Discovering some Forest Lakes

C1549

“Afternoon on Muddy Lake”

(New River ACEC, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

with an additional Priming Coat of Rublev Lead White in Oil

5” x 7”

SOLD

After months of preparing to launch this blog, and finally doing so, and sending out an old fashioned mail-shot, by snail-mail, and then testing and tweaking it and Daily Paintworks for a couple more weeks, last week I was able to finally return to painting full time; of course I have to prepare these posts and spend time at the library posting them via their free Wi-Fi, but I’m back to the plan.  Summer weather here on this stretch of Oregon coast is usually in the 60s Fº (65º F is about 18.5º C for you in the rest of the World), but with a chill north wind prevailing and making it feel much colder; and I thought Cornwall was windy! 

Biding my time for and waiting for those days when the wind might lessen, I discovered the New River ACEC (Area of Critical Environmental Concern), series of four parcels of BLM land (Bureau of Land Management), along the New River a few miles south of Bandon.  The wind here, just a few hundred yard from the open beaches, is much reduced and so more manageable.  The New River parallels the coast separated from the Pacific Ocean by a few hundred yards of sand dunes before it empties into the sea.  On the landward side of the New River, lie several forest lakes situated in the various New River ACECs; two of these are Storm Ranch and Lost Lake, and what a discovery!  I’ve spent several days painting at both.  Muddy Lake at the Storm Ranch ACEC is depicted above from the observation blind.  With the Summer weather the lake level is dropping and so the lily pads are sticking up out of the water; perhaps this annual occurrence is why it is called Muddy Lake.  There is a certain amount of birdlife here including a resident Heron and a Great White Egret, both of which tend to work the opposite side of the lake, as they seem to be aware of the occasional viewer at the blind.  There are several other trails through other types of terrain at the Storm Ranch ACEC, but so far I’ve been side-tracked by the Muddy Lake; if the wind on the beaches continues to be a problem I may get to sample them, provided the lake doesn’t intervene.

Over the years as I’ve met other artists and the various patrons who have acquired my work, questions arise such as inspiration, materials used and such.  Generally this journal is written with them/you in mind, and is why I end each posting with a mention of the materials used, and sometimes a bit more of how I proceeded on a particular work; it also provides a bit of a record of what pigments were used in any particular work.  I am painting these sketches, studies and small paintings in Oil, on commercial panels, usually made of an archival hardboard, some of which are covered in a linen canvas, and then coated with layer of a white priming; this primer may be of an acrylic gesso or an oil based primer of titanium pigment.  I have also been adding a final layer of a traditional lead in oil primer, as was used by the Old Masters, when I have time o do so; this must be done in advance by several weeks for it to set up properly.  The priming layer is also known as the ground.  Over this white ground at the beginning of the day’s work, I many times will lay down a thin transparent layer of pigment, and this is called the imprimatura; as a landscape artist I tend to use an earth red pigment, such as Burnt Sienna or Venetian Red.  These colours add a warmth to the following paint layers, and if there are spots that are missed by the ensuing brush strokes the warm earth tones showing through just add to the interest of the painting, and being a complementary of the prevailing green of a landscape allow those greens to sing instead of being too overpowering.

And so, Techies, the imprimatura was Burnt Sienna (alkyd), with the pigments used were Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red, Cobalt and Cerulean Blues, & Cremnitz White, and just a little Cadmium Yellow Pale was used for some of the brighter greens.  I worked o this over two successive afternoons.  The first day the colours seemed a bit too slippery beneath the brush, and I’m thinking it was the Alkyd Burnt Sienna imprimatura that I had applied several days earlier and was thoroughly dry.  Alkyd is a synthetic resin that was developed in the 1930s, I believe, and is compatible with Oil Paint, and dries quite rapidly, compared to Oil; I will have to keep this in mind in future to see if this is true.  The second day the first layer, which was really just a block-in at this stage, was just a little tacky and so took the paint quite nicely and I rapidly finished it off.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did painting it … well the second afternoon’s work.

