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!!

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.