Category: Photography

Early Spring in Mineral King

This week Trail Guy went to Mineral King to see how things look in early spring. Yes, I know May is not “early spring” down here in Three Rivers, but things are different at 7800′.

Mineral King cabins

These folks have some melting and shoveling to do.

The classic view of Mineral King, probably the most photographed, and definitely the most drawn and painted scene by this Central California artist. It looks wrong to me with the tall red fir gone. That remaining tall tree is a ~~cedar~~ juniper (Thank you, Trail Guy. The reason I mix these 2 up is that those are the names of 2 similar green colored pencils.) Farewell Gap is more visible this way.

Daffodils are not native flowers, but they are a welcome sight.

These folks have some melting and shoveling to do.

They can use the door on this side of the cabin instead of fighting all the snow off their deck.

The sunny side of the valley is where Trail Guy spent many an afternoon when he wintered in Mineral King. (I didn’t know him then.)

There is plenty of snow in the shade and on the north facing slopes. It just makes it fun for kids to make snowballs, and slippery for adults who want to walk a bit.

More daffodils. Thanks, Van and Mary, for planting these. Isn’t this a cute cabin?

Thanks, Trail Guy, for your early spring reconnaissance trip.

The road will be open to the public on Memorial Day weekend.

Mineral King Mineral King photography

Reminding You of the Beauty of Tulare County

Do you know why I write this blog?

It is because I want to remind us all that there is beauty here in Tulare County. Sometimes I have to put myself out into that beauty and even take my Big Girl Camera with me to get great photos so I can do my job of reminding you of the beauty of Tulare County.

The wildflowers along the lower 6.5 miles of the Mineral King Road are abundant and beautiful. There really aren’t very many places to pull over, so just drive slowly and soak it up. Better yet, have someone else drive, and you can just gawk.

This is spice bush, and it is in bloom right next to the Oak Grove Bridge.There is good water flowing beneath the bridge. This is the upstream view.

This is leaning over the bridge looking downstream. There was a pickup parked on the bridge with rafting stuff. The people were actually rafting down there! I have no idea how they got the raft down to the water or how they got into the thing without having one foot in and one foot out when it shot down some treacherous rapid.

Leaning out over the bridge is all the risk I care to take here.

This is the first time I have noticed the rock work propping up the road over there. STAY PUT, little rocks.

We did a little trespassing to get this view. Now you don’t have to. I don’t know if there is enough color here – just greens and browns, with that little place of blue in the water. The wildflowers are just too small. Maybe I could put some in the foreground, in spite of the fact that there are none there. . .? Time will tell. I still haven’t finished the 24×30″ painting that has been on my easel since January or February! Too busy being out in the beauty of Tulare County to be recording it in paint right now.

Three Rivers Spring Mini-Tour

The last several weeks have been full of coloring books and an oil painting commission of a Three Rivers house. Meanwhile, it is BEAUTIFUL out. Spring is fabulous in Three Rivers (everywhere, yes?) so I took a little tour. Come see these things with me.

Climbing roses are hanging upside down. See? They are on this archway. Time to do a little bit of work on our tour. This is the traffic-stopping, attention-getting sign at Kaweah River Trading Co., the excellent gift shop in town that pushed me to make the local coloring book. Soon they will also be selling colored pencils. You can buy Heart of the Hills there or at the Three Rivers Mercantile or the Three Rivers Historical Museum or here.

My friend has stunning and unusual flowers in her yard. This is what I recorded before my camera battery quit. Sometimes it is good to just be in a place, taking it in without recording everything.

Three Rivers

Spring in Three Rivers, continued

Sometimes it feels as if Spring in Three Rivers lasts for about 20 minutes. This feeling causes me to not want to leave the area, not even to go to Exeter for a day to teach people how to draw, which is something I love to do.

With apologies to the writer of the song “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, I believe with all my heart that Spring is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

Have a look at a few days last week of enjoying Spring in Three Rivers. It is just photography, not art, but it is always a source of inspiration to me.

Three Rivers

Spring in Three Rivers at Kaweah Lake

This is my favorite photo of the whole day. This is one of 3 types of lupine we saw at Kaweah Lake.

This is another type – bush lupine.

Some sort of clover was very abundant and quite fragrant.

This road made me wonder how Three Rivers might be today had Terminus Dam not been built in 1963. The road would meander near the river, and perhaps the river would be more accessible to the public, at least down at that elevation. Most of the river is locked up by private land, and trashy trespassing becomes a real problem every summer.

Visalia, down the hill, would have had massive flooding for many years. It probably would not have the population that it has now, if the dam hadn’t been built.

Like Scarlett, I’ll think about it tomorrow, because today is springtime in Three Rivers and there are wildflowers to gawk at.

