Central Calif. artist Jana Botkin works on a bright oil painting of Mineral King.
Continue readingMineral 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
- To avoid crowds, people, meetings, too many visitors.
- To see if the medicine for peripheral neuropathy is working.
- To revisit a place that I am currently turning into a painting.
- To prevent rigor mortis from setting in.
- 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.
Previous Julys in Mineral King
For reasons that are irrelevant to my blog readers, this Friday is about previous Julys in Mineral King.
2010: Water was abundant, we were allowed to have bonfires, and White Chief still had snow.
2012: Bearskin was strong on the west side of Vandever (the peak on the right side of Farewell Gap), and there were some fantastic larkspur on the side of Farewell Gap’s main canyon.
2014: Rachelle’s (of new lungs) husband got a whiff of Sky Pilot on Farewell Gap, Franklin Falls was flowing strong.
2016: The flowers were fantastic at the Franklin/Farewell Gap trail junction.
2018: The classic view, and waterflow was still good in July. (2nd photo along the Nature Trail).
2020:
Thus we conclude a brief look at several previous Julys in Mineral King. “Julies”? Nope. Julys.
Meandering in Mineral King
Warning: Long post ahead.
For some reason, choosing a destination and then chugging up a steep trail just isn’t floating my boat this summer. We did a quick down-the-road-and-up-the-Nature-Trail.
We took a meandering walk with some cabin friends. When Trail Guy asked where we wanted to go, the friends said anything at all was fine with them. I said, “The aspens are calling me”.
First, we went up the canyon toward Crystal Creek. This year the wildflowers are doing very well where it crosses the trail. This might be normal, but maybe I never paid much attention before because I was always aiming toward other patches of flowers. This year I am thankful for any green and any flowers that I can find.
We meandered to Soda Springs, and along the way we saw my favorite flower: Explorer’s Gentian.
I would like to know why some of these places are called “Soda” and others are called “Iron”. They all look like bubbling water that turns the ground orange; they all have the same yucky taste. Onward to the aspens. . .
Then we meandered down the old route AKA “old Farewell Gap Trail”. Nope, not a trail – it is simply a route. It was GREEN!! As we meandered, we found some things that normally wouldn’t be seen if we were thundering along a trail. Bane Berry is new to me – learned from one of my books that it is poisonous. (Good thing our friend held back from tasting it in spite of being tempted.)
What’s this? More Iron Springs? Soda Springs? Rusty Water?
Back at the cabin, I admired the Corn Lilies in bloom. This is an unusually heavy year for flowers on these plants that are usually just green, looking like and getting called “Skunk Cabbage”.
And thus we conclude another Mineral King meander.
Doing Nothing in Mineral King
WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD.
That title is not exactly true. We sat around, took a short walk to Crystal Creek, visited with neighbors, rearranged garbage in the dumpster and examined the difficult lock, met the temporary law-enforcement ranger, napped, watched the curtains flap in a windstorm, enjoyed a bit of rain. I also painted, read and knit. But we did not hike, because it was too hot.
The overcast provided relief from the heat, as did the precipitation one afternoon.
We pried ourselves off the porch and ambled up to Crystal Creek. (This photo is darker than reality in spite of messing with it on the computer.)
It is a banner year for baby’s breath close to Crystal Creek.
Crystal Creek was very low but adequate to water some very nice wildflowers in their prime. (To learn the names, perhaps you might like to buy a copy of Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names.)
Walking back, we admired the corn lilies, which are having a rare year of bloom. Can you recognize the Honeymoom Cabin from this side?
Federal Highways has big plans to redo the Park’s section of the Mineral King Road, and part of the plan is to expand and pave the parking lot at the end of the road. There is a juniper of historical significance in the parking lot, now in jeopardy. You can see the dead tree to the left; the juniper to the right is just fine. It is somewhat camouflaged in this photo.
The blue paint lines mean the tree is going to be removed. I don’t want it to be removed! Does anyone know a certified arborist who can verify the health of the tree? Maybe the Park would listen to someone with Important Papers and Capital Letters. (My Most Important Papers about being Exeter Woman of the Year in 1998 don’t count, nor do the capital letters DBO).
Here is a more familiar angle of the Honeymoon Cabin, which serves as a mini-museum for the Mineral King Preservation Society.
Meanwhile, back near the cabin, I found more corn lilies in bloom, a new mint, and a blooming swamp onion.