On the Coquille River at Bandon Marsh

C1508

“The Turn of the Tide”

(Coquille River at Bandon Marsh, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

4” x 6”

Click here to make this your Own

This is the Coquille River about a mile and a half or so from where it enters the Sea at Bandon, Oregon, and we are looking across at Bandon Marsh, a protected  Nature Reserve, and at the turn of the tide.  As I painted from the driver’s seat of my SUV, it being too drizzly off and on to do otherwise, I watched those big tree trunks out in the river slowly drift upstream to the left, as the tide rose.  Eventually they slowed, became stationary for a time, and gradually began to move back to the right towards the sea, as the river’s current began to take over again; perhaps they might make it to the open sea this time before the next rising tide. 

And yes, there was birdlife to be seen and enjoyed.  Besides the odd seagull, there were various ducks and waterfowl, but I was too busy painting to try and identify them unless I already was familiar with them, such as the heron keeping vigil in front of where I painted.  Although I am not a wildlife artist per se, I am interested in and do enjoy observing them, and so they do get included from time to time, as staffage in my work, much as others include people in their cityscapes.  I am sure there were more to be seen across the river in the marsh. 

I had tried to find a spot further up the river, where the marsh is more extensive, but there were no lay-bys from which to paint from the truck, but here was good enough, as the drifting logs, the birdlife, the bit of mist drifting in and out over the marsh, and the light effects, made for an entertaining painting session.  The real subject of the sketch is the light breaking through and reflecting on the water, with the promise of a better afternoon; it was just a promise.  In Oregon, that patch of blue sky that comes to nothing is called “a sucker hole.”

The imprimatura was a mixture of Burnt Sienna & Venetian Red, and the pigments used were Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow (hue), Burnt Sienna, Venetian Red, Cobalt Blue, a bit of Ultramarine Blue and Ivory Black, and a touch of Gold Ochre; all by W&N, save for the black which was by Bloccx.  I know, I know; you’re wondering why so many colours, for a grey painting?  I had some of the colours still on my palette from the last painting session, and I was also testing various mixtures for the greys; the Gold Ochre was to see if it would brighten up the strip of marsh in the brightening light breaking through the clouds; perhaps it did a bit.

Meanwhile back on the Coast

C1529

“November Afternoon at Seal Rock”

(Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

5” x 7”

Click here to make this your Own

Meanwhile back on the coast, the weather was good and there were seascapes waiting to be painted, so after my couple of days up in the mountains, I worked my way down to Seal Rock a few miles south of Newport.  At Seal Rock, of all the rocks here at the State Park, there is no one rock that is called Seal Rock.  One might think that this large one might be it, but no … none are.  Being bemused by this I sometimes call them in the plural and some of the captions of my several paintings of this area are entitled thus, depending on how I’m feeling at the time; contrary or otherwise.  I managed two paintings on his day, the morning one being in one of my Galleries at present.  This was Thanksgiving Day, and then still managed a dinner of smoked salmon & vegetables on a bed of cous cous cooking it after dark; a bit different from my Thanksgiving Day ham sandwich of the year before up at Blizzard Gap on Hwy 140 at 6200’, on my way to Winnemucca, Nevada, and points east.  I found a forest clearing six miles up in the mountains from Seal Rock and made it my campsite for 8 nights, coming down to paint every day.  I managed seven Oil sketches during the days spent here including two during the 1^st of December storm which swept in; most are in galleries, but there will be another on my next post.  

The morning haze cleared and as the tide receded, and the shadows began to lengthen I worked up this 2^nd sketch.  Over an imprimatura of Venetian Red, the pigments used were the triad of Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red and Cobalt Blue plus Titanium White (all W&N).  I’m quite pleasantly surprised to get the sea-greens as well as the green of the grass on the top of the big rock from just the mixture of Cobalt Blue & Yellow Ochre; I shouldn’t be since I got a range of mixed greens when mixing in Watercolour, but I’ve not done as much with Oil as I have with Watercolour over the years.

