Category: Mineral King

Trail Guy Tee Shirts

mineral king tee shirt

Remember the Mineral King tee shirts, AKA Trail Guy Tee Shirts?

We have almost run out completely.

However, I messed up by not removing them from my website. It was set up so people can do a backorder. Someone ordered 2 shirts in a size we do not have.

Lucky you!

This means I have to place another order for tee shirts.

Would you like to order one? Go to the tee shirt page and place your order so I can include it in the tee shirt order, which I will place during the week after Labor Day.

This is the Mineral King scene on which the tee shirt embroidery design is based:

mineral king

This photo is current, and you will notice that the tall tree is now singular. In our tee shirt, there are two.

Does this make the tee shirt a “collectible” or perhaps “vintage”? Time flies, and the strangest things get called “vintage” or “retro” these days.

Dang. I’m middle-aged and that’s a sure sign. Another sign is that I’d rather hike up-hill than down-hill. Pretty soon I’ll be muttering, “Kids these days. . .!”

Mineral King tee shirt mineral king tee shirts

There is a terrible wildfire roaring along in the Sierra Nevada, in Kings Canyon National Park, just north of Sequoia National Park. Mineral King is on the southern end of Sequoia, but it got plenty of smoke from the “Rough” fire. It was named for the location where it began, a place called “Rough Ridge”. The name is very appropriate, because it is a rough fire indeed.

Timber Gap and Empire are barely visible.

Okay, forget about hiking. Let’s sew instead.

Sew? Did she say “sew”?

Indeed.

I sold my treadle sewing machine to my cabin neighbor and then spent the weekend setting it up, teaching her to use it and helping her make new cabin curtains.

No electricity required for this beautifully effective piece of machinery. You just put your foot on the treadle and begin to peddle.

I didn’t photograph what we used for ironing. It was a Coleman iron, supposed to be powered by white gas, but instead we heated it on the wood stove.

I am not making this up. Did you doubt me, an axe-wielding, wood-stove-cooking, knitting, Central California Artist, surrounded by those who understand this bizarre way of life??

The day we headed back down the hill was a clear day. Why?

timber gap in mineral king

“Clear” is a relative term. Normally we’d call this a cloudy day, but after the horrors of breathing smoke for 2 straight days, this is wonderfully clear. The Rough fire continues to wreak its havoc, but the smoke didn’t come to Mineral King for this day.

And here is my favorite bridge on the way home. I don’t want a fire here, but it would clear the view to the Oak Grove Bridge if one happened.

oak grove bridge

Mineral King

Painting Mineral King

This has been a fine season for selling paintings of Mineral King scenes. Very fine! Each time I go by the Silver City Store, I stop to see what is remaining. Sometimes I bring a few new paintings along, other times I just make some notes about what to paint next.

Here are the newest 3 for you to enjoy. (You may buy them, if you beat out the others who are interested.)

Mineral King oil paintings

Honeymoon Cabin XXII, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55 (plus tax)

1542 Kaw Hdwtrs

Kaweah Headwaters, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55 (plus tax)

1537 OGB XV

Oak Grove Bridge, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $60 (plus tax) It was twice as hard as the others and should be considered a bargain because it doesn’t cost twice as much.

Relevant links to this post:

Landscape Oil Paintings available

Silver City Resort

Mineral King Mineral King oil paintings oil paintings

Quail Confusion

Mountain Quail are different from California Quail. One is in the mountains, one is in the lower elevations. I don’t know the specific elevations. Both are in California, but one is the state bird and one is not.

I painted a California Quail working from a photo that I took right out my studio window. Apparently I have been sort of distracted, not paying attention with all my focus.

1536 California Quail

California Quail, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $60

Trail Guy carefully appreciates “his” quail, and pointed out my mistake while reading my blog. Yep, my husband reads my blog. (I might be more interesting on the screen than in person.) Thank you, Michael!! You catch my mistakes and I appreciate it.

Silly me. I should have figured out that dry brownish-yellowish grasses are a sign that the bird is down the hill, not in Mineral King.

You are probably wondering what a Mountain Quail looks like. I haven’t painted one yet, but do have several photos.

Mountain Quail

It would be easier if they would assume the same position, hold the same pose, so we could carefully examine their differences. But, like their California cousins, they are very skittish, and so far I can only photograph them from indoors right through the window.

Hence, quail confusion.

oil paintings

Mineral King Photography

Trail Guy has really become quite the Mineral King photographer. He was back in the olden days of 35mm SLR cameras with film (remember those??). After we married, I stole his camera because I needed 2 going at all times. (black and white in one, color in the other, or prints in one and slides in the other) He didn’t mind, but I sort of wished he’d take photos too.

Now he carries a little digital camera with him on his hikes. Without my hogging all the good scenes, he is finding his own photographs of Mineral King and the surrounding trails.

If you want specifics, you can ask in the comments or email me using the contact button under the About the Artist menu item.

Mineral King photo by Michael Botkin

Mineral King Mineral King photography

Hiking in Mineral King

White Chief is my favorite place to hike out of (in?) Mineral King. So far this summer, it has rained often, I’ve been preoccupied with family matters, and often I only want to sit, knit and/or split (wood) while in Mineral King.

