Mineral King is Open

And the summer begins …

I didn’t take any of these pictures, which were all taken before I went up the hill, because living in two places comes soon enough without pushing it. Our cabin is a summer dwelling, for good reasons.

Hence, the Early Bird, AKA Trail Guy, took these photos. (You can tell because his camera makes sky spots).

Opening the cabin is a big project, because Trail Guy and the Farmer open several people’s cabins, which requires many tools. The projects abound, the work never ceases, and yet wild horses cannot restrain these two good-hearted, hard-working gentlemen from serving the neighborhood.

Phlox

Two hardy souls marched (or perhaps simply staggered) up to Eagle Lake, BEFORE the Spring Creek Bridge was installed. One of the two generously shared her photos (and reported back that it was COLD.)

Looking down toward the dam that forms Eagle Lake.
Looking upstream toward the ridge that forms the other side of Eagle Lake.

Since this is supposed to be a marketing and advertising “platform” (these words… sigh … what am I supposed to call this? A venue? An avenue? Media?), have another look at my painting of Eagle Lake from a similar viewpoint (I think I was on the dam itself.)

Eagle Lake, 7×14”, oil on wrapped canvas, $200, at the Silver City Store so let me know if you want to buy it and I’ll retrieve it for you next weekend.

Ad over. Remember the fallen on this weekend because it isn’t supposed to be about getting away and fishing and hiking and boating and BBQing. However, because of the brave, we are free to do these things.

Admonition over.

Endeavor to persevere.

And remember, if you comment and it doesn’t appear, your comment will appear after I have returned from the Land of No Electricity or Internet or Phones to release it.

Moving Forward on the Two New Paintings

Eagle Lake

Such an ugly start.

Let’s git ‘er dun!

Eagle Lake (a painting formerly known as a dog’s breakfast), 7×14”, oil on wrapped canvas, $200, currently drying, destined for the Silver City Store, unless it sells first from this little spot on the interwebs.

Oak Grove Bridge

The Oak Grove Bridge is a bit more challenging. I started with the attitude of “close enough” and as usual when drawing or painting architectural subjects, I ended up measuring and redoing several things.

The width of each arch needed to be the same, and the top of the bridge was too thick.

So I measured, redrew the arches (yes, with my paintbrush—anyone here have a problem with that?), lowered the top of the bridge, and then planted some manzanita on the lower left. I also started locating various rocks.

You’d think that after painting this forty-eleven* times, I’d have all the rocks and the arch proportions memorized. You’d be wrong in that thinking. I could make it up, but I’d also be wrong.

Such a grand little bridge for our slightly down-at-the-heels Tulare County. There are plans to turn it into a pedestrian-only bridge with a stout replacement safe for driving upstream of this classic one. The county had to do the eminent domain thing to acquire the land, and I have a feeling this will be a long, disruptive, and messy construction project.

Change can be so difficult.

Thus, for now we must enjoy the bridge as it was and as it is, and not think about as it shall be.

*This is actually #38, if I kept count correctly, which is doubtful.

Starting Two New Oil Paintings

Favorite Bridge

The commissioned painting of fields and groves needed more drying time, so I began a new painting of my favorite bridge—Oak Grove, on the Mineral King Road.

It is always difficult. I make it even harder by choosing canvases of non-traditional proportions. This is 8×16”.

It sometimes helps to crop off the unnecessary parts, making the photo the same proportions as the canvas.

But sometimes I do that too late, and decide to just go with the close-enough approach. Can you see that the bridge takes up more real estate on the canvas than on the photo?

Good enough to start.

Is that a Dog’s Breakfast or a Painting?

Next, a 7×14” canvas for another new painting. It might be too ugly for you to tell what it is going to be.

Jackson doesn’t really care what I paint as long as he gets fed.

These paintings are destined for the Silver City Store this summer. Each year I think I have enough inventory, then around early August, I have to slam some out very quickly. I try to guess what subjects, sizes and quantities will sell, but there are no proven formulas.

