“Third Mineral King Mural in Three Rivers Museum” does not sound like a colorful, clever or creative title, but that’s the truth of the matter.
This is mural #1 in the Mineral King Room of the museum.
Here is mural #2.
Finally, here is what you have been waiting for and wondering about: Mural #3!
I think this will be a three day mural. The size is 9 feet by 2 feet. (Bet you can guess which dimension goes with which number. . .)
Day #2 on the third Mineral King mural in the Mineral King Room of the Three Rivers Museum might be easier to paint than to spell out.
I began on the left, working down and forward in space.
Then, I realized that the farthest mountains were quite unfinished. This meant starting at the top (farthest distance) and painting down.
Sort of. Maybe it would be good to add some more detail in the middle ground. Or a few trees up close.
Or fill up all that white space on the far right. I think it is all forested over there.
What do you mean by “It’s time to close”??? I’m not done, and I thought this was going to be quick and easy.
One of the best ways I know to stay self-employed as a full time artist in Tulare County is to never lose my optimism.
To be continued. . .
That mural I showed you yesterday served 2 purposes: 1. To dress up the exterior of my studio and 2. To keep me in practice because I felt slightly inadequate to begin the next mural at the Three Rivers History Museum.
This is often how I feel when about to begin a mural. I don’t know how long it takes to confidently approach a wall and just git ‘er dun. I’ve been painting murals for about 9 years now, so one would think I’d have a bit a confidence.
One would be wrong.
The tower/tipi thing was one of many that supported a cable which transported buckets of ore down from the mines to the stamp mill. That is an ore bucket on the floor in front of the mural.
This is the completed cabin facade. The idea is that you are inside a cabin, looking out the window at Sawtooth.
The cabin facade is on the left, the first mural is on the right (out of the view of the camera). Over this display case there will be a panoramic view of the Mineral King area as seen from Mather Point (near Timber Gap). The size will be 2 feet by 9 feet.
I’m not sure when I will begin. First, we must conquer the inexplicable case of nerves. I think it will help to buy new brushes, and to know that there is wall color paint available should I make a total dog’s breakfast of the thing.
“Just fine, thanks, but why are you asking?” says the Central California artist with a tic under her eye and a twitch in her shoulder.
There is some term to describe what happens when people buy new pillows for their couches, and end up having to remodel the entire house. You know how it goes – new pillows make the couch look shabby, so a new couch is necessary. Then the rest of the furniture looks terrible and has to be replaced. This precipitates a paint job for the living room, which leads to needing new windows for the entire house, which becomes a project of knocking down walls and adding on rooms.
I got that new floor in my studio, and suddenly the mural on the front door didn’t suit me any more. It might have been there for 10 years, and certainly I can paint better now. Instead of refreshing it, I am replacing it.
The daylight was fading, so I quit for the day. It might be February before I get back to it.
The new mural in the Mineral King Room of the Three Rivers History Museum took about 5 hours to paint. It is taking 2 days to tell you about it.
I was zipping right along, just slamming this Mineral King mural of Sawtooth out of my brushes like nobody’s business. (Now that’s a quaint phrase – “nobody’s business”? What does this mean?)
Louise stopped by. She is the Mineral King Guru, an accomplished and published author, and a dear friend who has helped me with several of my murals. I said, “Hey Louise, will you look at this while I hold the window in place so we can be sure that I didn’t cover the peak of Sawtooth with the wooden separator of the window?”
Ahem. Houston, we have a problem.
So, I moved the peak of Sawtooth to the left. Seeing double? Yeppers. Two Sawtooths. Wait. Should that be “Sawteeth”?
No problemo. (a little Spanish lingo for you to balance the French lesson yesterday) Let’s fix the sky, shorten the right side of Sawtooth and add some yellow so the whole world isn’t green, gray and blue. (“Let us” – “us” is the royal we. Thank you for your participation – I appreciation the help and enthusiasm.)
In fact, let’s add a tree. Trees are good. This looks green, but it really is red fir.
Museum Man Tom wedged the window into place so we could be sure of everything. I think you need to see this in person to fully appreciate its coolness. The glass makes some obnoxious reflections in the photograph. The camera’s flash washes out the colors too, but I couldn’t hold still enough without it.
In spite of the difficulties, you can see the peak of Sawtooth, and there is a sense that you are looking out of the window because of the space between the window and the mural.
Now, no plastic and no window. It was a little weird to paint with such sloppy edges, but the window frame will cover the roughness.
The apparent darkness at the top of the sky with that stalactite is the shadow from the roof and rafter tail of the “cabin”. The lighter circle in the sky is a mystery, probably related to the way Museum Man Tom moved lights so I could see what I was painting.