We have a tradition with a friend who spends time with us at our cabin each summer. This was summer #13. Our traditional visit includes barbecued pizza, Yahtzee (I may have one once in 13 years), M&Ms, and a hike to White Chief. There are other traditions, but they aren’t quite as sacred as our White Chief hike.

White Chief can be 4 miles round trip or it can be as long as 9. No matter how far you choose to go, it is always beautiful, always interesting, and always challenging.

I’ll refrain from further chatter. If you have questions about any of the photos, ask in the comments or use the contact button under About the Artist to ask.

White Chief

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Discovering More in Mineral King

There is more to my life than selling oil paintings of Tulare County scenery.

I spend a lot of time in Mineral King in the summer. It is a great source of inspiration, because it is the most beautiful place in Tulare County. (Go ahead and argue with me – present your case! I’m ALWAYS on the lookout for beautiful places in Tulare County!)

The last time I went to Mineral King, I photographed the official name of my favorite bridge. The sign is wrong, I just KNOW it. It is THE OAK GROVE BRIDGE, because that’s what Trail Guy told me about 30 years ago. So there.

oak grove bridge

Sometimes being in Mineral King is about hanging out with neighbors on their very inviting front porches.

Sometimes it is about discovering favorite flowers in new locations. Your nose often leads you to this leopard lily before you spot it.

Here’s a weird puffy mushroom or toadstool. Whatever it is, it is large. (And yes, I washed my hands after touching it. Thanks for your concern.)

Trail Guy went off trail to look at the “Three Falls Below The Gate”. Nice photo, Trail Guy!

We went off trail together to look at more damage from the flood on July 2.

Always more to see, more to discover, more to inspire in Mineral King.

Mineral King Mineral King photography Tulare county

Long Way There

(Happy Birthday, Melissa!)

Anyone remember the Little River Band? Does the song “Long Way There” do anything for you? I loved it in 1978, and I still do.

Many people think of “Long and Winding Road” when it comes to driving to Mineral King. That is probably a more accurate theme song, but I used up that title on a pencil drawing many years ago.

So “Long Way There” is the title of this series of paintings. The first time I painted the Mineral King Road, it looked like this:

1317mkrd

I liked it a lot. A friend liked it too and commissioned me to repaint it in a much larger size than I was used to. It just flew out of my paintbrushes, and it may have been the first time I really felt as if I was painting, instead of struggling with paint.

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

When helping her move a few weeks ago, it surprised me to see that I still like the painting. That doesn’t always happen.

Because I was feeling so confident about this scene, I painted it again, just to have in inventory.

LWT #3

It didn’t sell. It didn’t sell. It didn’t sell.

So, I studied it carefully to see if I could figure out how to make it better. The usual things – brighter colors, more detail, higher contrast, cleaner edges – all seemed necessary.

Long Way There, 12×16″, oil on wrapped canvas, $250

I love the blue with the orange. (Yeppers, I’m a color junkie.)

Unusually Wet Summer in Mineral King

It has been an unusually wet summer in Mineral King (along with measurable, puddle-making rain in Three Rivers 3 times in July!)

Most of the times I have gone up the hill, it has been wet. Rain, hail, drizzle, fog, overcast. It’s all good. It’s all very good. I pray for rain every day, and I am very very thankful for water.

One long weekend, this was the only photo I took on the only walk I took on the only time I got out when it wasn’t raining!

I had to leave at 7 a.m. one morning. This is how things looked, sort of. When it is really beautiful, the camera doesn’t usually do the trick.

This is Squirrel Creek, just below the Park boundary. It hasn’t had much water in it this year, so when I saw this in the morning, I pulled over to take a picture. I “YESSED!” a couple of times, too.

Not much light on the bridge itself in the morning. It is getting so overgrown around it that there is now only one good place to get photos.

And when I got home to Three Rivers, the ground was WET and there were PUDDLES AGAIN!!!

Mineral King Mineral King photography

Non-commissioned oil paintings

So much to paint, so little time. These are new paintings, begun for the joy and challenge of the subjects, in addition to the confidence that they will sell.

Mountain quail are shy. We are so fortunate to have 2 pairs feeding in our front yard in Mineral King. Because of the way the window is situated, I am able to photograph these birds more easily than the California quail in Three Rivers.

This bridge is not shy. It is beautiful and proud, knowing it is an anomaly on such a narrow, winding and rural road. We call it The Oak Grove Bridge, “we” being those who regularly travel the Mineral King Road in Tulare County. The sign says “Kaweah River” or maybe “East Fork”. I don’t know, because I am always either looking at the bridge or at the water beneath.

There is a crazy amount of feathery detail on the bird. No matter how often I paint the bridge, there is a crazy amount of detail on it and on the rocks beneath.

That’s okay. These are not commissioned paintings, so I have time.

Each one is 6×6″. I have been selling that size for $55, but it is time for those prices to go up. The amount of time this sort of detail requires is a little overwhelming. Maybe I should just get a real job.

Nah. . .