And Another Still Life

Fridays are usually for Mineral King. We haven’t been able to get there due to the road closure. There are limited times that people can pass through, but it isn’t helpful to only be able to go up at the end of the day and be required to head down early in the morning. (Maybe that will change soon. . . ever hopeful here.) For fire information, you can go here: watch duty or here: inciweb. I can’t seem to find the maps on watchduty using an old iPad, but maybe you can. The Coffeepot fire is called “CAKNP” on inciweb.

Are you curious as to what subject I chose for my third still life? I guess you must be if you are reading this.

COLOR won!!

I know, this doesn’t look like color. Just you wait. . .

This is probably too small to see the progression. It was fiddly, exacting, and really fun to mix a bunch of colors that were not landscape greens, browns, and grays.

These are my two final pieces for the upcoming show. “Simply Home” will open on Saturday, October 19 and run through December 29, at CACHE, 125 So. B Street, Exeter, CA 93221.

P.S. Want to know the titles? Blue Bowl, Yellow Lemons, and Cabin Dishes. (I bet you can figure out which title goes with which painting.)

A New Still Life

A week or two ago I told you about working in Mineral King, when I spent time digging through photos, looking for ideas to paint two new still life paintings. (Would that be “still lifes” or “still lives”? Eh, who cares?)

So, I started one, and concentrated so hard that I forgot to photograph the process.

Dry quickly, please!

Now I need to decide if there is time to paint a third piece and if I want to go with a citrus theme or the round things in blue bowls theme or the color theme.

I do love me some blue bowls. Sometimes I put lemons in them just because they look pretty, and then I end up wasting them.

Do you still respect me? (did you ever?)

A Productive Painting Day

Is there a word that starts with P to substitute for “day”? I could use “process”, but it isn’t accurate enough.

After spending time with Krista evaluating my paintings, I repaired four in one day. (One wasn’t even on the list, but it was bugging me.)

Before: too dark, but also scanned too dark.
After: lighter, brighter, better
Before: bothered me for several reasons that are too boring and technical to go into.
After: better, more accuracy, more detail. (Oranges on those trees now!)
Before
After: subtle differences, and as always, better in person.
This one was bugging me, and in my normal definition of improvement, I just added more details.
So much better!

Everything dried quickly to be scanned. Maybe I will have time to do the two more still life paintings before the show opening in October. . . but, maybe not. There are more things happening than I tell you all here. . . will more be revealed??

Eight Things Learned in August

August in 2024 has been a month of activity and learning and a full schedule. Good thing I don’t teach drawing lessons during this month because there was no extra time. Most of my learned items this month are accompanied by irrelevant photos.

This has nothing to do with anything other than I liked the smoky morning light on these little puzzles from my childhood.

1.William Faulkner is not for me. I tried As I Lay Dying as an audio book and only made it through the first CD on my recent road trip. So much repetitive pointless conversation by unexplained characters. So I chose some rather mindless but entertaining “literary” fiction (which I think means modern but not formulaic) by Anna Quindlen, an excellent storyteller.

2. On hard curves on Interstate 5, vehicles lose hubcaps. I don’t know why, but it probably has something to do with excessive speed and centrifugal force (my hubcaps are all intact and in place—thank you for your concern.)

No curves here but I kept both hands on the wheel when navigating those hubcap-thieving stretches of highway.

3. My peripheral neuropathy is most likely due to being in the “pre-diabetes” category. This feels quite unfair and rather unlikely, but there is no other possible explanation.

4. I have learned to use a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) in an attempt to understand what is happening to my blood glucose levels when I eat this or that or eat things in a particular order or drink vinegar in water prior to a “bad” food or meal. It is a combination of interesting (because it is fun to learn) and highly annoying (better when I learned to silence the warning alarms) because I had to keep my phone with me constantly. This was a real nuisance in Mineral King, and then I had to borrow a charging device. I don’t take my phone up the hill because there is no signal and the camera is crummy.

