Category: Mineral King

Day Nineteen on the Mural

Katie and Paul at Mineral King Publishing rescued the crying kitten today! I named it Franklin, but since I am over my quota of stray cats for the year and won’t be taking it home, I have no right to name it.
It is very very hot (111 in Three Rivers yesterday!) but should be cooler tomorrow
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is in town because 2 of Nevada’s governors grew up in Exeter – I may have been less than gracious to the photographer who appeared as I was almost ready to go and asked if I was working on a new mural. John, I’m sorry for being cranky and sarcastic.
A nice man gave me a tee shirt – guess I looked like I needed something better (cleaner) to wear! Thank you, nice man!
I hid 2 more things today.
Betsy and I came up with a plan for a mule shoe (thanks, Bert!) and a rock (thanks, Betsy!)

The names of those who helped project (plus a couple of hitch-hikers) have been painted out.

Two more days ought to do it! (Louise, I toned down the roof, but it doesn’t show in this photo)

Exeter California murals Mineral King mural

Day Eighteen On The Mural

Progress is being made despite the fact that today was unspeakably hot and I bailed early. Today was marked by three things:

the hottest day yet
the saddest day – heard a kitten crying off and on the entire time
the weirdest guy came by and told me Exeter has the most murals per capita of any town in the world. . . I questioned him as to his source and he said “that tv show”. Umm, thanks.

For comparison, here is 3 days from the same angle:

Exeter California murals Mineral King mural

Each day on this mural my energy fades around 12:30 or 1. Sometimes it even weakens just before noon, but I think that is fear of the noon siren/whistle, which can just flatten a person standing in my alley. I’m always grateful when I happen to be standing on the ground with both hands free to slam over my ears when it goes. (Hard to predict, because today my phone said 12:04 when it went.) Today, I was getting acquainted with a man who has had a remarkable life so far, and he talked me through that low-energy time of day (with a momentary pause while we both stood with our hands over our ears.) If you are reading this, CK, thank you! In order to stay productive for the fullest amount of time, I moved to the east end of the wall and sat on the ground to work on that bottom strip under the mural. It wasn’t cool down there, but it was certainly cooler than the higher places or the west end. Good technique – if I were my boss, I’d give me a bonus for such ingenuity! Oh. I am my boss. I’ll have to look into that!

Look! Lois and Markita are at Franklin Lake, and they aren’t even tired! Wait, they haven’t ever been to Mineral King. . . hmmm, how could this be??

Would you believe that the last quarter of the dam inset took the bulk of the day?? I was disgusted with myself for an inability to paint little men correctly. Never mind that they look like miniature blobs in the photo – I am a professional! However, my business is called cabinart, not “Little Man Painter”. You should have seen my astonishing speed and accuracy in rendering the little Mt. Whitney Power Company cabin – perhaps another bonus is in order.

Exeter California murals Mineral King mural

Day Sixteen On The Mural

This is the week I will finish, even if I have to get up at 5 a.m. for 6 days in a row. Momentum, momentum, momentum. Stay outta the way, I have a job to do!! That is not to say that you can’t stop by and say hello or ask a few questions. It just means I probably won’t stop painting while I visit with you, and please don’t take offense. The weather guessers are saying 108 degrees by Wednesday, but they also said 106 last week and it didn’t happen. If I stay in the shade and have cold water, I can do this. (I think I can I think I can I thank I can. . .) This is how the wall looked around 6:35 a.m. today:

This is how the wall looked at 2 p.m. today:

Tomorrow I will finish this old dam photo inset. The weird blurry little people have been enlarged (the better to see them!), and I’m hoping the original photo will still be taped to the wall when I arrive tomorrow. Oops. . . it might be on the ground nearby by then, but it is in a plastic holder so I’m not (very) worried.

