A Summer Place in Winter

Today I am in route to Florida, unable to post, so here is something that happened on Saturday. Mineral King is a summer place, but occasionally we visit in winter. (I probably won’t be able to post tomorrow either, so we’ll just have to bravely soldier on for a bit.)

The flowers were fantabulous along the lower portion of the road, but we didn’t stop for photos except at the bridge. It takes a long time to pull the Trackster up the road with the Botmobile, and it takes a long time to putt-putt up the road in the Trackster, so we did not lollygag.

The Trackster ride is rough, loud and smelly. But, it beats a snowmobile, particularly when you have to go up and over downed trees or across dry pavement. (You know the ride is rough when it makes the Botmobile feel luxurious by contrast.)

Our friends were already up the hill, and it was great fun to surprise them. Trail Guy and I did a bit of token cross-country skiing. Mostly we were just in awe of the vast winterness of the place.

Cute little snow buggy called a Trackster, made by Cushman. The goal is to drive as far up as possible and unload in a place that can accommodate a turn-around.
I didn’t photograph any of the trees we had to crawl over. It was nerve-wracking, and several times I just bailed out of the Trackster and climbed over on foot.
First view of Sawtooth
First view of our friends
They dug steps down to their cabin door.
The classic view
This is our cabin from the front.
Timber Gap in the background
You can see how deep the snow is on the bridge.
I love this view at the top of Endurance Grade. This was looking backward as we headed back down.
On the way down, we stopped for the most brilliant redbud we have ever seen. It is just below the most dangerous curve on the road, AKA Steven’s corner, because our friend Steven drove over the edge there as a teenager. His worst injury was poison oak!

Sort of Empty

One morning this week as I set up to paint, I looked at several of the paintings that I formerly thought were finished. They looked sort of empty.

Nice, but something is missing.
Why did I think the tree was unnecessary? I begin painting all conifer trees with a vertical line to locate them and to build the foliage in an upright pattern.
Better!
‘Twas empty, now better.

These next two look almost the same. I used the same photo, but one is 8×8″ and the other is 6×6″. I don’t have enough skill to do two identical paintings, only two that are very similar. Are you shocked?

New Oil Paintings

Here are a few of the most recently completed oil paintings, mostly of Mineral King subjects. They are all oil on wrapped canvas, ready to hang without a frame, and the price doesn’t include sales tax. Each one is now listed on my oil painting page.

Oak Grove Bridge XVII, 6×18″, $150
Alpenglow on Alta, 6×18″, $150.
Eagle Lake I, 6×18″, $150 (This isn’t the first time I’ve painted Eagle Lake, but it is the first time this year.)
Juniper I, 8×10″, $125 (Not the first time I’ve painted this juniper, just the first time this year.)
Honeymoon Cabin I, 8×8″, $100 Not the first time I’ve painted the Honeymoon Cabin, just the first time this year. (Is there an echo in this room??)

Mineral King Wildflowers Book

Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names arrived yesterday!

The cover photo is by Jessica Barr. All the interior photos are by me and Trail Guy.

A sample page from the blue and purple chapter
Every chapter has a few flowers at the end without names.

The price is $19.78, which includes sales tax. The odd number is because 1978 is the year that Mineral King became part of Sequoia National Park. If you order from my website, I’ll pay the shipping. If you order from Amazon, they will charge an additional $3.99.

Vertical Mineral King Painting

In looking through my photos to choose new Mineral King subjects (or new approaches to old subjects), I kept going back to a photo of some fisherpeople in the stream. Finally I decided to narrow it down to the parts that matter and try it on a vertical 6×18″ canvas.

You can see the first pass within this jumble of paintings in their embryonic stage.
Top down is the same as back to front in this painting. This works out well for me, since I “draw” with my paintbrush, often resting my hand on the painting. Many painters use a “mahl stick” to rest their hands on, but I paint too small for this to be of any help. Besides, I don’t like extra stuff, gear, tools, things. The more stuff I own, the more stuff breaks and gets lost and fills up my brain and life.
Slowly crawling down the canvas.
After all those greens, it is fun to put in blue for the stream.

This is as far as I can go until things dry. I’m unsure about the fisherpeople. The largest one is about 1/16″ high on the photo and appears to be riding a bike. That can’t be right. So I will probably look through my photos and see if there is one of Trail Guy or Trail Girl (I haven’t told you about her) that would be better. Trail Guy used to take Trail Girl fishing so she could hold the fish and talk to them before she released them. She is grown up now and we miss her something fierce, but she has a real job and doesn’t live in her parents’ basement. That’s good, I guess.

