Tee Shirt Season in Mineral King

Yep, hawking those Mineral King tee shirts again. We are calling them Trail Guy Tee Shirts. Cute, yes?

 

Here is the men’s shirt in action:

This man usually wears a size Large. This is a Large. No problem.

Here is the women’s:

This is a women’s medium, which is the equivalent of a 8-10. This woman usually wears an 8, sometimes a 6. The women’s small is too tight. The medium is sort of roomy. It will shrink and fit exactly right.

We have sold out of Women’s Large. More are on order, and this time we have added Women’s XL, because the women’s run small AND shrink. We’ve had requests for sweatshirts (maybe someday), Children’s tees (probably not), Men’s XXL (yes, coming with the Women’s Large and XL order), white (sorry, we chose these blues), and long sleeved (nope, this is summer).

Anything else you’d like to request?

Mineral King Road Lore

On the Mineral King Road there are 4 water troughs. Some years I think I will memorize the elevations and mileage markers. More realistically, I can remember their names and order of appearance.

This one is called Trauger’s, after Mr. and Mary Trauger (what was her hubby’s name? She was the one everyone talks about!) who had a home above. It’s my guess they built there because of the spring. Duh.

The National Park Service has spray painted all sorts of information on these historic items. Sanctioned graffiti, perhaps? Back in the olden days, they were places you could fill your radiator after it boiled over on the steep, nay, very steep Mineral King Road.

Mary Trauger planted sweet peas. They bloom near this water trough each spring.

HEY!! What are you doing up there? That is Trail Guy, formerly known as Road Guy. It bugs him when the troughs aren’t flowing, so sometimes we stop on the way up the hill so he can clear junk out of the stream and get the water flowing through the pipe into the water troughs.

He may be known as Trail Guy, but deep down inside Road Guy still exists.

REMEMBER, Mineral King Tee shirts are available through my website and from Trail Guy himself. This is the season for tee shirts. We are the people who have them. You may be a person who needs one. We can help.

Official Opening Weekend in Mineral King

Memorial Day is the traditional opening weekend in Mineral King. Sometimes it snows. It can be downright beautiful, or it can be stinkin’ cold. Some years there has been too much snow to open until June.

Not so in 2013.

Favorite knitting spot in late afternoon
Sawtooth Peak at dusk – that pinky color is called “Alpen Glow”.
Sierra Star Tulip
East Fork of the Kaweah along the Nature Trail with Sawtooth in the distance
Mineral King is so very green during its spring season.
The trail to Farewell Gap and Franklin Lake

 

It is tee shirt season, and Trail Guy has the Mineral King tees at the cabin. You can order them here or stop by and ask him, IF you see the Botmobile in the driveway and the front door is open.

More New Mineral King Paintings

Question: How many paintings can one California artist produce about the same area of the world?

Answer: As many as she wants.

Allll-righty- then!

oil painting of sawtooth

Sawtooth X, 6×6, oil on wrapped canvas, $50, available here or at the Silver City Store, aka Silver City Resort

oil painting of mineral king road

Mineral King Road, 6×6, oil on wrapped canvas, $50, available here or at the Silver City Store aka Silver City Resort

oil painting of Timber Gap

Timber Gap IIX, 6×6, oil on wrapped canvas, $50, available here or at Silver City, which opens TODAY.

Opening Duties in Mineral King

The Mineral King Preservation Society maintains a mini-museum inside the Honeymoon Cabin. Trail Guy and The Captain (frequently referred to in this blog) are both board members of the MKPS. Cowboy Bert and I help, because we are married to these board members.

Honeymoon Cabin, pencil drawing, $300, 11×14 framed, for sale here

What are these guys doing?

We nominated The Captain to be the official Straightener of Pictures.

This is the way a cowboy sharpens pencils.

Mineral King Will Open This Week

NEWS FLASH – just received an email stating the gates are unlocked TODAY!

