Sold Mineral King Oil Paintings

Mineral King oil paintings have been selling steadily this summer at the Silver City Store/Resort.

The popularity of subjects has changed a bit. The Honeymoon Cabin is this year’s favorite, the Crowley cabin/Farewell Gap (view from the bridge at the end of the road) is second, and only one Sawtooth painting has sold. All the other paintings are in the category of Everything Else, which includes back country, trails, streams, and general scenery of the area.

The most popular size remains 6×6″ (perhaps because I paint more of that size than any other) with the second most popular size 4×6″. The large paintings look good in the store, but most people just want a bargain.

There are a couple more on the list of solds, but I didn’t keep close enough track and can’t find the scans of those paintings. (There are drawbacks to living in 2 places, one of them without the internet, but I bravely soldier on.)

Maybe for next year I should just do 6×6″ Honeymoon Cabin oil paintings. Wait, that won’t work because the market for those may be saturated. But wait. . . are the customers one-time visitors, repeat guests, or cabin community members?

The business of art is full of by-guess-and-by-golly. There is so much more to being an artist than just painting. . . all the thinking and planning in the world is still just an intuitive guess.

Busy Times in Mineral King

There’s that annoying word, “busy”. Full calendar, perhaps, might be a better thing to say. No, that isn’t really true, because I scheduled three days of doing just about nothing. Mineral King has been busy because with the closure of Yosemite, visitors are coming hard and fast into Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. It has taken them a bit longer to discover Mineral King, but the back country trails have been filling up.

The Mineral King Preservation Society has an annual event that used to be called “The Hoedown”. Someone finally pointed out that no one knows what that word actually means, and the MKPS had the good sense to change it to the classier “Music in the Mountains”.

Trail Guy was the organizer, and he did a great job! Excellent evening together in Mineral King for anyone who had the good fortune to be there.

Keith Hamm and Esther Zurcher call themselves “Mankin Creek” and are a folk-type music husband/wife duo from Three Rivers. It is always a treat to hear them.
Music in the Mountains took place on this old cement slab above the parking lot at the end of the road.
Free picnic-style dinner was provided to all 93 folks who attended (except one who wouldn’t even eat the veggie sandwiches because they have mayo – hunh?)
This is one of our favorite grandpas, enjoying seeing his granddaughter dance.
And this is the granddaughter with her mom.
Others danced too – this one was for Louise Jackson, the originator of the event who could not attend this year. Her favorite song is “Don’t Fence Me In”, so Keith and Esther played it for her. I had to go do something busy so I wouldn’t cry during this one.
These really aren’t grumpy old men (and no, Jake, I’m not calling you “old”). They are quite genial fellows who are listening intently and enjoying the music. Maybe they are trying not to cry here.
Trail Guy is ‘splaining how things work.
Jim Ingram provided the sound system and a few cowboy favorites.
Rich and Nikki came from Three Rivers for the evening and showed us all how to dance.
Nikki’s cousin Stefni was a surprise singing guest with a truly beautiful voice.

A good time was definitely had by all!

Lingering Wildflowers in Mineral King

I’ve spent more time in Mineral King than home working in August so the subject needs Friday as well as Monday next week.

Mineral King’s wildflowers peak in July, but there are still beautiful sights in August.

This dude is too busy to notice the stellar jay feather. He is a Lodgepole chipmunk.
Trail Guy on the Franklin/Farewell trail.
Yo, Bucky.
The flowers at the Franklin/Farewell trail junction are fading, but Bigelow Sneezeweed is still going strong.
We accompanied our good friend on the first four miles of her week-long backpack trip.

This girl can step out, even wearing a backpack that probably tops 45 lbs. I had to focus to stay on her 6, carrying my 4 lb. day pack. How embarrassing. When we got to the Trail Junction (affectionately known as the “Wildflower Cafe”), we had a snack, and then I announced that I had gone as far as I wanted to go.

I came to see some Explorer’s Gentian, and they did not disappoint.

They make the Sierra Gentian look boring by contrast. (Or perhaps my photos do that.)

Crystal Creek is slow and low.

Eight was enough miles for the day. We got back to the cabin before the sky opened up, and I got more knitting done. (Our friend probably was at her destination, hunkered down in her tent.)

It’s getting wet out there.

Cleaned up Messes

My four little messes from last week have become paintings. This 4×6″ size is tricky to paint. I hold them in my left hand, often ending up wearing paint in addition to applying it, and always wishing for smaller and smaller brushes. They retail for $50 (plus 8% tax, welcome to California) each, and the place that sells them takes a bite out of the $50, so I have to be careful to not pour too many hours into them.

In other words, I have to “settle”. Two passes over the canvas is all they get, and rather than focus on precision, I focus on pleasing colors and contrast. That’s not natural to this Central California artist whose specialty is detail in pencil.

But, I bravely soldier on. . .

For the 2nd pass, I mix the colors more carefully and try to get them all mixed before beginning.
I hope these dry quickly; they should outside in the heat and the wind.

It might be hotter on this rock.
More on the rock was a good idea except for those troublesome grasses.
Maybe the wood stack is better because the sun is over there for a longer time.
4 little Mineral King oil paintings, drying on the wood stack. Farewell Gap, Vandever with the stream, Honeymoon Cabin, Juniper.

But wait! There’s more!

That juniper needs to be painted on an 8×8″ square canvas. I’ll enjoy painting it more when there is space to capture more detail.

 

Four Little Messes

Happy Birthday, Ashley!

It has been a few weeks since I oil painted. Little paintings are selling steadily at the Silver City Resort/Store 4 miles below Mineral King, and in this final push of summer before the season shuts down after Labor Day, it seems wise to load up their shelves.

How in the world do people complete a painting in only one pass over the canvas? I’ve done it, but right now it seems like a foreign language that I have never heard before.

It was easy to choose the subjects to paint, and goodness knows, I have hundreds of photos of the same scenes in Mineral King, all in different lights.

Here are four little messes. By “little”, I mean 4×6″. By “messes”, I mean OH NO HAVE I FORGOTTEN HOW TO PAINT??

Saw on a Saw, Done

Stick a fork in it, it’s done. (Better not – the tines will bend.)

I gave this another good look. A few more branches on the left, another tree straightening, and my signature were all that it needed.

Tucker, please don’t drink the paintbrush water.
Wow, I have missed the kitties.
This was tricky to photograph. I tried several versions and decided it will be the most impressive when it is installed in its home.

 

Trail Guy and I wrapped it in 2 pieces of cardboard using duct tape around the edges and loaded it in the Botmobile for the next trip up the hill.

Sawtooth on a saw blade is finished! It is a relief to have accomplished an odd job and be pleased with the results.

One last photo; this is where it was and how it looked before it came my way:

Mineral King Wildflowers

Because I went coastal last week, I don’t have any new stories to tell about my crazy life in Mineral King. (not truly crazy, just me exaggerating. . .)

Instead, here are 10 photos of Mineral King wildflowers for you to enjoy.

Swamp onion
Penstemon
Crimson columbine
Indian paintbrush
Giant blazing star
Kelley’s leopard lily
Coneflower
Swamp onion again
Mountain Pride (or Pride of the Mountains, depending on which book you read.)
Pennyroyal

Do you have a favorite? Do you know any of these by different names?

Saw/Saw 3

Saw/Saw, a mini mural of Sawtooth Peak on a round saw blade, was almost finished.

I fixed the camera setting, stood on the ladder to photograph it, and then realized that the trees on the bottom were crooked. Of course I only noticed this after putting the photo in an email to the customers, but immediately after sending it, I straightened them up. This is tricky business on a circle – how do I know vertical is vertical without straight edges of the canvas or wall to guide me?

That’s why I get paid the Big Bucks. (Fall down laughing.)

Saw/Saw 2

Welcome back! I knew you would be interested to know how Saw/Saw turned out. Not sure if this qualifies as a real mural or not; I think it might just be an Odd Job.

Time to start on the ridges in front of Sawtooth, and meanwhile I am still wondering why things look darker on the camera screen. I also realized that if I would put a circular mask over the rectangular photo that I’d get things more proportionally correct.
Sawtooth didn’t have quite the right angle, so here I corrected my shapes.
Better, as each step and layer ought to be.
First coating on the rest of the blade.
Correcting the colors and shapes on the lower parts.

Finally, I figured out what was wonky with my camera. I had been experimenting with the settings, still not quite understanding what they all meant. When I changed “Poster Effect” to “Program” (who chooses these words??), It photographed more accurately.

But now the computer is not behaving properly, and when I export the photo of the finished Saw/Saw, it says it goes somewhere, and then it isn’t there.

My Mac is lying to me and cheating you out of seeing the finished saw blade!

Boy am I mad.

Maybe it will fix itself and work tomorrow. Besides, a job is never finished until these 2 things happen: A. The customer is happy and B. I have signed it.

Another Post About Mineral King

Perhaps I should only write about Mineral King because it is the most popular topic.

Nah. . . this website is expensive, so it needs to contain things about my business. But today is Friday, and Fridays are for Mineral King posts (when I have something to show and tell).

The reddish areas are not burned trees; it is borate, a fire retardant.

When I drove up the hill on Tuesday, July 24, there was a huge lit sign at the bottom of the road saying that there was a fire 15 miles up the road and that no backpacking permits would be issued. It looked like a nothing-burger, but I am very very glad that the Park was suppressing it with all their available resources, because who knows what those bad boy fires do when crawling along the ground, or smoldering in roots?

That evening, we strolled over the bridge and admired the evening light. 

The plan was to visit some neighbor-friends, and if we were lucky, maybe we’d get to hear them play some music. Jazz isn’t normally my musical choice, but these guys were magical together. This is a father with his 2 sons, and I was sure they were reading one another’s minds! 

This is how things looked on the stroll back home. 

A day or so later, we spotted this Model A in the parking lot, and turned out it was someone’s that we know. I took a few photos for him on the bridge, a tricky business with a little bit of traffic, plus the dark shadows and bright light in the background. This was the best of the bunch. 

Then, while visiting some other neighbor-friends, one of them pointed out that “Bearskin”, the patch of snow on the side of Vandever, is looking less like the skin of a bear and more like a rooster this summer. 

We hiked to the lower part of White Chief with some friends. One of them is an entomologist and pointed out this beautiful bug. I said that a pair would make nice earrings, and she said that some company actually does make earrings out of their wings! 

White Chief canyon, after the super steep climbing is over.
Swamp onion near the little pond, its glory fading. . .
Three hiking buddies, a privilege to share the trail with.
I don’t know why Trail Guy is sticking his hands in the water that is flowing toward the little pond.
Oh no! Another unknown yellow flower!
The tail end of the summer’s peak. There is plenty of summer left, but the flowers are over their stunning best.