Coos Art Museum Maritime Show soon …

… and the commission I’ve been working on so long is finished and will be shipped next week.  I finished the first painting on February 15^th and the second on the 4^th of May, and I’ve been playing catch-up ever since.  No … you can’t see the finished works since part of the contract is no publicity.  The worst thing is that I am paid in British pounds sterling and the pound has been falling in relation to the dollar, thanks to the possibility of Britain exiting Europe. 

I had hoped to finish them a week or two earlier, so I could do a couple of Seascapes to meet the submission deadline for the Coos Art Museum Maritime show, but that was not to be, so I submitted a couple of small Oils done on-site last October (as seen below), and they were accepted into this year’s show.

The Exhibition is open to the general public from July 10, 2016 – September 24, 2016, at the Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Avenue Coos Bay, Oregon 97420; Phone: 541-267-3901.

C1605

"Blown before the Storm"

(China Creek, Bandon, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

5" x 7"

C1605

"Heavy Seas at Elephant Island

with the Cat and Kittens Beyond"

(Bandon, Oregon Coast)

Oil Sketch on Centurian Oil Primed Linen Panel

5" x 7"

Sold during Exhibition

The first one you have seen before, in a post last Autumn.  I was going to post the second one as well, but I kept looking at it and finally put a few finishing touches on it only in the Spring, so I had it on hand when the submission deadline loomed.  I’m looking forward to the opening weekend in 3 weeks, or so … I need a beer; I haven’t had one since the Artists’ get together, at the Mexican Restaurant & over the road from the Museum, last year!  Maybe I’ll push the boat out and have two this year!!

Miniature Painting Award

(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.)

C1423

“Summer Morning on Bench Lake”

(Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington Cascades)

A Watercolour Miniature

2⅛” x 4¼”

$800.00

complete with frame

Contact the Artist

The above Classic Miniature Watercolour received a Merit Award in the recent "31^st Annual Miniature Art 2015 Exhibition" at the Council for the Arts of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; one of four cash awards given, from a field of 207 Miniatures in the show.

I intend to write a bit about Miniatures once I return to regularly posting herein.

Where Are I?

I know it has been two months since my last posting, but there was a lot of paperwork to be done after my dear old Mom died … and now there are the annual accounts to prepare, as well.  There is also the matter the commissions I have been working for the past 13 months, throughout it all, and on which I have a concentrated few weeks left to finish them off.  Therefore, I beg your forbearance, and will reappear in the next posting when those are completed.  After that I will be preparing to get back out into the wild to paint and begin posting them here.  Meanwhile, I will leave you with a page from one of my sketchbooks, done several years ago in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge.  Ta ta, for now ...

“Lower Lewis Falls”

(Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington Cascades)

From an Original Sketchbook Drawing in Sepia Wash

heightened with White & Naples Yellow on Turner’s Blue Paper

(sketchbook page size approx. 5” x 7”)

There is also a Middle & Upper Lewis Falls, both of which I saw as well, before I came back to this site and drew this scene.  It was 18:21 when I began this sketch and had to work rapidly before the light faded.  I downed tools at 20:07.  On a brighter day I might have worked longer, but it had gradually clouded over throughout the afternoon.

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

(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.)

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.