Into the Light at the Devil’s Elbow

(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.)

C1604

"Into the Light at the Devil’s Elbow"

(Oregon Coast)

Oil on Canvas Panel

5" x 7"

Click here to make this your Own

Note: This work will be for sale via this blog for a few days only, as I will be framing it and taking it off to one of my Galleries the  next week or the week after.

After painting the Oil Sketch in the previous entry and then a bite to eat, I followed the now receding tide, and, at the same end of the beach as the morning’s sketch, I set up on a flattish rock to paint into the light.  It was later than I wished, but I pressed on, nevertheless, and began to fight the wind, and the glare off the water.  My wonderful sketching umbrella blew inside out more than once, so I closed it down, and persevered; it’s a tough umbrella and none the worse for its ordeal and I learned that there is a point where there is too much wind for it; working without it made it more difficult in the glare of the Sun.  I had more than one person taking photos of me as I worked, and thanks to a chap who kindly emailed me his shots I include some below … many thanks. 

Note: The following photographs are the copyright of M. Palmer ©2015.

You can work out my sketching outfit from these photos, and can also see that it is early in the work.  The imprimatura is evident, in the lower half of the painting, as is the drawing or block-in, and I am currently laying in the sky.  My waste bag is attached to the tripod below my sketch box.  I normally have a very small brush cleaning tin (complete with a screen and lid) hung off the tripod, as well, but with the windy conditions I either had it on the barnacles near my right foot, or did not use it at all; it normally contains safflower oil for the cleaning purposes.  I did what I could until fed up with the wind and the glare, and did about an hour of finishing off once I was back in the studio.

Imprimatura: Venetian Red.

Drawing: French Ultramarine.

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

Rising Tide at the Devil’s Elbow

(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.)

C1603

"Rising Tide at the Devil’s Elbow … Looking South"

(Oregon Coast)

Oil on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

with additional Coat of Rublev Lead Ground

4" x 6"

Click here to make this your Own

I walked up to the old lighthouse keeper’s residence, with a view to scramble down to the rocks below and paint there, as I did several years ago, but the trail down has been blocked off to aid erosion control, and when I returned to the beach to attempt to approach the rocks from below, the tide was too far in for me to do so, and had some hours yet to rise.  Thus a later start than I had hoped for.  The breeze began to rise as well, but not as bad as for the 2^nd painting of the day, later that afternoon, to be published tomorrow.  But I liked this view looking south at the Devil’s Elbow State Park (below Heceta Head Light) … that pesky Devil has a lot of real estate here in Oregon; his Elbow here; his Backbone up on the rim of Crater Lake; he’s got a Kitchen down south of Bandon; A Punchbowl here … a Cauldron over there … a Churn somewhere else … that boy’s got body parts and implements all over Oregon … must like it here.

Note:  This work will be for sale via this blog for a few days only, as I will be framing it and taking it off to one of my Galleries the week after next.

Imprimatura: Venetian Red.

Drawing: French Ultramarine.

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

On the Beach below Heceta Head Light

(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.)

C1601

"Receding Tide at the Devil’s Elbow"

(Oregon Coast)

Oil on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

with additional Coat of Rublev Lead Ground

4" x 6"

Click here to make this your Own

Getting back to my time at Heceta Head Light, I painted the above Oil Sketch from the south end of the beach at the Devil’s Elbow State Park, and looking towards Heceta Head Lighthouse which lurks behind the most seaward screen of trees.  I’m always intrigued that one parks the car and potters about on the beach at the Devil’s Elbow State Park, but the reason one is really there is for the views of, and the walk up to the lighthouse itself; it makes it confusing when deciding on how to entitle any sketch or painting done hereabouts, for the natural choice is the name of the lighthouse itself, somewhere in the title … as that is mostly why you’re here, or are drawn to the paining … but without then making the title too long.  I, of course, many times do not let a short title stand in the way, when a longer title is available … thank, the great JMW Turner for those proclivities of mine.  But I digress.  T’was a breezy day, but I managed with not too much difficulty to finish the work, save for the gulls which I stuck in later.  I have not managed to get this far out at low tide here before, as usually the state of the tide has not allowed it in the many times I have stopped here in the past.  Had I not been busy working on this I could have got much further out before the tide began to flow back in; that would have been for photos only, as I keep a healthy eye on the states of the tides, when working next the sea … my 23 years in Cornwall, England taught me thus.

Note:  This work will be for sale via this blog for a few days only, as I will be framing it and taking it off to one of my Galleries the week after next.

Imprimatura: Venetian Red.

Drawing: French Ultramarine.

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

The Classic Oregon Lighthouse … Again!

(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.)

C1602

"Summer Morning Shadows & Low Tide at Heceta Head Light"

(Oregon Coast)

Oil on Panelli Telati Linen Panel

with additional Coat of Rublev Lead Ground

6" x 8"

Click here to make this your Own

Friday afternoon rolled around after a couple of very bland days on the coast and it was time to attend the Artists Preview of the Coos Art Museum Annual Maritime Show.  It is always enjoyable and what with seeing and chatting with friends and acquaintances, I’m always hard pressed to make it around to see the actual paintings themselves.  Several of the artists have made it to Britain more recently than I have been able to do, and it was nice to recognize familiar places in their paintings.  After all too brief a time we repaired across the road to the Mexican restaurant, where I searched the menu for the delicious dish I had discovered the year before, and was determined to have again should I find it; after perusing the novel-sized menu for awhile I was pretty sure I found it and ordered the Shrimp Monterey, I believe it was called.  It is a half dozen shrimp wrapped in bacon presented on a bed of rice, with refried beans on the side, and the usual trimmings to be found in such salubrious establishments.  It lived up to me recollections. 

The next day was the official private view and between this viewing and that of the night before I managed to see everything.  I was pleased to see that mine looked good on the wall … what you have to remember is that most of my career I have been a painter in Watercolour and I have only seen a very few of my Oil Paintings in an exhibition setting.  Even with my familiarity with Watercolour I am always surprised how those look once they are matted, and again once they are under glass and in their frames, and finally when they are up on the wall; the same happens with Oils, I see, and the good thing about the Oils is that I don’t have to go through the nerve-wracking exercise of glass cleaning.  Anyone who assembled a Watercolour or a print under glass will know what I mean.  I mean, how many times have I cleaned he glass; placed the matted Watercolour on the glass; turned it all over; placed the frame on to it and turned it over; shoved a few pins around the edge; turned it back over to inspect it to make sure that no flecks of dust or stray hairs have shot under the glass before you push in the rest of the pins and taped the back, only to find some nefarious desperadoes of the dusty persuasion have insinuated themselves under the glass, no doubt laughing all the way?  How often?!!  Let’s just say that I’m enjoying framing Oils.  After a time looking at the works and more chatting with and meeting people, we all sat down to the private view banquet, which is free to us artists, and being a port town the provided fare was seafood heavy, and so delicious. 

After the banquet I drove up the coast to my clearing in the old growth forest near Heceta Head Light that I know about, and camped for the next few nights and painted.  I know, I know … I’ve painted the above view before (here), but it is the classic Oregon lighthouse view, and I can’t resist it if I spend any time painting hereabouts.  Of course this is only the second time that this view has appeared in this journal, but it is the sixth time I have set down this view in paint, both in Watercolour & Oil.  This time it is a Summer Morning.  I no doubt will paint it again.

Imprimatura: Venetian Red.

Block-in: French Ultramarine.

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