Mineral King: Feet in the Water.

Two friends and I began our visit by stopping at Atwell Mill (campground closed again this year, due to the presence of a Fisher Cat) and walking down to the East Fork of the Kaweah River. There were about 1/2 dozen tree messes, AKA “tree failures” in trail crew lingo. You can see the East Fork and a painting of it in 2015 here.

Looking straight up gave us the visual relief of a blue sky.

This was our destination.

We climbed above the bridge to put our feet in the water.

The next day we went to a different bridge, where we put our feet in the water again. Normally I blow past this area on my way somewhere else, but this time it was the actually destination so there was time to contemplate matters of consequence, or, in modern lingo, “chill”. Spending time there, we looked up to see a weird tree formation.

We also meandered down the Nature Trail a bit (but not to put our feet in the water this time).

On our last day together, we headed another direction where there was no bridge. Feet in the water was the only way to get to the other side where we spotted a few wildflowers. Smoke, slow water, but the grasses were still green.

Explorer’s Gentian is one of the good things about my least favorite month.

But Wait! There’s More!

More oil paintings, finished and drying. Have a look at the process. The first one is a commission, the second is just because.

Oops. I forgot to take in-progress photos.

This one has more steps. You already saw the completed version in the Friday post about Mineral King, because this is a Mineral King oil painting, and I delivered it to the Silver City Store. (It could even be sold by now.)

I was very thankful to be able to find the original photo on the computer so I could enlarge to see what the mess of rocks in the stream truly looked like. 

Sawtooth as it looks (okay, I admit to slightly enhancing it) from the Nature Trail and the now famous Alpenglow on Farewell Gap, a commission delivered a few days ago.

“Famous”? Okay, I admit to slightly enhancing the claim.

Reporting on Sundry Items in Smoky Mineral King

I went to Mineral King with the weight of the world on my shoulders and heart. Terrible things in the world, the country, the state of California, and among several dear friends made me want to run away. It was a relief, but it wasn’t very pretty. My knee hurt, so I didn’t hike. Instead, I did a few chores, lots of knitting, sitting, and reading.

Here is one strange chore: Trail Guy and I noticed a tremendous number of nails near the old dance floor, so I took up a big magnet on a pole and together, we cleaned them up.

We stopped by the Honeymoon Cabin/Mineral King Preservation Society Museum to see a new item – a stamp from the stamp mill below the mines on Empire peak (and a couple of other unidentified metal objects). This is a surprisingly heavy piece of metal that smashed the ore to separate out the precious metals. I didn’t even try to lift it (my knee hurts).

In other news, I got some new “hiking boots”. Heh heh, this is what passes for hiking boots in my world of peculiar feet. Did you know Crocs makes a type of clogs with “Vibram” soles? They even have adjustable straps, fastened with Velcro. I hope my knee stops hurting soon so I can try them.

I spied some going-ons near the cabin. It was the wedding of a neighbor we don’t really know (because we are closer to her grandparents and there are way too many grandchildren to keep up with on their one weekend/year visits). They set up some sort of an archway, and I snooped through the trees.

Finally, I delivered another painting to the Silver City Store. It had to dry in the trunk of my car for a few days before I could leave it at the the store. Still striking while the iron is hot, in hopes that the great sales continue at least through Labor Day weekend. 

Mineral King August Tradition

The Mineral King Preservation Society has been hosting a concert for several (five? ten? I can’t remember) years. It happens on a platform that was initially built for dancing back in the days of the Mineral King resort. The musicians are a married couple who call themselves Mankin Creek. They are bluesy, folksy, terrific!

You can see the edge of the platform. On it, and around the edges too – might have had 100 people.

Dinner is provided – sandwiches from Sierra Subs, grapes from The Farmer (our hiking partner).

Farewell Gap had nice light.

I messed around with settings on my camera, found “super vivid”,  and decided it would look better painted this way.

But, this is how it looked with real alpenglow, not enhanced by the camera’s fancy settings. It is the best!

