Happy Birthday, Diana Banana!! Since I have about 32 oil paintings of Farewell Gap with the Crowley family cabin in Mineral King, let’s keep going. You can evaluate my progress (or lack thereof). I painted it often in 2012. The Roman numeral numbering system isn’t consistent here. Sometimes I called a small version simply “Mineral […]
The Same Mineral King Scene
I paint the same Mineral King scenes over and over. One in particular sells very well. It is the classic Mineral King scene, the view from the bridge at the end of the road. Farewell Gap, the East Fork of the Kaweah River and the Crowley family cabin. Let’s look at these in order of […]
Layer After Layer After Layer
That’s how I paint – layer after layer after layer. The Artspeak word for that is “glazing”, but I prefer English. Layer one – Should have begun with the sky, but I asked my boss and she said, “Do whatever you want, if you think you’re so smart!” I didn’t want to mix up sky […]
Second Most Popular Mineral King Painting
The second most popular scene I do as a Mineral King painting or drawing is the Honeymoon Cabin. This is the one remaining cabin from the resort days in Mineral King. The resort was owned by Ray and Gem Buckman, and they sold to Disney, thinking that the ski resort was an inevitable next step […]
More New Mineral King Paintings
But wait! There’s More! Why does that always elicit a smile or a chuckle? Because it is obnoxiously obnoxious. Here are the other paintings I finished last week. It was very hot in Three Rivers, so they dried quickly outdoors, and I was able to scan them without getting paint on the scanner. It is […]
New Mineral King Paintings
Last week I was a ninja-crazy painting factory, cranking out oil paintings of Mineral King. This is high season in the high country, and it is busy. Gotta get ’em done, visible, and selling. Sounds a bit like a mercenary, an artist of fortune. Nah. No fortunes are being made here. Just painting Mineral King. […]
Drying Mineral King
“Drying Mineral King” means drying the paintings of Mineral King. Want to see what that looks like? The paintings start on the peg board in the painting workshop. Then I begin scooting them around outside. The 2 of Sawtooth are currently on the tractor-seat stool outside the studio, getting direct sun and a breeze. The […]
More Painting Mineral King
Much of the spring and summer so far has been spent working on coloring books (or in Israel) instead of painting. Suddenly, painting Mineral King in oils has become my main focus. It takes some teeth-gritting intensity and, word-of-the-year, oh-so-tired-of-it, intentionality to stay focused. There is a book to reproof, a coloring book to finish, […]
Painting Mineral King
Yesterday I took a chill-pill to recover from the emotional see-saw of selling, not selling, selling, not selling, sold, not sold, it must only be my friends and relatives who feel sorry for me, OH MY GOODNESS A STRANGER BOUGHT MY ART. Don’t you just feel exhausted reading that last paragraphical sentence? (Anyone know a […]
Perilously Emotional See-Saw
For the past several summers, I have sold oil paintings of Mineral King scenes at the Silver City Store. This summer I took up 3 6×6″ and 3 8×10″. Each time I go to Mineral King, I stop by the store (we think of it as “The Store”) to see how the paintings are selling. […]