P.S. Blog reader/author/artist/friend Louise thought I could do a better job finishing the commissioned oil painting. She always tells me the truth, something I value highly, and she was right. Here it is after I followed her suggestion. It is not in my nature to be a perfectionist; instead, I am always wanting to finish things. So, sometimes it takes an honest and wise second set of eyes to make sure a piece of my art is finished well. THANK YOU, LOUISE!

And Another Little Painting Session

My plan was to get serious about the remaining five Mineral King oil paintings, to focus, finish, and move on.

I started with Sawtooth, the 6×6” version that Reader Sharon expressed an interest in.

Look at this succession of color mixing. My goal was a light brown, something that might be called “taupe” by the more sophisticated person and “beige” by a regular person.

Done! (You can tell by the fact that I signed it). The plan was to paint the edges when I finished the painting session so as to not waste the paint left on the palette.

Shape check! Upside down forces me to see things more accurately. (This technique presents a problem when working on a mural.)

Then back to front, layer by layer, color by color.

Suddenly it was time to leave to teach drawing lessons down the hill! No edges were painted, so no paintings were fully completed.

Another Little Painting Session

Suddenly after 2 months of lollygagging, it seems that my life is full of many extracurriculars at the same time that a bit more work has appeared. So, I will squeeze in little sessions of work as I can.

First, we had to go down the hill to Big Town. As a passenger, I was able to absorb all the scenery. The wildflowers were at their peak, although you can’t tell in these drive-by-shootings.

I got a pass on putting away all the groceries and headed out to paint, just wanting to have both a sense of completion and some forward motion in that little stack of Mineral King oil paintings.

I gave this guy a nose-job, “rhinoplasty”, and now am happy with it. (Terrible light—I’ll scan it when it is dry and maybe remember to show you.)

Moving forward on Farewell Gap, or “Mineral King Family Cabin” as I now am titling this scene: the distant parts first, leading to the foreground (the bottom of the canvas). Fortunately, the colors on the palette were still usable from the previous little painting session.

I painted the edges of this one and the edges of the little Sawtooth.

I did a little bit of tiny brush work on the 6” Honeymoon Cabin. All the greenery is still just blurry blobs, so it isn’t finished yet.

I have 2 more to paint of that popular subject; they can wait for another little painting session, and maybe I can finish this one then.

Ain’t nobody bored around here!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLDER SISTER! (She reads my blog.)

Quick and Cold

This collage in pencil is of several Visalia landmarks.

The other day I had to go to Visalia (AKA Big Town) for the morning. In the afternoon, there were pressing responsibilities on the computer (scan some things, email them to folks who had requested such things, try a few more adaptations to the cover of the book I am working on (as editor and designer, not as author), and finally, I went out to paint.

Why? It was kind of cold out there, maybe 50°. That should be no excuse. I went out to paint, because incomplete paintings don’t sell. I had been studying my photos of Three Rivers the previous evening, thinking about sales, thinking about what I haven’t painted in awhile, and thinking about the local businesses who sell my paintings. There are a few new things I want to try.

No, it wasn’t as cold as this but I thought you might enjoy this pencil drawing of the Pear Lake Ski Hut.

Try? Yeah, as in “can I do a good job?” and “will this sell?”

Most of my current customers are visitors, travelers passing through Three Rivers. They want something indicative of their visit, preferably on the lower end of the price spectrum, small enough to fit into luggage and small enough to not skew their home decor.

Enough bloviating.

First I looked at the unfinished pieces.

While briefly considering what was necessary for completion, I felt a cold breeze on the back of my neck and realized I didn’t want to sit there while concentrating on details.

Instead, I chose to do something quick. Some things quick. Some quick things.

Never mind.

Choosing the photos, choosing the sizes, digging the canvases out of the supply shelves, assigning inventory numbers, attaching hanging hardware, and slapping on a first thin layer.

OUTTA HERE! Back to the house by the woodstove. THANK YOU, TRAIL GUY for keeping the home fires burning.

Selling While Acting Semi-Retired

You may have noticed that I have been lollygagging quite a bit this year. I remember my dad describing himself as “semi-retired” when he was the age I am now. I think that is beginning to describe me. Go for a walk, hang out with some friends, organize some stuff, do a freebie job at church, organize some more stuff, do some errands… What? me work? maybe later… I’m busy.