Morning Clouds

C1527

“Sky Study … Moon Setting just before the Sun Rises”

(Oregon Coast Range)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

5” x 7”

Click here to make this your Own

Last November after leaving Bandon, Oregon where I’d been painting for a couple of weeks I drifted north and found a clearing in the National Forest up in the Coast Range, and a few miles inland from Cape Perpetua; here I spent a couple of days.  One morning I saw this wonderful pink cloudscape and put it down while it was fresh in my mind.  It’s always worth turning to the sky opposite from where the Sun I rising or setting; you may just see the Moon doing the opposite of the Sun, as well as catching some colour schemes not seen in any other way.  I have seen similar morning clouds before, both before and shortly after the sun rises, and these wonderful soft clouds fill the sky and seem to promise, and usually does, a fine day; this day was no exception.  This work is a Study and as such I could have left the forested mountains out, but I added them so that there would be an anchor to show where the clouds were in relation to the ground and to remind me that this was in the Oregon Coast Range and a few miles from the Sea; I didn’t actually have a view, but only glimpses of the mountains and the Sea through the grove of Red Alders. 

After I completed the study I explored the area, driving a few miles further inland down into the valleys searching for a couple of covered bridges; I found one, but there was nowhere to set up to paint it, nor to really take good photos, although I did take some average, informational ones.  The valleys were frosty and cold with frost building up thickly on the north facing slopes, while up at 2000 feet where I camped remained much warmer, even at night; camp at altitude, boys, and stay warm! 

I’ve always been good at painting my skies in Watercolour, but since I never liked working outdoors in that medium I never did a series of cloud studies, as Constable did throughout his life; with these small Oils I expect there to be more to come.  I reckon Constable would have taken photos for reference material as well as his small sky studies … yes, he would have … don’t argue!

Over the imprimatura of Venetian Red I used the following pigments, Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre & Titanium White (all by Winsor & Newton), as well as Caput Mortuum (by Schmincke), a lovely purply Earth Red. 

Into the Coast Range, Mark-II

C1547

“The Forest Clearing … Oregon Irises & Daisies”

(Oregon Coast Range)

Oil Painting on Sundalea Panel

with an additional Priming Coat of Rublev Lead White in Oil

5” x 7”

Click here to make this your Own

In June the wild Oregon Irises were in their prime, and I determined to have them in a painting; not as a floral portrait, but as part of the landscape.  These Iris are and almost white lilac colour with a yellow center; quite nicely subtle.  I also wanted to paint the little forest clearing, in which I frequently camp on these long weekends away from town.  It is a young forest surrounding this clearing growing up after formerly being logged, perhaps 20 or 30 years ago.  There’s nothing particularly special about it, except that it is nicely secluded, just off a forest road, and if anyone else turns to come into it they can see my SUV 50 yards up into the, allowing them to reverse out with no difficulty, thus preserving my solitude; this is a plus come hunting season.  I chose a corner with taller grasses coming in, with a few of the Irises here and there, Manzanita shrubs to the right with their little urn-shaped flowers being worked over by the Bees, and the first Daisies opening out.  The week after, the Irises were pretty much gone and the Daisies which had been a myriad of little buds, had opened and become a myriad of blossoms; but that was in the future.  You can see that the young forest forms pretty much a wall which surrounds the clearing, impenetrable, save for the wild creatures which either live here or pass through.  Bambi and his Mom passed through early one morning, rabbits came out at dawn and dusk, and the resident chipmunk scolded me periodically; various birds visited throughout the day, including one Hummingbird that several times a day would buzz down and closely inspect the red of my truck’s tail lights before deciding that there would be no nectar found there!

I laid down and imprimatura with Winsor & Newton Burnt Sienna (Alkyd), so that it would set up quicker, and proceeded to block in the lights and shades with a mixture of W&N Ultramarine Blue, & a touch of Burnt Sienna (Alkyd).  I mixed a variety of greens from W&N Cerulean Blue & Cadmium Yellow & Cadmium Yellow Pale, and Ultramarine Blue in the place of the Cerulean for the darker more transparent greens, and went over the block-in with these greens.  You can see the tips of the Douglas Firs have the lightest, yellowest greens depicting the new growth.  With such a green painting it is essential to have a variety of mixed greens, and to add touches of earth reds here and there to keep all that green from overwhelming.  The Irises were mostly Cremnitz White with a touch of Indian Red.