Cabins and Flowers

My assembly line method of painting the Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King was a challenge in several ways. Breaks to look at flowers helped. Maybe March is my favorite month.

This was fun because of the pink and purple, two rare colors in my landscapes of Mineral King.

Can you see the changes from the previous photo?
Flower break!
These now need to wait to dry so I can put in the flags and some wildflowers.
Time to work on these three little ones again.
Another flower break!
All five oil paintings of the Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King are now drying so they’ll be ready for flags and wildflowers.
Final flower break! All day I wondered what smelled a little different, and when I crouched down to photograph these flowers just outside the door, I had my answer.

Determined, Persistent, Responsible

“Determination gives you the resolve to keep going, in spite of the roadblocks that are before you.”—Denis Waitley

“I will persist until I succeed.”—Og Mandino

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”—President Abraham Lincoln

Assembly line of Honeymoon Cabin paintings.

Listening to podcasts pulls me through painting days that feel as if I will NEVER finish ANYTHING. (This feeling may simply be a result of starting 32 paintings at the same time.)

Baby steps, back to front, the usual process.

As I worked on these paintings, I was entertained by the slightly raunchy podcast “By The Book”, where 2 women read self-help books and then live by them. I got tired of their cussing, so I switched to the fabulous motivational speaker Brian Buffini, where I heard the quotes above.

The photos have simply become guides for me as I revisit familiar subjects. This does make the process of painting easier.

In spite of not finishing any paintings, it was a productive day. I WILL get to the fun parts of drawing with my paintbrush, putting in the details that make me like to paint, and then signing the paintings. Why? Because I am determined, persistent, and responsible and because I have podcasts to listen to while I push ahead.

These are not finished, but finishing them will be the fun part.

Thanks, Brian Buffini.

A Metaphor Free Post

Today will be less metaphorical than yesterday’s post. It was a cold and dark day when I painted this, so the photos of paintings aren’t as thorough.

The day began with a touch of sun on my pot of irises.
Storm coming – very dramatic light on the front yard. And that is mowed weeds; we had to abandon the lawn, so it is simply a springtime luxury to pretend we have one.

Get to work, Central California artist who is distracted by the beauty of her favorite month. Today’s painting subject is the Honeymoon Cabin in Mineral King, the only cabin left from Disney’s era.

This is another Squish-the-Subject-While-Making-It-Believable painting. This one is 8×8″.
I kept it loose because it got too dark to see well. Just got those shapes in place with the general colors.
This one is 6×6″. It was sort of too dark to see, so I quit for the day.

More on Juniper Paintings

Yesterday we looked at several juniper paintings. I like to paint this subject, because it is fairly forgiving. Who is going to say with confident knowledge, “Hey, you added a branch!”? No one, I hope. It is the overall shape of the tree that people remember, unless they were actually climbing the tree, but most people who climb the trail to White Chief need all their lung power simply for the elevation gain.

The sky looked pretty decent on the first pass; when I started the second layer of blue, it became apparent that the first blue wasn’t adequate.

Much better! And you will like it more when it is completely dry, because then I can scan it, which is a superior way to record a painting.
This juniper is along the Franklin-Farewell Trail, at the Clough cut-off. I tried this scene on my studio door and lost interest. Still, I think it is a lovely picture. It just didn’t float my boat for the studio door mural.
The unfinished studio door mural before I covered it with Sawtooth and wildflowers.
Background first. Do you get tired of hearing me say that?
One more layer of tighter details ought to do it for this painting.
Three in progress on the table in the juniper section. The fourth is hanging on the wall and also only wants one more layer of tighter detail. They all need signatures too.

I like painting junipers.

Painting Junipers

There is a juniper tree on the trail to White Chief (Mineral King, of course) that is striking and memorable. Several people have called it their favorite tree, among them Trail Guy.

I painted it twice last summer.

Juniper I
Juniper II

Now I am painting it two more times.

First the sky, then the background, and next the tree. So rough the first couple of times over the canvas. This is 8×10″.
Better, but not finished yet.
A smaller version, 6×6″.
More work to be done here too.
This juniper tree is along the same trail and memorable in a different way. It might be other people’s favorite tree, but they are probably just trudging along, gasping for breath, wondering who built such a steep trail and if it will ever end. This painting is also 6×6″.