This week, probably on Friday, but maybe on Thursday (this is the government we are talking about here), the gates to Mineral King will open. A major source of inspiration for this California artist, that’s Mineral King!

Welcome back, people. Did you bring any new car parts for us?

I was there on May 20, and this is how it looked. Not much snow, not much water. Lots of green.

I love this view. It doesn’t seem like a strong enough composition for painting, but I find it very compelling, every single year. I photograph it every single year. Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results? Nope, just thinking that one day I will say “AHA! If I just move this tree a bit, or that log, or change the contrast or some other who knows what, then this will make a great painting”.

Nevuh, nevuh, nevuh give up.

 

 

New Mineral King Paintings

Last summer, the Silver City Store sold a pile of paintings for me. This summer I am preparing in advance, so each time I stop by and see one is gone, I can put another in its place.

I had a stack ready to go, and then 2 of them sold. Nope, I don’t mind at all!

Vandever at sunset

Vandever VI, oil on wrapped canvas, sold, sorry, but not really

oak grove bridge oil painting

Oak Grove Bridge X, oil on wrapped canvas, my favorite bridge, and I’m ready to paint it again soon!

Painting Preparation or Procrastination?

It has been about 2 months since this California Artist did any oil painting. When I take a long hiatus*, I wonder if I will be able to paint any more.

I used to have that little niggling worry about drawing when several weeks would pass without my picking up a drawing pencil (unless I was using one to balance my checkbook).

Because the season of Mineral King is upon us, it is time for me to supply the Silver City Store with oil paintings to sell.

This happens in steps:

  1. Inventory existing paintings
  2. Make a list of subjects that should always be on hand and for sale
  3. Go through photos
  4. Choose photos to paint now and ones to paint later.
  5. Write the titles and inventory numbers on the inventory list and backs of the canvases
  6. Turn on the swamp cooler. Yes, in April. This gives me hope that we will have a shorter summer in terms of heat.
  7. Find something to listen to while painting. If the internet is working, I can listen to podcasts online. If it isn’t, I can listen to the radio or to my iTunes music.
  8. Wonder where Perkins is and if he’d like to hang out. Miss Zeke a little. Miss Kaweah a lot. Go back into the house for something or another thing.
  9. Paint! Just do it! I just listened to a podcast on productivity that said if you find yourself procrastinating, there is a problem. OF COURSE there is a problem if you procrastinate – you won’t get the work done! Then there is the Steven Pressfield book called The War of Art in which he discusses something called “resistance”. I’ve listened to podcasts and read blogs about this.
  10. Fix/finish those California poppy paintings I started 3 months ago.
  11. Use the leftover paint on your palette to base-coat canvases for the next painting session.

Any questions?

*Hiatus means pause or gap in sequence. Why use a one-syllable word when there is a great three-syllable word to do the job?

Mineral King Time Already – Early Early Early

It has been a dry winter. Trail Guy has been hiking this week.

Wow. This is early early early.

This is our friend and neighbor Keith. He is eating an orange on the bridge on April 26, 2013. There doesn’t appear to be any snow. Early early early.

The Park is officially opening the gate to the public on May 22. Early, early, early.

 Is “early” really a word? Looks funny. Nothing like a little overuse of a word to destroy one’s vocabulary.

Me? Just painting Mineral King scenes so that the Silver City Store can sell them for me this summer. They sell my Mineral King oil paintings very well. Maybe my prices are too low. Maybe you should pick one up this summer before I decide that my prices are too low. Then you can say, “I got her early work”. Early early early.

I was able to paint this week because I finished my April drawing quota for The Cabins of Wilsonia.  I finished them early.

Next week? Back to the drawing board.

Do you know anyone else who can honestly and literally say that?

Not Much Snow in March in Mineral King

Not much snow on Sawtooth.

 

Not much snow in the valley looking toward Farewell Gap.

No snow on the south-facing slopes; not much snow on the north facing slope on the Sawtooth trail.

Not much snow for March.