Category: Mineral King

Thinking like an artist

You know how you just cruise along, living your life, not giving any thought to how you measure up to anyone else? (Maybe you think about other people’s opinions, but I don’t very often.) So you’re just cruising along, doing what you do, doing what comes naturally, and BOOM! Someone tells you that you are weird! Weird? Nope, I’m just unique.

Here is an example: I just finished knitting a pair of socks for a friend. She chose and bought the yarn; I turned it into socks. While the socks were in process, I noticed that the colors on the Mineral King Road were the same as the yarn. That’s not weird, is it? (not that I care if you all think I’m weird – I’m just sort of wondering)

Gathering visual information

Michael and I hiked to the upper Monarch Lake. It is about 5.5 miles – the first mile and a quarter is steep and hot and dusty with giant steps up that just suck the juice right out of your legs. The Bigelow Sneezeweed are at their peak in August, as are the Gentian. The next 4 miles are on a beautifully graded trail with a flat trailbed; the trail actually has a few too many (unnecessary) switchbacks. It takes you well above Timber Gap, and it was a bit smoky from the California wildfires.The last 3/4 mile is Find-Your-Own-Way.Upper Monarch Lake is one of the four lakes out of Mineral King with a dam on it. It was constructed in 1905, well before the well-graded trail was ever built (but you can bet it was thought of with great longing by those hard-working men!) The peak is Mineral Peak; it is the one some guy kept trying to convince me was Homer’s Nose while I was painting the mural.We went up one way from lower Monarch to upper Monarch; it wasn’t very easy. We came down a different way that included quite a bit of meandering and backtracking; it was much easier and rather interesting.See what we found? We left it there. Pity the guy who had to hike down on a non-trail missing a sole!

hiking Mineral King

The friendships grow

Remember the Sawtooth Six from a blog posting last year? They were back this past weekend! Wow, time flies!

The funniest moment was when they realized they had forgotten tonic and had to call me down the hill to deliver. The calls were frequent and pathetic; when we saw each other across the valley for the first time, instead of hollering “hello”, they shouted “Did you bring the tonic?”

These photos were taken rather spontaneously. Normally they all line up on the porch of the cabin for their official photo, but this year Michael and I wanted to hit the trail before they were prepared. So, I snapped these in a moment of I-Can’t-Believe-The Weekend-Visit-Is-Already-Over.

Evidence that the friendship between us and them is growing – I actually sat down with them at their cabin for a real visit; they brought us their leftover food when closing the cabin; an official invitation was extended to join in one of their traditions next year; and, a few hugs were exchanged upon good-byes. The good part? Time flies, and next year will come quickly. I had a few words of advice before parting: eat more produce, hike more, and stay longer! And, I should have added, “Make a grocery list!”

Mineral King

Mural, Day Fifty-two.

Notice anything different about the title? It is significant, meaningful, symbolic. Today Betsy and I sat together and studied the mural, quarter by quarter. I filled 4 pages of little things to fix. They were easy. It involved moving the truck back into position, which would have been difficult if Larry hadn’t acted as my ground crew and rearview mirror! (THANKS, LARRY!) I did them all, including mixing a color to match the bricks so the weird white patches could be covered! Here is the final finale: This part wasn’t all that easy – a paintbrush is NOT a pencil. I signed once, blotted it all out, chose my remaining brand new brush, and signed again. After viewing all the murals in Exeter, I chose to not include my website (it appears if one googles my name), nor my phone # (I’m in the book), nor the copyright (it is owned by Exeter, A Festival of Arts), nor the year (it will be on the title plaque). There was a moment of hesitation – should I write cabinart beneath my signature?? Nope, I only do that on pencil drawings and this is a painting. Less is better than more – so just my name, the whole name and nothing but the name, so help me God. He did, believe me, He did!! Amen.

Mural, Day Fifty-one

Remember this?Now look: And this view? Now it looks like this: Am I finished? Maybe.

The Garden Party. . .

. . . is sold out! If you are one of the lucky ones to have a ticket to this very enjoyable event, you will not be sorry. The Garden Parties I’ve been to in the past have been wonderful – nice evening outside in Exeter (no mosquitos there!), good food, great auction items, nice music, fun conversations, all around very pleasant evening.This will be auctioned off. I will probably have my hands over my ears, or perhaps my thumb will be in mouth.It is an 8×10 oil painting on wrapped canvas with no frame. The title is Honeymoon Cabin III or perhaps Honeymoon Cabin IV. The money will go Exeter, A Festival of Arts. This is the only place I give artwork!

Mural, Day Fifty

Another day of many many visitors. I am now dragging my brush because I don’t really want it to be over yet! I “helped” Dora with her computer for awhile (yeah, right) and spent some time just staring and adding a thing or two and dinking a bit here and there. Mr. Stroben and his wife came by. He offered a few suggestions, which I greatly appreciated. Tom D. came by and wanted to offer some last minute suggestions. I forced a brush into his hand and will show you his contribution to the mural! Mike M. came by to visit, and I was moaning about my stupid brushes and irritating acrylic paint that will not behave like pencils. He handed me 2 very tiny brushes that he happened to have with him! Isn’t that a hoot?! LJ came by and helped me understand the contours of the mountains underneath the plain white patches of snow so that I can add some depth to them. Shane stopped by and a learned a bit of history of Mineral King and the basic differences between the National Park and the National Forest services. Here are the photos from today:This probably doesn’t look any different to you, but it is new and improved. Part of the improvement was due to the extraordinary skill of emerging artist Tom D. Can you discern which 2 are his squiggles? (the color is terrible in this photo but is nice and green on the mural) This may not look any different to you either, but I can assure you it too is new and improved (but not lemon scented). You need to see it in person to appreciate the detail. As usual in my art instruction history, Mr. Stroben was right. 😎

Mural, Day Forty-nine

Today was a day of many visitors. The most welcomed one might be LJ, my painting “coach”. We discussed the detail around Sawtooth, so I decided to drive there. (How many of you can say you have driven to Sawtooth??) With her help, I greatly improved the area from Empire to Mineral Peak, sorting out the rocks and ridges, adding shadows, erasing lines that don’t belong, and this is how it looks now: See how it was back in February??

Mural, Day Forty-eight

Today was fun – lots of detailing, and a few hidden items, which will stay hidden for awhile! There may be a contest. There may be a prize. More will be revealed, both literally and figuratively! Meanwhile, big THANK YOU to Carmen and Caitlyn who picked up trash by the mural today. Caitlyn is 6 and it was her idea. I was thrilled, because trash and weeds were on my list of things to do before the Garden Party on Sunday!This is Shane, a friend I have made while painting. He appears to be taking my advice seriously that the faster one runs, the better the mural looks!

Mural, Day Forty-seven

Today I moved the truck out of the way and finished the mural. Maybe. Maybe not. There is paint on the entire wall now, and as the weather allows, I will fix this, improve that, clean up these, add those. More texture, better edges on rocks, fix fix fix. Here, look at the end:Now the fun begins – all the fine tuning and hiding the objects! People have been asking me about that since I started on February 4, and it will happen!