Coos Art Museum 25th Annual Maritime Show

It seems that the past few years, when I have been included in this exhibition, I have left late in the evening for the coast and been lucky enough to have found one of my favorite campsites unoccupied; this time was no exception and I pulled into the hidden little spot not far from the highway, about 1:30 AM.  I prefer a late night start to getting up early the next morning to get on the road … those early morning starts never seem to be that early; or perhaps they are, if you consider my late night as an extremely early morning!  I spent the next day and night there, before heading on down to Coos Bay on Friday, 13^th of July for the Artists Private View that evening.  It’s always nice to see friends and acquaintances during this weekend, and meeting new people as well.  Here follows my entry to the show, and is available for sale through the Coos Art Museum (See bottom of page for details).

 C1610

“A Light in the Storm”

(Destruction Island Light, Washington Coast)

Oil on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

12” x 24”

(Close-up Detail)

The Saturday was the actual private view, complete amazing buffet, which is always a highlight being accepted into the show for me.  This was preceded by a ride around the bay on a tugboat for sixteen of the artists, myself included.  The exhibition continues until September 29^th of this year, and I highly recommend that you stop to see it if you are down on the South/Central Oregon Coast before then.

I remained down in the area for the next month, catching up on blog posts (which you now should have been notified about … see last post), and doing paperwork, with only a little bit of reconnaissance, but I looked at the sea a lot in spite of the paperwork drudgery.  The only thing about that coast at that time of the year is the continuous chill northerly wind, and this year it was especially vicious, before slackening off somewhat before I left.  However, I preferred the coolness of the coolness of the coast to the sweltering heat of the rest of Oregon, and which I am now suffering, now that I am back in the Willamette Valley. 

And to remind you again, as I stated in my last posting, I have a couple of commissions to be getting on with, and whatever I can get finished for some Miniature Shows coming up in the Autumn, so I may not have much to be posting for awhile.  You do have nine posts, to be getting on with, that you should now have been notified about, and of course, I know you will be dying to read every word and study every photograph in detail … hell, I would!

Until next time …

Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Avenue, Coos Bay, OR   541-267-3901

www.coosart.org/maritime-2018/

Notifications ... hopefully sorted.

Yesterday I posted a "This is a test only,"  posting, which I hope to delete, perhaps tomorrow.  It appears that all those who have signed for notifications by email, whenever I have made a new posting on my blog, have not been receiving them since the middle of May, when I was just leaving the Zion National Park area ... and thus NINE POSTS HAVE PILED UP!!!

Even though I have signed up to be notified that I have posted on my blog, I didn't notice that I wasn't receiving these notifications, mainly because my Internet time was severely limited out in the wilds of Utah, Nevada and southern Oregon, between Zion & Yamhill County, Oregon.  Thanks to my brother mentioning he hadn't seen a new post for awhile, and the friends down in Bandon by the Sea (Oregon south/central coast), saying the same thing when I was down that way for the Coos Art Museum Maritime Show (more on that next post), I finally had a chance to delve into the problem, during the last three days at the McMinnville Library.  It took quite awhile to work out the 'help' terminology (not always helpful), and then posting the 'test' last evening just as the library was closing.  Today three of my email addresses received the test notification email, and Titles of all the other nine postings that, I guess, were never sent out!  

If all is in order now, then whenever a new post occurs, you should receive a notification email in summary form, where you then click on it to take you to my blog.  It would be helpful if those of you that know me would let me know that you have received a notification for yesterday's 'this is a test' posting, and this post published today.  It appears that I receive my notifications, the day after I have posted them ... I don't know why ... is that when you, my readers, receive them?

So that's all folks, for today.  I will get a new proper post out in the next day or three, and after that it may be awhile until my next post, as I have a couple of commissions to be getting on with, and and whatever I can get ready for a couple of Miniature shows coming up; but the you've got NINE POSTS to be getting on with, haven't you.

On the Forest Roads from Mount Rainier south to, and beyond, Mount Hood.

Take Note that some friends and family, who have signed up to receive email notifications, whenever this blog has a new posting, have not received these notifications for about a month, so I suggest that to receive further notifications that you sign up your email address, on my blog, to do so (www.StevenThorJohanneson@blogspot.com.  This is to those of you who have come manually to this site, wondering where I am, so please do sign up again.  I don’t have any idea why this would happen … perhaps hackers from you know where(!) … or Gremlins, I expect.

Sunday, 17^th of June to Monday, 25^th of June – To Seattle, WA, and then the Forest Roads back to and through the Washington & Oregon Cascades.

