There is Wind at Port Orford too!

C1561

“Early Morning Shadows at Orford Rocks”

(Port Orford, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

With additional coat of Rublev Lead Primer

5” x 7”

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[Note that after posting this I inserted three seagulls squabbling over something or other … sometimes this happens; you look at a painting and decide it needs something else, as happened here. The image has thus been updated on September 5^th 2014, and will be available for 3 days only from Daily Paint Works.]

The day after painting the view from Paradise Point to Cape Blanco I went up to Orford Heads expecting to find a view or two from which to paint; there were but the wind was strong and there were few places to set up without actually blocking the footpath.  I settled for a day of photo-recon, with some sketchbook drawing.  There were also Grey Whales working close inshore near the Orford Rocks; were they feeding or scraping their barnacles off, as was suggested to me by a local lady I spoke to on the beach?  There were at least two of them, perhaps more. 

The day following I was on Orford Beach early and found a spot near the Orford Rocks, with a couple of the distant Redfish Rocks in view, with some of the Orford Rocks close to, and with early morning shadows from the forested cliffs behind me slanting across the foreground.  I thought I was protected from the wind, and so I was from the full force of it, but gusts managed to whip over me with regularity, and even kindly sprinkled a little dusting of fine sand on the painting, like black sugar sprinkles on Christmas cookies!  So again I’ll have to wait a couple of days before I can brush them off of the sky, when the painting is touch dry.  There were not as many as those on the one at Bandon Beach, and those successfully were removed. 

When I began the painting the sea was blue-green and green, but not quite as strong as the painting of Cape Blanco of two days previous, and so I decided to proceed directly onto the white lead ground of the linen panel.  I blocked in the composition with Ultramarine, locking in the shadow patterns to retain the early morning feel of the view.  Starting with the sky I worked my way from the distance to the foreground, but leaving the closer Orford Rocks until I had covered the foreground beach with its shadows.  Then I went back into the Sea and worked on the waves and reflections in the wet sand.  I reworked the shadowed foreground to better its transition into the sea. 

Surprisingly, even though the wind got up strong not long after I began working, the whitecaps didn’t appear until later, and then far out near the distant Redfish Rocks; I did not attempt to put any in since they were not there when I began.  I saw the Grey Whales spouting as I began to paint, but they must have been moving on after having been around for several days, for they were not seen again later.  All day I watched the fog-bank on the horizon streaming down from Cape Blanco, much as it has done all the while I’ve been here.  In fact the previous day while on the Orford Heads, the fog bank was coming over and obscuring the tip of Cape Blanco and the lighthouse, unlike the day I painted the view towards it from Paradise Point; then the fog bank was just out to sea beyond the Cape.  There is definitely a change in character of the Oregon Coast when you pass Cape Blanco.

The palette I used was Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red, Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine Blues, a minimum of Viridian, and Cremnitz White, with a touch or two of Titanium White for the brightest foam of the waves.

Pressing on to Port Orford

C1560

“Cape Blanco from Paradise Point”

(Port Orford, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

With additional coat of Rublev Lead Primer

4” x 6”

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Moving south from Bandon thirty miles brought me to Port Orford, and a wayside park called Paradise Point at the end of a road just a bit north of the town.  Here there is a view several miles up to Cape Blanco, the western most point on the Oregon Coast, with its lighthouse just sticking up a bit from this angle.  The wind was up (what’s new), but it being a warm day (low 70s F), it was not bad for a stroll down along the beach.  In the stretch of the dune grass on the way back up to the carpark on the bluff, I stopped to do to drawings in my pocket sketchbook; one of Orford Reef, and the other of Cape Blanco in the distance with the dune grass in the foreground, and an almost tropical green sea riddled with whitecaps in between.  North of Cape Blanco it seems the sea is much more of blue grey, or greenish grey, but I’ve not seen it this jade green as here seen; not even this morning as I drove along the scenic views route as I left Bandon.

I chose a 4” x 6” linen panel, again as it is marginally longer in shape than the 5” x 7” panels I’ve been using.  I began with a number 6 bristle brush (½-inch wide), and started in on the white lead primed linen panel, painting the sky with Cerulean and Cobalt Blues; no imprimatura.  The other pigments used were the usual suspects of Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red and Cremnitz White with one additional colour … Viridian since I needed its purity for the wondrous green of the sea.  I also mixed Velasquez Medium from Rublev with the Cobalt Blue, Viridian and the touch of Yellow Ochre used only for the Sea, with no white pigment.  Velasquez Medium is an oil and calcite mixture which lightens the pigments it s mixed with without losing the brightness of the pigment, as would happen when mixed with a white pigment.  I’ve not used this medium much before and I was quite surprised when I didn’t need to use any white; I had thought that I might have to use a little, but no; I did not.  This calls for further experimentation.  I used Titanium White for the whitecaps only, as well as for the miniscule stroke for the lighthouse.  The same bristle brush was used throughout the painting, except for the detail on the Cape itself, the whitecaps and the lighthouse; for these the same tiny round sable that I sign my paintings was used. 