The complete Palette is Cerulean & Ultramarine Blues, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Yellow & Cadmium Yellow Pale, Cremnitz White (all W&N), and a little Roberson’s Indian Red; a very little W&N Cobalt Blue also got worked in.

Into the Coast Range

C1546

“The Trout Pool below the Beaver Dam”

(Oregon Coast Range)

Oil Painting on Centurion Oil Primed Panel

with an additional Priming Coat of Lead White in Oil by Rublev

7” x 5”

Click here to make this your Own

Back in May of this year, I started getting out for long weekends into the Oregon Coast Range above McMinnville, taking a break from the long preparations for this Blog.  I had finally realized that the weekend hours at the Library were not long enough to do any meaningful work, and I wished I had realized this back in March; before that I was busy getting a new engine in my SUV & readying my accounts for the fiscal year’s end, as well as there was just too much snow up there on the forest roads that I like to frequent.  But it was refreshing to at last be out there and refresh my mind as to what this Odyssey is all about.

I came upon this scene in the Autumn of 2012, but this Springtime Idyll grabbed my attention at first sight this year, shouting “Paint me!”  It is an example of how I want to approach my more complete Oils; that is to be somewhere between the fine detail of my Studio Watercolours, and the looseness of my Oil Sketches, and that is why it is signed as I do my more complete work, as you are no doubt aware since you all have obviously clicked & read every tab of my Blog, especially in this case the “Stuff” tab.  

I laid down and imprimatura with Winsor & Newton Burnt Sienna (Alkyd), so that it would set up quicker, and proceeded to block in and draw the composition with a mixture of W&N Ultramarine Blue, & Rublev Italian Burnt Sienna.  Then I began on the colouring, again blocking in the big shapes of the sky, distant forest covered hills, trees, foreground water, etc. and then going over it all again refining the shapes and super-imposing the detail with finer brushes.  I mixed a variety of greens from W&N Ultramarine Blue and Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre for the darker greens (especially in the shadows of the tree on the left), W&N Cobalt Blue & the Yellow Ochre for the more subdued greens and Cerulean Blue and Cadmium Yellow Pale (both W&N) for the brighter greens found in the foreground.  The complete Palette is Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre &  Rublev Italian Burnt Sienna (both wonderful colour from Natural Pigments), Venetian Red, Cobalt, Ultramarine & Cerulean Blue (all W&N), W&N Cadmium Yellow Pale & Rublev Flemish Lead White. 

Throughout the painting sessions over two successive afternoons Trout were leaping for the occasional insect or now & again darting here and there; I watched a Bald Eagle come and go, and a Heron, as well as Dragonflies hunting, and listened to a few busy Bees working the flower nearby; only a few of the delights witnessed. Only one or two vehicles traversed the bridge I was lurking under while I painted away.

Grand Canyon Rocks

C1503

“Study … Rock Formation”

(Grand Canyon, Arizona)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

4” x 6”

Click here to make this your Own

Next I turned to matters close at hand, after  little stroll and a bit of a stretch, and tackled the rocks just a few feet away from where I’d done the two earlier Oil Sketches.  Now I chose a 4" x 6" panel (being contrary), and used the same palette I’d been working with all day (why change now?), with a brush drawing in Cobalt Blue, and again no imprimatura; Cobalt Blue, Venetian Red, Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow (hue), Cadmium Red, and Titanium White, all Winsor & Newton. 

