Mineral King Show Coming Soon

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANN!

June 30 will be here quickly. That is the date for the Mineral King art show that I will be participating in with 3 other artists at the Silver City Store. 

Heat will be here quickly too, so I need to finish these oil paintings before it is time to turn on the swamp cooler and swat mosquitoes while painting.

Sawtooth, enough for now.
Farewell Gap at the beginning of a painting of the end of summer.
Farewell Gap looking better.
Better yet. . .
Farewell Gap finished?
Timber Gap with lupine, finished?
Eagle Lake, begun
Eagle Lake, more work ahead.

These are my painting companions.

Tucker
Three little buddies.

Early Season Mineral King

It is almost cabin time in Mineral King. The road will open on Wednesday, May 23. Trail Guy was there last weekend, and these are his photos. The browns and grays are still dominating the greens, and there is some snow on the peaks but not in the valley. The last mile of the road is kind of messed up, but I haven’t driven it so can’t give you any specifics as to whether or not 4WD is required. I guess it all depends on how highly you regard your vehicle.

In Which My Captions are Hijacked by a TC Native Speaker

In order to recover from the ordeal of my wrastling match (yep, that’s the way it is said in Tulare County – we are the same folks who say “warsh” for “wash”, and sometimes we say “crick” instead of “creek”) with the Kaweah Post Office oil painting, I enjoyed the yard a bit. By “enjoy”, I mean that I took a few photos and pulled a mountain of weeds.

Then it was time to get back at it, “it” being the easels. Been lollygagging around recently, so I am having to parent myself rather vigorously in order to finish my responsibilities. (“But I DON’T WANNA!”)

Here is a batch of Mineral King paintings in their ugly stages, but improving slightly.

Oops. Forgot to take the before photo of this one.

Now that’s a real unusual way to portray Sawtooth. Whatsa matter, Central California Artist? Are you getting tired of painting Sawtooth like regular folks?

Well, I’ll be! If it ain’t another Sawtooth painting!

You think this oil painting of Eagle Lake is a mess? You ought to see that sorry excuse of a trail!

This one’ll be real purdy when you get them wildflowers in it.

Ahem. Something seems to have taken over the captions of my photos today. Sounds like a Tulare County native speaker.

Shut up. Those are my people.

 

Finished Mineral King Oil Paintings

These are the oil paintings that were dry enough to scan so I can list them on my website. This size doesn’t normally sell through the website but does sell very well in Mineral King in the summer, and I am now ready. Maybe.

They never scan as bright or colorful or pretty as they look in real life.  There are two more, but I showed you yesterday and don’t want to bore you.

Mineral King VIII, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $60 plus tax for Californians
Sawtooth #27,6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $60 plus tax for Californians
From Timber Gap, 6×6″, same, same
Upper End of Nature Trail, SOLD
Mineral King IX, all other info the same

More Mineral King Painting Factory 5

This one sold!
I like this one so much that if I saw it in a gallery, I’d probably buy it.
This is an 11×14 of White Chief.
When this is drier, I can add the flowers.
Piper is easier to paint with than Samson was. He is calmer.
This is Timber Gap, as seen from the trail nearing Crystal Creek, and that is Piper asleep under the easel.
This is the trail leaving Monarch Lake.
Those rocks along the sides of the trail are a time-consuming challenge. They don’t have to be exact, but they have to be believable, and there are so many. . .

At the end of last week, I had 4 more finished Mineral King oil paintings, a 6×18″ was sold, and the 2 paintings on hold were still just waiting their turns. Now it is time to count up again, evaluate by subject and size, and decide if I need to keep the factory producing more Mineral King oil paintings.

Really, truly, I just want to draw. I love to draw. Have I told you this?

P.S. Look out the window at the shingle siding on the studio!

More Mineral King Painting Factory 4

Week One of Operation Mineral King Painting Factory felt successful. 7 of the 11 paintings are completed (except for drying, scanning and varnishing), and it seems possible to complete the remaining 4 (3 are large-ish) and maybe even make tracks on the other 2 on stand-by, all next week. (Prolly not. . . that is overly ambitious, given the way life often intrudes on my work plans.)

This painting really wanted to be detailed, so I began on the left side.
The right side is really looking sorry by contrast.
This detailing took FOUR HOURS!! Good thing I like it. I like to draw, because I definitely “drew” with my paintbrushes, something frowned upon by The Big Boys and Girls of Art. 

This painting was a challenge. It is a scene I haven’t painted before,  the view at the upper end of the Nature Trail as you enter the cabin area. 

This might be the best I can do with this one. Squishing a vertical scene into a square sort of works.
This one is also new to me in terms of painting. It is the view from Timber Gap.
This feels easy after working on the 6×18″ piece of a similar view.