I’m up on a mountain top with a view of the sea; the stars have come out and only a few lights 25 miles or so down the coast near Gold Beach are visible.  I plan to return the 6 miles down to Port Orford again tomorrow, as I spotted a couple more places to paint, and at least one of them should be out of the worst of the wind.

The Wind Continues

C1559

“Lost in the Mist”

(South from Face Rock,

Bandon Beach, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

With additional coat of Rublev Lead Primer

4” x 6”

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The next day the wind was not as bad, but was still off putting, so I had in mind to return to the wayside, and work up another oil sketch from one of the drawings done yesterday.  This is done looking north towards where Face Rock might be seen on a clearer day, to the left and beyond the farther sea-stacks just visible in the enshrouding mist.  When I was working on the sketchbook drawings, there was not a hint that Face Rock might be lurking in the fog. 

I chose a 4” x 6” panel because its heighth to width ratio is slightly longer than the other small panels, and I could use that extra length; it is the same ratio as many of my standard sized Watercolours.  I worked on the white ground with no imprimatura, so as to work in a bit of a higher key; I also wanted to see how the mist and fog would work out in this higher key.  I rarely if ever do a pencil drawing on the panel before beginning to paint, since oil paint grows more translucent as it ages, over time the graphite will show through, unlike charcoal or black chalk.  But this was too small a panel for charcoal or chalk, and I wanted the shapes to be perfect, so I lightly drew them in with pencil, and then dabbed the lines with a plastic eraser, until they were just visible enough.  Normally I draw in the composition with a brush in oil paint.

I used the same palette of Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red, Cobalt Blue and Cremnitz White,  as on the last painting, so that I might compare between similar misty scenes the affects of one having an imprimatura and one not. I applied the pigments thinly and with a bit of W&N Liquin added; later additions to this layer caught a bit better as the Liquin became tacky.  Without the warm imprimatura the work results in brighter paint layers, but one has to work a bit so that the finished piece does not end up too cold.  Both methods are inherently harmonious due to the limited palette, but the warmth imparted by using an earth red imprimatura is very seductive, and seems to reach a satisfactory state, with less work; perhaps this is not really so, but I will keep this question in mind while painting. 

The Wind Returns … with a Vengeance

C1558

“From out of the Mist”

(South from Face Rock,

Bandon Beach, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

With additional coat of Williamsburg Lead Primer

5” x 7”

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The wind has returned with a vengeance, but it hasn’t cleared away the fog of morning.  I decided to hike down onto the beach and check out if there was anywhere that might be sheltered enough to set up to paint and without blowing sand grains onto the wet paint.  Luckily I had the foresight to stick my smallest sketchbook and several pencils into my pocket, for the wind was vicious.  There were one or two spots that I might have been able to work from, but the subject matter was not really good enough.  I decided to jot down a couple of compositional sketches.  It is worthwhile doing these quick drawings, as one can work for 10 or 15 minutes from positions that would be too windy to set up for an oil sketch, or in a position threatened by sneaker waves or the incoming tide.  I completed three of these small studies, and intended to do a few more, but the wind was so fierce and blowing stinging sand when I attempted to move between a small promontory and an island, that I thought better of it and retreated to the cliff-top and my truck.  I also feared that the fine blowing sand might penetrate into my camera bag to the detriment of my equipment.  I then drove a couple miles down to a small wayside park surrounded by forest enough that would allow me to work sheltered from the worst of the wind.  Here I would do an oil sketch from one of the drawings I had just completed.  I remember doing a Watercolour from a pencil sketch of waves rolling in out of the mist on a fog-bound Croyde Bay in North Devon, back in the nineties; I would now do something similar.

I had already prepared several panels with Venetian Red imprimaturas before going down below the cliffs and drawing, so I took one of these, and proceeded with the block-in using Cobalt Blue mixed with W&N Liquin so it would set up tacky fairly quickly.  My palette was Cobalt Blue, Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red and Cremnitz White.  This restricted earth palette and blue, that you have observed me using for many of these paintings, gives a low key but harmonious work since all the colours one sees in the finished piece come through the mixing of these four pigments; thus two or more pigments are in every mixture of every colour you see here, and this produces a natural harmony.  By using an imprimatura of the Venetian Red, its warmth glows through the entire work and increases the harmony as well. 

