Reporting on Sundry Items in Smoky Mineral King

I went to Mineral King with the weight of the world on my shoulders and heart. Terrible things in the world, the country, the state of California, and among several dear friends made me want to run away. It was a relief, but it wasn’t very pretty. My knee hurt, so I didn’t hike. Instead, I did a few chores, lots of knitting, sitting, and reading.

Here is one strange chore: Trail Guy and I noticed a tremendous number of nails near the old dance floor, so I took up a big magnet on a pole and together, we cleaned them up.

We stopped by the Honeymoon Cabin/Mineral King Preservation Society Museum to see a new item – a stamp from the stamp mill below the mines on Empire peak (and a couple of other unidentified metal objects). This is a surprisingly heavy piece of metal that smashed the ore to separate out the precious metals. I didn’t even try to lift it (my knee hurts).

In other news, I got some new “hiking boots”. Heh heh, this is what passes for hiking boots in my world of peculiar feet. Did you know Crocs makes a type of clogs with “Vibram” soles? They even have adjustable straps, fastened with Velcro. I hope my knee stops hurting soon so I can try them.

I spied some going-ons near the cabin. It was the wedding of a neighbor we don’t really know (because we are closer to her grandparents and there are way too many grandchildren to keep up with on their one weekend/year visits). They set up some sort of an archway, and I snooped through the trees.

Finally, I delivered another painting to the Silver City Store. It had to dry in the trunk of my car for a few days before I could leave it at the the store. Still striking while the iron is hot, in hopes that the great sales continue at least through Labor Day weekend. 

Most Favorite Art Subject

For awhile now I have told you that my favorite subject to paint is citrus against the foothills and the mountains. It is almost my favorite subject to draw in pencil too. It is right up there with cabins, (published an entire book about them here), old homes (recently drew this one) and the Oak Grove Bridge. (One post about it here).,

Now I am working on a logo design, and it calls for a drawing. (I gave you a little teaser about it here.)

Here it is in progress. I used every source I could find – photos on my computer, previous drawings, physical snapshots – and then proceeded to make up the leaves and oranges and grove. 

This took much longer than a painting or a drawing of a cabin. I forgot how slow it is to place and delineate every leaf and orange. 

Here it is almost finished.

And here is it after photoshopping out all the grayish background.

If/when the customers approve, I will add colored pencil: orange in the oranges on the left, yellow in the lemons on the right, and a little bit of green to the leaves.

A Little Bit Too Hard

Portraiture is the most difficult type of art. The only thing more difficult would be multiple portraits in the same piece. Sometimes when people ask me to draw or paint a portrait, I just say no. I have painted a few people, always with no faces visible.(one more here) I have done many pencil portraits, and each one feels as if it will NEVER look right. 

I drew a pair of Basset Hounds for someone. She showed it to a friend, who sent me a photo of a little girl holding a baby and asked me to draw it. After studying it, thinking about the oblique angle of the girl’s face plus the fact that squinchy-eyed sleeping babies all look alike, realizing that I have many tools with which to “cheat”, I agreed.

Here is the progression of the drawing, which I expected to be a little bit too hard but turned out to be a pleasure to draw. Seeing the photo on the laptop allows me to convert it to black and white or back to color, enhance the contrast, and enlarge anything that I am not quite sure about.

Faces first, because if that part doesn’t turn out, I can quit without too many hours wasted. There were many shapes and textures in the background, and I chose to eliminate them in order to put the focus solely on the little humans. The customer was very pleased and said, “That picture brought tears to my eyes! It’s wonderful!”

That sentiment could have brought tears to my eyes, tears of relief. But I soldiered on to the next project, taking comfort in the fact that it was mountains and citrus groves. (I told a fellow artist that if I was a smoker, I would have lit one up at the completion of this commission.)

Here is a link to the last portrait I drew, hoping it would be the last portrait I drew. Reluctant Portrait

 

 

Just Another Day at the Easels. . .

. . .in a barely cool painting workshop in early August, but thankful for the swamp cooler. The day before, I stood the entire time while painting. This day I sat the entire time. 

Thank you to Reader Anne for the suggestion of using an egg carton for the ornaments. It sort of worked, but I ended up holding each one in my hand. They are looking better, but still have many layers ahead. These photos are just more teasers about how they are moving ahead without revealing much except that Hume Lake will be on one side.

I touched up the 8×16″ of Farewell Gap in Mineral King, but you might have to see it in person to catch the improvements.

Since Kelly’s Sunset (also in Mineral King) has sold, I painted another one. I have altered the placement of trees from Kelly’s original photo, and altered them again in version #2. In these photos, I can see that the angle of the left flank of Vandever (peak on the right) is too steep. Will anyone else notice? Will the piece not sell? More will be revealed in the fullness of time.

P.S. UPDATE: the smaller sunset painting with the wrong angle on Vandever and a single tree sold immediately.

Mineral King August Tradition

The Mineral King Preservation Society has been hosting a concert for several (five? ten? I can’t remember) years. It happens on a platform that was initially built for dancing back in the days of the Mineral King resort. The musicians are a married couple who call themselves Mankin Creek. They are bluesy, folksy, terrific!

You can see the edge of the platform. On it, and around the edges too – might have had 100 people.

