Walk on the Mineral King Road

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This is your photojournalist reporting in from an excursion taken today, Saturday, March 18, 2023. Trail Guy, The Farmer, and I drove about 4 miles up the Mineral King road, then continued on foot. There will be many many photos (I took 92 but will only show you 47—you are welcome), and a little explanation or commentary.

The Road Closed sign is barely visible here below Mile 4.

A friend was doing a similar excursion and began the same time we did. Trail Guy advised him to climb up to the flume for easier walking, because his destination was farther up the road than ours.

Common sight.

Ho-hum, another big rock.

Mud, road a little bit gone.

And yet another rock.

And another chunk gone.

Wait, are you telling me we could have driven another 1/2 mile up?? Apparently so.

Whoa. This is the big washout. I bet Mineral King folks will forever refer to this as Washout Corner, or Washout Canyon.

We had a little bit of boulder scrambling to do.

Then some water to cross.

Looking back at the mess.

About 1/2 mile farther up from the mess.

Standard mud-on-road.

Oh-oh. Are we finished? The road certainly is. This is at Skyhook.

Nope, we are not done. The Farmer scrambled up the bank to the flume, pronounced it doable, and we followed. 

Our friend caught up with us on the flume, and we pulled aside to let him pass because he was on a mission to check on a man who lives farther up the road. We were just ogling, on a mission to see things.

We climbed down.

And headed down a paved road to the real road…

…only to discover we were on the uphill side of Skyhook. The flow went right through the center of the property.

I want to go to the bridge.

In the days before the flood, this would have been considered a disaster. Now, it’s merely another blip on the screen of the Winter of Water.

Bear Canyon survived. It appears to be abandoned, so even if it got washed away, no one would care. (what a waste)

Another muddy section.

And yet another one. I waded through this one in barefeet. 

By the time I got to this muddy mess, I just walked through in my trusty hiking Crocs.

Such a beautiful flow of water in this canyon after too many dry years.

MY FAVORITE BRIDGE IS FINE!!

Rocks, mud, no big deal.

Happy Centennial, Oak Grove Bridge!

Looking upstream.

Looking downstream.

Just looking.

And looking.

Time to turn around and head back to the pick-em-up truck. 

Whoa. Is this a new disaster waiting to happen to the flume just below the bridge? Or are we seeing with new eyes, filtered for impending doom?

Here’s the abandoned Bear Canyon.

Climbing up to the flume just above Skyhook.

I really like walking the flume. Not supposed to do it.

Our friend told us that the flume had blown apart or been smashed by a tree, so he had to do some scrambling and crawling. We got to this yellow tape, and climbed down the steps to the access road.

This is the access road onto the flume, opposite the very wide spot in the road below the bridge.

We walked back without incident, happy to be alive, thankful for rain, thankful to be able to walk 5 miles, thankful for springtime, thankful for friendship, just thankful.

And looking forward to seeing repairs by the Tulare County Roads Department. But I bet the people at Skyhook and those on above are looking forward to that road work even more than we are.

Thanks for coming with me on this tour. Batten the hatches, because there is another storm coming our way tomorrow.

Details, Details

The new Mineral King oil paintings continue along, three going from lacking in details to completed.

The background of this 6×18″ Oak Grove bridge looks pretty good, but there are some missing architectural details.

Details in place, drying in the sunshine.

Lots of missing details here:

Details in place, drying in the sunshine.

Here is the 8×8″ Oak Grove bridge painting in steps. Architectural details still missing, but background looking good.

Details in place, drying with its unfinished cousins.

P.S. Here is a link to a teaser page about my upcoming show, Still Here. Arts Visalia

Summer’s Coming and so is the Bridge

Last week it got cold and rainy but I painted in the unheated workshop anyway because summer is coming and I will wish it was cold. Yes, there is a heater which Trail Guy offered to light for me several times, but I declined. It was overcast, and I knew I wouldn’t be painting all day because it was a little hard to see the colors correctly.

In deciding which of the 7 Mineral King oil paintings to work on, it may not surprise you that I chose one of the Oak Grove Bridge, my favorite subject to draw and paint.

The bridge needs to be refined and the foliage needs to be finished. Then I will probably start on the other oil painting of my favorite bridge in all of Tulare County. 

 

Inching Along the Commissions

Reminder: “commission” is Art Speak for a custom piece of art. Here are two in progress:

No matter how often I paint the Oak Grove Bridge, it challenges my ability to draw with a paintbrush. Drawing with a paintbrush is something that is sneered at in the Art World, but I am hard-pressed to imagine how one of those loosey-goosey painters would handle this subject.

I sent this photo to my customer, and he declared me to be finished. He was actually nicer than that – he said, “As I said before, you are the best!” Aw shucks, thank you, DB. You are a dream customer.

The giant circle continues to develop. The surface of smooth plywood with several base coats of paint is different than canvas and will take multiple layers to cover. That’s fine, because I can get tighter and better with each layer. This is my preferred method of painting, fix, fix, fix some more, and fix again, called “glazing” in Art Speak. That is how I painted the bridge commission.

My customer the citrus grower asked if the trees would be darker, because I sent a photo taken earlier than this one. Then I took this photo, and because the paint is wet here, it is reflective so it still looks pale. I kept painting, and then sent this photo:

I love this subject matter just as much as the Oak Grove Bridge and am quite happy about getting to spend many hours making it look as good as possible.

New Commissioned Oil Painting

I stopped by the Silver City Store to check my paintings and encountered an old friend on the deck. He said how much he liked my bridge painting in the store. I went inside to do inventory and couldn’t find the bridge, so came back out and asked, “Did you say you ‘like’ the bridge or that you ‘bought’ it?”

He said that he “liked” it, and I told him it had sold. He was disappointed, so I offered to paint it again for him, and he said yes.

