Heavy Seas

(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.)

C1609

“Heavy Seas”

(Elephant Island with the Cat and Kittens beyond, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Raymar Triple Acrylic Primed Cotton Panel

8" x 16"

After I had finished breakfast and watched the Ospreys at Elbow Lake, I headed north up Hwy 101, fully intending to fit in another painting or two before returning to my main base of operations in McMinnville by the Sunday night, two days hence. However, in the end I spent that day driving slowly, stopping at every pond and small lake that I had always passed by over the many times I had passed by over the years.  I was looking for secluded woodland pools, perhaps with lily pads and fallen trees, notwithstanding the fact that they were all hard by the highway and therefore by definition not so secluded.  It was the idea, not the fact I was hunting.  And so I stopped many times, sometimes within a hundred yards from the previous stop.  There may be some that will be acceptable for a future work or two, but the main thing is that I now need not wonder about them in future as I drive past, and some do merit future stops to capture them in different lights and time of the year.  I also stopped into every National Forest and State Park Campground for future reference as well.  I don’t normally camp in these campgrounds, since they are too much like a camp-ground suburbia, especially in the Summer, but in the off-season, they can be fairly quiet and convenient.  This took all day from Elbow Lake to near Heceta Head Light, where I found my little secluded forest clearing safely empty, allowing me to spend the night. 

The next day just a few miles up the road, I approached Yachats, crossed the bridge at beginning to the town, and turned right onto a county road, drove several miles to find and explore a forest road I had spotted while studying the map at breakfast.  I think I was still a bit miffed that I hadn’t been able to complete the West Fork of the Millicoma River road drive I had tried two days before, and was looking for new forest road experiences.  I found the forest road, which wound steeply up the hill out of the river valley, and when it began to level out on the ridge I found myself in a delightful grove of Western Hemlocks for about a half a mile.  Here I had my lunch in a wide spot in the road.  After that several branching smaller forest roads were explored to see what presented themselves for future campsites.  It was a delightful exploration with several future possibilities marked on the map, and I eventually came out on the river road a short distance east of Waldport.  From here I continued north through Newport (stopping to take a shower at South Beach Campground), Lincoln City, on through Hebo and eventually turned right off Hwy 101 to take the Nestucca River Scenic Bi-way which 32 miles later brought me to an old and favoured campsite in the Coast Range above Yamhill, Carlton & McMinnville.  It was in good shape, and someone had cleaned up some of the rubbish that human pigs that purport to be outdoorsmen had left there in the past; sadly there are too many of those about I have found.  A year ago I had burned all the paper I had found there.  This year it appeared no one had been there all Summer, and there was a profusion of daisies in pristine shape.  It was here I had done a small Oil two years ago when the Oregon Iris’ were in bloom and when the daisies were just about come into their own (see here).  I spent the night and in the morning proceeded down to McMinnville and my dental appointment.

The above painting is one of those I had wanted to be ready for the Coos Art Museum Maritime Show, but I had no time to meet the submission deadline, so the small study of the subject was submitted instead (see here).  It will soon be in one of my galleries; I know where I intend it to go, but where I will actually go depends on what I finish for elsewhere in the next 10 days; I may need it elsewhere.

Imprimatura: Vasari Terra Rosa.

Drawing/Block-in: Vasari Terra Rosa & W&N Ultramarine Blue Deep.

The Pigments used were:  Winsor & Newton Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cremnitz White; Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna, Lead white #2 & Flemish White; Vasari Terra Rosa; a tiny amount of mixed green using M. Graham Hansa Yellow Light for a bit of foliage on the cliff.

Ospreys in the Afternoon at Elbow Lake

(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.)

C1614

“Ospreys in the Afternoon”

(Elbow Lake, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

4" x 6"

All good things must come to an end, they say, and so after eleven nights at my Coast Range Campsite on the end of a spur ridge above an old clear-cut, and thus having a view, and with the clear-cut itself on the slopes below my ridge, so as not to be truly noticeable other than allowing that view, I bid farewell to the creatures and flowers and trees with whom I had shared a home for that little while.  They were sad to see me go, I’m quite sure, as together we had shared pristine warm days and crystal cleared nights and mornings above a sea of fog; a thirty-six hour rain when afterwards the mists arose to blend with the low cloud arising in turn, and with the sun shafts breaking through to finally dissipate the last remnants in a golden end of day; and they had watched me draw and paint, no doubt with bated breath, as they waited to see how they turned out. 