Dinner is provided – sandwiches from Sierra Subs, grapes from The Farmer (our hiking partner).

Farewell Gap had nice light.

I messed around with settings on my camera, found “super vivid”,  and decided it would look better painted this way.

But, this is how it looked with real alpenglow, not enhanced by the camera’s fancy settings. It is the best!

Some of the staff from the Silver City Resort were uninhibited about dancing and really added life to the evening. Afterward I talked to them (they sell my paintings for me!) and learned they are from: New Hampshire, New York, Nebraska, Michigan, San Diego, and Orange County. Uninhibited about dancing and undaunted by travel.

These events make me tired. I need to spend time just sitting and knitting to prepare and to recover. The color in real life is pretty close to “super vivid” light on Farewell Gap.

Taking a walk with a friend is also a good recovery activity from too much time in a crowd.

And look who we saw on the way down the hill after the weekend. Didn’t get his face – Trail Guy was driving and not too keen on sitting in the middle of the road while waiting for a good bear pose. My inability to get good animal photos is one of the reasons I stick to landscapes.

Large Important Commission, Chapter 7

This large important oil painting commission is getting to be fun. With some custom art, the customer directs many parts of the process. With others, they cut me loose to just do my best and make it look good. This project is the latter. (so far)

The color on the top photo is early morning light in the painting workshop. I started with the close orange tree on the left, worked across the front row of the orchard, moved into the shadows beneath the orchard, and then began laying stones on the wall. The final photo shows the beginnings of rose bushes in the foreground.

I will continue correcting the colors, tightening the details, fixing wonky stone walls, and studying this until I know it by heart. It is large (for me), important, and deserves as much attention and care as I can possibly give, because there is no deadline!

P.S. Yes, that is a little stack of books. It will be improved on as the project progresses. Remember, this is for the Tulare County Library, to be displayed in their Woodlake branch.

Large Important Commission, Chapter 6

It was time to get back to the Large Important Commission. I repainted the sky, mountains and foothills, this time adding detail. I wanted to copy the rocks EXACTLY, which is ridiculous, because the hills are sort of made up. So I made up the rocks, and when I stepped back, they looked believable. That is the goal, rather than becoming a human Xerox machine.

I stopped for a minute to sit down and mix some colors, and immediately Tucker jumped onto my lap. He was lucky to not get any paint on his tail, which was sticking straight up toward my palette.

The last time, the barn roof got a little bit pink. You know how I love to draw with my paintbrushes – this was a very satisfying fix. Because the paint is wet, it is shiny. And isn’t this the strangest roof?  

Next session I will keep adding detail to the orange trees, maybe add fruit, put the dirt and shadows in, start the wall, maybe even indicate where the roses will go. 

In other painterly news, since Kelly’s Mineral King Sunset sold, I am painting another one to sell at Silver City, continuing to strike while the iron is hot. And since I am on a roll with Farewell Gap on very horizontal canvases, might as well start a second one, this time 8×16″ instead of 6×12″. This is the base coat on each one, just covering the canvas, getting the pieces in place, using colors that are close enough. Some people start with just browns or grays, but I think color is more fun.

I Painted So Fast That My Camera Died

OF COURSE THAT WASN’T THE REASON! But look what my camera started doing when I was in the midst of my painting marathon.

Houston, we have a problem.

Ick, you all know how I feel about shopping – all those confusing almost alike products, decisions, too many details, too many choices.  I just skated by with my inferior phone photos for awhile. It is an iPhone 7, and it hasn’t lived up to my expectations. However, I do not dive quickly into things, so I imagine that I will make it work for at least another 10 years or so. (Remember, I went 2 years without a cell phone at all, I drive a ’96, bought my only purse in ’95, and my wallet in ’79. Wanna make somethin’ of it??)

Where were we. . . painting fast, a painting marathon, a painting factory. 

My new friend Kelly showed me a fabulous sunset over Farewell Gap on her phone (hmmm, I wonder what model she has), and then offered to share it with me so I could paint it.

I put the first layer on so that it was obvious where the shapes and the general color would go, then I put it outside to dry in the 102 degree weather and went back inside, grateful for the swamp cooler, to finish this little gem.

When it was finished, I put it outside, and then thought it would be a hoot to photograph the drying paintings in front of their big brother. (Simple pleasures for simple people).

Back to Kelly’s sunset. I haven’t done a ton of sunsetty cloud colors, so I mixed to sort of match the photo and then just decided to make sure the colors made sense, but didn’t overpower Farewell Gap in intensity. (See? Too many decisions wore out my ability to go online and choose from 70 cameras that all look alike.)

SOLD!  But that’s okay, because I can paint another one for you. Remember. . .

I use oil paint, pencils, and murals to make art you can understand of places and things you love, for prices that won’t scare you.

P.S. I found a camera at a place called B&H, with identical controls to the one that croaked. It arrived within a week, and IT TAKES BETTER PHOTOS!! (better photos than the old one did before it turned pinky-purple).

Painting 9 to 5, What a Way To Make a Living

Almost finished with 4 new ones. The swamp cooler was okay, and am I very VERY thankful for generous neighbors with a swimming pool.

As always, they look WAY BETTER in person. But by the time you are reading this post, the paintings might be already sold!