I spent whatever time I had here in the Grand Canyon area painting and taking photographs, and have had no time since then to really study the geology, so I can’t tell you at present what these rocks might be, so we’ll just call them “the creamy coloured rocks at the top of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, roughly 12 miles east of the Visitor’s Center,” shall we?  OK, well that’s settled.  But I did have an occasional companion all day, in the form of a blondish squirrel with a spotty or mottled colouration on its back; this was a Rock Squirrel (Otospermophilus variegates), and I saw several during my time at the Canyon, and so far none before or since.  The handling of this Study was looser than the two sketched earlier in the day, as you can see, for example, with the broader brush strokes in the sky and the bit of landscape showing on the left.  The rocks themselves I built up with discreet strokes of colour next to each other, and then pecked in smaller strokes later to build up a bit of the texture of the rock surface, lichens and the sparse branches of the , I believe, Rabbit-brush … maybe a little sagebrush as well, and to give shape to the formation.  I could have gone further, but it stands as it is; the day was waning, and I did cook supper in the deepening dusk.  A good day with three Oil Sketches completed, and my first confrontation in paint with this Great Natural Wonder!

Grand Canyon Afternoon

C1502

“Afternoon Cloud Shadows”

(Grand Canyon, Arizona)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

3” x 4”

Click here to make this your Own

And after finishing yesterday’s Oil Sketch it was time for lunch, hastily wolfed it down and began on the next one, above.  By now the light was a bit mellower, as a little afternoon haze softened the distance.  There was more Sun as the clouds had thinned and become those cumulous of oft remembered lazy days; but no lazing for me.  The slowly moving cloud shadows drifting across the sub-canyons & buttes within the greater chasm itself now became the reason to paint.  The colours of the landscape became a bit brighter than in the morning’s work, partly I think because of the more apparent contrast of the soft greens of the vegetation (grasses, sage?), with the earth reds of the Canyon walls. 

Again I chose a 3" x 4" panel, since Morning & Afternoon makes a natural pair; no matter that they might go to separate homes ... it's the painting exercise that matters.  I proceeded as with the earlier painting, with a brush drawing in Cobalt Blue, and again no imprimatura; the pigments used were the same as the morning, being Cobalt Blue, Venetian Red, Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow (hue), Cadmium Red, and Titanium White.  The lovely quiet greens, were mixed from the blue and both yellows and the white; I’m always surprised with the various greens one can get with these subdued yellows. 

There is something singular about the perception of space and distance in the West.  I first began to feel this when first crossing the Cascade Range in Oregon from the Willamette Valley to the High Desert, and I realized that I could see where I’d been two hours before and sixty miles off in the distance.  Again and again his happens when travelling out here.  On Thanksgiving Day in 2012, and the day after, while heading east from Oregon to Oklahoma, this would happen again and again with even greater distances.  Here on the edge of the Grand Canyon one looks down thousands of feet and miles across to the opposite rim and, and as you come to terms with the actuality of those distances you realize how long it might take you to walk those distances.  I can well understand those first Spanish explorers with Coronado, who upon looking down from the South Rim for the first time, thought that the “little brook” a few hundreds of feet below could be easily stepped across; or so they thought until members of their party actually climbed down and confronted the Colorado River itself; then they had to climb back up!

Grand Canyon Morning

C1501

“Grand Canyon Morning”

(Morning Light)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

3” x 4”

Click here to make this your Own

The Valley of the Gods in southern Utah was my first experience of the red rocks of the American Southwest, and I could have spent a couple weeks there painting the various formations from different directions and in different lights and weathers; of course that is what all Landscape Painting is about no matter where you are.  I’m going to jump ahead in the sequence of my travls from Oklahoma back to Oregon, and I hear you cry, “Why all the jumping around?!!”  It is simply that I am posting paintings that I have available to this blog, as many are in Galleries and thus not available … yet; there are always a lot of balls to juggle as a painter.

