Trail Guy Hikes For Us

Who is “us”? 

You, me, anyone who reads the blog but isn’t retired or on vacation in Mineral King. While I was painting walls inside Three Rivers buildings, Trail Guy went hiking in Mineral King.

He went up toward Timber Gap, and then to Empire, but not to the top, just a loop that gives good views.

While he was there looking at the mountains, I was painting the very same peaks in the Mineral King Room at the Three Rivers Historical Museum.

This is Ranger’s Roost, AKA Mather Point, looking through the timber of Timber Gap. When you are looking at Timber Gap, it is the bump to the left/west. The Mather Party came over Timber and saw Mineral King. I drew the cover in pencil and colored pencil for a book about it, but I haven’t read it. I just look at the pictures. (This was a second edition—the original drawing on the first edition went missing so the publisher commissioned me.)

There were a few flowers: shooting star, Western wallflower, phlox.

This is the rock outcropping on Empire that gives the false impression of being the actual peak. It is a favorite for enjoying alpenglow in the evening light.

Messing With Other People’s Art

There have been several times in my career when I have been asked to change someone else’s art. I have repaired a torn canvas, changed a boulder in a painting that looked like a skull, fixed a child that looked like a little hunchback, and brightened colors in a dull painting. All these were done without knowing the original artist, and with assurance that the original artist would never know.

The Mineral King Room makeover was a different story. The original designer is highly educated, experienced and respected in The Art World. I am somewhat known in the local Art World, but I try to keep a low profile when it comes to any formal types of situation where I might be outed as a total DBO, mostly self-taught, Tulare County native. (You know how I feel about ArtSpeak. . . ugh.) 

I respect the original artist of the Mineral King Room and understand that she put a lot of thought into the design. The folks who approved the design were awed by her work, and didn’t think that there would be a strong reaction to the teal color and the stylized mountains, which were all effective from a designer’s point of view.

The approvers were mistaken about the reaction, which was strongly against the color and the mountain shapes. This necessitated a call to your Central California artist, who also is the local Mineral King artist.

The designer wasn’t pleased when she learned that I would be giving her design a makeover. (What artist would be??) I don’t blame her, because she chose all the shapes and colors based on her design expertise, to provide the best interpretive background for historic displays. She was professional and polite, while sounding as if she was defending a dissertation, not in a defensive way, but protective and offering the rationale for her design decisions.

My approach, on the other hand, also based on training and experience, is to simply please the customer. (My very wise dad taught me the all important business principle of “You kiss their fanny and take their money”.) We have to think about who the visitors and supporters of the Mineral King Preservation Society are, and what they will understand. The answer to that is that they love Mineral King, not a stylized version of it. (“Nosirree, I’ve climbed Sawtooth, and that ain’t it!”)

This is how the mountains surrounding the Mineral King valley really look.

So, with respect to the designer, who is very good at what she does, I just dove in and “corrected” her work. I don’t mean that it wasn’t good; it just wasn’t right for the audience.

Did Mineral King Need a Paint Job?

Did Mineral King need a paint job?

No, but the Mineral King Room at the Three Rivers Historical Museum did. The blue didn’t match the murals in the room, and the mountaintops weren’t recognizable. (You can see the murals here.)

First, I was determined to mix the right shade of blue using whatever paints I had on hand. Lightfastness isn’t a problem on indoor murals, so I was able to use a can of indoor white paint that came from who knows where, along with my 2 mural paint blues. Mural paints are highly pigmented and that makes them very useful for making my own interior colors.

Second, we taped all the parts that needed protection. (This was not the royal we—I had great help from MKPS Sandi).

Next, I traced the tops of the mountains on the mural showing the peaks surrounding the MIneral King valley. This provided a guide to redraw the peaks to match reality. (This was based on the assumption that I painted the mountains accurately in the mural.)

I drew the mountains on with chalk. (It wasn’t a Mineral King blue either but it matched my painter’s tape.)

Then, I started painting and almost immediately, dripped onto the rust color.

Good thing there is touch-up paint for all the colors involved. 

Here is an example of something weird that I have learned about acrylic paints, as opposed to oil paints: they are LIGHTER when they are wet. Doesn’t make sense, but it is true.