Some of the staff from the Silver City Resort were uninhibited about dancing and really added life to the evening. Afterward I talked to them (they sell my paintings for me!) and learned they are from: New Hampshire, New York, Nebraska, Michigan, San Diego, and Orange County. Uninhibited about dancing and undaunted by travel.

These events make me tired. I need to spend time just sitting and knitting to prepare and to recover. The color in real life is pretty close to “super vivid” light on Farewell Gap.

Taking a walk with a friend is also a good recovery activity from too much time in a crowd.

And look who we saw on the way down the hill after the weekend. Didn’t get his face – Trail Guy was driving and not too keen on sitting in the middle of the road while waiting for a good bear pose. My inability to get good animal photos is one of the reasons I stick to landscapes.

I Painted So Fast That My Camera Died

OF COURSE THAT WASN’T THE REASON! But look what my camera started doing when I was in the midst of my painting marathon.

Houston, we have a problem.

Ick, you all know how I feel about shopping – all those confusing almost alike products, decisions, too many details, too many choices.  I just skated by with my inferior phone photos for awhile. It is an iPhone 7, and it hasn’t lived up to my expectations. However, I do not dive quickly into things, so I imagine that I will make it work for at least another 10 years or so. (Remember, I went 2 years without a cell phone at all, I drive a ’96, bought my only purse in ’95, and my wallet in ’79. Wanna make somethin’ of it??)

Where were we. . . painting fast, a painting marathon, a painting factory. 

My new friend Kelly showed me a fabulous sunset over Farewell Gap on her phone (hmmm, I wonder what model she has), and then offered to share it with me so I could paint it.

I put the first layer on so that it was obvious where the shapes and the general color would go, then I put it outside to dry in the 102 degree weather and went back inside, grateful for the swamp cooler, to finish this little gem.

When it was finished, I put it outside, and then thought it would be a hoot to photograph the drying paintings in front of their big brother. (Simple pleasures for simple people).

Back to Kelly’s sunset. I haven’t done a ton of sunsetty cloud colors, so I mixed to sort of match the photo and then just decided to make sure the colors made sense, but didn’t overpower Farewell Gap in intensity. (See? Too many decisions wore out my ability to go online and choose from 70 cameras that all look alike.)

SOLD!  But that’s okay, because I can paint another one for you. Remember. . .

I use oil paint, pencils, and murals to make art you can understand of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.

P.S. I found a camera at a place called B&H, with identical controls to the one that croaked. It arrived within a week, and IT TAKES BETTER PHOTOS!! (better photos than the old one did before it turned pinky-purple).

Painting 9 to 5, What a Way To Make a Living

Almost finished with 4 new ones. The swamp cooler was okay, and am I very VERY thankful for generous neighbors with a swimming pool.

As always, they look WAY BETTER in person. But by the time you are reading this post, the paintings might be already sold!

Five Reasons to Hike in Mineral King

  1. To avoid crowds, people, meetings, too many visitors.
  2. To see if the medicine for peripheral neuropathy is working.
  3. To revisit a place that I am currently turning into a painting.
  4. To prevent rigor mortis from setting in.
  5. To meet some friends for lunch.

It was an exceptionally busy weekend in Mineral King. Instead of attending a couple of meetings, Trail Guy and I took a hike to Eagle Meadow. The hike gave us a temporary respite from the effects of living in a fishbowl. I was expecting a friend to stop by so I hung the scarf that I knitted for her on the door in case I missed her visit – I WANTED to see her but didn’t know when to expect her. (I don’t really expect you to care about the scarf but I was enamored with the colors.)

In spite of the wildfires in California, it was a fairly clear day.

Spring Creek is low but Trail Guy reassures me that it has never run dry.

This is the Eagle sinkhole. There is water, but it disappears into the ground before it reaches the normal disappearance spot.

