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.

Cutting my way into Oregon.

Friday, 1^st of June to Saturday, 2^nd June, 2018; 

Big Den Creek, Nevada to the Warner Mountains, Oregon.

Sand Mountain.

Once the Pony Express ran by here …
now ATVs sputter about.

Upon leaving Big Den Creek, I crossed over or passed around several more mountain ranges, and the down into the Salt Wells Basin to Fallon, NV, re-supplied, crossed over the Carson River and the edge of Carson Sink.  This fairly dismal landscape, seems to form a frontier between many of the plant communities I had become used to over the past months, and those of the High Desert and the Basin & Range section of the Pacific Northwest, for when I camped that night, half a mile off of Hwy 477 and northwest of the Black Rock Desert (think Burning Man Festival), I was surrounded by Junipers only … no Pinyons … and certainly no Snakeweed.  It was beginning to feel like southeastern Oregon still close to a hundred miles off.  From Fallon I had passed through Fernley, crossed over Interstate 80, picked up State Hwy 477, passed by Pyramid Lake, spotted wild burros north of mostly dry Winnemucca Lake, in the Poito Valley, gazed up the flat expanse of the Black Rock Desert as I crossed over its southern tip at Gerlach, NV, to my campsite for the night near Squaw Summit.  The next day would see me back into Oregon, but not without incident.

Pyramid Lake … for obvious reasons.

Lake Winemucca … mostly dry.

Wild …

… Burros.

There did not seem to be any Snakeweed in the area, so somewhere while crossing Nevada, I must have passed out of the zone in which that plant thrives.  Snakeweed is one of those plants I became familiar with, during my months spent on the Colorado Plateau.  The Native Americans would use bundles of it to brush the prickles off the Prickly Pear Cacti, during food preparation; so much to learn about the plants and animals in the world around us!

Last Camp in Nevada
… no Pinyons … no Snakeweed.

June 2^nd and twenty or thirty miles after crossing over Squaw Summit, Hwy 477 descends down into Surprise Valley, and passing from Nevada into the extreme northeastern California.  The Warner Mountains had been visible all the way from the Summit, and now formed the western wall of Surprise Valley.  The eastern side of this long valley is still the high desert terrain, I had been passing through, and in the Valley are three long alkali lakes, dry for the most part, but with stretches of water.  However, the western side of the Valley, between the alkali lakes and Warners, is lush and green, especially at this time of year, and dotted with farms and ranches, and some of the largest and most magnificent Cottonwoods I have ever seen.  There are pools, and ponds, and marshes, and green pastures; such a contrast with the lands I had passed through, beyond the alkali lakes.  And, yes, Surprise Valley is a surprise, just as it was for some early pioneers heading along the southern route to Oregon, some of whom turned around, once they got to Oregon, and came back to settle.

First view of the Warner Mountains
from Squaw Summit on Hwy 477.

Looking up Surprise Valley from the South.

Down the Surprise Valley
from Fort Bidwell.

Cedarville is the largest of three small towns in the Valley, with a population of about four or five hundred.  From here the main road turns west and crosses over the Warner Mountains, to US Hwy 395 and Alturas California. From there it is north along the shores of Goose Lake to the Oregon border and Lakeview, a few miles further on.  I did not go that way, but took the roads less travelled.  Heading north from Cedarville, I passed through Fort Bidwell, with no shops still in business that I could see.  From here the choice is northeast, on the lower desert/forest roads to the “wide spot in the road,” Adel, on Hwy 140, or north on County Road 2 into the Warner Mountains, and the latter is what I took.

Climbing high out of Fort Bidwell …

… and higher still …

… and even higher into the Warners.

Indian Paintbrush.

Unknown white flower.

Climbing and climbing, up and up for ten miles, and from 4000’ to 8000’, brought me to the crest of the Warners; I could have stayed on County Road 2 down to Hwy 395 and Goose Lake, but I turned northeast onto a small forest road (148, I think), and began my descent towards the Oregon border that way.  Squeezing past several trees that had fallen onto the road during the Winter, finally brought me to a pair of trees that had fallen all the way across the roadway.  ATV drivers had already been through, but had only cut a path through wide enough for their little machines.  I lifted the tops of the trees off the road, but because of the small stream on that side, was still unable to pass; time to give my Christmas axe a workout!  I worked through the branches of both trees, clearing the way to safely get a swing at the main trunks of the fallen.  My Christmas axe ... a hand-forged, Scandinavian Forest Axe, cut beautifully; thank you siblings.