Still on the Beach

C1556

“High Tide and Fog Banks”

(South from Face Rock,

Bandon Beach, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

With additional coat of Rublev Lead Primer

5” x 7”

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The breezes still remained clement, and so I went back down to the beach south of the Face Rock Viewpoint, ensconced myself on a rock just above the morning’s high tide mark, and began to paint the view to the south towards the islands in the near the Devil’s Kitchen.  They faded in and out as the fog banks thickened and thinned, never quite overwhelming them nor slackening either.  Above was high cloud and the Sun was present for a good portion of the painting session.  Close to, were several stacks which were surrounded by water at the high tide and this state of the tide is here depicted.  Beyond the Devil’s Kitchen, were hills of the coast range but they were obscured shortly after beginning to work and never reappeared, until towards the end of the session; I decided it was too late to put them in.  Painting on site is always a series of decisions, often on the fly and throughout the session.  These sorts of decisions in one of my studio Watercolours would be worked out in the design and drawing stage, and rarely deviated from, but then this is what sketching is all about; note taking in its purest form. 

I went with the usual Venetian Red imprimatura, although I took awhile to decide to go with it rather than go straight in on the white ground only.  I could have gone either way.  Cerulean Blue was mainly used in the sky and the lighter sea-greens, with Cobalt Blue mixed with Venetian Red formed the basis of the browns and greys; Cobalt Blue and Yellow Ochre was mixed for the deeper sea-greens; Cremnitz White rounded out the palette. 

Once again … onto the Beach

C1555

“Elephant Island enshrouded in a Bank of Fog”

(Bandon Beach, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

With additional coat of Rublev Lead Primer

5” x 7”

Click here to make this your Own

Today was a quieter day and surprise, surprise, the breeze is from the South or a change … and lighter, but funnily enough still a bit chill.  I was tempted by several spots to set up until I found this view.  It appeared that the morning’s high tide had reached about here, but this afternoon’s high tide would be a bit lower, and as I suspected did not reach as far as my set up.  It seems that at this time of the year, when the wind isn’t blowing cold and hard from the North then banks of fog play hide and seek with the coastal stacks and islands, as is here depicted in the distance with Elephant Island.  This Island or rock definitely does live up to its name, as their seems to be a herd of the pachyderms embedded in the rock; I see a frieze that continues around two sides of the island, and for all I know continues on around the seaward side that I haven’t been able to see.  Of course the herd was not to be seen during this painting session.  Although there was wan sunlight at the beginning, it soon was lost in the overcast, much as the offshore stacks and islands. 

Venetian Red was the imprimatura, and Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red, Cobalt Blue and Cremnitz White were the pigments used, all by W & N.

Finally … onto the Beaches

C1554

“Offshore Seamist Rising”

(Bandon Beach, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurion Oil Primed Linen Panel

With additional coat of Rublev Lead Primer

5” x 7”

Click here to make this your Own

Although there was still a wind from the North, it was not as strong as it has been for the past weeks, more of a stiff breeze, but I was determined to start painting the sea-stacks on Bandon Beach.  I decided to work below the south facing cliff of a promontory, where I painted once before last November.  There is a little ledge keeping one off the sand, and with a little overhang to keep the Sun off for part of the time.  The wind was gusty enough that fine sand sifted down from the cliff top throughout my painting session, and by the time I had finished it seemed as though I had been painting with sand.  I was not unduly worried since I have had this happen before, admittedly to a lesser extent.  Two days later when the work was touch dry I was able to brush off most of the sand from the sky and sea, and left a bit on the cliff and beach in the foreground to add texture.  The more stubborn flecks I disposed of with the judicious use of the tip of a scalpel blade … a very useful tool.  Perhaps I should have left more on as souvenirs.  It was a generally sunny day with cloud coming and going, and for the first part of the session there was an off shore bank of sea-mist moving from north to south with the breeze, which I was able to capture.  It never came onto shore, which I half expected, but remained out on the water just beyond the sea-stacks I was painting. 

Again I chose to lay down an imprimatura of Venetian Red, which was perfect in adding a warmth glowing through the cooler pigments brushed over it when depicting the rising bank of fog.  I used a bristle brush throughout, capitalizing upon its ability to add interesting texture to the painted surface.  In my Watercolour work I sometimes add interest to areas of a painting by building up thin layers with dry-brushed strokes and crosshatching using older brushes and splaying their hairs sort of like a leaf rake in shape; I’m getting a similar effect with the bristle brush lightly applying he paint at a shallow angle to the surface. 

The rest of the pigments used were Cerulean & Cobalt Blues, a little bit of Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre, Venetian Red, and Cremnitz & Titanium Whites.  Cerulean is used mainly in the sky & sea, with perhaps a little Cobalt Blue added, however Cobalt Blue is mainly used to make the lovely greys when combined with Venetian Red.  When a deeper toned grey is required, then Ultramarine replaces the Cobalt Blue in the mixture.  To be honest Ultramarine could replace Cobalt Blue throughout, but I like the softer greys produced with the Cobalt, as well as the quieter greens it produces.   A couple of minute touches of Cadmium Yellow Pale, hinted at the yellow flowers in the grasses on the top of the right hand island.