Evening Surf

C1683

“Evening Surf”

(Bandon, Oregon)

Oil on Pannelli Telati Canvas  Panel

6” x 8”

Click here to make this Your Own

Close up of the Painting.

Angled view showing the Red Oxide
on the edge of the floated panel
and lip of the frame.

This painting is being listed for sale through the Daily Paintworks site for one week only as if it remains unsold by the end of the auction, it will be going into a Gallery.  I am also offering it for sale as a framed piece. The painting is floated in its frame so as not to lose any part of it beneath the rabbet of the frame. Once it is floated onto its backing, there is no turning back and it must be sold framed.  I usually frame in a dark frame, as it brings out the colours in the work and makes them sing.

Pigments used in the painting:

Imprimatura: Rublev Italian Burnt Sienna;

Drawing: Rublev Italian Burnt Sienna;

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

Rublev: Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Lead White #1;

Schmincke: Caput Mortuum;

M. Graham: Cobalt Teal;

Michael Harding: Stack Lead White.

A Light in the Storm

(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.)

C1610

“A Light in the Storm”

(Destruction Island Light … Washington Coast)

Oil on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

12" x 24"

Detail of “A Light in the Storm”

C1615

“End of a Perfect Forest Day”

(Cascade Range)

Oil on Raymar Canvas Panel

12” x 9”

C1616

“Quiet Evening on Second Beach”

(La Push, Washington Coast)

Oil on Raymar Canvas Panel

8” x 16”

I know, I know … it’s been over four months since I last posted.  Well … I’ve been busy … so there. 

Picture petulant lower lip stuck out about half a mile.

Actually, I have been busy … as I write I am perched next to a window overlooking the fields above Trevalga, North Cornwall, England.  It is towards midnight and I am in friends’ holiday cottage and the stars are glimmering down over the fields as I look north past Boscastle (where I lived for seven years), and beyond towards the lights of Bude, and on to the radar domes of Morwenstow twenty miles distant; there is even a more distant light twinkling farther up the coast towards Hartland Quay… it may even be Hartland Quay.  It is a special landscape even beneath the silent stars.  I am listening to Sibelius’ Symphonies Numbers 5 & 6, and wondering what this New Year will bring into this more nasty, more prejudiced world many of us thought had been left behind decades ago.

Be that as it may, once I returned to base after the Coos Art Museum Maritime Exhibition in July, I set to work on several paintings for delivery to my Galleries before I headed out from Oregon, on this journey which brought me to this window overlooking these familiar fields from my long ago.  The painting which appeared in my last posting (here) was the first and is now to be found in the Second Street Gallery, Bandon, Oregon.  The three shown above are to be found at the Kirsten Gallery in Seattle (details below).

The research for C1610 - “A Light in the Storm,” and C1616 - “Quiet Evening on Second Beach,” was done in 2009, when I spent several days in the coastal section of the Olympic National Park, Washington State.  Second Beach was about a half hour stroll from the road through beautiful the beautiful temperate rain forest, and once onto the beach, the whole day was easily spent walking along the length of the beach, drawing, and painting and taking reconnaissance photos for future work, and C1616 is one of the results. 

Destruction Island, on the other hand, is further down the Washington Coast and sadly the light was permanently turned off in 2008.  It lies 3½ miles offshore, and once I saw this Island from the shores of Ruby Beach, I knew I had to paint a dramatic seascape.  Although it has taken longer than expected to do so, it has now been completed, and even more dramatic than I first envisioned.   

C1615 - “End of a Perfect Forest Day,” was inspired by just that … the end of a wonderful day at my campsite up in the coast range above Coos Bay, a few days after the opening of the Maritime Show last July; and a productive and most enjoyable day.  I completed the small painting I was working on, prepared and ate my supper, and was sitting watching the changing light in the valley below, and the just-past-quarter Moon in the sky above.  As the Sun sank into the Northwest, and its light on the trunks of the Douglas Firs began to glow an Earth Orange Hue, I watched as the Moon glided between the branches above.  It was a scene worth remembering, and so here it is and I share it with you. 

Next posting will tell a bit about my travels from Oregon to Minnesota and on to a class reunion in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and of places from my long ago, and others new in that northern land.