Moonlight Mine, just as I started down towards Oregon, from the highpoint.

Half a mile along brought me out onto high mountain meadows.  The road became more rutted and very rocky, and I began to think of turning around … there could be twenty miles of this!  But as I crested a ridge I could see mountains in the distance that I recognized thirty or forty miles away, and in Oregon; Hart Mountain on the right to the east, and Drake Peak in the Warner Mountains on the left to the west, with the Warner Valley in between.

Out of the woods with
Mount Bidwell behind me.

Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge
in the distance to the northeast …

  … & Drake Peak to the west
of the Warner Valley.

Some sort of yellow flowers.

I saw a cattle grid a couple hundred yards away, and I decided to make my decision to turn around or not, once I got there.  The border was closer than I thought, for once at the grid, a sign on the other side said “Welcome to the Fremont National Forest.”  That's Oregon, I thought, since I was in California's Modoc National Forest.  I crossed over into Oregon, eleven months after departing the Twin Cities.  Two miles farther on, I camped within a grove of large trees that from a distance I had taken to be Ponderosas, due to their size; they turned out to be enormous and magnificent Lodgepole Pines; I've never seen Lodgepoles so big.  I had said to the Ranger at the Great Basin National Park Visitors Center, that I would spend about ten days crossing Nevada … it took me seventeen … I was in a bit of a hurry, or it might have taken even longer.

Standing in California
looking at my truck in Oregon … made it!

First camp in Oregon,
amongst the large Lodgepoles.

Pretty Blue Flowers hereabouts.

These little blossoms were tucked in
under the leaves, and only accidentally 
spotted they were under there.

Thanksgiving Day above the Smith River

C1575

"A Change in the Weather"

(Above the Middle Fork of the Smith River,

Siskiyou Mountains, Northern California)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

With additional coat of Rublev Lead Primer

5" x 7"

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Back in mid-November I headed for the Oregon High Desert, but I did not go straight there.  I had paintings to deliver and pick up down on the Oregon Coast, so time was spent on that business before I could turn inland.  My first order of business was to stop by the Coos Art Museum, to retrieve the two Watercolours which had been in the Maritime Show there last Summer, images of which I included in my very first Blog Post (here).  After further deliveries were completed, I dipped down into the Redwoods country of Northern California, which one must do when travelling from the southern Oregon Coast, to the interior of Oregon.  I spent some time visiting those massive trees before moving on.  I include a photograph with my SUV to give you a sense of scale of these Redwoods; I urge my readers in Cornwall to consider your own vehicle when next parked near a British tree, and then marvel at this photo.  I can’t emphasize enough the feeling of wonder I experience every time I visit the Redwoods.  And thus I turned inland.

SUV amongst the Redwoods, California

I traveled up the Middle Fork of the Smith River, mentally filing away possible future paintings, and as it was late in the day looking for Forest roads that might offer a campsite.  At Gasquet California, I found one, following its twists and turns and finally climbing more than 1500’ above the valley floor before choosing a site perched on the high slopes.  Thanksgiving Day, being the next day I intended to stay at least two nights here, and so did.  I was up early the next morning and after a quick breakfast began to paint the view east from my campsite.  I never did determine exactly what Siskiyou Mountain peaks those were in the distance, as the weather was on the turn, with cloud rapidly coming in, and with high winds in the forecast.  After painting in the morning, I had a leisurely afternoon, and preparing my Thanksgiving meal of smoked Salmon on a bed of cous-cous and vegetables.  

It began to rain overnight.  I had intended to stay on the forest road high above the valley, and follow it until it intersected the main highway, 30 miles or so down the road, and would hopefully allow chances to identify the distant peaks in the painting; it was not to be.  The rain made that un appealing since I would be lost in the cloud with little to view, and as I was wanting to get as far inland as I could before the high winds began near the coast, I dropped down the mountainside to the main highway along the Smith Rover, and on to southern Oregon.  I eventually reached the Crater Lake area and decided on a campsite 17 miles down the mountain from the Crater rim.

Pigments used for the Oil Sketch are the usual suspects: Imprimatura Venetian Red; Others were Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna; Winsor & Newton Cobalt & Cerulean Blues, Venetian Red and Cremnitz White.  There … the tech-heads amongst you are now satisfied, I trust.