Look at the fancy road! (For my far-away readers, that’s Sawtooth in the distance.)
Trail Guy, being retired, spends more time in The Land of No Electricity, Internet, or Phones (unless one has StarLink, which your Central Calif. Artist does not—surprised by this?) than I do. He actually had time to hike, working around all his obligations/helpfulness to neighbors.
You can tell he took these photos by the spots in the upper right of many of them.
White Chief peak has a flat top.
There is a pond, if you know how to find it. (It’s there even if you don’t know how to find it.)
Everyone’s favorite juniper tree.
When I made it up the hill, I spent some time contemplating wildflowers. A plan is beginning to formulate, but it isn’t ready for public consumption just yet.
Thus we conclude another photo tour of Mineral King.
When the fog cleared off, the sun began its work of melting snow. It was a time of much wood-splitting, wood burning, friendship, marveling at the clarity and brilliance, puttering, walks, and for Trail Guy and the Farmer, a time of making sure none of our immediate neighboring cabins had broken pipes from the cold. (A friend one mile down the road didn’t have water from when the snow first fell earlier in the week until he left on Sunday, but nothing was broken, only frozen.)
Okay, enough chitchat. Have a look, first at the changing light on the Crowley Family cabin and Farewell Gap, and then photos in no particular order.
This is Empire, not Sawtooth, in case you only somewhat familiar with Mineral King.
The Silver City Store sold two Mineral King oil paintings on opening weekend; a few days later they sold a sequoia tree painted on a wood panel.
Luckily for a future customer, I had one more ready to go. So, on the way up the hill last week, we stopped by to deliver it. While there, I took a few more interior photos. The store is good to me*, and I happily advertise for them.
This year I have brought a few pencil reproduction prints of appropriate subjects. It’s been awhile since those were on public view.
Sawtooth on the sawblade is not for sale.
I designed this logo several decades ago and they are still using it. One of the original mugs (doesn’t say “Mountain Resort”) is on my drawing table with colored pencils in it.
Terrible light, but I wanted to show you the no-longer-functional gas pump and the snow outside.
There was quite a bit of snow in Mineral King when we arrived. Tomorrow’s post will be about that, accelerated to Thursday, because there are too many photos of Mineral King to just confine the topic to Friday’s post.
This post will be photo heavy, with some captions for clarity, since a few folks among my tens of readers have never been to Mineral King. (It’s a special part of Sequoia National Park accessed by its own road.)
Farewell Gap
Iconic view from the bridge of Farewell Gap, the east fork of the Kaweah River, with the Crowley family cabin.
Timber Gap. You can get to the main part of Sequoia by a very long walk over Timber Gap.
A tree across the Franklin/Farewell trail about 1/2 mile below Crystal Creek.
Pussy paws
Languid Ladies AKA Sierra Bluebells
Western WallflowerNo ideaDandelions
Rock outcropping of Empire (not the highest part where the mines are) with Monarch/Black Wolf falls
Cold Springs Campground is closed for an undisclosed reason (hazard trees?) but you can walk through on your way to the Nature Trail. The bridge desperately needs painting, but your park entrance fees and wilderness permits and other tax dollars are going to other needs things.
Iron Falls is Reader Sharon’s name for this section of river along the Nature Trail.
Violets
How is it that Trail Guy and I have never noticed this square nail embedded in the road before?
A cabin neighbor is burning yard rakings while cooking something in a black pot alongside the fire. Most cabin folks fly their flags when in occupancy.
Sawtooth Peak
Sierra Currants in bloomThe other kind of currants
Franklin/Farewell trail. The main peak is Vandever, on the right side of Farewell Gap.
Crystal Creek spreads wide across the trail.
It was a weekend of catching up with old friends, splitting wood, taking walks, reading, knitting, and eating. So many people brought us food: focaccia, pizza, dark chocolate (my vice), wine (someone else’s vice), carrot cake… never mind watching the blood glucose when surrounded by generous friends!
Western Tanagers show up in early summer. They flit around so much that Trail Guy did well to get this blurry photo with his red head turning.
The Road
The lower 8 miles of county road is worse than ever, thanks to the heavy trucks and equipment working on the park section. The next 10 miles are utter perfection—thought I was on the wrong road, or perhaps dreaming. It reverts to mess briefly right below Slapjack, and again around Redwood Canyon. I think the new pavement stops above Redwood, but since it was in fits and starts for awhile, I lost track. The upper dirt sections have a new layer of roadbase, which has been graded. However, it won’t take long until those sections deteriorate into corduroy. Those sections extend a mile above Silver City, and then the road becomes its old familiar mess of ruts, potholes, dirt, rocks, etc. Just go slowly and your car will be fine. (Fernando would love the new road. Sob.)
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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” 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.
