On the Forest Roads from Mount Rainier south to, and beyond, Mount Hood.

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Sunday, 17^th of June to Monday, 25^th of June – To Seattle, WA, and then the Forest Roads back to and through the Washington & Oregon Cascades.

Two days later I was off to Seattle to collect paintings from a gallery that had shut down while I was away.  He next nine days I spent on the forest roads east and south of Mount Rainier National Park, wending my way south through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in the triangle formed by Mount Rainier to the north, Mount St. Helens to the southwest, and Mount Adams to the southeast, before crossing the Columbia River back into Oregon at the Dalles, and then into the Mount Hood National Forest, on reconnaissance for future campsites, and paintings.  I found some great sites.

Cluster of butterflies at my first camp
on the way up to Government Meadows.

The first two nights were spent east of Mount Rainier, following the Greenwater River up to, Government Meadows near the crest of the Washington Cascades; deep valleys; steep road; snow patches still up there.  After that I proceeded into Mount Rainier National Park, stopping off at Silver Springs Camp Ground to fill my water bottles, with Stevie Nicks, of MacWood Fleet, singing the song “Silver Springs” in my mind ;)  The Sunrise Visitors Center was still closed, due to snow, but I only wanted to get some photo from the White River Campground, and later at Silver Falls … I have been to Mount Rainier before, in 2010, and on this trip really wanted to get onto the forest roads.

Mount Rainier on the way back
down from Government Meadows.

Skookum Falls across the White River from State Hwy 410.

Silver Springs.

Mount Rainier from near
the White River Campground.

Tipsoo Lakes in the Snow … this is on June 19^th!

Bunchberries in the Forest.

Silver Falls, Mount Rainier National Park.

The glacial waters of Silver Falls.

Unknown waterfall, on State Hwy 123, going south from Silver Falls.

That night I camped well south of the National Park, and deep into the aforementioned triangle, with a view of Mount Adams, not far from Chambers Lake … oh, and with a few mosquitoes as well.  It is wild country up there, and the snows were still halfway across some of those forest roads, but none were blocked.  Takhlakh Lake (to be pronounced “Toc Loc”), was my favorite of the lakes I visited, because of the view of Mount Adams reflecting in its waters.  I also dropped in on Twin Falls, which I had visited back in early June 2011, this time approaching from the north, the direction I tried to go from Twin Falls, but was stopped by snow back then; now it was two weeks later in the season, and the snows were sufficiently reduced to allow travel on most if not all the forest roads.  This is wild country worth exploring a little further, maybe later in the year.

Evening on Mount Adams,
from my camp near Chambers Lake, …

… and in the light of morning.

Mount Adams from Takhlakh Lake.

Morning mist at my camp near Council Lake.

Mist settling on the Strawberries.

Twin Falls, flowing into the Lewis River.

Once I crossed the Columbia River and back in Oregon, it was late in the day, as I climbed southwest out of Hood River, heading for Lost Lake, where I had not been since, probably, 2006.  I wanted to get a few more photographs of the view of Mount Hood from there, to augment those from twelve years ago.  Inadvertently I found a great campsite, a few miles from Lost Lake, tucked in a small space in the forest, with a stream running through it.  For several years I have had a gravity system for water filtering that I had not used before, and so used it here for the first time.  All last year in the Southwestern Deserts I had been afraid of clogging up the filter pores with all that silt in those waters.  Here in the Cascades, I had a perfect water source.  I now have discovered a Millbank Bag that I received from England, which is used to filter out all the mud, silt, and detritus, from an “iffy” water source, and once the water has gone through that it can be finally filtered through the “gravity” system, to keep out all the microbial nasties.  So … if I ever get down to the Southwest again, I am prepared to filter water to my heart’s content, by first using the Millbank Bag, developed for the British Army; of course up  here in the Pacific Northwest, the Millbank Bag can be used when the river is full of glacial flour, as many are, coming off many of the high Cascade Volcanoes.

Mount Hood from Lost Lake.

Rhododendron blossoms.

Stunning blue blossoms.

Bear Grass.

Bear Grass, looking off towards
the Lolo Pass, west of Mount Hood
(not the Lolo Pass in Idaho).

The creek at my campsite not far from Lost Lake.

Mount Hood.

Mount Hood from Trillium Lake …
I chose a moment when the floaters had largely dispersed for lunch. 
Lost Lake is the other side of Mount Hood.

My last campsite was south of Timothy Lake, south of Mount Hood, with another creek running by.  I had stopped at Trillium Lake, which was a zoo, because it was a Sunday, and hot, and close enough to Portland that it’s an easy day trip up there … flotation devices were thick enough on the lake, that I might have been able to stroll across the lake, dry-shod, had I so desired.  I declined the opportunity.  Timothy Lake was a little better … it’s bigger, farther from Portland, and has four or five campgrounds, all full, to absorb the numbers.  Just two miles south of that lake, I had peace and quiet.  The next day I found my way down to the Clackamas River Road and followed the river down through Estacada, skirted the south side of Portland, and so back to the McMinnville area.

Last camp in the Cascades, south of Timothy Lake.

On the Clackamas River, going down to Estacada.

