The Most Popular Mineral King Oil Painting Subject

Five steps closer to completing a new painting of the classic Mineral King view, but still about 60 steps from actual completion.

Remember this?

It is 30″ high, and I can’t reach the top very well. That’s okay, because it is movable.

The cabin is too wide.

Better.

I’m not trying to be exactly true to the photo. I am trying to make it look believable, and after looking at it for 39 years, drawing it about a dozen times in pencil and painting it at least 64 times*, I can recognize when things aren’t quite right.

However, I am making free with the locations of the rocks in the river.

Now there is a base coat on almost everything. Maybe two more layers will do the trick: one to fill out and finish covering the shapes and another to detail it. But then I’ll have to detail it more. And then it will need more correcting. After I show it to my most discerning critics, I’ll need to correct it even further. (See? 60 more steps ahead)

Changing the sizes, the lighting, the cropping—these things keep me interested when I continue to paint the same scenes over and over.

*Really! I counted my photos of the completed paintings, so I know this is true, and there might even be more that I didn’t photograph. Curious? Here they are up through 2016, when the count was at 32.

Same Mineral King Scene

More Farewell Gap Mineral King Oil Paintings

Mineral King Oil Paintings, Continued

Still Oil Painting in Mineral King

And Yet More Mineral King Oil Paintings

The Last Oil Paintings in Mineral King

One More Mineral King Oil Painting?

Finishing a Big One

I am referring to finishing a large (12×24″) oil painting that I started in August, and then left to gather dust and spider webs while I worked on smaller paintings. Smaller paintings provide something closer to instant gratification; larger paintings build character.

These photos were taken in August.

These were taken in October, a progression of adding paint. You might notice that Vandever (the peak on the right) grew in height. If you are particularly observant, you may notice some angle changes too.

The painting was wet and shiny, so the final photo is not telling the true story. (. . . pants on fire)

I rotated the easel every direction, wasting film like crazy.

NO, I WASN’T WASTING FILM! I have a digital camera. But you probably knew that, because I am so modern, so quick to adopt new technology.

I can hear you thinking sarcastically, “Sure you are.”

This is Farewell Gap at dusk, in Mineral King. (I bet you guessed that already). Perhaps the title will be “Farewell Gap at Dusk”, because I am just clever that way sometimes.

A Week of Mineral King, Chapter 5: Eagle Lake

Yesterday we stopped at the Eagle Lake dam, a steep hike on a tough trail out of Mineral King. 

Wait—isn’t there supposed to be a lake? Isn’t that the purpose of the dam? 

Well, oops. The dam either didn’t get closed last fall or it got opened too soon this summer. Looks more like Eagle Pond.

However, these gentlemen caught quite a few fish (catch and release, using a spinner).

Little Sis replaced her cat ears with a Kevin jacket (ever seen “Up”?). We watched the raindrops on the pond while discussing circles, ripples, and shiny places.

The Farmer found a checkerboard as he explored the edges of the pond, formerly known as Eagle Lake. My guess is that some youngsters’ phone batteries died so some oldsters showed them this primitive, non-tech game.

The exposed rocks in the lake are bizarrely geometrical.

This is the “normal” view of the lake, looking back toward Mineral King.

And this is looking toward the upper end of the lake. 

I’ve painted it from a similar angle.

Enough recreation and lollygagging. Time to make like a cowpie and hit the trail.

The Farmer found this rock, and we all thought it would make a great paving stone but had the good sense to leave it as a concept rather than a reality. It is a weird geologic formation, not someone’s early attempt at mosaic.

Does this look like a trail to you?? I turned back toward Eagle Lake to take this photo, because even though I’ve hiked it many times, it still astonishes me.

Finally found some flowers. These are Pride of the Mountains. Sawtooth is in the distance, with its “shadow”, Mineral Peak just to the right.

Well, yea. A little bit of good trail bed.

Haha. Fooled you. Climb over these rocks, you mountain goat.

After the rocks, I stopped taking photos with the exception of two more of the scene that I have been struggling to paint for 2-3 years now. (Not gonna show you that sorry mess today.)

With 2 miles left to go, Little Sis ran out of gas. She asked for breaks about every 20 yards. That is the slowest mile I have ever walked on a trail, and we were quite relieved that her pa was waiting at the White Chief junction. They did a pack shuffle, and she rode the last mile on her pa’s shoulders. I chased Big Bro for awhile at a rapid pace, marveling that the child never ran out of steam, never slowed, never complained.

Those are two amazing children who accomplished a huge journey on foot.

Tomorrow, we will return to White Chief, our favorite destination.

A Repair and an Agreeable Customer

If you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blog.

Repair

This returned painting now has a cleaned up sky, new snow on Bearskin and new whitewater in the creek. I photographed it wet, which is why the color looks patchy. It is not actually inserted in the frame, which is why it looks unframed. Duh. I just propped it in the frame so I could photograph it.

Redo for an Agreeable Customer

 This sign was well used and loved for 10 years.

The customer asked for a larger one this time, so I ordered a 20″ round instead of the 12″ version. After applying 3 coats of exterior paint to both sides, I decide that the back of the round would make a more interesting sign than the flat front. The customer is very agreeable, so that’s what I will do.

I used oil paint on the first sign because I was unable to achieve a satisfactory level of detail with mural (acrylic) paints. Because this one is bigger, I am going to try it in the mural paints, and then if the detail needs to be tightened up, I will finish it off with oil paints.

I love these custom jobs for agreeable customers with no deadlines.

 

 

Still Painting Mineral King in the Heat

For those of you who subscribe and read the blog post on your phone: if you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blog.