But the time came to leave, and so I thanked them for sharing their space with me, as I slowly headed back along the spur ridge, and down into the valley of the West Fork of the Millicoma River.  I had studied my maps and it appeared that there was a back way through to the Drain/Reedsport road that would allow me to explore new territory.  Alas, t’was not to be, as about 11 miles up the river I came to a locked gate preventing any further progress.  So I retraced my steps, took a different road up and over the ridgeline road that I normally take to my campsite, proceeded down another road I had wondered about, which took me out to Hwy 101, further North; an alternate way in on future trips to this area.

I picked up a couple of necessary supplies in Reedsport, and then up and over the big hill north of there.  At the bottom of that hill Elbow Lake appears on the coastal side (left); the big multi-armed Lake Tahkenitch is hidden off to the east of the highway, and was seen from the top of the hill as I proceeded north from Reedsport.  On the way down 12 days before, I had noticed a hidden pull-in very nearby Elbow Lake.  I passed it by, turned around a bit further on, and approached it from the North and backed into it.  One could easily spend the night here, and few would notice, but it was really close and possibly buggy.  Strolling south to the lake taking photographs, I spotted a short lane down to the lakeside.  I retrieved the SUV and drove down there and discovered a small turnaround and space enough to camp.  After a short exploratory and photographic stroll I set up to paint. 

The purpose of this Oil Study originally was to paint looking into the light and catch the sun sparkles on the water.  But this is a good example of how these little Plein Aire paintings can progress during the course of the work.  While painting away, I noticed an Osprey land in a tree top across the lake, and later circling around to take up different vantage points from which to observe the water.  I dabbed him in landing on the tree in which I had first seen him land; there was a nest there at the top of the tree.  I also added him I flight nearby, and so this painting became not only a study of sun sparkles and light, but also a memory jogger that here there be Osprey(s).  The next morning during a breakfast lengthened by watching the Osprey, I discovered that there were indeed Ospreys, as I eventually realized there were three of them … probably a pair and their juvenile.  I took no photos of the Ospreys as they never were close enough to get a reasonable shot.

Imprimatura: None on this one.  I thought about a pale Yellow Ochre one, but since I was beginning this study in mid afternoon, I decided to forego the time it would take.

Drawing/Block-in: Cobalt Blue.

The Pigments used were:  M. Graham Hansa Yellow Pale; Winsor & Newton Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cremnitz & Titanium Whites; a very small amount of Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre.

Above the Morning Mist

(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.)

C1612

“Above the Morning Mist”

(Oregon Coast Range)

Oil Sketch on Panelli Tellati Linen Panel

6" x 8"

Again early morning mist in the valleys, but not as marvelous as here depicted, which is based on the second morning here at this campsite, last week (6^th July).  During breakfast I kept noticing the local wildlife, and at one point I said to myself, Everybody’s coming out today, when I realized just that; this happened three mornings during the couple of weeks I camped here.  Some days you notice this bird and that bird, this chipmunk and that rabbit, and so on, but not all of these creatures every day, but then, as today, it seems that all the different species you have seen all appear over a short period of time, and you wonder where they and what were they doing on those days that only a few made their appearance.  This serves as a reminder that spending time in one place is well worthwhile, for you become familiar with the plants and animals and even the insects on your patch … and they become familiar with you.

Wednesday (13^th July) and the next day were spent leisurely working away on this work, using my sketchbook drawing as a reference, as well as the actual landscape, and trees before me, and also referring occasionally to the photos of the misty morning I had taken the week before.  All this was necessary since I had constructed the landscape from the reality, by selecting and moving the various trees around to form the composition.  Although I was painting in the Plein Aire I don’t consider this a Plein Aire work, more of a studio painting happened to be painted in the Plein Aire.  The same palette was used for this painting as for the last painting.

Imprimatura: Vasari Terra Rosa.

Drawing/Block-in: Terra Rosa and Ultramarine Blue Deep.

The Pigments used were:  Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna, Cyprus Raw Umber Deep, Cyprus Warm Burnt Umber; Winsor & Newton Cobalt, Cerulean & Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cadmium Yellow Pale (not a lot) Permanent Rose (just a tad for the couple of Foxgloves) & Cremnitz White; M. Graham Hansa Yellow Pale.

Beethoven in the Coast Range

(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.)