Three Rivers

Mineral King in Winter

While I was painting a mural, Trail Guy (AKA RETIRED Road Guy!) went to Mineral King for a day. Every time he does that, he says, “This is weird. You’re going to work and I’m going to play.” I say, “It isn’t weird. It has been normal since you retired.”

Do not feel sorry for me. I LOVE what I do and will only retire when I can no longer paint or draw or teach people how to draw. (Or edit. Have I told you how much I love to edit?)

I know. Shut up and show us some Mineral King. I can read your minds – does this make you squirm?

Mineral King

Mineral King Mineral King photography

Research is an Artist Word for a Field Trip

“Research” is a word that used to bring to mind libraries with stacks of books and the microfiche machine. Now it means Google.

In the case of this Central California artist, it means a field trip.

I drove the 6.5 miles up the Mineral King Road and spent some time walking around the bridge, climbing into areas that I avoid in the summer because I have a healthy fear of rattlesnakes.

Oak Grove Bridge

Lots of rain so far this winter means a decent flow beneath the bridge. I really want to see it if we get a flood-like storm!

Water or root-beer?

It’s difficult to get a photo of it from a straight-on angle. The shrubs and trees keep growing and obstructing the view.

This is the most common angle that I paint.

I’ve never taken this angle before. I think it would be a weird painting.

Sometimes the last support and the abutment visually overlap in my paintings and I get confused by all the shapes.

Might as well take a strange angle of the other side. One never knows what might be helpful.

I think the “T” is for Tulare County. I also needed to see what the detailed shape of this post is, because it is always too small to show in my other paintings. This time, in the 24×30″ painting, it just might matter.

Remember, February 8 at 6 p.m. at the Three Rivers Veterans’ Memorial Building, the Tulare Co. planning commission is holding a meeting about the bridge’s future.

Oak Grove Bridge Tulare county

Mineral King Cabins

I believe that cabin communities are a true treasure of Tulare County, here in Central California. I love to draw cabins. Don’t believe me? My business has been called “Cabin Art” since 1987.

As a studio artist, I work from photos. There is no way to get the level of detail I like while sitting outside. Besides, I’m oldish now, and need a giant magnifying light, along with cheater magnifier glasses.

So, here are a few photos of Mineral King cabins for you to enjoy. Sometimes the light is just right, so I take the same scenes over and over and over.

Mineral King cabins

mineral king cabins

cabin drawings Mineral King Mineral King photography Tulare county

Random Topic Round-up

Here’s a catch-all, catch-up post for you on random topics. My blog post ideas are triggered by pictures, and these were just languishing in the file without purpose.

This painting was very difficult. I worked on it from real life, and from several different photos taken at different times of year. This is the final iteration (unless someone has a suggestion for further improvement).

1509 Barn — Three Rivers Barn, 8×10″, oil, $100

We are in year #4 of a drought. In spite of 15″ of precipitation in July, there was no snow on Bear Skin, the almost-year-around patch on the side of Vandever, which forms one side of Farewell Gap in Mineral King.

Bear Skin on Vandever

My favorite bridge was built in the 1920s and is supposed to be replaced. This fills me with dread. The current plan is to keep this one as a footbridge/landmark and push the road further up the canyon with some sort of newfangled, modern, probably-not-very-attractive contraption that will destroy the simple beauty of this scene. But I am neutral to the subject, keeping an open mind. . .

Sometimes when I drive down the Mineral King Road, I am struck by new scenes. You’d think that after 31 summers of driving it almost weekly that I wouldn’t notice a thing. You’d be wrong.

Mineral King Road

At the end of the Mineral King Road is a bridge. (It was rebuilt in Sept. and Oct. 2011 and the process was documented fully on this blog.) The abutment gets a lot of water abuse on one side, and was piled with rocks to protect it. However, kids love to use rocks to build dams in the stream, and most of those rocks got scooted away! So, the men in uniform and heavy equipment had to come redo the rocky protection underneath the bridge.

Minearl King bridge

Some new friends joined us in Mineral King early in the summer. Mister New Friend was an outstanding photographer, and he took this photo of Trail Guy and me. (Thank you, MAK!)

J+M

Perkins and I thank you for joining us in the random topic round-up.

Mineral King Photography

Trail Guy has really become quite the Mineral King photographer. He was back in the olden days of 35mm SLR cameras with film (remember those??). After we married, I stole his camera because I needed 2 going at all times. (black and white in one, color in the other, or prints in one and slides in the other) He didn’t mind, but I sort of wished he’d take photos too.

Now he carries a little digital camera with him on his hikes. Without my hogging all the good scenes, he is finding his own photographs of Mineral King and the surrounding trails.

If you want specifics, you can ask in the comments or email me using the contact button under the About the Artist menu item.

Mineral King photo by Michael Botkin

Mineral King Mineral King photography