Wow. If only every sale was that easy. I went home and immediately began painting, because the Oak Grove Bridge is my favorite subject. (If you have been following this blog for awhile, then you already knew that. If you would like to see more, put “Oak Grove Bridge” in the search bar of the blog and it will give you a stack of old posts to read or to just look at photos, paintings and drawings of the bridge.)

Ooh. As soon as I saw the bottom photo here, I saw some things to correct on the painting.

 

 

More Mineral King Oils

Drying in the morning sun; this time all three vertical 6×18″ Mineral King oil paintings are finished.

This is how they look in the afternoon light. I’ll wait until they are completely dry, then photograph them, because they are too big for the scanner.

Lupine comes in many colors, so I just mixed up a shade of bluish purple that looked good with the painting. The photo lupine color was too pink and it wasn’t believable to me.

Next, I moved on to the current painting of my favorite subject, the Oak Grove Bridge.

This is the stage where I detail it to the nth degree, the style of painting that plein air painters usually don’t bother with. (They might be too tired of swatting bugs by them.)

Oh my, I really like this one! (Yep, I am allowed to like my own work.)

Have you noticed that ever since I published Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names that I almost always include wildflowers in my paintings? What took me so long to figure this out?

One more Mineral King painting, this one a commission, working from a customer photo and some conversation about how to present things. (Not the Honeymoon cabin – this cabin is no longer standing).Before I go any further, my customer will need to let me know if this is the arrangement she has in mind.

Oil Interlude

“Interlude” is a musical term that means in interruption with a lude. 

Wait, what?

Nothing. Just messing around with words. After finishing the oak tree mural, I had days of appointments, administrative work, errands, and other things that interfered with painting, However, I did get in a few days of painting Mineral King scenes, and here are the results.

Started this one back in early January, a 10×10″.
I felt confident and hardly looked at the photo while finishing.
Is it finished? When it is dry, I’ll see if there is a believable way to add some wildflowers.
This is 6×18″, a fun format and size to paint. It forces me to distill a scene to its essence.
It will need wildflowers. The title is “Mineral King Wildflowers”, so duh.
Oak Grove Bridge # 29. Probably a higher number, but I was a little sloppy in my earlier record keeping.
Three almost finished.
These three next.

In the interest of offering these paintings for sale, the following advertisement is for your convenience/to ignore – your choice.

I sell 6×18″ for $150 plus tax which brings it to about $160; the square is 10×10″ for $175 plus tax, about $190. The plan is to have a good inventory for this coming summer, but if you are interested in buying any of these paintings now, it can be arranged. Comment here or contact me with the contact button or email me or say something to Trail Guy if you see him at the Post Office or grocery store.

Oak Grove Bridge Umpty-Eleven

After our road trip, I had a large family responsibility that kept me from painting. This had the effect of causing intense focus on the day that I was able to return to the easel. Have a look.

The painting was waiting on the easel with a note from my neighbor beneath it.
My neighbor left this note.
What is necessary?? Everything needs recoating and detailing.
So, I made a list.

The list was just a compilation of obvious tasks, but by having it in increments, I was able to be systematic and keep going, section by section. It was just a way of keeping my feet planted in front of the easel, because this was the only day I knew that would be available for painting in the foreseeable future.

The bridge, water, and “growies” on the right remain.
Hey! Are you Jackson or are you Georgia? (Remember, I went to Georgia via Jacksonville in April).
Gilligan and Ginger are both males, and now their names are Pippin and Lentz. It is still difficult to tell them apart.
Hey Central Calif. artist, stop playing with the kittens and get the bridge finished.
Stick a fork in it – it is done! Maybe. I might continue finding things to polish.

Bridge Building with Kittens

The Oak Grove Bridge painting number eleventy billion is in progress, in spite of all the distractions.

These paintings want to be finished, but the bridge is taking precedence now.
This is how we last saw the bridge.
I am filling in the rest of the blank parts, a little at a time. (That sounds stupid: how else would I do it? With a paintbrush in each hand??)
Look! A kitty is sleeping on my scarf behind me.
Slowly taking shape, but definitely will need more layers. No “alla prima” for this one!
Who are you? I can’t tell without seeing if you have a tail or not.
Keep painting and stop going ga-ga over the kitten. Maybe I will go ga-ga over the painting instead. This is a work day, after all.
What? You prefer the mat beneath my feet to the scarf? This might be the tail-less KitCarson.
Nope, that’s a tail. Could be Georgia, or maybe it is the nameless other one. Look at the zebra-like striping!
At the end of the painting session, needing to dry for awhile before the next layer is added.

The painting had a few days to dry, because Trail Guy and I went on a road trip. I’ll show photos from the windshield tomorrow.

At the Easels

Almost finished.
Careful – there are babies underfoot!
New bridge painting, this time 24×30″, a big ‘un.

Normally when I paint, I don’t draw it out first. This time, the bridge needs to be perfect for the show at the County Building, and time is limited. So, I drew it in pencil on the canvas before beginning to paint. Oak Grove Bridge number eleventy billion, here we go.

I began the way that Laurel Daniel taught in her workshop but didn’t mix the grays very carefully. I may be a rebellious student. On the other hand, I am what Gretchen Rubin calls a “Questioner”, and if I don’t see the value in a particular activity, I don’t bother. Because this is too big to do all in one session, it seemed fine to not mix a perfect gray. But, part of the trouble was a bad brush. (I spiked it into the trash after awhile.)

I also didn’t do it from front to back. I’ve painted this bridge more than I can remember and just fell back into my familiar pattern.

It is much easier to put in all the architectural details when they are a size that can be actually seen.

What?? Time to quit already? but I am really enjoying this. . . tell the sunlight to wait, because I want to keep painting!