Doesn’t “Mineral King Mural Finished” sound like a newspaper headline? My “client” (what a stuffy word) Mrs. Cowboy called a reporter friend from her local newspaper to ask her if she’d like to write up our project, but the reporter was covering a mule packing class that day.

Because of the heat and time constraints, I went out to paint early in the morning. It is easy to do this when you are staying in the building where the mural is. This location is 2 hours from Three Rivers, so I had to make the most of the time available, which was 2 days.

This is how it looked at 7 a.m. on Day Two after 7 hours of painting on Day One.

I detailed things for an hour, then stopped, knowing I’d get back to it around noon. I was hungry and don’t believe in the myth of the “starving artist”. Mrs. Cowboy has New Hampshire Red chickens and guinea fowl, so there were fresh eggs for breakfast.

Oh my, that tarp was so very necessary.

I coated everything a second time and tried to detail as I went. But, just as a writer cannot proofread his own work, an artist can’t “proofread” her own painting.

Trail Guy and Mrs. Cowboy were on hand to discuss various details of the mural and help me get it to the best it could be. We added textures, messed with shapes, fiddled a bit with colors.

And just for fun, notice how the shadow cast by the tarp has moved throughout the day.

I purposely made the colors brighter than real life. This is because the mural faces East and will fade in the strong morning sun. Morning sun isn’t as damaging as afternoon sun or even as bad as all day winter sun, but it does suck out all the yellows first. This means the greens will turn bluish, and the grays will go to lavender.

After 13-1/2 hours over two days, this was our Mineral King mural. No longer was a fast horse necessary for optimal viewing, although a neighbor did ride up partway through the process.

Wow. Looks like someone successfully photoshopped a Mineral King photograph onto a door.

Nope. I painted that in 13-1/2 hours! (Imagine the sound of an arm breaking from patting oneself on the back. . .)

Why estimate hours when it is thank you gift? Because all murals are practice for me, and if I am getting paid, I need to be able to successfully estimate the time it will take. I’d say that was a mighty fine guess! (an “educated guess”, based on experience)

It needs 3 more things: a title, a hidden item, and a bear. Later. Now I have to go earn some money!

The Cabins of Wilsonia Book Signing, Saturday, April 4, 3-7 p.m., Three Rivers Historical Museum