The Second Street Gallery, 210 Second Street SE, Bandon, OR 97411

Phone:            541-347-4133                                    Email: BandonArtworks@gmail.com

The Kirsten Gallery, 5320 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle WA 98105

Phone: 206-522-2011                        Email: r2thetop@hotmail.com

For those interested I give the following information.

C1610 - “A Light in the Storm” …

Imprimatura & Drawing/Block-in: Vasari Terra Rosa.

Pigments: Vasari Terra Rosa; Winsor & Newton Cobalt, Cerulean & Ultramarine Deep Blues, Permanent Rose, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Cadmium Orange, and Cremnitz White; M. Graham Hansa Yellow Pale (very little).

C1615 - “End of a Perfect Forest Day” …

Imprimatura: W&N Venetian Red.

Drawing: W&N Venetian Red & Ultramarine Deep.

Pigments: Vasari Terra Rosa; Winsor & Newton Cobalt, Cerulean & Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Venetian Red and Cremnitz White; Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna, Cyprus Raw Umber Deep, Cyprus Warm Burnt Umber.

 C1616 - “Quiet Evening on Second Beach” …

Imprimatura: None.

Drawing/Block-in: Vasari Terra Rosa and W&N French Ultramarine.

Pigments: Winsor & Newton Cobalt, Cerulean & Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Permanent Rose, Venetian Red, Cremnitz & Titanium Whites; M. Graham Hansa Yellow Pale; Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Ceruse; Vasari Terra Rosa.

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.

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!!

Into the Light at the Devil’s Kitchen

(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.)

C1606

“Into the Light at the Devil’s Kitchen”

(Bandon, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

5" x 7"

Sold

I know it’s been awhile, and I will be posting intermittently for the next little while, while I finish up a number of things that need doing.  This one was done on a rainy day from a drawing done on my first day in Bandon (see the previous post).  As it turned out it was my best weather day, and I completed four or five sketches in my smallest sketchbook.  The following few days were spent working either from sketches, or from my vehicle, and/or photographing the always interesting Bandon, Oregon coast.  I’ve mentioned the Devil’s Oregon real estate before; well, this is his Kitchen ... he was not cooking anything up this particular day, much to my relief!

Imprimatura: Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre from Rublev; I’ve only used Yellow Ochre as in imprimatura once before, and quite successfully that first time.  This could have used a little more drying time before starting to paint over it, but that is not always possible.

Drawing/Block-in: Cobalt Blue.

The Pigments used were:  Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Flemish Lead White; Winsor & Newton Cobalt Blue, Venetian Red, and a minimal amount of Titanium White.

Blown before the Approaching Storm

(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.)

 C1605

"Blown before the Approaching Storm"

(China Creek, Bandon, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

5" x 7"

Click here to make this your Own

As indicated in my previous couple of postings, I did get down to the coast to deliver & pick up paintings to & from various galleries, and managed, in spite of the storms, to apply brush to panel, and pencil & chalk to several sketchbook leafs.  The first day upon arriving in the Bandon area I spent the day pottering about the Devil’s Kitchen (I told you the Devil had a lot of Oregon real estate), drawing in my sketchbook and taking reference photographs.  The next day I worked on the above image, glad to be painting on the spot again.  The weather reports were for rain and wind, and so it proved, as while working on this one the winds began to rise, and by evening the rain was coming in.  This is the way it was for the several days I was down on the coast.  Although I did not paint as much as I had planned, I was able to take advantage of the stormy conditions take a lot of reference photos of the Bandon coast with heavy seas pounding the cliffs and sea-stacks, dodging squalls and showers while doing so; all grist for future work.  I have a quantity of reference photos in my image library of this coast, but none with such heavy Autumn weather.  There were some sets of waves rolling in that were 20 feet high.  My estimate of wave heighth was derived as follows: standing on a low cliff about 15 feet above the water level, thus my eye level being about 5½ feet higher, thus totaling roughly 20 feet above the water level, any wave that breaks the line of the horizon (which is equivalent to your eye level), will be that high … namely about 20 feet.  If I had been standing on the shore with my toes in the water, those highest waves would have obliterated my view of the horizon line, and my estimates would have been guessed-imates, but of course the oncoming waves would have been impressive to see … and of course they were when I was down on near the waterline.  This one reason I do miss living on the Cornish Coast where I could experience the storms many times a Winter’s season.  I do not miss my automobiles rapidly rusting away, however.  I have been at China Creek before, but because there are no impressive rocks and sea-stacks for the waves to crash upon, as there are at most of the other parts of the Bandon beaches to the north of from here, I have not painted here before.  But this day the light on the dunes first grabbed my attention, and the deteriorating weather blowing the gulls around, as I painted, suggested the title for the sketch … I placed only one gull being blown before the approaching storm … I may add another, but perhaps not, as just the one should be enough to suggest a solitary walk on a windswept shore.

