Murals | Cabin Art

Repainting Mineral King, Day One

On Wednesday, I began repainting the big Mineral King mural in Exeter. Gave me something to do while I waited for Samson to get civilized at the veterinarian in Exeter.

So much has changed since I painted this mural in 2009. The attorney who told me to use his office as a staging place died last month. The photographer who gave me a key to his studio has retired. The coffee shop on the other side of the mural where I got water for my brushes has closed. The mural has turned blue. I used to do this blog on a desktop and now I’m on my second laptop. I used to have a cell phone.

But the people were just as entertaining as the last time.

A large woman said as she labored past, “I couldn’t stand to work around all those food smells.” (Food? I just smell paint.)
Larry said, “How do you keep from getting paint on your pants?” (He was joking.)
Dick said, “You gonna finally put color in those snapshots?” (He was joking too.)
A man talked at me for about 15 minutes (felt like 45) about music; I think that’s what he was talking about, but it was the musical equivalent of Artspeak and I have no earthly idea what he was trying to communicate. Very friendly and talkative. I just kept painting and occasionally responding with something that probably sounded as intelligent to him as he sounded to me.
Another man told me he couldn’t wait to get back into the mountains to backpack because he was going to go from Wolverton to Mineral King, and it would take him about 8 hours. (Really? I did it the opposite direction a number of years ago, and it took about 6 days.)
A man asked, “How long will it take you to pull the blue out?” (“Pull it out”? I’m covering it up.)

And there were plenty of really nice complimentary people who wanted to know what I was doing. I explained about the color fading, and not one had noticed that all the trees had turned blue. “Oh! Now I see what you mean!”

This is what I saw at 8:30 a.m.

Blue trees and ground, flowers completely faded away.

My paints were locked up at the Exeter Chamber of Commerce until they opened at 9, so I messed around a little with some old paints.

Hard to fathom that the ground was once tan instead of shades of lavender, gray and blue.

My first task was to open boxes of paint and do some pouring into smaller jars and then mix new greens. The paint company no longer recommends the yellow I was using for outdoor murals, so I don’t want to use any of my other greens containing Cadmium Yellow or Azo Yellow. Now it is Bismuth yellow, which almost looks chartreuse to me. It’s in the bucket; the old yellow is in the smaller jar.

Got 2 greens mixed and just dove in. Had to do something while I waited for the cat.

This is how it looked when I stopped for a quick snack that passed for lunch. Any excuse to sit in the shade – the sun is relentless on this south-facing mural.

Kept thinking about Samson, feeling the sun, wondering why the mural team didn’t hire someone who knows what she is doing, and finally set the goal of finishing that ground hill section in dirt colors before calling the vet. (I borrowed Trail Guy’s Jitterbug, in case you were wondering if I had caved in and gotten a cell phone yet.)

And now for the most overused cliche in English these days – At The End of the Day, the mural looked like this.

Tomorrow I will work on detailing that ground section, and then see if I can reach the lower section of trees from the bed of the borrowed truck, which I will drive over from Mosquito Lake.

Hunh? The Central California artist may have gotten too much sun today.

(Samson is home, and very very happy to be here. He tried to bite his way out of the box in the car. Thank you for asking.)

Exeter murals Mineral King mural

Repainting Mineral King and Prudence

Happy Birthday, Gordon!!

The big Mineral King mural in Exeter has faded.

Yellow fades the quickest, so gray becomes purple, tan becomes gray which then fades to lavender, and green becomes blue.

The mural colors were like this when I finished it after 52 days of painting in 2009.

Now the colors look this way:

It is time to refresh the greens and grays, and when it stops raining, I will do that. The sky and the insets are fine, as are the farthest snow-covered peaks. (Maybe – ever heard of “purple mountain majesty”?)

Meanwhile, I am preparing to repaint Mineral King by painting Mineral King in oil. Painting a mural is very attention-getting, and the process will bring attention to Mineral King. It is prudent to have paintings ready for eager customers; if I had been born in the 1600s, perhaps my name would have been Prudence.

It was prudence that caused me to photograph these through the window rather than going into the painting workshop, which doubles as the Bengal-beast’s safe place. I didn’t want to awaken the sleeping Samson by going into his territory.

Little Bitty Ore Buckets

Say what? Ore buckets? Little bitty ore buckets?

Remember the first Mineral King Room (in Three Rivers History Museum) mural was of a tram tower below the Empire Mine in Mineral King and only made sense if someone was standing there ‘splaining it?