I like this!
This one needed a sky do-over. I think I last worked on it in low light. It is better, but this was photographed in low light, so hard to say.
This one is finished, and is so fun to photograph in front of its larger brother.
Why not photograph the new Sawtooth in front of the muralized one?
And I think this one can be considered finished.

That was a productive 4 days of painting. 

More Mineral King Painting Factory 3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MELINDA!! (now entering the S-words)

This is the third day of Mineral King Oil Painting Factory. 

This one was drying, taking up valuable easel space.
These three needed attention.
Here they are with the photos on top that I’ll use, hoping that somehow seeing them there will make me a better painter.
WHO IS THIS???
Piper, how did you convince your brother to come out of hiding??
Tuxedo sat there briefly, tiptoed around a bit, heard a noise and returned to the hole. I’ve been thinking that Ansel would be a good name for a black and white cat.
Back to work, feeling happy because perhaps I will have 2 cats after all.
Feeling happy makes for good painting, maybe. When this is finished and dry, I’ll compare it to the earlier ones (unless they have all sold).
Sawtooth. I thought I could set it aside, and then I realized that the telephone pole could use some foliage.
Here is the popular 6×18″ size.
Same, but better
Just kept adding detail, layer after layer, until it seemed as if I was just lifting off what just got laid on.
At the end of the day, I feel tired of standing, staring, squinting and painting. That makes it a good time to do some loose base coats, since my ability to focus has diminished after about 6 hours of painting.

This whole idea of being a painting factory has its good points and its not so good ones. Have you noticed that applies to almost every single thing in life?

The good: Getting things finished well in advance of a deadline is a good way to do business, and focusing on the same subjects and colors over and over should be honing my skills.

The not so good: Focusing to this degree is tiring, I might be boring my readers, and OH NO WHAT IF THEY DON’T SELL BECAUSE I HAVE SATURATED THE MARKET??

Besides these 11 paintings in progress, there are 2 more that have been on stand-by for months – my favorite bridge and Eagle Lake. 

I’ll think about all that another day.

P.S. Tony was thrilled with his goose, the black and white cat is definitely gone, and the 6×18 painting has sold.

More Mineral King Painting Factory

Are you just bowled over by the clever titles to my blog posts? Some days I just about put myself to sleep with the repetition in titles, but there is always something new to post for you to see and read.

This one only had a tiny mark on it during the last painting session. It will need aspen branches and leaves in the foreground to make it more identifiable as the upper end of The Nature Trail in Mineral King.
These 2 blank canvases were waiting for me; I forgot to start them on the day when I began the other 9 paintings. Forgot! Right there on the table and I FORGOT??
Surprahz, surprahz, surprahz, as Gomer Pyle used to say. This is Farewell Gap with the Crowley cabin.
Now here’s a real surprise – Piper is becoming comfortable. The tuxedoed brother was still in hiding at the time I wrote this post. (Update on tuxedoed brother cat: he ran away.)
He looks both scrawny and confident.
This is an entirely new format for a Honeymoon Cabin painting.
I add the next layer with better attention to color and detail, working from back to front and left to right.
At the end of the painting day (and decent light), Piper was still hanging out with me. And you can see that the color of light is distinctly different at this time than when I began.

Mineral King, Literally

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LAURA!

I went to Mineral King. Literally, this time. It was interesting to see in person what I have been painting, the winter version instead of the summer scenes.

First view of Sawtooth
methods of transportation – the Botmobile and the Trackster/snow buggy
Not enough snow on the road for snowmobiles, but the Trackster had no trouble.
Wow, clear view down to the valley 
Closer view of Sawtooth
The Honeymoon Cabin
Classic view from the bridge
SAY WHAT?? Someone worked hard to share this bizarre little joke with those who make it to MK in the winter!
Trail Guy skiing past the 10′ snow stake by the pack station
Trail Guy skiing through the cottonwoods; these are the ones that are so brilliantly yellow in the fall.
Farewell, Farewell (Gap).
View from the Trackster heading downhill.
What was snow in the morning was bare pavement in the afternoon.

Back to the easels. . . thanks for stopping by this week!

P.S. Last year at this time I was repainting the Mineral King mural and it was HOT out after a very wet winter; this year winter didn’t arrive until March. Weird.

The More I Paint. . .

 . . . the more paintings sell.

One Sawtooth, one Honeymoon Cabin, one White Chief, three of the most popular scene of Farewell Gap with the Crowley cabin, and one of just Farewell Gap minus the Crowley cabin. 6×6″ is the most popular size.  

Keep painting, Central California Artist Who Specializes in Mineral King.