Eventually I reached the Grand Canyon for the first time in my life; what would it be like in reality; slightly bigger than Rocky Valley in North Cornwall, I expect.  I arrived at the Visitor Center Carpark on the south rim about mid-afternoon; it was quite crowded even though it was mid-October, but I expect that the re-opening after the Government shut-down might have had something to do with that; I’m glad it wasn’t mid-Summer.  I parked away from the Visitor Center, and as close to the rim as I could and followed likely looking suspects that seemed to be heading in the right direction.  Abruptly I came out of the pines and there it was beyond scores of tourists, both foreign & domestic.  I threaded my way through the throngs to the edge and as the astonishing view opened out, my first verbal reaction to those within earshot was, “Wot! Is that awl there is?  Oi  thot it wood be biggah!”  in my best North London accent (that should actually be Noaf Lahndon … apologies to my true North London friends and acquaintances).  I received the requisite laughs from those nearby who understood the language and blank stares from those who didn’t. 

But seriously, it is truly an astounding landscape, which keeps getting larger as one studies it for a time and begins to actually understand the scale involved.  Colours, cloud patterns and shadows, aerial perspective, all play a role in making this, what could be a painter’s paradise for a lifetime and there are those for who it is so.  I only had a few days.  The next day I managed three Oil sketches, partly by camping in the National Forest just outside the National Park boundary on a back road, and only a mile from the South Rim itself, and partly by staying in one spot the whole day.  The first sketch above depicts the morning Sunlight breaking through the early cloud cover and lighting up portions of the Canyon while more of it remains in early shadow.  Being contrary, I chose my smallest sketching panel of 3” x 4” thus setting myself a challenge to try and capture the immensity of the Canyon, in such a small format; perhaps I succeeded … or not … you decide.

I proceeded to draw directly in Cobalt Blue with the brush and no imprimatura; the pigments used are Cobalt Blue, Venetian Red, Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow (hue), Cadmium Red, & Titanium White, all by Winsor & Newton.

In the Valley of the Gods #2

C1498

“Afternoon Light on the Keep”

(Valley of the Gods, Utah)

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

5” x 7”

Click here to make this your Own

In the afternoon, after painting Battleship Butte in the morning, I moved a few yards away turned 90 degrees towards the North and painted the afternoon light as it bounced and reflected between the rock formations.  I couldn’t find a name for this butte on my maps, so I’m calling it the Keep since it reminds me of many of those Norman castles I saw in England standing on their mottes, or mounds, especially from this direction.  After laying down an imprimatura of Venetian Red, I drew in the design with a brush using Cobalt Blue; I might have used Ultramarine to do this, but at this point I hadn’t decided that Ultramarine would be on the palette.  I laid in the sky with Cobalt Blue, mixing in a little Cerulean as I worked down towards the horizon; the pink in the lower reachs of the sky is the imprimatura affecting the thinly painted blues layered over it.  I am especially pleased with the complementary contrasts of the earth red pigments and the mixed greens of the Sage & Rabbit Brush.  For the greens I mostly mixed Cobalt and/or Cerulean Blues with Yellow Ochre; for some darker passages I added a touch of Ultramarine.  The red earth was a base of Venetian Red mixed with Naples Yellow (hue) or Yellow Ochre and Cremnitz White in the light values, and with Cobalt Blue in the darker passages; Cadmium Red Pale and Vermilion are also mixed in or applied in discreet touches where necessary to add a bit more heat and glow.

The imprimatura was Venetian Red; the palette consisted of Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red, Cobalt & Cerulean Blues [with Ultramarine playing a lesser role], Naples Yellow (hue), Cadmium Red Pale, Vermilion, and Cremnitz White; all by Winsor & Newton.  Naples Yellow (hue) is a convenience colour, which I find useful.  I also have Genuine Naples Yellow by Vasari, but it is a brighter pigment than the Naples Yellow (hue), and so I use that for different purposes.

In the Valley of the Gods

C1497

“Dawn at Battleship Butte”

(Valley of the Gods, Utah)

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

5” x 7”

Click here to make this your Own

On 14^th October, I heard that Utah had provided funds to open some of its National Parks, even though the majority in the country were still shut; it was time to head for the Red Rocks Country.  I passed by a tightly closed Mesa Verde (still in Colorado), but decided that I would return if I hadn’t travelled too far west by the time the Government shut-down ended.  And so on to Utah and spent the first night in Recapture Pocket.  There were a few distant lights, but only a few several miles away; there had been none from my first forest road campsite, nor in American Basin; I will return to Recapture Pocket in another post. 