Imprimatura: Venetian Red.

Drawing: Cobalt Blue.

The Pigments used were:  Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Flemish Lead White; Winsor & Newton Cobalt Blue, Venetian Red, and a minimal amount of Titanium White.

Taken after the Storm a couple of days later at China Creek.

This was from the Face Rock overlook on the morning of my first day, when I went on to the Devil’s Kitchen to draw in my sketchbook.

From the beach near Elephant Island with Face Rock on the left and the Cat & Kittens, just to the right of center, obscured by waves … this is not the angle to observe the face on Face Rock.  This was taken on my last day in Bandon … all too short a stay this time.

Summer Winds

(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.)

C1599

"A Light in the Storm"

(Oregon Coast)

Oil on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

with additional Coat of Williamsburg Lead Ground

5" x 7"

Click here to make this your Own

Weather-wise I could have well stayed up in the Coast Range, as when I finally arrived in Bandon, six days after my intention to be there, I could see the usual Summer winds were up.  If you were following these postings from their inception last Summer, you might remember that on this central & southern Oregon Coast the winds in Summer are usually strong, from the north (and therefore cold), and fairly incessant.  Thus they were upon my arrival late in the day after I had left my charming forest road campsite high in the Oregon Coast Range, and toddled into Bandon.  The next day, however, they had dissipated, but a dull overcast had set in.  This would normally not have prevented my painting on the shore, but once down on the beach, and while looking for a spot to paint, I noticed that the sands had shifted from what they had been last Summer … deeper and therefore the low tide was further out past sea-stacks that I had never been able to walk around on past visits to Bandon.  Considering the bland lighting of the overcast, and this new configuration of the sands, I decided to concentrate taking photographs and making pencil sketches in my pocket sketchbook.  The Oil Painting above was done from one of my drawings in that sketchbook, and is shown below.

While rapidly jotting down this pencil sketch, I had in mind that I would use it as the basis for a dramatic storm with crashing waves.  This is the type of drawing I consider as informational note taking, as are many of the drawings in this pocket sketchbook.  This is one of those sketchbooks where I had cut and folded the paper into sections and then had a professional bookbinder in Cornwall, England bind it together; I had about twenty of various sizes bound at the same time, eleven years ago.  Not cheap but now I have sketchbooks bound with the various papers (some handmade), that I most enjoy working on.  This is a Fabriano Ingres paper, 160 gsm in weight; I love the way a laid* paper takes the graphite, when drawing.  The day after the drawing was done I worked up the Oil Sketch from my Pencil Sketch, as the cloud cover continued and the wind came up again … the Sun did come out later … still breezy.

Imprimatura: Venetian Red.

Block-in: French Ultramarine.

The Pigments used were:  Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna, with Winsor & Newton Cobalt & French Ultramarine Blues, Venetian Red, and Cremnitz & Titanium Whites.

* A laid paper is one where you can see the laid lines (the close parallel lines), and the chain lines (parallel lines wider spaced and 90 degrees to the laid lines), indented in the paper, from the screen used during the paper making process.  A wove paper does not have these lines and is what you find as the surface of normal writing or printing paper.

Forest Road 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.)

