Pencil Reminiscing, Part Two

Because I already had 2 of these scenes drawn and the first set of Tulare County Landmarks notecards sold well, the natural second choice was Mineral King. (Big surprise, eh?)

This was the first time I drew my favorite bridge, and it is from a viewpoint that is now overgrown and no longer so clear.

I worked from my own photos with the exception of the old Mineral King Store; by the time my family went to Mineral King, it was gone.

Stay tuned – there are many more notecards to show you!

The Juniper Everyone Loves

A friend/customer requested an 8×8″ oil painting of the juniper tree on the trail to White Chief in Mineral King. Everyone* loves this tree. I even talked to someone who said she performed a wedding beneath the tree several years ago. I’ve painted this tree several times, different sizes and different shapes.

 

This is not the same one but it is on the same trail. It doesn’t have quite the same visual impact. Besides, it is on a steeper section of the trail and not quite as visible.

Here is the sixth time in steps:

Every time I paint this, I am determined that it will be The Best Juniper Painting I Have Ever Done.

*I know not “everyone” loves it; not “everyone” has seen it. Besides, maybe we love it because it gives us an excuse to stop on the the steepest trail in Mineral King.

Tightening Up Plein Air Paintings

This past summer I painted plein air (on location) in Mineral King for the first time in about a dozen years. The results were mixed; I wasn’t fully satisfied with 2 of the paintings.

So, I put them back on the easels last month and tightened up the details. Can you see the difference?

Before
After – Crowley Cabin, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125
Before
After – Empire and Cabins, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, sold

There are always more things I could have done. (Time for me to stop looking at these.) And be assured, they always look better in person.

Friday Fun

Trail Guy went to Mineral King last week. This is how it looks at this time of year.

Farewell Gap with the Crowley Cabin from the bridge at the end of the Mineral King Road. November is bleak and colorless, waiting for snow.

That hardly qualifies as “Friday Fun”. What does? How about Pippin in the leaves!

Look hard. Might need to enlarge the photo to see Pippin, camouflaged in the leaves. Very very camouflaged.
Can you see him now?
Pippin!
Pippin didn’t want to share with Tucker.

See you tomorrow at the Three Rivers Memorial Building for the annual Holiday Bazaar, 9-4!

Painting Big

Painting big in oils is harder than painting big on a mural. Not sure why just yet, but not giving up either.

This painting sat for a week or so at this stage.
The smallest tree in the main central clump of trees is there in real life, but it adds nothing. Looking at the painting for a week helped me see this. Now it is gone from the painting.
I was looking at several photos and couldn’t figure out which was my main reference. So, I asked Trail Guy which lighting situation he preferred, and for him, it was a “no brainer”. That helped me stop jumping from this angle to that one and back again. Then I covered the canvas with a first layer so almost no white space remains.

There are many hours remaining to complete this painting. I am the Central California artist, my specialty is Mineral King, and I can do this! (a little pep talk to myself.) Maybe if I think hard enough about this, I’ll figure out what is so difficult and then find a way through.

Odd Job

As an artist with a lengthy reputation of reliability and skill in the same county for several decades, I get asked to do many odd things in the name of art. It is just part of the business of art.

Some friends have a painting of Mineral King by a long-deceased relative, someone who wasn’t very familiar with Mineral King. They didn’t like something about it, and asked me if I could change it. I enjoy challenges like this, so I said yes. The back of the painting is signed with the year 1964.

What’s wrong with this picture?
My friends’ beef with the painting is the scary face in the rock.
The lump on Farewell Gap really bothered me.
Little Red Riding Hood is seriously out of proportion; the upper body is too big for the lower body.
Scary face gone!
Lumpectomy performed on the right flank of West Florence (and Bearskin added to Vandever).
Now Little Red Riding Hood will be able to hike better.

Mucho Bettero. My friends reassured me that Great Aunt Whose-it won’t haunt me for messing with her painting. Someday in the future, someone may retouch my paintings, and to them I say, “Go for it!”

Going Bigger

In the post “Eight Things I Learned in October”, #3 said, “It is time to think about painting larger.”

Doing rather than just talking is something I value, so. . .

. . .I began a larger painting, and am slowly coming to understand the reason it feels necessary. Most of my paintings are 12×16″ and smaller, with a handful of 18×24″; this is fine for the art and craft fairs, but not so fine if I ever want to get into galleries. Do I? Not sure, but it can’t hurt to be prepared. (What I’d really like is for the hoped-for boutique motel to come to Three Rivers and buy my paintings!)

Here we go – 18×36″, practically a mural in my world.
Working from a previous version of the same scene, 6×18″, on my laptop screen.
The proportions of 18×36″ are different than the 6×18″, so I am struggling a bit with placement and sizes. I can do this!! (One would hope so, since I have painted the scene about 3 or 4 dozen times).
Looks as if we will be on this for awhile.

I need a bit more gratification, a quicker sense of accomplishment. First, I’ll go outside and enjoy some fall colors, try to get a sense of something other than “OH NO WHAT HAVE I BEGUN?”

Tomorrow you will see my quick fix to fulfill the need to complete something.

Good Season at Silver City

Yesterday the gate to Mineral King shut for the season.

Since 2010, the Silver City Store at the Silver City Resort, as they are now officially called, has been selling my oil paintings. 2019 was the best year ever!

6×6″ remained the most popular size (it costs the least), the Crowley cabin with Farewell Gap in the background remained the most popular scene, with the Honeymoon Cabin, my favorite Oak Grove Bridge and Sawtooth running neck and neck in second place.

Have a look at a few of the paintings that sold. I’m not showing the most popular scene because the other ones need a chance to shine too. (Except for the bridge, because you know it is my favorite subject to draw and paint.)



P.S. We also sold quite a few packages of Mineral King notecards (assortment of 4 pencil drawings) and many Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names.

Thank you, Silver City Resort/Store!

Closing Up Mineral King

We closed our Mineral King cabin for the season. It is always a mixed bag, like most things in life. One last weekend, but a cold one with lots of work. One last time with friends, with some wondering if everyone will make it through the winter. One last look at things before the snow comes, hoping the snow does come.

(The Mineral King Road will be open until Wednesday, Oct. 30.)

It was cold. Is this a stalactite? Nope, it is a reverse icicle.
Trail Guy and I went to the Honeymoon Cabin to close it for the year. It is the little Mineral King museum, as opposed to the larger one in the Three Rivers Historical Museum.
This is the tree where I sat to paint a few times this summer.
And this is the scene I painted several times. The colors and light are sure different in October than in July or August.
Bye-bye, little cabin-museum. See you next summer.
Doesn’t this look gloomy, melancholy and cold?
. . .and doesn’t this look colorful, warm and bright?
The fall colors were good, but not great. This particular area usually has the brightest colored aspens, and this fall was no exception. (But I’ve seen them much brighter in past years.)
This is how it looks across the stream toward the Nature Trail. Some leaves gone, some bright, and a few aspens still green.

HEY KITTIES! We are home for awhile! (Tucker is shy and hiding, as usual).

A typical morning scene in our yard in Three Rivers, always a treat.

More Mineral King in the Studio

I’ve been looking forward to painting in the painting studio/workshop for a few weeks. Going to Sandy Eggo, working on the mural, time in Mineral King – all good things, but still things that prevented painting in the studio. Life is a series of choices and consequences.

Almost finished.
Drying on the table beneath its companion commissioned Mineral King oil paintings.