Mineral King Oil Paintings, Finished and Drying

These photos of six little Mineral King paintings represent a day with 3-4 tiny paintbrushes in motion. 6×6″ paintings are canvases that easily fall off the easel, so I hold them in my hand while painting. The detail is as accurate as I am able to achieve without running each painting into an irretrievable number of hours.

Let’s review.

Top photo, left to right: White Chief; Aspens along the Nature Trail

Trail through Atwell Mill Campground, lower end of the campground

Trail leaving Monarch Lake

Sawtooth as seen from the Nature Trail; Sawtooth as seen from the Nature Trail

Each of these paintings will look better when dry and scanned, and even better in person. Each painting is $60 (plus tax if you live in California. I round the number to $65 because simpler is better.)

One of the Sawtooth from the Nature Trail paintings is spoken for. (SD, which one do you prefer??)

The rest will be sold through the Silver City Store, unless you contact me before I take them up the hill.

Little Mineral King Oil Paintings

A week or so ago, I showed you the very rough beginnings of 5 new Mineral King oil paintings. In spite of the scribbly appearance, a faithful blog reader claimed one of them. She knows I can paint, although at this stage there isn’t much visual evidence to back up her confidence in my abilities.

This necessitated a new painting. It is a weird mini factory assembly line situation to paint 2 of the same scene at the same time. Efficient, but like deja vu all over again.

Sawtooth is a popular subject in the Silver City Store (4 miles below Mineral King). It is visible from the seat of Tulare County, Visalia, on the days when we aren’t qualifying for the worst air in the nation. The smog funnels through the Altamont Pass and into the Central Valley, a fluke of geography. Sigh.

But I digress. Here are the other little Mineral King paintings in progress. The first one is aspen trees along the Nature Trail, the lower end of the same trail with the view of Sawtooth.

The one on the upper left is the Monarch/Sawtooth trail, heading back down to Mineral King. Upper right is White Chief (the greenish color in the sky is the result of dropping my palette on it, and it will be repaired in the next layer of paint); bottom painting is the trail leading out of Atwell Mill through the redwood trees.

Atwell Mill is the campground below Silver City in a mostly logged grove of sequoia (AKA redwood) trees. The trail below leads to the East Fork of the Kaweah, one of the best trails in the Mineral King area. 

P.S. In case you think these paintings look as if I can’t paint, please be reassured that each one needs at least one more layer. That layering method is called “glazing” in Artspeak. It is what allows this pencil artist to paint without coming unglued at the inability to erase.

The Rest of the Stories

Remember Paul Harvey? We had to be quiet during lunch so my parents could listen to him every day at noon when we were home from school. He would tell a story sometimes with a surprise ending, and then he would say, “And now you know. . . (long, very long, very very long extended pause). . . the REST of the story.”

Remember the pencil drawing of the walnut grove? The recipient loved it. 

Remember the very difficult and (for me) very large painting of the Oak Grove bridge?

It is finished. It now hangs in my dining room, because I am really happy with it. If you want to buy it, it can hang in your dining room.

Oak Grove Bridge IXX, 24×30″, oil on wrapped canvas, $1500 (plus tax)

Remember a painting I did of a trail in Mineral King? I improved on it a bit. Without showing you the old version, you might not recognize the improvements. 

 

Mineral King Trail, 11×14″, oil on canvas, $275

Remember the habañeros? The commissioned oil painting is finished. I still don’t know how to dispose of the peppers themselves. If I bury them in the garden, they might grow new ones. . . can’t be growing toxic waste in my yard that way. . . put them in the green waste bin? But they are red!

Finally, remember the “easy” painting of the bridge? 

Oak Grove Bridge XXII, 11×14″, oil on wrapped canvas, $275 plus tax

And now you know. . . .

(very long pause)

 

the REST of my stories.

Mineral King Trail Paintings

Does “Mineral King Trail Paintings” sound as if I am painting along the trail?

Sorry to disappoint – there is too much snow to be hiking there now. Instead, I am oil painting in the studio, working from photos taken while hiking in the past. Or just walking. . . remember, it is a hike if you carry lunch and/or water; if you go without provisions, it is simply a walk.

Have a look at these beginning messes oil paintings. Sometimes it is easier to get a thin first layer down and then move on to the next painting. Other times it seems to work better to get it done in just one thick pass over the canvas. I don’t know why my working styles vary – subject matter? colors? temperature in the studio? Amount of sleep I did or didn’t get? Other pressing business? Mosquitoes?

Top to bottom, left to right:

  1. Mineral King Aspens – these are along the Nature Trail that connects Cold Springs Campground to the Mineral King Valley.
  2. The Nature Trail with Sawtooth in the background. I’ll add wildflowers (and a lot more detail and paint – fear not.)
  3. Atwell Mill – this is a campground below Mineral King and Silver City in a grove of Sequoia trees. It has a great trail that leads through the big trees down to the East Fork of the Kaweah (and on to Hockett Meadow if you are so inclined.)
  4. Monarch Trail – this is heading back down the hill from the lake. Makes my feet hurt to think about it.
  5. White Chief – short and steep, makes my heart sing and my lungs beg for mercy.

When finished, these paintings will be for sale at the Silver City Store. They are each 6×6″ and will be $65, including tax.

