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.
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??
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:
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 onionPenstemonCrimson columbineIndian paintbrushGiant blazing starKelley’s leopard lilyConeflowerSwamp onion againMountain 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, 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.)
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.
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.
I have been commissioned to paint Sawtooth on a saw blade. Hence, saw/saw.
The blade is about 4′ in diameter and is heavy metal. I lifted it onto my round table and then couldn’t figure out whether or not I should lean on the teeth to get the balance off myself and onto the table. The weight made the decision for me – it was too heavy to hold while I decided whether or not the teeth would hurt me.
Round blade on a round table.This photo was the customer’s preferred view and seems to be the most popular version of Sawtooth I’ve ever painted. I got lucky with my timing on that photo, which is how most of my good reference photos happen. Wait. It isn’t luck; it is Divine Intervention.Most of the colors were already mixed in my mural paints.Starting from back to front means sky first, clouds next.That went fast. Here are the colors I might need for Sawtooth.Sawtooth’s colors look different all the time, so I don’t have to match the photo, just make it look good.Oops. The camera was on a weird setting (Poster effect? What means that??) I wondered why things were looking darker on my camera than in real life!
And that’s all you get to see today. Tomorrow is Friday, and Fridays are for Mineral King.
See you on Monday? I’ll show you . . . the rest of the story! (Anyone else around here grow up listening to Paul Harvey?)
Each year, summer comes and Mineral King opens at the same time. This year I felt very prepared, having completed 30-40 paintings of Mineral King, many of which sold as I was working on them. Small paintings sell at the Silver City Store Resort, and that is my main place to sell during the summer.
In July, I decided that I still didn’t have enough. There were too many Sawtooths, not enough general subjects, and definitely not enough bears. Because of the difficulty of getting photos of bears, I don’t have much reference material. However, the one bear painting I did sold immediately, so I decided to paint from some of my other bear photos, even though they aren’t that good. After all, if I can draw horses that I can’t see, certainly I can paint bears that I can’t see.
All that was hanging in the painting workshop was the 10×10″ sold bridge and a retouched “Leaving Monarch”.
After a little self talk (Who cares if you don’t want to paint bears from photos that don’t offer enough detail? Would you rather wait tables somewhere? Be a nanny? Pack fruit? Come on, let’s move it, hubba hubba hubba!!), I began two 6×6″ bears, and prepared to do another painting of the famous view from the bridge of Farewell Gap with the Crowley Cabin.
Turning things sideways helps me see the shapes more accurately.
Then I slapped out the 6×6″ painting of the most photographed, painted, drawn and recognizable scene in Mineral King. Very few people notice that the tallest tree, the red fir on the left is no longer there. A shorter red fir is now in that position, but I have a collection of “old” photos that I don’t want to waste. So I paint it and people buy it. (Thank you, Buying People!)
Top to bottom, left to right: Bear IV, Mineral King XI, Leaving Monarch, Oak Grove Bridge XXIV, Bear III
(Lest you worry about my attitude, I actually enjoyed the painting session in spite of the rattling swamp cooler and excessive heat. It helped to listen to The Recappery, where the History Chicks gave a thorough account of an episode of “Anne With An E”. They are so much fun, and they bleep their cuss words.)
July is a busy month in Mineral King. One could just sit on the porch, knitting and reading, or one could get out and see and do. I am one of the latter types, sometimes. These photos represent the activities in about a three day stretch of time in Mineral King.
Flowers along the trail to Eagle meadow (below the Eagle/Mosquito junction)The flowers were beautiful; the biting bugs were horrible.Scary scary tree situation along the trail; I wonder how many people look up.We climbed up and up and up, including over this boulder field, “just over that rise” to White Chief.This is looking back down toward Eagle Lake, which we did not go to because it was supposed to be a pleasant walk to see some wildflowers. (fall down laughing)Weird, weird, weird (and an excuse to stand still and catch my breath)YES!! We found our slippy slopey way down to White Chief!Another scary tree situation above the trail on the way down from White Chief.
The next day, my friend and I strolled down the Nature Trail. I stood in the middle of the creek to get this photo of water with Sawtooth in the distance. If I draw or paint this, I will exaggerate the size and contrast of Sawtooth.
Next, Trail Guy worked on tightening up the railing on the bridge that he helped build in 2011. That’s a pretty strong work ethic–improving one’s work 6 years after retiring, off the clock, no supervision, just wanting his work to hold up. I’m proud to be married to this man!
We had the privilege of guiding a group of students from Western Michigan University Lee Honors College who are on a trek, following in the steps of Walt Disney. They call themselves “Waltineers”, and are a delightful group of folks who all have a great love for Uncle Wally and all things Disney.
Not a whole lot of sitting around at the cabin. Mineral King is a busy busy place in July.
Here are four little messes. By “little”, I mean 4×6″. By “messes”, I mean OH NO HAVE I FORGOTTEN HOW TO PAINT??
