Heavy Seas

(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.)

C1609

“Heavy Seas”

(Elephant Island with the Cat and Kittens beyond, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Raymar Triple Acrylic Primed Cotton Panel

8" x 16"

After I had finished breakfast and watched the Ospreys at Elbow Lake, I headed north up Hwy 101, fully intending to fit in another painting or two before returning to my main base of operations in McMinnville by the Sunday night, two days hence. However, in the end I spent that day driving slowly, stopping at every pond and small lake that I had always passed by over the many times I had passed by over the years.  I was looking for secluded woodland pools, perhaps with lily pads and fallen trees, notwithstanding the fact that they were all hard by the highway and therefore by definition not so secluded.  It was the idea, not the fact I was hunting.  And so I stopped many times, sometimes within a hundred yards from the previous stop.  There may be some that will be acceptable for a future work or two, but the main thing is that I now need not wonder about them in future as I drive past, and some do merit future stops to capture them in different lights and time of the year.  I also stopped into every National Forest and State Park Campground for future reference as well.  I don’t normally camp in these campgrounds, since they are too much like a camp-ground suburbia, especially in the Summer, but in the off-season, they can be fairly quiet and convenient.  This took all day from Elbow Lake to near Heceta Head Light, where I found my little secluded forest clearing safely empty, allowing me to spend the night. 

The next day just a few miles up the road, I approached Yachats, crossed the bridge at beginning to the town, and turned right onto a county road, drove several miles to find and explore a forest road I had spotted while studying the map at breakfast.  I think I was still a bit miffed that I hadn’t been able to complete the West Fork of the Millicoma River road drive I had tried two days before, and was looking for new forest road experiences.  I found the forest road, which wound steeply up the hill out of the river valley, and when it began to level out on the ridge I found myself in a delightful grove of Western Hemlocks for about a half a mile.  Here I had my lunch in a wide spot in the road.  After that several branching smaller forest roads were explored to see what presented themselves for future campsites.  It was a delightful exploration with several future possibilities marked on the map, and I eventually came out on the river road a short distance east of Waldport.  From here I continued north through Newport (stopping to take a shower at South Beach Campground), Lincoln City, on through Hebo and eventually turned right off Hwy 101 to take the Nestucca River Scenic Bi-way which 32 miles later brought me to an old and favoured campsite in the Coast Range above Yamhill, Carlton & McMinnville.  It was in good shape, and someone had cleaned up some of the rubbish that human pigs that purport to be outdoorsmen had left there in the past; sadly there are too many of those about I have found.  A year ago I had burned all the paper I had found there.  This year it appeared no one had been there all Summer, and there was a profusion of daisies in pristine shape.  It was here I had done a small Oil two years ago when the Oregon Iris’ were in bloom and when the daisies were just about come into their own (see here).  I spent the night and in the morning proceeded down to McMinnville and my dental appointment.

The above painting is one of those I had wanted to be ready for the Coos Art Museum Maritime Show, but I had no time to meet the submission deadline, so the small study of the subject was submitted instead (see here).  It will soon be in one of my galleries; I know where I intend it to go, but where I will actually go depends on what I finish for elsewhere in the next 10 days; I may need it elsewhere.

Imprimatura: Vasari Terra Rosa.

Drawing/Block-in: Vasari Terra Rosa & W&N Ultramarine Blue Deep.

The Pigments used were:  Winsor & Newton Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cremnitz White; Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna, Lead white #2 & Flemish White; Vasari Terra Rosa; a tiny amount of mixed green using M. Graham Hansa Yellow Light for a bit of foliage on the cliff.

Ospreys in the Afternoon at Elbow Lake

(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.)

C1614

“Ospreys in the Afternoon”

(Elbow Lake, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

4" x 6"

All good things must come to an end, they say, and so after eleven nights at my Coast Range Campsite on the end of a spur ridge above an old clear-cut, and thus having a view, and with the clear-cut itself on the slopes below my ridge, so as not to be truly noticeable other than allowing that view, I bid farewell to the creatures and flowers and trees with whom I had shared a home for that little while.  They were sad to see me go, I’m quite sure, as together we had shared pristine warm days and crystal cleared nights and mornings above a sea of fog; a thirty-six hour rain when afterwards the mists arose to blend with the low cloud arising in turn, and with the sun shafts breaking through to finally dissipate the last remnants in a golden end of day; and they had watched me draw and paint, no doubt with bated breath, as they waited to see how they turned out. 