Eagle Lake is the most popular hike, and although it wasn’t our destination, we were on the same trail as those headed to the lake. We encountered a doe with a pair of fawns, and when I heard this noisy group catching up to us, I went back to tell them that if they were quiet, Trail Guy would show them the deer. They were quite excited (and probably wondered who these 2 old know-it-alls thought they were).

We also encountered a man with a dog; I told him there are no dogs allowed on the trail (I AM SO TIRED OF DOGS ON THE TRAILS!) and he explained that it is a service dog who can tell him when his blood sugar is low. Really?? That is an extraordinary canine. I told him to hang on to that leash very tightly, because we were just feet from a doe and two fawns. I don’t know if service dogs are really allowed on trails.

There were several trees down – nothing impassable.

This is where we finished with the trail. Going to Eagle Lake is popular, but Trail Guy and I are not interested in dealing with all the ankle-breaking boulders. Besides, the lake is low this year. 

Eagle Meadow was our destination. It is usually excessively buggy – biting flies and mosquitoes love this area. Some years it is full of Shooting Stars and Knotweed. Not this year.

There was an eensy little creek flowing through, so of course I kicked off my Crocs and put my feet in. (Yes, Crocs. My feet hurt otherwise.) I sat there and contemplated the dried up Yampah, Yarrow, and Yunions. (Onions, but it fits better here with a Y).

Here are some Onions still in bloom.

This particular view is one I started painting last winter, or maybe the one before. I want to make it the absolute best I can, better than “good enough to sell”. So with my new camera (I’ll tell you a bit more about that next week) , I took many more photos. (I haven’t shown you the painting in progress so if this feels like new information, that’s because it is.) The stump isn’t important other than being recognizable as near the junction to Mosquito Lake.

There are a couple of miniature people on the trail ahead. I wanted to show you how steep it is because I am sore from this hike and it is highly disappointing. How sore would I be if I didn’t regularly walk hills? It doesn’t bear thinking about.

The next day I walked down and back up the Nature Trail in order to prevent rigor mortis from setting in. Actually, I walked down to a friend’s cabin to meet another friend for lunch, and then we walked back up together. (See? A busy weekend). 

For flower names, I recommend this book: Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names.

Since this is primarily my business blog, I can offer my own book without sounding too sellsy. Not actually actively forcefully selling the book, just reminding and making it easy for you.

Selling Quickly, Painting Quickly

No time to post – gotta paint!

MORE!

GO GO GO!

STOP SHOUTING, JUST PAINT.

Sorry. Summer is more than half over and I have to strike while the iron is hot on these Mineral King oil paintings. Last summer started late because of the plague and ended prematurely because of the fires. This summer there is no time to waste. 

Odd Job Times Five Continues

Painting on spheres the size of a tennis ball definitely qualifies as an odd job. Painting five of them means the odd job provides lots of opportunities to practice. 

I photographed each ornament after putting the next segments on them. This has to be done in parts, because wet paint on a complete sphere is a messy situation. After seeing these photos, it is clear to me that I need to be doing this in better light rather than at the end of the day when the light is low. 

This time I had the foresight to attach a wire, dig out the clothespins, open the ladder, and clip each ornament to the clothesline/pulley arrangement above the easels and painting tables. (Trail Guy assembled this so our friend who grows lavender would have a place to dry her bunches a few years ago).

There was paint left on the palette, and it is a shame to waste paint. It will keep overnight, and it does okay in the freezer for awhile, but I was heading up the hill and wouldn’t have a chance to use the paint before it got too tacky. So, I got out a photo of Mineral King and a 6×18″ canvas, figuring I could stretch the scene into a panoramic format.

Upside down forces me to evaluate the shapes correctly, not that it matters when I am distorting a scene to this degree. You can see that the colors are wrong. However, those are the colors that were left on the palette, and it really doesn’t matter for the first layer.

I can make this work. But first I need to finish the Large Important Oil Painting and make better progress on those five ornaments. Unless, of course, one of the four places that sells my work calls for more Mineral King paintings.