Thursday, September 2, 2021

December Evening Gold on Honey Lake.

 

C1704
“December Evening Gold on Honey Lake”
(Northeastern, California)
Oil on Pannelli Telati fine Cotton Panel
5” x 7”

I wrote this post in May and intended to publish it then, but several things intervened; not least of which my automatic email notification service [Feedburner] was being eliminated by Blogger, and so you, my subscribers, were no longer to be notified of new Blog Postings. After much research, it appears that "Follow-it" will be my new notification service. This posting will be part of a test to see how this is working. 

*****

In the third week of December, last, Oregon was left behind as I headed for Colorado. My second day out I wound along the back roads between Klamath Falls, Oregon and Susanville, California. A few miles south of Susanville, on the road to Reno, Nevada, you pass by Honey Lake. It's a magnificent setting, surrounded by low mountains, as it is, and especially wondrous when the lake is still and calm and reflecting the mountains, as it was that evening. The mountains seemed to glow with an internal light of their own, rather than reflecting the light of the evening Sun. Of course we can argue whether it was, in fact, an evening Sun, or a late afternoon Sun, at that time of the year, since it sets well before 6 PM, but I tend to follow the patterns of light and dark, rather than the artificial man-made divisions of the day, when labelling my Paintings. It reminds us of a slower World, than that in which we now live; a time when the Sun … and Moon … and Stars … guided our lives, rather than the impersonal flow of electrical currents. 

It was dark by the time I passed through Reno … celestially … but of course those pesky (or beneficial?), electrons were flowing fiercely throughout Reno, as I headed east.

***** 

Awhile back, I came across a blog post where a painter was extolling the virtues of the pigment Caput Mortuum. I had used it occasionally in Watercolour, where I might use it as a more purpley Indian Red. Now, in oil, since I've had an unused tube of Schmincke's Caput Mortuum for some years, I’ve broken it out and have begun to explore its qualities. I like the purpley darks I get with it when mixed with Ultramarine Deep, and the blue to red lilacs when mixed with Cobalt Blue and Lead White. These last mixtures seem to be useful in tertiary mixtures with brighter colours in the shadow areas. More explorations are forthcoming.

Pigments used in the painting were:

Imprimatura: W&N Venetian Red; 

Pigments: W&N Cadmiums Orange & Yellow Pale, Ultramarine Deep & Cobalt Blues, and Venetian Red;

Schmincke: Caput Mortuum;

Rublev:  Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Orange Molybdate, Lead White #1.

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Deep Shadows on Silver Falls.

“The Deep Shadows of Afternoon on Silver Falls”

(Mount Rainier National Park, Washington Cascades)

A Miniature Oil on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

4” x 6”

 

Click here to make this your Own


The Brush Drawing

The Block-in

It's been too long since I last posted, but time has a way of getting away from you, when you're not looking. I see in my files that this post was begun in November and intended to be posted then, but ‘what the … hey?!’ It's going out now … finally!

This little Miniature was supposed to be entered into the Park lane MiniSmall 2020 Exhibition last Autumn, but I only got as far as the brush drawing on the panel (see above), before I realized I was going to have to frame and take the photos of the other works being entered, do the paperwork, and enter them on line. As it happens I pulled my first all-nighter, in many years, getting that accomplished. And that was well worth it, selling three during the show, and winning the Ampersand Landscape Award for fourth painting; the latter you already know. So after the Miniatures and Small Works were sent off to the Park lane Gallery, I finished up this one and , as stated, intended to post it here in November. I am offering this, at present unframed, Oil Miniature at a reduced price, from what it will be once it is framed and ready for future Miniature Shows. Once I frame it This reduced price ends and I will re-introduce it at a higher, but still reduced price. Once it starts going to the Miniature Shows, this offer will no longer be available.

But things moved off in a tangent. I spent part of November & December, having my annual check ups, with both my doctor and dentist (root canal … ouch! Not the physical pain, which was nothing, but the monetary pain), and getting equipment ready to drag a small utility trailer from some friends’ field, to store at my Sister's new mountain home in Colorado. She's dreamed of being there for much too long, and finally is there. I left Oregon on the 18th of December, and took six days to get there, staying off the Interstates and driving the small roads instead, avoiding the high passes in the mountains and driving sedately between 45 & 50 mph. We (The trailer & I), made it without incident. She and her husband will have the use of it, as long as it’s there.

While enjoying their wonderful views of the Sangres de Cristo Mountains, I worked on my accounts; did as much computer maintenance as I could, consolidating or eliminating files; photo-recon, and a lot of working on my those photos and older ones to put in my ‘reference photo folders,’ for future paintings. An old high school friend lives just 50 miles away from there as well, so I was finally able to visit him in spite of the bloody covid! So being side-tracked with all that, this post never got completed and posted … until now … ta daaaaa!

The fifth day after leaving that part of Colorado, I ended up at 8500' up in the Zuni Mountains of New Mexico. It was supposed to be an overnight camp, then because it was Good Friday, it behooves me to stay over the Easter weekend, thus avoiding traffic, and any crowds. Then I found a snowbank in a ravine, which supplied me with snow for my Yet I cooler, and water, after straining particulates out of it through my British Army Millbank bag, and the boiling it. I decided to remain as long as my supplies lasted, or the snowbank melted, thus allowing me to organize my gear more efficiently, do some paperwork, and get some painting done. That camp was almost The perfect campsite, half a mile off a main forest road, so I could hear the occasional vehicle, but nobody ever came down past my camp. The only downside is there was no cell connection, so I couldn't post this earlier. But it's been kind of refreshing having no connection, and thus no news (no car radio). That camp was closer to Grants, the second Zuni Mountains camp is closer to Gallup, and neither one had cell connection, and I haven't seen another soul for 26 days, until today … talk about your covid free environments!

These postings will be a bit more regular now that I'm sending my very slow way back to Oregon, painting all the way.