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"

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"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).