Passing through Bluff, UT I proceeded down to Mexican Hat, topped up with petrol, and backtracked seven miles to the start of the Valley of the Gods loop.  Desert showers came past with the lowering Sun casting an eerie light, and about 10 miles into the Valley I chose my campsite.  A waxing gibbous Moon rose above the red cliffs, so different from the High Rockies only a couple days before; and no artificial lights to be seen!

There were rabbits here (surprising how they seem to be everywhere you go), and I saw tracks of smaller creatures in the sand, and a coyote scat near the rim of the small arroyo nearby.  The odd vulture wheeled overhead during the day, and Mr. Raven & his wife occasionally made a visit.  I was not sure what wildlife I might or might not see in this desert landscape.

Before dawn I arose and readied myself for the painting above; no sign of the showers that had greeted me the night before.  The faintest butte & chimney are in Monument Valley, in Arizona, scene of many a western film.  I wanted to capture the foreground still in the cool shadow with the butte bathed in the early morning light.  Ochres were the base, but this subject allowed Cadmium Red and Vermilion to make an entrance as well.  The greens or the most part were mixed greens, but I added a bit of Chromium Oxide Green to the palette as well. 

The imprimatura was Venetian Red, and the pigments used in the main painting were: Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red, Vermilion, Cadmium Red Pale, Naples Yellow (hue), Chromium Oxide Green, Cobalt & Cerulean Blues, Cremnitz & Titanium Whites.

Autumn in American Basin

C1493

“Autumn in American Basin”

(Colorado Rockies)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

4” x 6”

Click here to make this your Own

Back in October I spent more time in the Colorado Rockies than I had intended, since I was waiting for the government shutdown to end and the National Parks to reopen and I didn’t want to move too far west, so as not to miss some of those that I wanted to see; who knows how long it might be before I might pass that way again.  On October 7^th, after three days on the forest road south of Gunnison, I continued south to Lake City and Lake San Cristobal, one of the larger natural lakes in Colorado; about 700 years ago, the Slumgullion Slide came down the mountainside and blocked the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, thus forming the Lake.  I found a great campsite on the south side of the lake at a county campground at no charge, it being after the season; I was the only one there after my first night, spending 4 of the next 5 nights there. 

After setting up camp on a cliff above the lake, I began a drawing in my sketchbook and finished it the next morning, before exploring up the Lake Fork and eventually ending up at 11,500’ at American Basin.  To get there I had to pass along the scariest two-mile stretch of road I’ve ever driven; a single-lane track cut from mountains-cliffs on the right and shelving off down into a river gorge on the left so deep and narrow the water remained unseen below; I had to keep my eyes on the track ahead, but I kept wanting to look to the left and down.  After 2 miles the cleft broadened out into a pleasant valley, with the river running through it before it plunged into the gorge I’d just driven.  This valley, about 5 miles long, was full of miners and boasted several towns back in the late 1800s.  Now I met a few hunters, one all the way from Alaska, scouting out the deer population before the season opened on the following Saturday. 

A few miles further on I arrived in American Basin just in time to cook supper and settle down for the night.  The temperature was a bit odd in that there was a chill breeze wafting down from the snow field on the basin wall to the south, but the ambient temperature itself must have been higher since I felt warmer in my sleeping bags that night than the first night on the forest road where I had painted the Autumn Cottonwoods; and I was about 2500’ higher in altitude.

 

The next morning I rolled out of my sleeping bags at first light and as the first rays of the Sun touched the mountain spires I began the little Oil Painting above. I was struck be the morning shadow gradually moving down the western flank on the right, as well as the cloud shadows.  The russets and ochres of the Autumn grasses and leafless bushes contrasted nicely with the violets and blues shadowed areas.  I don’t believe any of the snow on the mountain wall is a glacier, but certainly we are in a glacial basin a remnant of at least the last Ice Age, if not at some time since.  A couple of months ago I revisited the painting and glazed in some colour, strengthening the work overall, but especially the shadows, and thus the contrast between the light and shade.  I have signed this work S.T. Johanneson, instead of with just my monogram STJ, thus denoting it to be a complete painting, as opposed to being a sketch or study, and if you have read under the “Stuff” tab that means a higher starting price, as you may have noticed.