The next few weeks I spent catching up on things at my home base, getting work framed for galleries, posting my blog, etc., before I headed down to the south Oregon Coast and the annual Maritime Show at the Coos Museum of Art in mid-July, where I still am for the next few days.  It’s downright cold here, in the sixties and with a vicious north wind, but to me that is far preferable to the hundred degree weather, back in the Willamette Valley. 

It's been a great year in search of, and finding …  “Wonder” … and yet there is more “Wonder”  … out there.

A Light in the 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.)

C1610

“A Light in the Storm”

(Destruction Island Light … Washington Coast)

Oil on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

12" x 24"

Detail of “A Light in the Storm”

C1615

“End of a Perfect Forest Day”

(Cascade Range)

Oil on Raymar Canvas Panel

12” x 9”

C1616

“Quiet Evening on Second Beach”

(La Push, Washington Coast)

Oil on Raymar Canvas Panel

8” x 16”

I know, I know … it’s been over four months since I last posted.  Well … I’ve been busy … so there. 

Picture petulant lower lip stuck out about half a mile.

Actually, I have been busy … as I write I am perched next to a window overlooking the fields above Trevalga, North Cornwall, England.  It is towards midnight and I am in friends’ holiday cottage and the stars are glimmering down over the fields as I look north past Boscastle (where I lived for seven years), and beyond towards the lights of Bude, and on to the radar domes of Morwenstow twenty miles distant; there is even a more distant light twinkling farther up the coast towards Hartland Quay… it may even be Hartland Quay.  It is a special landscape even beneath the silent stars.  I am listening to Sibelius’ Symphonies Numbers 5 & 6, and wondering what this New Year will bring into this more nasty, more prejudiced world many of us thought had been left behind decades ago.

Be that as it may, once I returned to base after the Coos Art Museum Maritime Exhibition in July, I set to work on several paintings for delivery to my Galleries before I headed out from Oregon, on this journey which brought me to this window overlooking these familiar fields from my long ago.  The painting which appeared in my last posting (here) was the first and is now to be found in the Second Street Gallery, Bandon, Oregon.  The three shown above are to be found at the Kirsten Gallery in Seattle (details below).

The research for C1610 - “A Light in the Storm,” and C1616 - “Quiet Evening on Second Beach,” was done in 2009, when I spent several days in the coastal section of the Olympic National Park, Washington State.  Second Beach was about a half hour stroll from the road through beautiful the beautiful temperate rain forest, and once onto the beach, the whole day was easily spent walking along the length of the beach, drawing, and painting and taking reconnaissance photos for future work, and C1616 is one of the results. 

Destruction Island, on the other hand, is further down the Washington Coast and sadly the light was permanently turned off in 2008.  It lies 3½ miles offshore, and once I saw this Island from the shores of Ruby Beach, I knew I had to paint a dramatic seascape.  Although it has taken longer than expected to do so, it has now been completed, and even more dramatic than I first envisioned.   

C1615 - “End of a Perfect Forest Day,” was inspired by just that … the end of a wonderful day at my campsite up in the coast range above Coos Bay, a few days after the opening of the Maritime Show last July; and a productive and most enjoyable day.  I completed the small painting I was working on, prepared and ate my supper, and was sitting watching the changing light in the valley below, and the just-past-quarter Moon in the sky above.  As the Sun sank into the Northwest, and its light on the trunks of the Douglas Firs began to glow an Earth Orange Hue, I watched as the Moon glided between the branches above.  It was a scene worth remembering, and so here it is and I share it with you. 

Next posting will tell a bit about my travels from Oregon to Minnesota and on to a class reunion in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and of places from my long ago, and others new in that northern land.

The Second Street Gallery, 210 Second Street SE, Bandon, OR 97411

Phone:            541-347-4133                                    Email: BandonArtworks@gmail.com

The Kirsten Gallery, 5320 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle WA 98105

Phone: 206-522-2011                        Email: r2thetop@hotmail.com

For those interested I give the following information.

C1610 - “A Light in the Storm” …

Imprimatura & Drawing/Block-in: Vasari Terra Rosa.

Pigments: Vasari Terra Rosa; Winsor & Newton Cobalt, Cerulean & Ultramarine Deep Blues, Permanent Rose, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Cadmium Orange, and Cremnitz White; M. Graham Hansa Yellow Pale (very little).

C1615 - “End of a Perfect Forest Day” …

Imprimatura: W&N Venetian Red.

Drawing: W&N Venetian Red & Ultramarine Deep.

Pigments: Vasari Terra Rosa; Winsor & Newton Cobalt, Cerulean & Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Venetian Red and Cremnitz White; Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna, Cyprus Raw Umber Deep, Cyprus Warm Burnt Umber.

 C1616 - “Quiet Evening on Second Beach” …

Imprimatura: None.

Drawing/Block-in: Vasari Terra Rosa and W&N French Ultramarine.

Pigments: Winsor & Newton Cobalt, Cerulean & Ultramarine Deep Blues, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Permanent Rose, Venetian Red, Cremnitz & Titanium Whites; M. Graham Hansa Yellow Pale; Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Ceruse; Vasari Terra Rosa.