That teal color was great with the rust, but just not right for the subject matter. I told the Mineral King Preservation Society that if they are just going to waste the paint, I’ll be happy to take it off their hands. I’m sure I can find a use for it. (Weird how the rust looks like red here, and the white looks like light tan).

Now look at the room so you can see the corrected peaks and the color that matches the murals. (I’ll show a before and after on the 2nd shot for you.)

Before:

After:

The mountains in the Before photo are more dramatic and more proportionally pleasing. However, the mountains in the After photo are realistic rather than stylized, match the murals and give more display space for whatever will be going on the wall.

Tomorrow I will tell you a few thoughts about this job.

Quick Quick, Can You Help Us?

The Mineral King Preservation Society has 2/3 of a room at the Three Rivers Historical Museum. We call it The Mineral King Room, in spite of sharing it with another exhibit. 

A few years ago I painted some murals in that room.

Recently, the room started getting a facelift, or perhaps “makeover” is a better word. I was at the museum for something, went in the Mineral King Room, and saw the beginnings. My first thought was that it was colorful and spiffy looking; my second thought was that the blue didn’t match the sky in the murals, and my third thought was that the supposed Mineral King peaks did not look like Mineral King.

Several weeks later, another Mineral King person stopped by and said, “That color of blue is doesn’t look like a Mineral King color, and I don’t recognize those peaks.”

Thus, I got a phone call, asking if I could change the color of blue and fix the line of mountains.

Aren’t you just dying to see what I am talking about?

An incidental thought about that blue: it is a great color, kind of a turquoise or teal, something I have quite a bit of in my wardrobe. It just doesn’t happen to match a sky in Mineral King. It might look better with the rust than the sky blue, but reality has to take precedence.

Mineral King Is Now Open

Memorial Day weekend is the traditional cabin opening weekend. It is when Sequoia National Park unlocks the gate, and people begin backpacking and camping. Some years it feels like summer; some years it does not. This year was snow-free, but it did not feel like summer.

The classic view

This section was stripped of willows and other shrubs in the fire prevention efforts last fall. (I spent a ridiculous amount of time going through my photos to find one of how it looked before it got pruned to no avail.)

Monarch Falls and Creek are flowing well.

This is “Iron Falls” along the Nature Trail.

This is Iron Falls as recently painted.

The dandelions were prolific, bright, and charming (because they are not in my lawn).

This is the view of the stream that I painted 7 times over the winter in the Sawtooth oil paintings, and I took this photo in hopes that it will assist me as I paint #8.

This is painting #6 of Sawtooth Near Sunnypoint.

As now seems to be the norm, there were dogs coming both up and down the Nature Trail with impunity. No one reads the signs, and no one cares. (There is a dog in this photo, although it is sort of a “where’s Waldo” type of view.)

We had a super clear day to walk up to Crystal Creek and the wind was quite icy.

This is the section that I think of as the Yellow Tunnel in the fall. The cottonwoods were just beginning to leaf out.

Crystal Creek was doing its normal spread into about 4 shallow branches.

Thus we conclude my first visit to Mineral King for 2022. May there be many more!

Mineral King Painting Machine

I have 11 paintings ready to deliver to the Silver City Store for the season, which begins on Memorial Day weekend. (I think this is the correct way to designate the last weekend in May.)

Having just finished the commissioned oil painting, I could have just quit painting for a week or two. My art business is usually feast or famine, and when there are no impending deadlines, that is the time to plan and work ahead.

Here are the steps to firing up the Mineral King Painting Machine:

  1. Grab a random assortment of canvases off my shelves, nothing larger than 6×18 or 10×10.
  2. Cover them in a layer of paint, any paint, whatever is left on the palette
  3. Pull out my prechosen photos. I have to choose the right photos ahead of time, being careful to keep scenes that I painted in recent years separated. Although I paint the same scenes over and over (Mineral King doesn’t have that many different options), the goal is to change the shapes, the times of day, and the angles from which I photographed the popular scenes.
  4. I pull out the list of sizes and subjects that I have already painted for this year, and then choose new photos of the ones most likely to sell first.
  5. The photos get paired with the canvases, making sure that the sizes and shapes are different from the ones already finished for the year.
  6. Each canvas gets a title, inventory number and hanging hardware.