Now, there are visual aids. In addition to the real ore bucket resting alongside the mural, there are to-scale versions actually on the mural, hanging from the cable.

These are utter perfection, the final touch that makes this mural come alive! Thank you, Nancy B. of the Three Rivers Historical Museum!!

And here are the other 2 murals, in case they were feeling left out.

Mineral King mural mural

Sometimes in Church

Sometimes in church, I draw.
lupe-helen

And sometimes I paint.

First Baptist National Forest

I gave my church snow-covered mountains for Christmas.

Things are a little different in Three Rivers than down the hill.

drawing mural Three Rivers

Stick a Fork in Me, I’m Done

That’s a non-Google kind of title, but the real title is boring. “Mineral King Mural #3 is Finished in Three Rivers Museum”.

First, a little context. Here is mural #1 as it appears in the Mineral King Room of the Three Rivers Museum (Redundant, I know, but I have to say all those words so this post can be found on the World Wide Web.)

Mineral King mural in Three Rivers Museum of Empire Mt. mining area. — Mineral King mural of Empire Mt. mining area in Three Rivers Museum . No miniature ore buckets hanging from the little cable yet. . . will they get made in time for the January 22 opening party of the room?? As always, more will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .

And to our left in the Mineral King Room:

2 more murals in the Mineral King Room of the Three Rivers Museum

The cabinet in front of mural #3 will be sitting lower once it is removed from the dollies. Yes, those rolling platforms are called “dollies” – anyone know why?? The other sort that guys with their names on a patch on their shirts use to push around boxes of things are called “hand trucks”. (One never knows what sort of helpful tidbit one might pick up on this blog.)

And now for a little glimpse into what sort of fiddling and polishing happens at the end of a mural job – here is how the left side looked last week:

Left end of mural #3 before the final details.

Left end of mural #3 after touching up a few details

Louise said that the snow patch on the far end looked like white paint. I agreed, and saw that it had the wrong angle on the bottom. Then I added a spot of rocks in the center. She also said that the trees were too sparse, and of course she was right there too.

These are minor details, but those who know, KNOW. Louise KNOWS. I fully trust her judgement, particularly about Mineral King. She has been a tremendous help to me on every Mineral King mural I have ever painted, and I LOVE working with her on any project. (Remember the book Trail of Promises this year? It came out in July, and is available here and on Amazon.)

No blue tape! Stick a fork in me; I'm done! — No more blue tape. . . Stick a fork in me; I’m done!

Mineral King mural mural Three Rivers

3rd Mineral King Mural, Day #3

The third Mineral King Mural in the Mineral King Room of the Three Rivers History Museum is almost finished. I estimated 3-4 painting days, and that’s about right.

First I worked on the mountains on the upper right. They were still rough, but it wasn’t apparent until I had detailed the other mountains. The contrast was strong between finished and unfinished mountains, but I didn’t take a close-up photo because I was DETERMINED to finish that day. (In spite of being a conscientious blogger, I do try to live in the moment rather than live to document life.)

Now the upper mountains are tighter, and it shows the unfinished forested areas and everything else below the upper ridge.

Can you see the improvement now? Louise helped me decipher the miniature details of the actual Mineral King valley, because that is the most important part.

I added detail to the foreground – texture, rather than specific rocks.

There might be no difference here, except that I remembered to move the photo taped to the mural.

I added details to the mountains to the left of the valley, detailed the foreground a bit more, added a foreground tree on the left and one on the right, added texture, snow, contrast, details, details, details. The pencil artist in me wants to take this thing to the nth degree.

Couldn’t stand it – I was compelled to remove the tape to get a cleaner view.

This is how it looked at the end of the day. I left the photos up so that visitors to the incomplete Mineral King Room can see that it is real, not just a figment of some demented artist’s over-active imagination.

Here is the list of what remains to be done on day 4, which hardly counts as a painting day:

Review all the details and the accuracy with Louise Jackson, author of Trail of Promises, dear friend, coordinator of the Mineral King Room and all-around Mineral King expert.
Remove blue tape.
Wash off blue chalk.
Touch up wall paint where the mural paint bled under the tape.
SIGN IT!!
Ride off into the sunset.

This is how it looked when I stepped outside after painting 7-1/2 hours without stopping.

Mineral King mural Three Rivers

Third Mineral King Mural in Three Rivers Museum

“Third Mineral King Mural in Three Rivers Museum” does not sound like a colorful, clever or creative title, but that’s the truth of the matter.

This is mural #1 in the Mineral King Room of the museum.