C1598

"Forest Road in the Coast Range"

(Oregon)

Oil on Ampersand Gesso Panel

5" x 7"

Click here to make this your Own

I moved camp a further five miles into the Oregon Coast Range onto a spur a half mile onto a side road.  Again I had views of the open sky and forested slopes from here, although these are a little behind me in the opposite direction as seen in this painting of the forest road.  The previous campsite was directly on the main forest road, and though sparse there was occasional traffic passing by.  This new campsite is a bit more secluded, and the three days & nights I stayed here only one vehicle appeared up where the road disappears in the painting, just as the sun was sinking below the horizon.  It reversed and no doubt found some other place to set up camp.  I am always on the lookout for the chance to capture a forest road in paint; all too often there is no place to set up and paint, but this was one of the good ones, where I could camp and paint.  The deer came browsing along while in the midst of my working on this, so I dabbed them in.  Actually there was only one, but I preferred there to be two (painters can do this, since we are Artists, and not reporters … we move things around, for example rocks or trees, and might selectively eliminate something altogether ... or put something in that was not there).  To watch her slowly strolling down the road, browsing on the vegetation along the verge, was enjoyable … and peaceful.  She came about as far as is depicted in the painting, and then decided that she wasn’t sure about what the obstruction in the road ahead was all about, and after studying me for awhile, she slowly reversed direction and browsed back up the lane.  I never moved so as not to frighten her, and so she never bolted, just decided that wariness was the better part of valor.  I’m always surprised how large their ears are … almost Mickey Mouse ears.  I love days like this.

I had to work on this on two consecutive days.  I tend to forget how slippery the paint is on these gesso panels if I haven’t previously applied a layer of lead ground, or if I don’t use an Alkyd Medium in the early stages, so that later in the process the paint will grab a bit more.  I got so far on what I might call and underpainting or a block-in on the first day, and packed it in until the next day when that first layer gripped the ensuing brush strokes a bit more, and thus more pleasing to work with.  The deer appeared during this second day.  I could have stayed longer at this campsite, but I thought I had better get on down to Bandon, and see what I might find on the coast … also I had emailed my friends and told them I probably would turn up to camp on their property six days earlier … it was time I made an appearance down there.

Imprimatura: Venetian Red.

The Pigments used were:  Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna, with Winsor & Newton Cobalt, Cerulean & French Ultramarine Blues, Venetian Red, and Cremnitz & Titanium Whites.  The brighter greens are again a mixture of Yellow Ochre and Cerulean Blue … no Cadmiums used in the greens except for the touches of yellow flowers.

The Coos Art Museum 22nd Annual Maritime Exhibition

(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.)

The following paintings have been accepted into the

Coos Art Museum 22^nd Annual Maritime Exhibit (2015), and are for sale.

Exhibition dates are from July 11, 2015 to September 26, 2015

The first two paintings are of coast at Bandon, Oregon, and the third painting is located at Devil's Elbow State Park, below Heceta Head Lighthouse, Oregon.

CAM ID#: 0108

“Smoldering November Evening”

Oil on Ampersand Gesso Panel

with additional Coat of Rublev Lead Oil Ground

Painting Size 8” x 10”

$500 Framed

The above painting was done using a quick pencil sketch in my small pocket sketchbook as reference.

CAM ID#: 0109

“Sunshine & Sea Mist”

Oil on Canvas Panel

with additional Coat of Rublev Lead Oil Ground

Painting Size 9” x 12”

$600 Frame

CAM ID#: 0110

“First Light at Storm’s End”

Oil on Ampersand Gesso Panel

with additional Coat of Rublev Lead Oil Ground

Painting Size 3½” x 9¼”

$350 Framed

[SOLD during the Exhibition]

These paintings are for sale.  If you do not live in the area and need the painting shipped to you, please add $25 per painting for shipping and packing charges in the USA; for elsewhere, please email me and I shall make enquiries at the Post Office. 

If you do purchase a painting, please be aware that they must remain in the exhibition until the end of the show, and the Artist will ship them shortly thereafter, which will be early October. 

Should you wish to purchase any of these paintings please contact the following, and have the CAM ID# and the Title of the painting ready:

Archi Davenport

Coos Art Museum

235 Anderson Avenue

Coos Bay

OR

Tel: (541) 267-3901

Email: info@coosart.org  -or-  adavenport@coosart.org

Hours: Tues - Fri: 10 am to 4 pm
Saturday: 1 pm to 4 pm
CLOSED Sun-Mon and all major holidays
Admission: $5, $2 for students, seniors, free to Members of CAM.