Wave Action at Neptune State Park

C1571

"Wave Action"

(Neptune State Park, below Cape Perpetua, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

With additional coat of Williamsburg Lead Primer

4" x 6"

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"So, where's the painting?" I here you cry.  Well ... read on.  The next day after painting Heceta Head Light, I moved a few miles up the coast to Neptune State Park, immediately below Cape Perpetua.  I had spent an afternoon here in November 2007 with Cyndi, taking many photographs of the incoming waves crashing onto the slabs of rock that make up the shore here.  Back in the studio I painted what might just be my most perfect wave painting in Watercolour.  I thought about that as I stopped at the overlook on the highway above, and decided to go down and work up an Oil Sketch.  The swells coming in were of a good size, and produced some good wave explosions as they hit the rocks ... nothing absolutely spectacular, but good journeyman crashes.  I spent a couple enjoyable hours, working up the small sketch, with reasonable results.  It's a popular place to stop and photograph the sea, and there were many doing just that, and others just viewing the incoming waves.  As I was proceeding back up to my truck with my small sketch in hand, I was accosted by a lady who asked if she could take a look.  "Why, of course!" I replied, showing her and her husband my afternoon's effort.  Well, we talked about the painting and what I was doing, and eventually, I continued on to my vehicle.  As they passed I showed them a couple more sketches that were drying on the dashboard, where all sketches live for a couple of days after they are painted.  "Do you sell your work, or are they just for yourself?"  she asked.  "Well, yes I do."  I replied, and proceeded to sell the one I had just completed, and the first one she had seen.  I wondered whether they had seen me painting down there, but no they only noticed the sketch in my hand as I was heading for my car.  And I completely forgot to take a photograph of it!!!  So would the couple from Texas, please take a photo of their recent on-site acquisition and email me a copy.  Many thanks.  

And for the Texas couple the following information is included about their painting: Imprimatura (a translucent layer of thin pigment over the white ground to give a mid-tone to the panel upon which the sketch is then painted): Venetian Red, with the block-in (the compositional drawing) with Ultramarine.  The rest of the pigments were Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre & Italian Burnt Sienna (from Rublev), Ultramarine, Cobalt & Cerulean Blues, Venetian Red and Cremnitz White (all by Winsor & Newton).

Morning Clouds

C1527

“Sky Study … Moon Setting just before the Sun Rises”

(Oregon Coast Range)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

5” x 7”

Click here to make this your Own

Last November after leaving Bandon, Oregon where I’d been painting for a couple of weeks I drifted north and found a clearing in the National Forest up in the Coast Range, and a few miles inland from Cape Perpetua; here I spent a couple of days.  One morning I saw this wonderful pink cloudscape and put it down while it was fresh in my mind.  It’s always worth turning to the sky opposite from where the Sun I rising or setting; you may just see the Moon doing the opposite of the Sun, as well as catching some colour schemes not seen in any other way.  I have seen similar morning clouds before, both before and shortly after the sun rises, and these wonderful soft clouds fill the sky and seem to promise, and usually does, a fine day; this day was no exception.  This work is a Study and as such I could have left the forested mountains out, but I added them so that there would be an anchor to show where the clouds were in relation to the ground and to remind me that this was in the Oregon Coast Range and a few miles from the Sea; I didn’t actually have a view, but only glimpses of the mountains and the Sea through the grove of Red Alders. 

After I completed the study I explored the area, driving a few miles further inland down into the valleys searching for a couple of covered bridges; I found one, but there was nowhere to set up to paint it, nor to really take good photos, although I did take some average, informational ones.  The valleys were frosty and cold with frost building up thickly on the north facing slopes, while up at 2000 feet where I camped remained much warmer, even at night; camp at altitude, boys, and stay warm! 

I’ve always been good at painting my skies in Watercolour, but since I never liked working outdoors in that medium I never did a series of cloud studies, as Constable did throughout his life; with these small Oils I expect there to be more to come.  I reckon Constable would have taken photos for reference material as well as his small sky studies … yes, he would have … don’t argue!

Over the imprimatura of Venetian Red I used the following pigments, Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre & Titanium White (all by Winsor & Newton), as well as Caput Mortuum (by Schmincke), a lovely purply Earth Red.