However, due to the diligence of Stem & Stone along with Kaweah Arts, and a long-time reputation, there have been a few sales in the last several months. These are the ones I have remembered to keep track of.

This is probably the last time I will paint the Kaweah Post Office. It has been closed for several years, and it took several years for this painting to find a buyer.

I think these are the Sequoia Giganteas that was sold by Stem & Stone. If I forget to ask the seller for the inventory number, then I get confused as to which trees have sold. These 3 were actually very small: 4×12”, but I can’t make them proportionately small here on the blog.

I showed you these two while they were in progress. The first was 6×18”, painted for general inventory and the other 12×36”, a commission. I did the first as an experiment to see how it would work; the second one has more details as requested by the customer.

I don’t remember the circumstances of the sale of this one, titled Hiking Mineral King.

This 6×12″ was fun. I titled it Big Tree, Little Cow.

A newish cabin owner in Wilsonia discovered my book The Cabins of Wilsonia and was thrilled to find that the original drawing of her cabin was still available.

Then she discovered my website and found another pencil drawing to go with her cabin.

These sold last fall but I haven’t done a Sold post since last summer.

I thought that nothing was selling except notecards, but I was wrong. Maybe I should go back to the easels and stop with the lollygagging around. I can always put down my brushes and head out to pull weeds or take a walk or read a book (THANK YOU, READER/FRIEND LAURIE FOR ALL THE BOOK SUGGESTIONS!) while the paint is drying.

Buckling Down Further

I looked at this painting and decided it could wait.

Instead, I decided to work on the marmot.

And then the deer.

Finally, I wanted to do something easy, so I put the first layer on these three paintings.

I’d call that a productive-enough day!

P.S. Probably shouldn’t have signed the marmot. His nose is weird. I didn’t sign the deer because his face is a little weird too. Probably should just stick to scenery and architecture.

Back to Buckling Down

Here is the afternoon’s painting session after a morning of exploring around Lake Kaweah. I’m easing into the production of Mineral King paintings, with the workshop doors open to the greenery, flowers, cats, and sounds of leaf blowers, chain saws, a distant donkey, and the occasional vehicle. March is a month full of distractions and temptations to lollygag. However, summer is coming and incomplete paintings will not sell.

It is efficient to paint the same scenes at the same time since the colors are mixed on the palette. Because this is the most popular scene to sell at Silver City, I paint it in multiple sizes and shapes, and at different times of day and in different parts of the summer season.

I was pleased to be able to finish these—see the signatures? The previous painting session did not yield anything that was ready to be signed. If I can get those 3 plus 2 from an earlier session detailed and signed, then I’ll be over halfway to completing the ten paintings.

Why ten? With the ones that remain from last year, this is a total of about 15 paintings. Silver City Store sells anywhere from ten to twenty paintings for me each summer. I don’t want to have too much inventory left at the end of summer. So I keep track as paintings sell, then paint more of the popular subjects that have sold out.

It’s all a guessing game, supplemented with a little bit of intuition and experience. That’s the business of art.

In case you have forgotten:

I use pencils, oil paint, and murals to make art that you can understand of places and things you love for prices that won’t scare you.

Buckling Down

“Buckling down” is a weird expression. It reminds me of sayings such as “nose to the grindstone”, “shoulder to the wheel”, “eye on the ball”. . . How can a person accomplish anything in that awkward pose?

It was a beautiful early spring day (Yeppers, February is spring in Three Rivers).

Tucker wanted me to stay outside with him.

After a fair amount of procrastination (all productive, of course), I finally moved myself into the painting workshop (the open door to the right of the studio, which appears to be leaning, but that was actually me who was leaning.)

Because these are so small (3×9”), I did my best to make them as realistic as possible without spending endless hours trying to copy the exact look of each flower. We’ll price them at $75 each and see what happens.

Then I finally returned to the Mineral King scenes that need to be completed by Memorial Weekend. I tried to be a bit looser than normal, and after I finish all 10 paintings, it will be interesting to see if I go back and tighten up the detail.

I think this one is finished.

These are not finished.

Jackson started nagging and then biting me.

Heading back outside now. . .