Two days later I was off to Seattle to collect paintings from a gallery that had shut down while I was away.  He next nine days I spent on the forest roads east and south of Mount Rainier National Park, wending my way south through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in the triangle formed by Mount Rainier to the north, Mount St. Helens to the southwest, and Mount Adams to the southeast, before crossing the Columbia River back into Oregon at the Dalles, and then into the Mount Hood National Forest, on reconnaissance for future campsites, and paintings.  I found some great sites.

Cluster of butterflies at my first camp
on the way up to Government Meadows.

The first two nights were spent east of Mount Rainier, following the Greenwater River up to, Government Meadows near the crest of the Washington Cascades; deep valleys; steep road; snow patches still up there.  After that I proceeded into Mount Rainier National Park, stopping off at Silver Springs Camp Ground to fill my water bottles, with Stevie Nicks, of MacWood Fleet, singing the song “Silver Springs” in my mind ;)  The Sunrise Visitors Center was still closed, due to snow, but I only wanted to get some photo from the White River Campground, and later at Silver Falls … I have been to Mount Rainier before, in 2010, and on this trip really wanted to get onto the forest roads.

Mount Rainier on the way back
down from Government Meadows.

Skookum Falls across the White River from State Hwy 410.

Silver Springs.

Mount Rainier from near
the White River Campground.

Tipsoo Lakes in the Snow … this is on June 19^th!

Bunchberries in the Forest.

Silver Falls, Mount Rainier National Park.

The glacial waters of Silver Falls.

Unknown waterfall, on State Hwy 123, going south from Silver Falls.

That night I camped well south of the National Park, and deep into the aforementioned triangle, with a view of Mount Adams, not far from Chambers Lake … oh, and with a few mosquitoes as well.  It is wild country up there, and the snows were still halfway across some of those forest roads, but none were blocked.  Takhlakh Lake (to be pronounced “Toc Loc”), was my favorite of the lakes I visited, because of the view of Mount Adams reflecting in its waters.  I also dropped in on Twin Falls, which I had visited back in early June 2011, this time approaching from the north, the direction I tried to go from Twin Falls, but was stopped by snow back then; now it was two weeks later in the season, and the snows were sufficiently reduced to allow travel on most if not all the forest roads.  This is wild country worth exploring a little further, maybe later in the year.

Evening on Mount Adams,
from my camp near Chambers Lake, …

… and in the light of morning.

Mount Adams from Takhlakh Lake.

Morning mist at my camp near Council Lake.

Mist settling on the Strawberries.

Twin Falls, flowing into the Lewis River.

Once I crossed the Columbia River and back in Oregon, it was late in the day, as I climbed southwest out of Hood River, heading for Lost Lake, where I had not been since, probably, 2006.  I wanted to get a few more photographs of the view of Mount Hood from there, to augment those from twelve years ago.  Inadvertently I found a great campsite, a few miles from Lost Lake, tucked in a small space in the forest, with a stream running through it.  For several years I have had a gravity system for water filtering that I had not used before, and so used it here for the first time.  All last year in the Southwestern Deserts I had been afraid of clogging up the filter pores with all that silt in those waters.  Here in the Cascades, I had a perfect water source.  I now have discovered a Millbank Bag that I received from England, which is used to filter out all the mud, silt, and detritus, from an “iffy” water source, and once the water has gone through that it can be finally filtered through the “gravity” system, to keep out all the microbial nasties.  So … if I ever get down to the Southwest again, I am prepared to filter water to my heart’s content, by first using the Millbank Bag, developed for the British Army; of course up  here in the Pacific Northwest, the Millbank Bag can be used when the river is full of glacial flour, as many are, coming off many of the high Cascade Volcanoes.

Mount Hood from Lost Lake.

Rhododendron blossoms.

Stunning blue blossoms.

Bear Grass.

Bear Grass, looking off towards
the Lolo Pass, west of Mount Hood
(not the Lolo Pass in Idaho).

The creek at my campsite not far from Lost Lake.

Mount Hood.

Mount Hood from Trillium Lake …
I chose a moment when the floaters had largely dispersed for lunch. 
Lost Lake is the other side of Mount Hood.