C1613

“Foxgloves in the Coast Range”

(Oregon Coast Range)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

5" x 7"

If you have not listened to Beethoven’s Ninth, while having breakfast on the end of a ridge after a 36 hour rain, and while watching the mist in the valleys below rising to join the cloud not far above you, and with spears of sunlight breaking through, now and again, to light patches of far hillside, feebly at first, then with increasing frequency, and promising a final clearing to come soon … you have not lived.  Even though I often listen to Classical Music Public Radio here in the States, and Radio 3, when in Britain, I never had much of a Classical Music Album/Cassette/CD collection.  That changed over this past Winter, when I had a brainstorm.  I began to finger through the CD shelves at Goodwill and used my Christmas money from my sisters to begin my Classical Music Collection, at less than $2 per CD!  The bonus is that at that price you can afford to make the odd mistake, though I rarely have, and they are usually to be found in excellent condition … Classical Music listeners seem to take care of their CDs better than any other music listeners.  I have saved them all on my PC, then transferred them to a dedicated exterior hard-drive, as well as backed them up on further hard-drives during my normal backups, all in WAVE formats.  I have further copied the collection to my Tablet, which automatically converts them to MP3 format, so I can easily listen when it is not convenient to break out the PC.

Monday the 11^th of July was such a day, and when breakfast and Beethoven had finished, and the day had cleared sufficiently to set up the Solar Array, I set up to paint.  I was going to paint an Oil of my sketchbook drawing of the day before, and I proceeded far enough to cover the panel in an imprimatura, and draw in the composition, but I was taken with the way the light was falling onto a patch of grass and foxgloves set against the dark of the forest beyond, so I quickly set to work on the new panel, and the result is that shown above.  The Forest was so enjoyable that I realized by this time that I would not be going down to paint the coast at Bandon, as I usually do.  I needed this woodland sojourn, after spending so much time in town, over the past year, on the commissioned works I have previously mentioned. 

As usual, I am mentioning the pigment used, and you will see that I have used two bright yellows, as well as my old favorite Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre.  The Hansa Yellow Light is, for me, a new colour added to my palette this past Spring.  When reading about other Artist’s palettes, I often have seen this Yellow mentioned.  I have not always been happy with the denseness of some of my mixed greens using the Cadmiums, and decided to give Hansa Yellow a try.  Mixed with Cerulean it gives me the bright greens I was looking for, and it also gives creditable greens when mixed with other blues as well.  The Greens found in Nature are many and varied, and Hansa Yellow adds another tool to further master this variability in my work.

Imprimatura: Vasari Terra Rosa.

Drawing/Block-in: Ultramarine Blue Deep.

The Pigments used were:  Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna, Cyprus Raw Umber Deep, Cyprus Warm Burnt Umber; Winsor & Newton Cobalt, Cerulean & Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cadmium Yellow Pale (not a lot) Permanent Rose & Cremnitz White; M. Graham Hansa Yellow Pale.

Morning Mist in the Coast Range

(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.)

Sketchbook Drawing 20160707 Pg-57

"Morning Mist"

(Oregon Coast Range)

Sepia & Walnut Ink Drawing with Washes

on Fabriano Ingres 160 gsm paper bound in  Sketchbook

7" x 10”

During the previous days when I was working on the “Haynes Inlet” Oil, and enjoying watching the natural world surrounding me, I also went through my photographs of the, now daily, morning mists.  I chose several to work on in Photoshop.  This was also a time to really give my Suitcase Solar array a good workout.  I had purchased this some time ago, but had not had the chance to really give it a thorough testing.  I set it up outside the truck, ran 45 feet of cable to my Full-River AGM Deep-Cycle Battery nestling in the footwell of the front passenger seat, to keep that battery recharging while I worked on my PC.  With that length of cable my SUV and I were able to remain cool in the shade, while the solar array soaked up the sunlight.  I had built a plywood box to house my battery, and within the same box I had installed two 12-Volt DC sockets and a Tri-Metric meter to keep an eye on the state of the battery charge.  This meter is really essential to keep from abusing a very expensive battery.  This set up seems to be able to meet my electrical needs, which are my PC, tablet and phone, and also provides a backup in case I inadvertently rundown my auto battery while stationery in a campsite for an extended period.  Of course I cannot be profligate with my uses, as my power reservoir is not unlimited, and there are cloudy days.  I have digressed from my Photoshop work.  Once I got the photographs worked up I duplicated them and saved them as JPEGs, and transferred copies to my tablet via Bluetooth. 