Again, I say that painting elevation while down in the heat has no benefits, other than in one’s imagination. Sawtooth, visible from Mineral King in this painting, is 12,343′ in elevation; Three Rivers (where I live) is 1000′. They say (“they”? who is this?) that the temperature drops 3 degrees for every 1000′ gained in elevation. You can do the math if you’d like; I’m too overheated.

This isn’t quite finished. When it is dry, I will do some nitpicking, careful evaluating, and then will make corrections and plant wildflowers. Of course I will plant wildflowers—do not doubt me on this! 

P.S. The color looks washed out here – does heat affect photography too??

Links to other posts about painting Sawtooth:

  1. Department of Redundancy Dept.
  2. Lots of Sawtooths (Sawteeth? Nah)
  3. Almost finished with the Sawtooth paintings
  4. You just won’t believe this one
  5. Back to Sawtooth
  6. Really Painting Sawtooth Again

Painting Mineral King, Chapter Nth

If you read this blog through an email subscription on your phone, the photos might not show up. (Some people get them, some do not.) You can see them by going to the blog on the internet. It is called cabinart.net/blog, and the latest post is always on top.

In the summer, I paint Mineral King scenes, over and over and over. Thank you for showing up anyway.

Hi Tucker. I wasn’t talking to you, but you are always welcome anywhere I am.

Aspens grow in Mineral King. I don’t think they would survive down the hill in the heat, but they are native to Tulare County at higher elevations. Can you tell that this little square will be a picture of aspens?

Can you tell now?

Here are two more 6×6″ oil paintings, photographed with a phone rather than a camera, and too wet to scan at this point. I think people are getting cautious with spending again, so smaller paintings might sell more quickly than large ones.

There–now you can see that these are aspens.

All will retail for $65 plus that dastardly California sales tax unless you live in a less golden state. Alas, I am a Central California artist, a regionalist from California’s flyover country, and high tax is part of this place. 

Mineral King Oil Paintings For Sale

If you subscribe to the blog and read the email on your phone, the photos might not show up. (Some people get them, some do not; it isn’t a problem I know how to solve.) You can see them by going to the blog on the internet. It is called cabinart.net/blog, and the latest post is always on top.

“Mineral King Oil Paintings For Sale” sounds pushy. That isn’t my intention. The idea is to let you know these are completed and available. Their next stop is the Silver City Store, four miles below the Mineral King valley. However, if you’d like to intercept one before it heads up the hill, that can be arranged.

Sawtooth I, 8×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125 (plus California sales tax)
Mineral King Aspens, 8×8″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125 (plus California sales tax)
Honeymoon Cabin III, 8×10″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125 (plus California sales tax)
Sawtooth Ridge, 6×18″, oil on wrapped canvas, $165 (plus California sales tax)
Mineral King Alpenglow, 6×12″, oil on wrapped canvas, $125 (plus California sales tax)

P.S. They all look better in person.

Wildflowers as Tiny Colored Dots

If you read this blog through an email subscription on your phone, the photos might not show up. (Some people get them, some do not.) You can see them by going to the blog on the internet. It is called cabinart.net/blog, and the latest post is always on top.

Wildflowers drive my hiking choices, and ever since publishing Mineral King Wildflowers (almost sold out), I look for opportunities to put them in my oil paintings. Because I paint small, they end up as tiny dots. 

Doesn’t matter, because those tiny colored dots are magical enhancements of scenes that would otherwise be primarily green, gray and brown.

Remember this oil painting? It sold very quickly due to those tiny colored dots.

So, of course I painted it again. Here is the sequence.

Once it is dry enough to scan, I will show you a non-shiny version with colors that are closer to the real painting.

Chop-chop and Doing What I Want

If you subscribe to the blog and read the email on your phone, the photos might not show up. (Some people get them, some do not; it isn’t a problem I know how to solve.) You can see them by going to the blog on the internet. It is called cabinart.net/blog, and the latest post is always on top.

Here is another new Mineral King oil painting of an old subject, the Honeymoon Cabin, which is a museum for the Mineral King Preservation Society. It was in a state of rough first layer for a few weeks, and then suddenly July happened, which is when sales pick up at the Silver City Store.

Chop-chop, Central California artist!

8×10″, $125 (+sales tax), probably underpriced, quick, get it before I raise my prices.

I looked again at this painting of Sawtooth, which has been hanging for awhile as I mulled it over before putting it on the scanner. 

While flipping through my photos, I ran across one with my favorite yellow wildflower, Bigelow Sneezeweed (terrible name for a delightful bloom). I said to myself, “Self”, I said, “Why not?”

If this 6×18″ oil painting with its radical addition of yellow flowers doesn’t sell, I can always paint them out. I am 62 years old, self-employed, experienced in all subjects Mineral King, and I get to do what I want to my paintings.

Any questions?

Making Two Paintings Better

If you subscribe to the blog and read the email on your phone, the photos might not show up. (Some people get them, some do not; it isn’t a problem I know how to solve.) You can see them by going to the blog on the internet. It is called cabinart.net/blog, and the latest post is always on top.The other day I just sat in front of these two Mineral King oil paintings with Tucker shedding, purring, and slobbering on my lap. While holding my favorite cat (sorry Pippin and Jackson, but I have known your uncle a year longer than I have known you), I studied the paintings carefully, wondering how I could make them better.

The answer usually lies in better contrast, and shaggier edges. Not that shaggy edges are always the answer, but in this case a few edges were a bit smoother than real life.

Never mind. Just look now and see if they look better to you (bearing in mind that they are now too wet to scan and that they always look better in person).

Each of these paintings is 8×8″, and I spent way more time on them than justified by the $100 (+tax) sales price each.

It is probably time to raise my prices. That is hard to do, because people are just trying to keep food on the table and gas in the car, and art is not a necessity. (It is for me, but I think you understand my point.)