But the time came to leave, and so I thanked them for sharing their space with me, as I slowly headed back along the spur ridge, and down into the valley of the West Fork of the Millicoma River.  I had studied my maps and it appeared that there was a back way through to the Drain/Reedsport road that would allow me to explore new territory.  Alas, t’was not to be, as about 11 miles up the river I came to a locked gate preventing any further progress.  So I retraced my steps, took a different road up and over the ridgeline road that I normally take to my campsite, proceeded down another road I had wondered about, which took me out to Hwy 101, further North; an alternate way in on future trips to this area.

I picked up a couple of necessary supplies in Reedsport, and then up and over the big hill north of there.  At the bottom of that hill Elbow Lake appears on the coastal side (left); the big multi-armed Lake Tahkenitch is hidden off to the east of the highway, and was seen from the top of the hill as I proceeded north from Reedsport.  On the way down 12 days before, I had noticed a hidden pull-in very nearby Elbow Lake.  I passed it by, turned around a bit further on, and approached it from the North and backed into it.  One could easily spend the night here, and few would notice, but it was really close and possibly buggy.  Strolling south to the lake taking photographs, I spotted a short lane down to the lakeside.  I retrieved the SUV and drove down there and discovered a small turnaround and space enough to camp.  After a short exploratory and photographic stroll I set up to paint. 

The purpose of this Oil Study originally was to paint looking into the light and catch the sun sparkles on the water.  But this is a good example of how these little Plein Aire paintings can progress during the course of the work.  While painting away, I noticed an Osprey land in a tree top across the lake, and later circling around to take up different vantage points from which to observe the water.  I dabbed him in landing on the tree in which I had first seen him land; there was a nest there at the top of the tree.  I also added him I flight nearby, and so this painting became not only a study of sun sparkles and light, but also a memory jogger that here there be Osprey(s).  The next morning during a breakfast lengthened by watching the Osprey, I discovered that there were indeed Ospreys, as I eventually realized there were three of them … probably a pair and their juvenile.  I took no photos of the Ospreys as they never were close enough to get a reasonable shot.

Imprimatura: None on this one.  I thought about a pale Yellow Ochre one, but since I was beginning this study in mid afternoon, I decided to forego the time it would take.

Drawing/Block-in: Cobalt Blue.

The Pigments used were:  M. Graham Hansa Yellow Pale; Winsor & Newton Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cremnitz & Titanium Whites; a very small amount of Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre.

Beginning a Coast Range Idyll

(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.)

C1611

"On Haynes Inlet"

(Coos Bay, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

4" x 6

It has taken me awhile to get back into the swing of things, as far as posting to my blog is concerned, and it will be a slow, but I hope fairly steady renaissance … as it were.  The Annual Coos Art Museum Maritime Show opened on the ninth of July, and I was in attendance for both the Artists’ Preview and the Private View the next evening.  I left town at 22:00 on the 3^rd, and travelled down to one of my secret clearings in the forested Coast Range near Heceta Head, spending the night and leisurely proceeding on towards Coos Bay the next day.  I went up into the Coast Range NE of Coos Bay watched the 4^th of July fireworks from 15 miles away, or at least those that shot high enough to be seen above the intervening hills … binoculars were de rigueur.  Always nice to see them from a distance, avoiding crowds and the noise; my own private display.  Found the forest road I camped on last year, and on which I painted the work seen here, which is now in the Earthworks Gallery, in Yachats, Oregon.  The next day I toddled on down to the Museum and delivered my two small works for the coming show, topped off my supplies, petrol, etc. and did a bit of recon on the way back to my chosen Forest Road campsite.  After a leisurely supper, and a bit of star gazing, it was off to bed; sooooo nice to be back in the Wild. 

Up bright and early the next morning, I fully intended to get the above painting done for Saturday’s Auction in support of the Museum, but the beauty of the Wild intervened and I spent most of the day just watching unfold around me and … enfold me.  After the months spent in a windowless studio completing the commission, mentioned recently, I needed to just drink in silence.  As I arose that first morning the valleys, below the ridge on which I was camped, were filled with mist … I was above a sea of fog … a view I have wanted to see for ages.  Between recon photos and observations, I breakfasted, and by the time I finished my morning coffee most of the mists had cleared from the valleys, only hanging on for awhile in those closer to the coast.  And then it was watching the birdlife, the occasional rabbit, the resident chipmunks, and Bambi and his/her Mom grazed down the road, much as a previous generation had last year.