7.  I usually begin with skies; it is most efficient to do all the same color in one session.

8. Next, I either block in the main shapes or I draw them in with a small paintbrush. None of this is how I was taught in any of the various classes and workshops. It just happens to be the most efficient way that I have developed.

9. When I have finished about half of the canvases, I begin getting tired and sloppy. So I just slap on approximate colors in the basic shapes, knowing that the next time I paint, the guidelines are in place, the proportions are correct, and there is enough paint down that the canvas won’t show through.

I had ten canvases out, primed, and wired, then only worked on eight. I wasn’t sure that the last 2 photos were appropriate for the 6×6″ canvases—too many details on too small of a canvas means too much effort for too little money. My prices are competitive with other local artists, but when Silver City takes its hard-earned bite, my “wages” drop considerably. Thus, it behooves me to be efficient with my time.

Does this post affect you the same way that watching sausage get made might affect you? Make you not want to eat sausage anymore, or make you not want to buy paintings?

I hope not!

Revving up the Mineral King Painting Factory

I prefer short pithy titles, but The Google likes the long ones. Who cares? Me. Just wanted you to know why my titles are longer than they used to be. 

It is time to start producing paintings to sell at the Silver City Store, AKA Silver City Mountain Resort. 

I randomly chose various sizes from my canvas storage shelf, wired the backs, went through my photos and chose scenes that I either hadn’t painted before, or ones that were a new take on an old subject. Of course, almost everything I paint in Mineral King is a repeat because I know what sells and that is what I need to be painting. I came here to earn a living, so SHOW ME THE MONEY. 

Such a sell-out. But if I wasn’t, then I’d need a job, and I’d rather do some repetitious painting (and push to improve each time) than be a waitress.

I drew this bridge at Cold Springs Campground in pencil, a snow scene, but have only painted it once before (that I remember).

I have never painted the mini falls along the Nature Trail (the mess on the right is going to be those little falls, AKA “Iron Falls”).

I’ve never painted Franklin Creek about a half mile or so below Franklin Lake but always appreciate this view with the water, wildflowers, and the light. (That’s the lower painting, 6×18″, still quite a mess).

I have painted the Honeymoon Cabin many times, but I don’t think I have done it from this distance.

I’ve painted the trail several times, but from a different location each time. This might be a new vantage point.

Sawtooth. Yawn. The trail will help. There will be wildflowers.

These seven paintings are very very loose and messy right now. Some days I don’t feel like drawing with a paintbrush. My style of oil painting works best with several layers, so the drawing layer will eventually appear.

Attending to Other Jobs

When I began these paintings, navels were still hanging on trees, and the blossoms began. Orange blossoms are my favorite scent. Suddenly, orange blossom season was almost over, and I hadn’t touched these 2 small paintings.


They are now available at the Mural Gallery in Exeter. 6×6″, $60; 4×6″, $50 (PLUS TAX, OF COURSE!) The Mural Gallery doesn’t have a website; it is at the park with Exeter’s first mural, next door to the Wildflower Cafe.

Speaking of Exeter’s first mural, here is the beginnings of a similar painting, another painting of my favorite subject.

This one will be fun. It is a commission, and I know I can do it because I painted the same scene a few years ago as a 16×20″. Or maybe 18×24″. I’ve slept since then (and painted many similar scenes).

P.S. The paintings are NOT scratch ‘n’ sniff.

Productive Painting Day

Look at all these canvases! It is time to figure out what to paint of Mineral King in order to have inventory to sell at Silver City Mountain Resort, more commonly known as the Silver City Store, informally called by locals, “The Store”.

First I randomly chose a variety of sizes. Seven canvases seemed like a good number to begin with, 6×6″ up to 6×18″, including 8×8″, 8×10″ and 10×10″.

Then I sorted through my photos and chose subjects that were familiar and added a few more scenes that I haven’t tried before. Some will need to be cropped or stretched or somehow manipulated to fit the chosen canvas shapes.

I put a little bit of another base coat to help me remember which scene goes on which canvas. 

But, there are other jobs to be attended to while these seven dry.

Mañana.