My last campsite was south of Timothy Lake, south of Mount Hood, with another creek running by.  I had stopped at Trillium Lake, which was a zoo, because it was a Sunday, and hot, and close enough to Portland that it’s an easy day trip up there … flotation devices were thick enough on the lake, that I might have been able to stroll across the lake, dry-shod, had I so desired.  I declined the opportunity.  Timothy Lake was a little better … it’s bigger, farther from Portland, and has four or five campgrounds, all full, to absorb the numbers.  Just two miles south of that lake, I had peace and quiet.  The next day I found my way down to the Clackamas River Road and followed the river down through Estacada, skirted the south side of Portland, and so back to the McMinnville area.

Last camp in the Cascades, south of Timothy Lake.

On the Clackamas River, going down to Estacada.

The next few weeks I spent catching up on things at my home base, getting work framed for galleries, posting my blog, etc., before I headed down to the south Oregon Coast and the annual Maritime Show at the Coos Museum of Art in mid-July, where I still am for the next few days.  It’s downright cold here, in the sixties and with a vicious north wind, but to me that is far preferable to the hundred degree weather, back in the Willamette Valley. 

It's been a great year in search of, and finding …  “Wonder” … and yet there is more “Wonder”  … out there.

The Final Stretch to Yamhill County, Part 2.

Take Note that some friends and family, who have signed up to receive email notifications, whenever this blog has a new posting, have not received these notifications for about a month, so I suggest that to receive further notifications that you re-sign to do so.  This is to those of you who have come manually to this site, wondering where I am, so please do sign up again.  I don’t have any idea why this would happen … perhaps hackers from you know where(!) … or Gremlins.

Saturday, 2^nd of June to Monday, 25^th of June – On to McMinnville, Oregon (with an excursion to Seattle, WA, and then the Forest Roads back to and through the Washington & Oregon Cascades).

Fort Rock … a volcanic maar.

The imaginatively named Hole in the Ground …
another volcanic maar.

From snow in the morning on Winter Ridge, it was north to Fort Rock and the Hole in the Ground, and then 30 miles on forest roads to just off County Road 22, 20 miles east of La Pine, where I spent the night of 9^th June.  The next day it was on into Bend, Oregon, for supplies on Sunday the 10^th, and then into the Cascades southwest of Sisters, between that town and the Three Sisters trio & Broken Top Volcanoes.  The next four nights were spent on these forest roads, which I had never been on before.  There was a lot of old forest fire remnants, but this allowed me a certain  number of photo recon opportunities of the Sisters, that would have been obscured by living trees, so not picturesque photos, but there will be the possibility of future paintings with new forests of live trees … hey, I’m an Artist … that’s what we do … make art out of chaos.   After that it was up onto the Santiam Pass near Big Lake, and finally high up on a ridge above the Blue Pool on the McKenzie River, before finally pulling into McMinnville on June 14^th, two weeks short of a year after leaving the Twin Cities … back at my Oregon base of operations.  The next day, on the Friday, I went to my post office box to collect 15 months of mail … not as much as I feared.  I have covered these last days briefly in writing, and will let the photos say more, on this home stretch to Yamhill County.

North Sister veiled in cloud.

North Sister with cloud burning off.

Butterflies no doubt gathering minerals.

Close up of one of the "miners."

Formerly known as Squaw Creek, this
water is now named Whychus Creek,
which was its Indian name originally. 
This can be confusing for those of us
with older maps.

Middle Sister, I believe, with the slopes of North Sister on the right ...
I could be wrong since I am still coming to terms with this area.

Mount Jefferson far to the North
in the glow of evening.

Mount Jefferson and Black Butte in the light of morning.

Ya, Middle Sister and North Sister …
South Sister off screen to the left.

Mount Washington from Big Lake …
those of you familiar with my well known Christmas card
will recognize this scene sans snow.

A further view of Big Lake.

Sahalie Falls on the McKenzie.

On the McKenzie …

… the opalescent McKenzie.

Koosah Falls on the McKenzie,
about a half a mile down
from Sahalie Falls.

Old Growth Forest on the way to the
Blue Pool at the base of Tamolitch Falls,
a couple miles downstream
from the previous two falls.

The Blue Pool … Tamolitch Falls.

The Blue Pool … Tamolitch Falls; I’m told that the main falls on the left is normally dry as an upstream hydro-electric reservoir has by-passed this falls with a tunnel.  The ingress of water on the right occurs to a lesser extent from the original stream going underground, but many times the Blue Pool is partially dry.  I guess I was lucky, as there is work going on at the reservoir at present.  It’s a two mile hike through mostly old growth forest to see this beauty.

Resident.

The Blue Pool.

Looking upstream from the top of the falls.

Late afternoon in the forest.

Goodpasture Covered Bridge, on the lower McKenzie.