I forgot the title of this piece but I know who has it!

5. I learned about a texting problem: messages will only go through when texting a non-iPhone from an iPhone IF YOU ARE USING CELLULAR SIGNALS. They will NOT go through if you are using wi-fi. That sure explains a lot of missed messages.How do you know if you are texting an iPhone or a non-iPhone? If the messages are blue, it’s iPhone; if the messages are green, it’s not.

6. Indoor malls are a thing of the past. I learned this in Salem, because I am not a shopper at malls, having always preferred catalogs and not being one who views shopping as a recreational activity. The mall we visited had each store open to the outside. I wonder what is inside all the space where people used to walk from store to store. I wonder why people stopped doing that (besides the fact that the malls are now all outside access types).

This is not a mall. Malls are not photoworthy.

7. Frass is the sawdust made by insects chewing on trees. (Thanks, DV)

8. Learned the ins and outs of In-N-Out Burger. I read the book about it by Lynsi Snyder, who is the big kahuna there. I’ve only eaten there once, and not being a burger aficionado, it was probably wasted on me. The family is full of very rough edges, and the book read like an infomercial. But now I know, and it was worth reading, since memoir is my current favorite genre.

This will not be in Simply Home; it sold awhile ago. I didn’t learn about preparing for a solo show because I’ve been there and done that. No tee shirt because I don’t wear clothes with words on them (except for the tee shirt that says “Easily distracted by plants”, which was a gift).

Mineral King: Clear in the Morning, Smoky Later

With the Coffeepot Fire about 10-15 miles down the road from the Mineral King valley, the smoke blows up each day, anywhere from 9:30 until noon. Sometimes it clears up a bit in the afternoon or early evening, then it blows back down the canyon at night.

Trail Guy took these clear morning photos for us so that we won’t completely despair of ever seeing the beauty of Mineral King again.

(The occasional weird spots in the sky are due to some malfunction in his camera.)

Compare this to Timber Gap below
Compare this to Empire below

Then, the smoke arrived.

Timber is starting to fade.
Empire is fading fast.
Timber Gap is there somewhere.
Empire is there somewhere

This happened almost daily the week before Labor Day and during the weekend of uncertainty.

Tomorrow we will return to our regular broadcasting topics.

Mineral King: Weekend of Uncertainty, Chapter 6

After wondering all weekend if we would be evacuated from Mineral King, a Park employee came by our cabins on Monday morning around 8, telling us to be at the Conifer gate (7.5 miles below our cabins) to be escorted out. If we didn’t want to go, that was fine, but then we’d be unable to leave for 48 to 72 hours. (They couldn’t make us go but they would be able to make us stay. . .?)

There were about 10 cars, including Park personnel, with someone at the front of the line and someone at the rear.

There was a meeting of the Silver City Mayor and the Mineral King Mayor, as they discussed and examined the locks on the Conifer Gate.

We headed down into thickening smoke. . .

. . . and were stopped at Wolverton Point. Another caravan was heading up the hill.

Lookout Point is a gathering place for vehicles. Initially it was built to look out for fires; now it is a place to look out at fires.

The mayors convened at the lower gate for another session of locks, while a Park person oversaw their negotiations.

It was a long weird smoky drive down. The good part is that we never had to wonder if we would encounter any vehicles coming up the road.

Tomorrow (yes, Sunday, I know. . .) I will share some photos of Mineral King, taken by Trail Guy to contrast the smoke with the clarity of the mornings.

Mineral King: Weekend of Uncertainty, Chapter 5

Our weekend of uncertainty in Mineral King began each day with clear skies, and hope that the clarity would remain for as long as possible.

We headed down the road for a walk one morning, not quite as early as hoped, and were also delayed by conversation with fellow cabin folks. Everyone was in that state of uncertainty, so there was much shared speculation, along with passing on whatever information we had gathered from various sources.

Oh boy, here comes the smoke.