As I was finishing up after supper on Thursday, July 7^th, the clear and beautifully pristine weather looked to be at an end, for as the sun settled over the horizon, low clouds began to stream in from the WNW.  Singly at first and then in clumps, some grazing the hilltops, not sure whether they wanted to be clouds or rising mist; perhaps it was sea-mist that had risen to become cloud.  There was still sky showing between and even stars later on between these rapidly moving watery shrouds, but the previous promise of another wonderful starry evening had disappeared within half an hour.  And during the night I awoke to a light rain pattering atop my roof. 

It was a different kind of beauty in the morning, as clumps of mist rose out of the valleys to join with the low overcast above.  Showers came and went.  I took the photos of the misty mornings of the previous few days I had worked on, and between them I lightly composed the structure of a drawing in my large sketchbook, of light blue Fabriano Ingres paper.  This was a first for working in my outdoor sketchbooks, as normally I am drawing the scene before me.  And I still was to a certain extent, since the various foreground trees in the composition were before me for reference, even though I had rearranged them to make a drawing … just a reminder, that drawing and painting is not reportage, but to make Art.  Those familiar with my work, especially my quite detailed Watercolours, may think that they look photographic, but there have always been decisions made as to composition, and tone and colour.  Usually not so much in the sketchbooks, as they are mostly used for information gathering, but in the above drawing, the rearranging of the elements were necessary to best convey that information I wished to gather.

After I set down the structure of pencil lines, I headed for town and the Artists’ Preview at the Museum.  Nice to see acquaintances, at the opening, and concentrate on a few people close by at the wonderful meal at Puerto Vallarta Mexican Restaurant, over the road from the Museum.  I had the shrimp wrapped in bacon with rice, beans etc.; I discovered this dish here two years ago, and have since not been able to go for something different, at this event.  Back to camp, and then the next day back down for the general preview and wonderful dinner within the exhibition space itself.  This is when the aforementioned auction took place, and the little Oil, which I contributed for this event, sold.  After the festivities, it was back to my campsite, and the intermittent rain of the day settled in for the next 36 hours with only a couple of breaks long enough for me to do some water heating and cooking.  This was the perfect situation to continue on and finish with the above sketch.  Incidentally, I have dated it for the day I took the main recon photos.  My drawing implements consist of various pencils, mostly mechanical, Conté Crayons, Creta-colour chalks, Walnut Ink, Sepia Acrylic Ink, Roberson Kolinsky Sable brushes [whose handles unscrew to become protective caps … I got mine years and years ago at Cornelissen & Son on Great Russell St. in London], various dip pen nibs [of Japanese, American, and English manufacture], and their handles,  and the following tin of Watercolour pans & half-pans: Rowney Warm Sepia, W&N Sepia, W&N Burnt Umber, Light Red, Burnt Sienna, Naples Yellow, Cobalt Blue, Scarlet Vermilion, Cobalt Blue, Chinese & Titanium Whites.  This is a severe selection of Watercolours, but I mainly am intent on producing “Sepia” wash drawings, on toned paper, heightened with white.

Beginning a Coast Range Idyll

(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.)

C1611

"On Haynes Inlet"

(Coos Bay, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

4" x 6

It has taken me awhile to get back into the swing of things, as far as posting to my blog is concerned, and it will be a slow, but I hope fairly steady renaissance … as it were.  The Annual Coos Art Museum Maritime Show opened on the ninth of July, and I was in attendance for both the Artists’ Preview and the Private View the next evening.  I left town at 22:00 on the 3^rd, and travelled down to one of my secret clearings in the forested Coast Range near Heceta Head, spending the night and leisurely proceeding on towards Coos Bay the next day.  I went up into the Coast Range NE of Coos Bay watched the 4^th of July fireworks from 15 miles away, or at least those that shot high enough to be seen above the intervening hills … binoculars were de rigueur.  Always nice to see them from a distance, avoiding crowds and the noise; my own private display.  Found the forest road I camped on last year, and on which I painted the work seen here, which is now in the Earthworks Gallery, in Yachats, Oregon.  The next day I toddled on down to the Museum and delivered my two small works for the coming show, topped off my supplies, petrol, etc. and did a bit of recon on the way back to my chosen Forest Road campsite.  After a leisurely supper, and a bit of star gazing, it was off to bed; sooooo nice to be back in the Wild. 