Tram tower for ore buckets from Empire mines in Mineral King — Mural of tram tower for ore buckets from Empire mines in Mineral King

Here is mural #2.

Sawtooth mural through window of Mineral King cabin facade.

Finally, here is what you have been waiting for and wondering about: Mural #3!

Step one: determine where it belongs and tape off the edges.

Step two: draw it. Actually, draw, erase, draw, erase, draw, erase, draw.

Step three: start painting with whatever is farthest away.

Step four: keep painting. Paint what matters the most, sort of working from farthest to closest. Get those peaks right so that everything else will line up underneath.

Step five: block out giant patches so there is a sense of progress after all the little fiddly things make me feel as if I’m not getting anywhere.

Step six: recoat the sky, retouch the tops of the peaks, reorganize the photos so it looks as if I am in control.

I think this will be a three day mural. The size is 9 feet by 2 feet. (Bet you can guess which dimension goes with which number. . .)

Mineral King mural mural Three Rivers

Third Mineral King Mural in Three Rivers Museum Day 2

Day #2 on the third Mineral King mural in the Mineral King Room of the Three Rivers Museum might be easier to paint than to spell out.

I began on the left, working down and forward in space.

Then, I realized that the farthest mountains were quite unfinished. This meant starting at the top (farthest distance) and painting down.

Sort of. Maybe it would be good to add some more detail in the middle ground. Or a few trees up close.

Or fill up all that white space on the far right. I think it is all forested over there.

What do you mean by “It’s time to close”??? I’m not done, and I thought this was going to be quick and easy.

One of the best ways I know to stay self-employed as a full time artist in Tulare County is to never lose my optimism.

To be continued. . .

Mineral King mural Three Rivers

New Mineral King Mural Planned

That mural I showed you yesterday served 2 purposes: 1. To dress up the exterior of my studio and 2. To keep me in practice because I felt slightly inadequate to begin the next mural at the Three Rivers History Museum.

This is often how I feel when about to begin a mural. I don’t know how long it takes to confidently approach a wall and just git ‘er dun. I’ve been painting murals for about 9 years now, so one would think I’d have a bit a confidence.

One would be wrong.

This was the first mural in the Mineral King Room at the Three Rivers Museum. — This is the first mural in the Mineral King Room at the Three Rivers Museum.

The tower/tipi thing was one of many that supported a cable which transported buckets of ore down from the mines to the stamp mill. That is an ore bucket on the floor in front of the mural.

The second mural is behind/through/under/which word? that window.

This is the completed cabin facade. The idea is that you are inside a cabin, looking out the window at Sawtooth.

The third mural is in the planning stage.

The cabin facade is on the left, the first mural is on the right (out of the view of the camera). Over this display case there will be a panoramic view of the Mineral King area as seen from Mather Point (near Timber Gap). The size will be 2 feet by 9 feet.

I’m not sure when I will begin. First, we must conquer the inexplicable case of nerves. I think it will help to buy new brushes, and to know that there is wall color paint available should I make a total dog’s breakfast of the thing.

“Just fine, thanks, but why are you asking?” says the Central California artist with a tic under her eye and a twitch in her shoulder.

Mineral King mural

Getting Fancy Outside My Studio

There is some term to describe what happens when people buy new pillows for their couches, and end up having to remodel the entire house. You know how it goes – new pillows make the couch look shabby, so a new couch is necessary. Then the rest of the furniture looks terrible and has to be replaced. This precipitates a paint job for the living room, which leads to needing new windows for the entire house, which becomes a project of knocking down walls and adding on rooms.

I got that new floor in my studio, and suddenly the mural on the front door didn’t suit me any more. It might have been there for 10 years, and certainly I can paint better now. Instead of refreshing it, I am replacing it.

old-door — This is how it looked before I started. You’d think I’d paint the outside of the building or re-side it or something. First I need to remember the name of that syndrome for why one should never buy new pillows.

First, a new sky and a blue line down the middle.

Next, a new mountain and blocking in of the next main spaces. The space to the right of the blue line is still the old mural.

Sorry, Samson, you don’t get to help, and chewing on paintbrushes is forbidden.

The blue line was the edge of this juniper tree. Now that everything is blocked in, I can begin details, if my brushes haven’t been chewed up by Samson.

Yes, I’m talking about you, little destructive feline.

Some detail is now added to the mountain and the juniper.

And a bit more to the background, trees, shrubs, and ground.

The daylight was fading, so I quit for the day. It might be February before I get back to it.

Category: Murals

Happy Birthday, Gordon!!