Now have a look at the “cabin”. You’ll have to stay tuned or stop by the museum after the window is put in place and secured. I didn’t dare put it in and risk cracking another pane of glass. (No, I didn’t crack the first pane. For once, I wasn’t the Breaker, although I continue to be a loser in the true sense of the word.)
Do you remember during the last post about the Three Rivers History Museum Mineral King mural that I advised you to stay tuned?
This week we resume our ongoing saga of Mineral King murals.
A man built a cabin facade (sorry, I don’t know how to make the little comma in the air above the “c” in “facade”. . . in case you are confused, it is a French word, and it is pronounced “fuh-SAWD”. It means fake front.)
Where was I?
In the Mineral King Room of the Three Rivers History Museum at the fake cabin front.
I bought that window at a garage sale because it is my favorite color and because it is neat-o, but I had no idea of how to use it. It sat in my workshop for 2 years or more, and then it was needed in this “cabin”.
The idea is to feel as if you are inside a cabin, looking at a Mineral King scene through the window.
First, I had to draw it. Wait – first I had to decide what to paint, then I had to put plastic and tape all around so I wouldn’t splatter or spill on the “cabin”.
Can you see it? That’s okay. You don’t have to. I do. I did. See the 2 photos beneath? These were my guides. I had to be careful to place the peak of Sawtooth where it wouldn’t fall behind one of the “bars” of the window. (I can’t remember what that word is, the wooden things that separate the panes of glass.)
Woohoo! This is going fast, and I just know it will be easy.
Fall down laughing. . . I forgot an important principle about painting murals. The smaller they are, the longer they take. “Longer” in relative time. Instead of about 1/2 hour per square foot, it is closer to an hour per square foot. This is because I keep detailing and detailing. I hope I remember this the next time I bid a mural job, and I hope I remember this and PACK A LUNCH!
Trail Guy to the rescue – he has kept me from being a starving artist for 30 years now.
This is too long. I’ll continue tomorrow.
The mural at the Three Rivers History Museum is now finished!
(Yes, the light for photographing the mural is different in the morning than in the afternoon. You are observant about details like that!)
The lower background, the foreground and the trees all needed refining. Louise also noticed that someone climbing the tower would have to make a giant leap to reach the top, so I painted in another step. I added a bit more texture in the shaded parts of Empire Mt. along with 3 wild blue flax. These things are only apparent in person.
Best viewed from a bit of distance, perhaps down the hall as you enter the building. This is easier than viewing it from the back of a fast horse, or perhaps from a speeding car. However, you will miss the 3 wild blue flax if viewing it from down the hall.
Life is a series of decisions, choices and consequences.
There will be more. . . stay tuned.
The Mineral King mural in Three Rivers is in this building.
This is how the mural looked when I arrived on Day #2. Tower is in place, background sort of finished, trees located.
In the last post I said it is quiet in the museum. Ahem. Not on Day #2! A cabin facade is getting built behind me, and every hammer blow or power tool is amplified in the empty room with a tile floor. It is going to look great, and on the back wall will be a window with a painted view of something Mineral King.
On to the day’s work. . .
The bright sun came in through the skylight and with my strongest magnifier glasses, I figured it out!
After putting growing things in the foreground, I painted off the bottoms of those 2 trees. On Day #3, I will figure this out and finish!
The mural started out sort of easy, but on Day #2 I was just making stuff up without photos to help. That’s not easy at all.
I may have estimated my time to be longer than anticipated for the new mural at the Three Rivers Museum.. Perhaps the customer will think I am over charging. Guess I’d better moan on and on about how difficult this is.
All that moaning about difficulty was fake. This might be the easiest location I have ever painted in. Indoors, consistent temperature, consistent light, very few interruptions, no trucks roaring by, and much can be reached without even climbing on the ladders.
Let’s have another look at Samson. He’s waiting for me to get home from work.
Yesterday I began a new mural in the Three Rivers Museum’s new Mineral King Room. The internet was on vacation, so you get to see the beginnings today.
This is the only photo I have of the Three Rivers Museum. Paul Bunyon doesn’t belong here, except that Carroll Barnes of Three Rivers carved him from a Sequoia.
What am I painting? So glad you asked. This is the upper reaches of Empire Mountain, which contains multiple mines. There was a tram with a cable running on towers to carry buckets of ore from the mines down to the stamp mill. I will paint a tram tower in the front. You can see the beginnings of it tomorrow.
Meanwhile, would you like to say hello to Samson?