Up bright and early the next morning, I fully intended to get the above painting done for Saturday’s Auction in support of the Museum, but the beauty of the Wild intervened and I spent most of the day just watching unfold around me and … enfold me.  After the months spent in a windowless studio completing the commission, mentioned recently, I needed to just drink in silence.  As I arose that first morning the valleys, below the ridge on which I was camped, were filled with mist … I was above a sea of fog … a view I have wanted to see for ages.  Between recon photos and observations, I breakfasted, and by the time I finished my morning coffee most of the mists had cleared from the valleys, only hanging on for awhile in those closer to the coast.  And then it was watching the birdlife, the occasional rabbit, the resident chipmunks, and Bambi and his/her Mom grazed down the road, much as a previous generation had last year.

Late in the day I finally dug out the paint box, studied the pencil drawing I had done the previous afternoon on my way back from delivery, laid down an imprimatura on the canvas panel and applied the brush drawing.  I let this dry overnight and the next day set to it again, but with no real hurry, as my “Nature-watch” continued.  On the third day, I touched up a couple of places, and inserted the heron, and threw it into its frame, ready for the auction, completely forgetting to photograph it before doing so; thus the framed photos above.  Three days of beautiful clear skies, warm but not hot temperatures … the way I like it.  Ahhhhh!  Nice!

Oh yeah … and by the way … the above Oil of Haynes Inlet did sell at the auction.

Coos Art Museum Maritime Show soon …

… and the commission I’ve been working on so long is finished and will be shipped next week.  I finished the first painting on February 15^th and the second on the 4^th of May, and I’ve been playing catch-up ever since.  No … you can’t see the finished works since part of the contract is no publicity.  The worst thing is that I am paid in British pounds sterling and the pound has been falling in relation to the dollar, thanks to the possibility of Britain exiting Europe. 

I had hoped to finish them a week or two earlier, so I could do a couple of Seascapes to meet the submission deadline for the Coos Art Museum Maritime show, but that was not to be, so I submitted a couple of small Oils done on-site last October (as seen below), and they were accepted into this year’s show.

The Exhibition is open to the general public from July 10, 2016 – September 24, 2016, at the Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Avenue Coos Bay, Oregon 97420; Phone: 541-267-3901.

C1605

"Blown before the Storm"

(China Creek, Bandon, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

5" x 7"

C1605

"Heavy Seas at Elephant Island

with the Cat and Kittens Beyond"

(Bandon, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

5" x 7"

Sold during Exhibition

The first one you have seen before, in a post last Autumn.  I was going to post the second one as well, but I kept looking at it and finally put a few finishing touches on it only in the Spring, so I had it on hand when the submission deadline loomed.  I’m looking forward to the opening weekend in 3 weeks, or so … I need a beer; I haven’t had one since the Artists’ get together, at the Mexican Restaurant & over the road from the Museum, last year!  Maybe I’ll push the boat out and have two this year!!

Miniature Painting Award

(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.)

C1423

“Summer Morning on Bench Lake”

(Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington Cascades)

A Watercolour Miniature

2⅛” x 4¼”

$800.00

complete with frame

Contact the Artist

The above Classic Miniature Watercolour received a Merit Award in the recent "31^st Annual Miniature Art 2015 Exhibition" at the Council for the Arts of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; one of four cash awards given, from a field of 207 Miniatures in the show.

I intend to write a bit about Miniatures once I return to regularly posting herein.

Where Are I?

I know it has been two months since my last posting, but there was a lot of paperwork to be done after my dear old Mom died … and now there are the annual accounts to prepare, as well.  There is also the matter the commissions I have been working for the past 13 months, throughout it all, and on which I have a concentrated few weeks left to finish them off.  Therefore, I beg your forbearance, and will reappear in the next posting when those are completed.  After that I will be preparing to get back out into the wild to paint and begin posting them here.  Meanwhile, I will leave you with a page from one of my sketchbooks, done several years ago in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge.  Ta ta, for now ...

“Lower Lewis Falls”

(Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington Cascades)

From an Original Sketchbook Drawing in Sepia Wash

heightened with White & Naples Yellow on Turner’s Blue Paper

(sketchbook page size approx. 5” x 7”)

There is also a Middle & Upper Lewis Falls, both of which I saw as well, before I came back to this site and drew this scene.  It was 18:21 when I began this sketch and had to work rapidly before the light faded.  I downed tools at 20:07.  On a brighter day I might have worked longer, but it had gradually clouded over throughout the afternoon.