go back into the house for something or another thing.
  9. Paint! Just do it! I just listened to a podcast on productivity that said if you find yourself procrastinating, there is a problem. OF COURSE there is a problem if you procrastinate – you won’t get the work done! Then there is the Steven Pressfield book called The War of Art in which he discusses something called “resistance”. I’ve listened to podcasts and read blogs about this.
  10. Fix/finish those California poppy paintings I started 3 months ago.
  11. Use the leftover paint on your palette to base-coat canvases for the next painting session.

Any questions?

*Hiatus means pause or gap in sequence. Why use a one-syllable word when there is a great three-syllable word to do the job?

Mineral King Time Already – Early Early Early

It has been a dry winter. Trail Guy has been hiking this week.

Wow. This is early early early.

This is our friend and neighbor Keith. He is eating an orange on the bridge on April 26, 2013. There doesn’t appear to be any snow. Early early early.

The Park is officially opening the gate to the public on May 22. Early, early, early.

 Is “early” really a word? Looks funny. Nothing like a little overuse of a word to destroy one’s vocabulary.

Me? Just painting Mineral King scenes so that the Silver City Store can sell them for me this summer. They sell my Mineral King oil paintings very well. Maybe my prices are too low. Maybe you should pick one up this summer before I decide that my prices are too low. Then you can say, “I got her early work”. Early early early.

I was able to paint this week because I finished my April drawing quota for The Cabins of Wilsonia.  I finished them early.

Next week? Back to the drawing board.

Do you know anyone else who can honestly and literally say that?