Looks like a great year for currants, but I won’t be bothering with them this year (or ever again —view item 8 in the linked post for why not.)

I wonder if this cabin will get repaired before the road closes, or before winter sets in.

We crossed the bridge into Cold Springs Campground, doing a bit of horticultural investigating (NOT recreating).

I can’t remember what these berries are and my books are already packed up due to uncertainty.
What is that weird fuzzy stuff?

I wonder if this is the same group of aspens that I photograph over and over.

This is definitely the same section of stream, named Iron Springs by my most faithful blog reader and commentator.

There is a hint of fall coming.

I am NOT recreating—I am REPORTING!! (Oops, where is my press pass??)

The next day—not evacuated, but escorted out, with the option to “shelter in place” for 48-72 hours. This was explained in Monday’s post but will be continued tomorrow (yes, I will post on Saturday —not certain whether to apologize or say “you’re welcome”).

Mineral King: Weekend of Uncertainty, Chapter 4

What does one do in Mineral King when it is too smoky out for any real exertion or appreciation of the scenery?

Sometimes one sits inside with a friend and draws.

Sometimes one does chores, anticipating an early closing due to uncertainty.

That uncertainty chased us all weekend along. We contacted cabin neighbors who were not present to ask if they’d like their cabins drained so at least the pipes wouldn’t freeze. We had no way of knowing if the road would be closed or when we might be suddenly evacuated due to the Coffeepot Fire.

This isn’t too bad, smoke-wise. The intensity of it changed throughout the day and from day to day.

The fire isn’t threatening Mineral King, but if it crossed the East Fork of the Kaweah and started climbing toward the road, there would be too much equipment to allow civilian traffic.

I did some noticing of details, while just hanging around.

There was a short walk to inspect a footbridge that got replaced. Seems that the Park has been attending to some of its neglected maintenance chores.

Ooh, a hint of fall

The little cowgirl insisted on visiting the mules again. This was not recreational, of course.

She was a little braver this time.

Thus, we ended another day on a weekend of uncertainty in Mineral King.

Mineral King: Weekend of Uncertainty, Chapter 3

After a harrowing intense drive, an hour longer than normal, we made it to Mineral King. It was smoky when we arrived, not worth any photos.

We gathered with neighbors in the early evening to share snacks, stories, and speculations on what the uncertain weekend might hold for us.

One member of our little group was more tickled by her sparkly cowgirl boots than interested in adult conversation.

The next morning, she requested that someone accompany her to the pack station so she could greet the mules, and perhaps even feed them a few carrots, pilfered from the previous evening’s snack trays. We were all early risers, because that is when the air was cleared out from the night’s down-canyon breezes.

Trail Guy willingly postponed breakfast to accompany our little friend.

There was a brief stop to admire the grouse.

Trail Guy ended up doing the carrot-feeding, since the little cowgirl was a bit intimidated by the eagerness of the stock.

They returned to the cabins so that Trail Guy could have his postponed breakfast, but Hiking Buddy and I headed toward Franklin Falls. We were NOT recreating—it was strictly for health purposes. I was testing my numb feet to see if they could carry me 4 miles on a trail. And it was ENTIRELY NECESSARY to scrub out our lungs with some clean air.

Made it 2 miles; could I make it back? Let’s not worry about that just yet.

Wait! What is this?? It’s Dylan on Emmy, leading his string out of the backcountry after resupplying a trail crew.

In case you didn’t know, if you encounter stock while on a trail, move BELOW them off the trail.

We crossed Crystal Creek on the way back to the cabins, and this time I just walked straight through. We knew time was of the essence, because the smoke was working its way back up into the Mineral King valley.

One last look at the beautiful Emmy at the pack station, with the faithful plainer-looking but still handsome Chuck behind.

We had a smoky afternoon and evening to get through. I’ll tell and show you more tomorrow as we continue our tale of an uncertain weekend in Mineral King.