Late in the day I finally dug out the paint box, studied the pencil drawing I had done the previous afternoon on my way back from delivery, laid down an imprimatura on the canvas panel and applied the brush drawing.  I let this dry overnight and the next day set to it again, but with no real hurry, as my “Nature-watch” continued.  On the third day, I touched up a couple of places, and inserted the heron, and threw it into its frame, ready for the auction, completely forgetting to photograph it before doing so; thus the framed photos above.  Three days of beautiful clear skies, warm but not hot temperatures … the way I like it.  Ahhhhh!  Nice!

Oh yeah … and by the way … the above Oil of Haynes Inlet did sell at the auction.

Into the Light at the Devil’s Kitchen

(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.)

C1606

“Into the Light at the Devil’s Kitchen”

(Bandon, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

5" x 7"

Sold

I know it’s been awhile, and I will be posting intermittently for the next little while, while I finish up a number of things that need doing.  This one was done on a rainy day from a drawing done on my first day in Bandon (see the previous post).  As it turned out it was my best weather day, and I completed four or five sketches in my smallest sketchbook.  The following few days were spent working either from sketches, or from my vehicle, and/or photographing the always interesting Bandon, Oregon coast.  I’ve mentioned the Devil’s Oregon real estate before; well, this is his Kitchen ... he was not cooking anything up this particular day, much to my relief!

Imprimatura: Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre from Rublev; I’ve only used Yellow Ochre as in imprimatura once before, and quite successfully that first time.  This could have used a little more drying time before starting to paint over it, but that is not always possible.

Drawing/Block-in: 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.

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.

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

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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.

Summer Winds

(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.)

C1599

"A Light in the Storm"

(Oregon Coast)

Oil on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

with additional Coat of Williamsburg Lead Ground

5" x 7"

Click here to make this your Own

Weather-wise I could have well stayed up in the Coast Range, as when I finally arrived in Bandon, six days after my intention to be there, I could see the usual Summer winds were up.  If you were following these postings from their inception last Summer, you might remember that on this central & southern Oregon Coast the winds in Summer are usually strong, from the north (and therefore cold), and fairly incessant.  Thus they were upon my arrival late in the day after I had left my charming forest road campsite high in the Oregon Coast Range, and toddled into Bandon.  The next day, however, they had dissipated, but a dull overcast had set in.  This would normally not have prevented my painting on the shore, but once down on the beach, and while looking for a spot to paint, I noticed that the sands had shifted from what they had been last Summer … deeper and therefore the low tide was further out past sea-stacks that I had never been able to walk around on past visits to Bandon.  Considering the bland lighting of the overcast, and this new configuration of the sands, I decided to concentrate taking photographs and making pencil sketches in my pocket sketchbook.  The Oil Painting above was done from one of my drawings in that sketchbook, and is shown below.

While rapidly jotting down this pencil sketch, I had in mind that I would use it as the basis for a dramatic storm with crashing waves.  This is the type of drawing I consider as informational note taking, as are many of the drawings in this pocket sketchbook.  This is one of those sketchbooks where I had cut and folded the paper into sections and then had a professional bookbinder in Cornwall, England bind it together; I had about twenty of various sizes bound at the same time, eleven years ago.  Not cheap but now I have sketchbooks bound with the various papers (some handmade), that I most enjoy working on.  This is a Fabriano Ingres paper, 160 gsm in weight; I love the way a laid* paper takes the graphite, when drawing.  The day after the drawing was done I worked up the Oil Sketch from my Pencil Sketch, as the cloud cover continued and the wind came up again … the Sun did come out later … still breezy.

Imprimatura: Venetian Red.

Block-in: French Ultramarine.

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

* A laid paper is one where you can see the laid lines (the close parallel lines), and the chain lines (parallel lines wider spaced and 90 degrees to the laid lines), indented in the paper, from the screen used during the paper making process.  A wove paper does not have these lines and is what you find as the surface of normal writing or printing paper.

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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(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.)

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.