Here is what remains:

old dam photo inset
little cabin inset
dam (as it appears today)
growies, ground and rocks below dam
entire strip of wall beneath mural to the ground. This is the way to make it appear as if a visitor is at Franklin Lake instead of at a mural of Franklin Lake (as long as one stays to the left). I can’t figure out a graceful way to end that lower strip, so it has to go the distance. Maybe. More will be revealed.
Flowers by the trail. My plan is to do this in oil paint so they will be pertinear perfect!
Hidden objects! (there is one already, but I’m not telling yet unless you visit me)

Exeter murals Mineral King

Mural subject revisitation

I may have mentioned that there was a teensy bit of trouble while projecting the mural. (My design didn’t fit exactly as planned.) Since I have found myself with a bit more time than planned, it seemed wise to revisit the dam at Franklin Lake for a few more photos to fill in the extra space. (“Research” is the big word that people like to use these days, sort of like using “client” when one means plain ole’ customer.) We approached it from a different direction, and this photo is mostly useless for “research” but it sure is interesting! (see the little upper lake?)

Check out the dam from up here:

Here is one that will certainly be helpful in finishing the mural (hope hope hope):

Finally, here are two photos just because it was all so very beautiful:

Only bummer is that I can’t figure out how to write off 13 miles of walking!

Day Fifteen On The Mural

On the wall, off the wall. Today I painted on the mural but won’t be painting again until the Mural Team says to. This is sort of hard, but I am trying to see the bright side: time to paint in the workshop, draw in the studio, catch up on the computer and maybe even squeeze in a bit of time in Mineral King. The fact that I had planned to have the mural finished by the end of July shouldn’t be a deterrent to finishing other projects – it is the opposite! So, I am happy, so happy. . . today’s theme is Rock On!

Now you can see that the trail reaches the ground. I visited Franklin Lake last week and made a few changes in the rocks on the mural as a result. The visit made me realize that I have taken a few liberties with the trail in relation to the dam. Guess you’ll have to visit the place yourself to verify that! (It’s only 5-1/2 miles – you can do it!)

Mineral King Wildflowers, continued

Have you ever looked for blue flowers at the nursery? They are rare in the domestic world of flowers. Not so in the wild! Here are blue flowers in Mineral King whose names I know:

Languid Ladies aka Sierra Bluebells

Forget-me-nots aka Sierra Stickseed

Blue Lips

Five Spot

Explorer’s Gentian

Wild Blue Flax (with a bug)

Sky Pilot (only seen at Farewell Gap)

Mineral King Wildflowers

I own 4 wildflower books. It isn’t enough. There are so many flowers whose names I can’t find. Why does this matter? Given that man’s first job was to name the animals, perhaps I am just following in the foots of my oldest ancestor! Today, let’s look at white flowers whose names I do know.

morning glory

rein orchis (I know it is weird!)

knot weed (lacy and gorgeous – shouldn’t be called “weed”!)

mariposa lily (with an ant on it)

pennyroyal (just as fragrant as its domestic cousin by the same name)

sierra star tulip

wild geranium (not like the pelargonium we mistakenly call geraniums)

ranger button

cow parsnip

Sharing Mineral King, part 2

On day 2 in Mineral King, S’s younger daughter woke up very excited to go fishing with Michael. She is highly competitive and it is reported that the first words from her mouth that a.m. were “I’m going to smoke that old man!”

“That old man” had to get his fly rod ready for the challenge. (He wasn’t worried.)

The girls used live crickets (gross!) and worms (also gross!)

“That old man” smoked the girls!

Mineral King

Sharing Mineral King

If you have been a follower of this blog for 2 years, you may have read of my good friend S. (Did some painting in her dining room, and called her when I had a huge rattler that I was too weenie to deal with). We made arrangements for S and her 2 daughters to spend a few days with us in Mineral King. (Don’t worry about Mr. S – he was fishing in Alaska!) Wow, I sometimes forget how fun it is to see a newcomer’s excitement! S has been up before, but her daughters were in a state of high enthusiasm for the place. We first visited a waterfall that has a mining tunnel at the base:

The maps call it “Black Wolf” – we call it “Monarch”. Unless you have followed the somewhat sketchy trail to its base, you probably won’t recognize it from this angle.