Camas Prairie Wind & Rain

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C1578

"December Rain over Camas Prairie"

(Oregon High Desert)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

5" x 7"

Click here to make this your Own

After observing some rather large Elk footprints on the road near my overnight camp, I left the little quarry pond and the Ring-necked Duck to themselves and headed for Lakeview, stopping occasionally to take photographs of Gearhart Mountain on the way.  It was December 10^th by now, and I had been away for a while and was approaching the true open High Desert … but not just yet.  I needed to patronize the local Laundromat in Lakeview, and wash my mud stained clothes, and top up my supplies before the next, and more productive phase, painting-wise, of this foray into the Wild.  Lakeview … tallest town in Oregon … at 4796 feet above sea-level it is the highest town in Oregon; and a surprisingly pleasant little place it is, nestled below the Warner Mountains to the east.  Surprising, since it is unexpected way out here, just above Goose Lake and the extreme northeast California border and with Nevada also only a few miles away as well.  I did not expect it to be as large as it is.  I guess I also expected it to be a dusty poky little place … it is not.  Of course I’ve only been here in Winter, since I first passed through on Thanksgiving Day in 2012 on my way to Oklahoma; and now this time in December. 

The soap dispensing machine was out, and as I was steeling myself to have to buy and carry around a large bottle of soap from the local Safeway, a kindly elderly lady offered me the use of her soap bottle … very kind.  My Carhartt insulated jeans will need another washing or maybe two to get all the ingrained mud out, but at least they are clean enough for now (it actually took only one more washing).  After topping up my supplies and posting my annual membership dues to the AAA (American Automobile Association), I left town at 16:00 with cloud coming in from the southwest, after a lovely sunny day it had been thus far.  The rain and gales from the California coast were on their way, and this time I believed they would reach this far.  The rain had come in off and on since I had left the coast a couple of weeks before, and the wind had been threatening to come, but never had amounted to all that much, but it felt different this time. 

It was late in the day so I only went a few miles to just inside the National Forest boundary, and spent the rainy windy night there.  The next morning I found I had parked near a coyote kill or scavenged site (probably); only bones were left, gnawed and mostly in one spot, but with a few satellite remnants within fifty yards, or so.  This is why I believe it was the work of coyotes; I visualize one or more of a group dragging off a leg bone or other part to feed away from the main kill.  I will say I don’t know this for sure, but I file it away to compare with anything similar I may find in the future.  There was no skull to be found, but by the size of the bones, I believe it was either a young deer or possibly a calf … I found no hooves, so I did not have that bit of diagnostic to go by either … file it away, Spock.

It was still windy and rainy, so I only drove a few miles from the coyote (?) kill/scavenge site, across the valley and up into the Warner Mountains, and found a campsite overlooking Camas Prairie, from which arises Camas Creek.  Here I painted the above Oil Sketch, trying to capture the waterlogged day, over the Camas Prairie.  Evidently the weather is vicious down on the coast, 200 miles away, and once this Pacific Storm blows I look forward to getting out into the open High Desert, even though I find it pleasant here within the Ponderosa Pines.

Imprimatura was W&N Venetian Red, with the Pigments used the usual Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna & Lead White #2, with Winsor & Newton Venetian Red and Cobalt and Ultramarine Blues.

Finally Painting again … Sycan Marsh

(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.)

C1577

"Overcast Day over Sycan Marsh … Yamsay Mountain lost in Cloud"

(Oregon High Desert)

Oil Sketch on Winsor & Newton Canvas Panel

5" x 7"

Click here to make this your Own

Imprimatura: W&N Venetian Red

Pigments used were Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna & Lead White #2, with Winsor & Newton Venetian Red and Cobalt and Ultramarine Blues.  There … tech stuff out of the way.

The morning of December 8^th was spent within a three quarters of a mile of the incident, cleaning and maintaining my tools and my ancient pair of Sorel boots; these latter are decades old, and still good, since I’ve not had much occasion to use them having spent all those years in Cornwall, England, where the weather rarely gets below freezing.  I had lost a week’s painting, but there were other returns.  There was a certain pride in having faced a life threatening situation and had not been found wanting, and having had such an experience should serve me well in the future.  Many others have been tested and weathered similar as a matter of course, and others have failed, while many others have never had to face such a test and will never know.  In the weeks since, I have briefly related this story to a few acquaintances, with varying reactions.  I would have freaked, was one, which seemed to have been the general sentiment, especially by those who would never be out there at that time of the year; that is very understandable.  Since I choose to go into the wild places, I am glad to have had the experience, as I now know how I will likely react when unforeseen occurrences appear somewhere down the pike.  I too freaked during the initial moments of discovering I was stuck, and that I was going to lose 3 hours of a painting day while I gathered dead sage and fallen juniper branches to get myself unstuck.  But when I realized that the branches and sage had not worked, freaking out and annoyance was no longer an option, and cool reflection was the order of the day.  A relatively minor 3 hour annoyance can afford the luxury of the odd freak out, but when it becomes clear that the annoyance is larger, and a day or two (or seven), is what is necessary to retrieve the situation, the mindset must change to meet the new situation. 

And so after cleanup and lunch I proceeded a few miles down the road and decided on a Ponderosa grove, on NFD 27, overlooking Sycan Marsh for my campsite, still at about 5500’, and I would paint the view from here the next morning.  Many of these High Desert Marshes seem to be mostly grazing land, and are marshes in the Spring when the snow melts or in high precipitation years.  Perhaps there are areas of bog, but they are not what I grew up to think of as a marsh, back in the Midwest; I expect I would change my mind after a period of heavy precipitation; I’m still getting a handle on this varied High Desert landscape. 

It was generally overcast the next morning, even though the Moon had been out most of the night, and only the base of Yamsay Mountain, across the level of Sycan Marsh was visible below the cloud base.  I could see the odd patch of snow on its slopes.  Occasional rain blotted out the mountain and the far side of the Marsh a couple of times during the painting session, but the hoped for clearing never occurred, so I never was able to glimpse the contour of the top ... another time.  After painting I had a couple of hours of daylight left so I continued on towards Winter Ridge, to the east, hoping to reach the rim overlooking Summer Lake, but as the altitude there is at 7000’ I ran into snow on the road, and decided I would not risk that, even though there were tire tracks I might have followed; that’s what got me stuck on the flat.  The radio was talking about wind in the forecast, which could translate to more snow up at altitude, and as it was late afternoon now, I risked it not.  I was stopped by snow covered roads twice more, on NFD 29, attempting to get down to Summer Lake 3000’ lower, and then on NFD 28 just before Bald Butte, attempting to get down towards Lakeview.  In the end I retraced to NFD 30 which would take me down to Hwy 140, not far east of Beatty, and on to Lakeview, and a Launderette, the next morning.  That night I spent off of NFD 30, near a small quarry pond, with a lone female Ring-necked Duck in residence.

Last photo of the Road.  This is just before I attempted my final escape and before I had to extend it a bit to the left on the far bank (the left bank), and here on the left of the right bank (extreme left foreground) towards the viewer, after I reversed the truck onto this extreme left part of the turnaround, here seen in the foreground.  This is where I ended up prizing stones out from the right hand side of the turnaround and laying them over on the left towards the viewer, and also on the far bank.  This Saga is now over for this blog … thank goodness, I hear you cry.

Stumps and Dead Wood

C1576

"A Forest Clearing"

(near Union Creek & the Rogue River, Oregon Cascades)

Oil Sketch on Fredrix Canvas Board

5" x 7"

Click here to make this your Own

(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.)

A very strange day … generally sunny with big clouds passing over, but even when no cloud was above me there was fine precipitation going on much of the time while I was painting; almost a mizzle, which is finer than a drizzle, but there was no mist, and not heavy enough to be a drizzle, but it definitely could be felt and seen as tiny droplets would land and slowly deploy on the palette, the painting and me.  This fine, extremely light precipitation occurred even when no big cloud was directly overhead – very strange.   I never really got wet, and I managed to dry the minuscule droplets from areas of the palette with judicious paper towel use, and the painting itself never accumulated enough in its vertical position to be a worry, but as it was about 35º F, not far above freezing, it offered enough annoyance that I didn’t develop the Study as much as I might have done; but that was probably a good thing, since the intention was to study the stumps and logs, and subdue the rest – as it was I probably did too much on the background.  This Study, however, did serve its purpose, as looking hard at a bit of Nature and transcribing in paint what you see sears it into your mind, and that’s what a Study is all about.  Imprimatura: Venetian Red.  Pigments: Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, and Italian Burnt Sienna, Lead White #2, and Winsor & Newton Cobalt & Cerulean Blues & Venetian Red.

I spent a couple of nights in this camp off of a forest road a couple of miles from Union Creek on the Rogue River Gorge, and about 17 miles from the Crater Lake Rim.  The nights got down below freezing into the 20s Fahrenheit, but no problem for this Minnesotan.  My second night here was crispy clear with the Moon out and it was lovely taking a stroll for a mile or so, in the moonlight along a frosty forest road, keeping my bear spray readily available, should some wild beastie care to debate with me the finer points of nighttime wilderness strolls; none cared to discuss such, save the odd comment from a Great Horned Owl off in the forest.

This was my campsite.  The trees are predominately Douglas Firs; there are others.  My portable loo seat, complete with legs is shown with my trusty shovel.  Morning ablutions off in the forest, below freezing and even with a light snowfall, has surprisingly not proved to be a hardship; rain, even with warmer temperatures, is something quite different altogether, and I choose my moments in such weather.  Before the acquisition of my portable loo seat (with legs), morning ablutions were hard on the knees.  Tools never to forget are T.P., hand cleanser, shovel, bear spray and revolver … one hopes no necessity arises to discuss territorial imperatives with the local residents at such moments, unless they are disgusted rabbits or squirrels; Jays & Ravens have come to satisfy their prurient curiosity at times, usually loudly announcing their discoveries to the world at large, after which they, especially the Jays, seem to laugh uproariously as they fly off … daft buggers!

The Rogue River Gorge

a couple miles from my campsite.

On the way to Crater Lake,

Only a few miles up the road.

I had been up to Crater Lake the day before, experienced a brief 5 minute blizzard, in the overcast that obscured the view, although the surface of the lake could just be made out through the cloud, a thousand feet below at the base of the cliffs.  I had intended to go up again today, but remained near camp and painted the Sketch at the top of this Post instead; tomorrow.