Or, you can email me and request one before I cart it up the hill.

Alternatively, you can ask for it after it is there, I can fetch it when I head up IF it is still available, or I can paint you a new one.

So many choices.

Painting Mineral King, Continued

Remember this stage of all these Mineral King oil paintings, as seen last week?
Here is the next phase – skies done. Sort of an assembly line method of painting, but I can’t think of a better way to finish 11 paintings in a short amount of time. (Remember, I have a show coming this weekend called Gray Matter? Gotta hang the show, and then who knows how long it will take to figure out what to wear and how to make my hair behave!)

Kind of scary looking to see them all in this stage of semi-completion. Not as bad as sausage, I’ve heard. And once these are finished and scanned, we will all be pleased with the outcomes. I’m confident of this.

I also dabbled a bit more on the lanterns. They are too small for this much detail, but I’ll keep on keeping on.

Because of the lanterns and the recently painted iris and sunflower, my palette is pretty these days. Often it is nothing but browns, grays and greens, so this is more fun.

Painting Mineral King

Sometimes I do my “homework”. Studio work. Planning. Educated guesswork.

I looked through my records of paintings sold at the Silver City Store over the past 7 years or so. I made lists by subject matter and lists by size. I averaged the total number of paintings sold, and made a new list of which subjects in which sizes that would most likely sell this summer.

Nothing in college as an art major prepares one for this sort of exercise. Of course, attending 4 schools over the course of 5 years and earning a 2 year degree isn’t exactly a stellar climb up the artistic ladder of excellence.

Never you mind, I know what I am doing here.

Maybe.

Oh yes, there is more and there will be even more. I’m working hard at figuring out how to paint the same scenes over and over in a manner which isn’t just mindless repetition. This could be trying different colors, light, or even testing my memory and trying to paint from what I remember.The most popular scene is by far and away the Crowley cabin with the stream in the foreground and Farewell Gap in the background. It is the scene from the bridge at the end of the road and used to have two large trees. It is uncannily symmetrical, but two years ago the taller of the two trees, a red fir, was removed because it was wearing out.

Trail Guy and I were quite surprised to learn that most people didn’t even notice that one of the trees was removed. People don’t seem to notice in my paintings either, so sometimes I paint it with the 2 trees as they were. 

Here is the one that sold most recently.

More Oil Paintings in Progress

Lest you think I only paint eggs these days, here is a look at other oil paintings in progress. The way I keep myself glued to the easel is by audio books – The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls was captivating and pushed me through many paintings last week.

Poppies, always need poppy paintings. And I love Dutch iris but haven’t painted any for several years. The lake painting? It’s been in this state for several months. I had another painting of this view for several years before it sold, so I’m not sure that this is a subject that is in demand. 

Those lanterns are definitely too hard for me. So, I dab away, adding one layer at a time, working from back to front and dark to light, wondering if I am learning anything or just reinforcing bad habits. That ignorance is one of the set-backs of being self-taught and working alone.

Decision time. First, the lake. If it took several years for a buyer, why am I painting this again?

Forget it. Bye-bye lake, hello Farewell Gap.

And more Farewell Gap – summer’s coming, and the Silver City Store will want paintings to sell. Here are 2 in progress.

One more layer ought to do the trick on the poppy. Seventeen more attempts on the blue and white plate under the egg might do the trick.

Special delivery!

Painting at Home

Happy Birthday, Ruthie! (Or is it on the 25th? Will I ask this question the rest of our lives?)

Isn’t “Painting at Home” a weird title for someone with a home-based studio?

My painting studio is cold and dark on a rainy day. Sometimes I paint there anyway, using an Ott light and a propane heater. It isn’t ideal, but it is what I have. I can color-correct things when the sun shows up. I am not and never will complain about the gift of precipitation!

Last Thursday and Friday I just couldn’t make myself want to be in the studio. There was a fire in the wood stove in the living room (that’s the way we heat our house), Michael was in the house listening to something interesting on the radio, and Samson was also in the house, behaving himself for a change.

So, I decided to paint in the house on the dining table. Suddenly, Samson was no longer content to sleep in my chair in the living room.

Why yes, yes indeedy I do have a couple of original Vermeer paintings in my dining area. How very observant you must be!

It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. On the 2nd day of painting in the house, I rotated everything around to the other end of the table. It wasn’t ideal either, but it certainly beat being alone in the relative dark and cold of the painting workshop.

By working upside down, I can get my shapes a bit more accurate. It is the photo and canvas that are upside down, not me. Never have figured out how to paint while standing on my head.

This last painting is my current Little-Bit-Too-Hard-For-Me piece. I have a theory that if I am always working on something a little bit too hard that maybe my painting will improve. It is the same idea as lifting weights that are almost too heavy to build muscle. (This is not real advice about physical activity. . . I was a PE disaster and know nothing.)

The other paintings are of Mineral King, because I always need to have that subject matter in my inventory.

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.

3 Mineral King Paintings in Progress

I’ve been inching along (more accurately, “layering along”) on the 3 largish Mineral King paintings. With colder temperatures, the oil just isn’t drying quickly enough to make much progess.

Here is Farewell Gap with a few more layers.

Here is White Chief with a few more layers:

And here is Sawtooth with a new sky: