Category: Mineral King

Mineral King on the Easels

Fridays are sort of for Mineral King on this Central California artist’s blog. Can’t get there right now, although people did drive all the way to the valley a week or 2 ago.

However, I have many photos, and Mineral King is probably the heaviest category.

As a studio artist, I rely on photos. They are photos I have taken of the same subjects multiple times in a variety of seasons and times of day. Art snobs think that painting from photos doesn’t count. I don’t know any of those people, or if I do, they haven’t shared their bias with me.

Anyway, in spite of the time of year, I am able to paint Mineral King, that oh so popular subject. Here’s what is in progress:

This is the Monarch Lake Trail, heading back down to the valley. There is a section of trail with some very gnarled junipers that I photograph each time I am there. I’ve painted it before, but not in this square format.

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Sawtooth sells, so I repaint it. Farewell Gap with the Crowley cabin sells, so I repaint it. Sometimes I put hours and hours into these little 6×6 paintings, and then I feel a little yucky about selling them for $50. So other times I put less time into the detail, and then I feel a little yucky about selling them at all. These are NOT finished, or to quote my friend Ron T., “Best viewed from the back of a fast horse.”

Farewell Gap with the trail heading toward the now defunct pack station. This is the first pass over the canvas. It is also a 6×6″.

I noticed that my friend and fellow Three Rivers artist Nadi Spencer is now charging $60 for 6×6″ paintings. She is light-years ahead of me in experience, so she should be getting more for her work.

I wonder if I should raise my prices. That, along with actually selling the work is the most difficult part of being a Central California artist. I wonder if it is easier if one lives in the land of Art Snobbery. . .?

Juiced-Up Bridge Painting

My favorite thing to paint is my favorite bridge, the Oak Grove Bridge, also known as the East Fork Bridge. That’s the East Fork of the Kaweah River, 6.5 miles up the Mineral King Road.

I paint it and draw it often. It is beautiful, particularly because it is such an architectural surprise on a narrow, winding mountain road.

This time it is a 10×10″ painting with sort of juiced-up (exaggerated) colors because that is fun to paint and fun to see.

Any questions?

oak grove bridge oil painting

Oh, the price! I don’t know yet, because I think this is really really good and makes me want to rethink pricing by size. So, you may have to wait until the upcoming studio tour to find out. (Is it wrong to like one’s work?)

SOUTH VALLEY ARTISTS’ STUDIO TOUR, March 20, 21 and 22, tickets available for $15 at ARTS VISALIA. You can read about it on this link.

Driving to Mineral King in February!

In the third week of February, people DROVE ALL THE WAY INTO MINERAL KING!

Excuse me for shouting. That is just so remarkable, that I had to remark in a loud and shocked and excited voice.

I keep remembering back in 1994 (or sometime in the ’90s) that we received almost an entire winter’s worth of snow in the month of March.

pigeons

Maybe these pigeons have a message or maybe they all just like the Oak Grove Bridge as much as I do.

Eagle Trail Painting: Before, During and After

Before: trail

During:

After? Eagle Trail

I might keep painting over and over and over. This looks better to me, but once it is dry and hanging in the studio or showing somewhere in public, I won’t know for sure.

Also, this isn’t a true and fair comparison because I’m using different cameras. Guess you’ll just have to see it in person to decide. Wait, you can’t see the old one in person, because I painted over it. Trust me on this: it IS better now!

Hey Mr. Google, did you know this is in Mineral King? It is actually the trail to Eagle Lake, Mosquito Lake, and White Chief, but I simply titled it “Eagle Trail”.

Odd Job Based on Mineral King

After many years of being an artist in Tulare County, and specializing in Mineral King, people often think of me when they need an artist. I get asked to do unusual things, which I call “odd jobs”.

This one was a first for me – drawing in a manner that could be sandblasted onto granite for headstones. The lines had to be a certain thickness, and little white spaces couldn’t be too little. I learned that black equals blasted, and that Sharpies can really get up your nose.

The designs are for people who were very dear to me, our cabin neighbors in Mineral King.

He wanted Farewell Gap. She wanted Sawtooth. Their daughter and I figured out how to do both on one stone.

Farewell, Jock. Thank you for closing the gap between my 2 front teeth, for giving me to okay to date Trail Guy, for being a wonderful generous neighbor and friend, and for rearing a daughter who feels like the missing half of my brain.

Farewell, Ora Kay. Thank you for helping Jock fix my teeth, for being my first good friend in Mineral King, so welcoming and loving and enthusiastic, for rearing such a great daughter to become my friend when you were stricken by MS and couldn’t come to the cabin much anymore (and I forgive you for running over my foot with your wheelchair.)

odd job

Mineral King Mural Re-do

The book The Cabins of Wilsonia may be in route to Three Rivers. Then again, it may not. Trust has been broken, so I am hearing the messages from the printer and the binder in the same sort of sound as the adult voices on Charlie Brown. Remember those?

Meanwhile, I am occupied with various tasks, all productive. I’d sort of rather sit and knit, or help my friend organize her closet or take a long walk, but the art world marches on, with or without my participation.

A new studio tour is scheduled for March of 2015. By “new”, I mean that different organizers are handing the arrangements. It is called South Valley Artists’ Studio Tour and will include lots of artists from lots of towns. Studio Tour used to be only Three Rivers; now Three Rivers is but a part of it.

The weather is mild, so I have spend some time refreshing the mural on my studio door. Here is the before and the middle. I know it needs more details, but need to wait for clarity and direction. It takes awhile to study one’s own work and see how to improve.

Sunshine is a wonderful thing. Like many wonderful things, too much of a good thing may cease to be so good. Sunshine fades paint, particularly the color yellow. This means greens turn to blue, oranges turn to red, and any brown that has yellow in it (they all do) goes either reddish or purple.

Here is the mural several years ago, a year when the leaves were brilliant in the fall:

Here it is prior to the recent refreshing. It kind of looks the same, so it probably has needed a do-over for a few years.

Here it is with new colors. I left the distant peaks the same so they would look distant. It might be too distant of a look. The rocks might be floating. There might not be enough detail in the foreground. It probably needs more work. And, I realized that I’ve never signed it. Perhaps I haven’t ever felt finished with the thing!

P.S. OF COURSE this is a Mineral King scene. . . were you expecting something else?

Mineral King mural mural

Thanksgiving Day in Mineral King

We could have gone to a traditional Thanksgiving Day family gathering, but we seem to be establishing our own quirky traditions instead. (Our family is quite flexible and forgiving.)

Rather than write on and on, I’ll let the photos do the work.

Farewell Gap — What’s different in this view??

Farewell Gap Trail in Mineral King — The cottonwoods no longer form a yellow tunnel.

Snow Stake in Mineral King — Wearing shorts by the snow-stake in Mineral King in late November.

Mineral King Mineral King photography

New Mineral King Paintings

It’s Friday, so here is what I have that pertains to Mineral King. These are new oil paintings, some of which are already sold!

Mineral King Flowers, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, sold

Mineral King Big Rock, 6×6″ oil on wrapped canvas, $50

Mineral King Cottonwood Trail, 6×6″, oil on wrapped canvas, $50

Hiking Mineral King, 6×6″ oil on wrapped canvas, $50

Mineral King oil paintings oil paintings

Mineral King Fall Painting

Cabin is closed, color wasn’t very spectacular, and the Park lit a burn which completely obscured the views. So, have a look at how Farewell Gap in Mineral King usually looks in early fall.