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Thursday, November 6, 2014

Gulls rising over Neskowin

C1572
"Gulls Rising over Neskowin"
(Oregon Coast)
Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel
With additional coat of Williamsburg Lead Primer
8" x 6"


(Take Note: for those of you who have signed up to be notified by email of new postings to this blog, you have been receiving not just a notification, but an actual copy of the new blog posting as the email.  As this does not show the images of the paintings in the best possible light, you should click on the title of the latest blog posting at the top of the post, and not the title of the painting itself; this will open up the actual blog itself, and you may then enjoy the paintings at their best.)

(Take further note that the photos of the past few paintings have been taken with my tablet and thus may not be up to the standard seen when the originals are scanned ... can't wait to get my laptop back!)

The evening after I sold the Oil Sketch off the easel, as it were, I continued up the coast to the clearing in the forest where I had spent last Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, but someone had cut 11 trees down and left them clogging up the clearing making it impossible to get my SUV in there.  There were several logs cut to equal lengths, so I am hoping that the tree cutter had a permit to cut for firewood, and that the clearing will be cleared  by the time I am next passing.  I spent the night about a hundred yards back down the forest road, in not as pleasant a spot; 100 yards can make a difference.

Overcast and grey, the next day, with drizzle now and again, as I passed through the long narrow town of Lincoln City, which used to be five separate municipalities.  Usually just north of there, I turn inland and through the Coast Range to McMinnville, but this time I continued up the coast to Neskowin.  This little stretch of Oregon Coast, I think I may have been on once before, but I am not entirely sure about that, as this stretch of about 5 miles is easily bypassed by those coming from  McMinnville and heading for the coast to Lincoln City and points South, or to Pacific City and points North; and bypass it we did on previous trips to the coast.  I had seen a photo of the beach and Proposal Rock at Neskowin, a couple of years ago, and had determined to stop down there at some future date, and failing in that endeavor last November, this time I managed it.  

It is a wide beach here with an island (Proposal Rock, named for the turn of the 19th to 20th century marriage proposal of Charles Gage to Della Page) at high tide where the creek enters the sea.  Strolling on out to the island, between drizzles, I took a few photos and a pencil sketch in my pocket sketchbook.  The seas were still running high, as it had been yesterday, with nice big swells crashing onto the shore in the distance, and flocks of gulls occasionally rising from the water's edge.  I filed this away in my mind and the next day in one of my favorite forest clearings (seen here), I painted the above sketch from my pencil drawing.  This is one of those works that could be deemed a complete work in itself, thus meriting my usual signature instead of my monogram, but where it comes down to intent; as I have said before, sometimes there is a fine degree between those works deemed to be a sketch and those as a painting, and it usually is defined by the intent; just as when Charles proposed to Della, I expect.

On the technical side, I painted eveything except most of the gulls at once, but ended up leaving most of them until the surface was touch dry, to avoid smearing the background as I touched in the smallest of them; the three in the foreground were easily placed later on as well.  Imprimatura: Venetian Red, with the block-in with Ultramarine.  The rest of the pigments were Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre & Italian Burnt Sienna (from Rublev), Ultramarine, Cobalt & Cerulean Blues, Venetian Red and Cremnitz White (all by W&N).

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Wave Action at Neptune State Park

C1571
"Wave Action"
(Neptune State Park, below Cape Perpetua, Oregon Coast)
Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel
With additional coat of Williamsburg Lead Primer
4" x 6"

(Take Note: for those of you who have signed up to be notified by email of new postings to this blog, you have been receiving not just a notification, but an actual copy of the new blog posting as the email.  As this does not show the images of the paintings in the best possible light, you should click on the title of the latest blog posting at the top of the post, and not the title of the painting itself; this will open up the actual blog itself, and you may then enjoy the paintings at their best.)

"So, where's the painting?" I here you cry.  Well ... read on.  The next day after painting Heceta Head Light, I moved a few miles up the coast to Neptune State Park, immediately below Cape Perpetua.  I had spent an afternoon here in November 2007 with Cyndi, taking many photographs of the incoming waves crashing onto the slabs of rock that make up the shore here.  Back in the studio I painted what might just be my most perfect wave painting in Watercolour.  I thought about that as I stopped at the overlook on the highway above, and decided to go down and work up an Oil Sketch.  The swells coming in were of a good size, and produced some good wave explosions as they hit the rocks ... nothing absolutely spectacular, but good journeyman crashes.  I spent a couple enjoyable hours, working up the small sketch, with reasonable results.  It's a popular place to stop and photograph the sea, and there were many doing just that, and others just viewing the incoming waves.  As I was proceeding back up to my truck with my small sketch in hand, I was accosted by a lady who asked if she could take a look.  "Why, of course!" I replied, showing her and her husband my afternoon's effort.  Well, we talked about the painting and what I was doing, and eventually, I continued on to my vehicle.  As they passed I showed them a couple more sketches that were drying on the dashboard, where all sketches live for a couple of days after they are painted.  "Do you sell your work, or are they just for yourself?"  she asked.  "Well, yes I do."  I replied, and proceeded to sell the one I had just completed, and the first one she had seen.  I wondered whether they had seen me painting down there, but no they only noticed the sketch in my hand as I was heading for my car.  And I completely forgot to take a photograph of it!!!  So would the couple from Texas, please take a photo of their recent on-site acquisition and email me a copy.  Many thanks.  

And for the Texas couple the following information is included about their painting: Imprimatura (a translucent layer of thin pigment over the white ground to give a mid-tone to the panel upon which the sketch is then painted): Venetian Red, with the block-in (the compositional drawing) with Ultramarine.  The rest of the pigments were Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre & Italian Burnt Sienna (from Rublev), Ultramarine, Cobalt & Cerulean Blues, Venetian Red and Cremnitz White (all by Winsor & Newton).