I had hoped to attempt to go higher from here up to 12500’-plus, as the track continues steeply up to the right-rear behind our viewpoint, and crosses a high pass, but the snowfalls already occurring in September, had blocked it at that altitude; and Winter is coming (sorry, for a moment I thought I was inside Game of Thrones), by that evening snow was in the forecast, so that afternoon I backtracked down the desperate road, only passing one vehicle on the scary two-mile stretch (luckily we met at a passing spot), and on below to my campsite on its cliff above the lakeside.  There I awaited the snow and watched it gently fall over 36 hours; it only accumulated about 4” as it was warm enough to melt a certain amount as it landed; I was hoping for more. 

No imprimatura, and the pigments used were: Yellow Ochre, a touch or two of Cadmium Orange, Venetian Red, a little Sap Green, Cobalt Blue, and Cremnitz & Titanium Whites.

Even though I have more Colorado paintings to come, tomorrow’s post will show my first red rock painting in Utah.

Passing Cold Front & Surf

C1540

“Passing Cold Front & Surf”

(Devil’s Kitchen, Bandon, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

5” x 7”

SOLD

The day after painting Table Rock at Bandon, I chose to paint further south at Devil’s Kitchen and past Bandon’s islands and sea stacks, where there are only a few rocks along the beach.  The cold front was finally pushing through and all morning, there was cloud overhead and clear skies out at sea along the horizon, with every so often a glimpse of sun poking through the odd break.  The surf was coming in nicely in sets, with a bigger set every so often.  I set up back in the dune grass and a bit out of the wind.  The rock being struck by the surf was not particularly large, perhaps 8 or 9 feet high, but every so often a wave would hit it just right to send up a good splash.  Since the horizon marks the eye level of the viewer, in this case myself, and I am up in the grass above the beach, the top of the crashing foam has broken the horizon line, and thus my eye level, and so is reaching about 25 or 30 feet or so; the wave crest itself, perhaps 9’. 

The next day, 4^th January 2014, I left Bandon and headed north.  Those paintings may eventually appear, but with tomorrows post I shall return to the trip back from Oklahoma last Autumn, and my night at about 11,500’.

There was no imprimatura under this painting, and the pigments used were as follows: Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Venetian Red, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue & Titanium White; all from Winsor & Newton.  A mixture of Cerulean & Burnt Sienna made the nice grey-green of the Sea.  

Aspens along the Forest Road

C1492

“Aspens along the Forest Road”

(San Juan Mountains, Colorado Rockies)

Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel

4” x 6”

SOLD

The next day on the Sunday, October 6^th, 2013, I drove up to altitude to the Powderhorn Lakes Trailhead.  On the way back down I explored a couple of side roads and in the afternoon decided to have a go at the Aspens with paint.  The Aspens seem to be a bit yellower than the more orange Cottonwoods, and there were more brushes of an almost Spring-green on most of the trees.  This contrasted nicely with the grey-green of the sagebrush in the foreground, as well as the pines, mostly in shadow behind them.  A slightly warmer night last night, and warming up easily in the Sunlight, even though the temperatures would have felt chill in the dampness of say Cornwall in England, where I lived for many years, or west of the Cascade Range in Oregon, where I’ve resided for the past ten years.  It is so nice to experience a dry cold again like in my youth. 

Pigments used were: Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow & Cadmium Yellow Pale, Venetian Red, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue, a bit of Cerulean, a little Sap Green (Permanent), Cremnitz and Titanium Whites; all from Winsor & Newton except for the Sap Green which I believe was either M. Graham or Gamblin (sorry, but my colour box is out in my truck).