A Quick Sketch

© R.L. Delight 2014, Neahkahnie Toe Detail Sketch

I was feeling well enough today to be enticed by the afternoon sunlight and hike up the beach to the north end where Neahkahnie Mountain sits in all his glory. I really wanted to paint but realized that I don't quite have the energy for that at this time so I grabbed my sketchbook, and sat in the sun to do a quick detail sketch. Oh! How wonderful it felt to be sketching by the sea in the warmish autumn sunshine.

The colors and light are exquisite this time of the year on the Northern Oregon Coast. Photos don't even come close to capturing it. With any luck, there will be a nice stretch of weather to paint in when I am feeling up to it. I continue to mend, both my ways and in health!
Here is a poor depiction of the beauty of the afternoon:

Neahkahie's Toe

-Renee

The First Priority

© 2014, R.L. Delight, Morning sun.

This summer has been an amazingly sunny and dry one for the Northern Oregon Coast. I just couldn't help but feel the need to get out and paint as much as I possibly could. Add to that a happily busy performing season with the band, a town and coastal highway overflowing with tourists, long hours of daylight, and not enough hours of rest, etc., etc. It was gloriously busy...but, I thought it was never going to stop. Every week I seemed to be thinking, "One more week and then we slow down." Finally, in the middle of this month, the last hectically busy week and weekend finished.

No more having 10 minutes to eat a meal in between activities or work, no more late nights and early mornings. Finally time to slow down, catch my breath, take stock and settle into the studio.
The rains hit about the same time. Perfect! Or so I thought. I was exhausted and behind on everything. I slowly started to pick up after the summer craziness.

Just as I was planning to make an appointment with my naturopath to continue a wellness treatment, I got bit by a spider, or so I thought. First pain and then a welt appeared on my back. It wasn't bad, just inconvenient. The next day another welt, the following day yet another. I tore apart my bedding and washed everything, vacuumed, etc, but the welts kept appearing.

I made my appointment and the doctor took one look and informed me that I didn't have spider bites, I had shingles! After giving me acupuncture and giving me a long list of what to eat and what not to eat, she sent me home with orders to rest and rethink the choice I made to run myself into the ground.

Shingles hurt worse than almost anything I have ever experienced. The lesions are not particularly pretty either. This past week I have done nothing but sleep, follow my list of instructions, read, rest, and figure out what changes I need to make so that I never have to go through this again!

The main cause that triggered my shingles, besides lack of sleep? Stress, major stress. Some of that was beyond my control and some wasn't. I have spent this past week painfully reorganizing my priorities. Would it surprise people, specially women, to hear that I hadn't put self-care as my first priority?

I eat a healthy diet and I exercise but I neglected other areas such as stress reduction and well, enough sleep. It has also been brought home to me in one painful lesson that if I want to be a good artist, and believe me I do, I need to be a healthy strong person first. I thought I knew that! So, deep breath, reorganize my priorities, get the required and needed rest on a regular basis, and move on. I do have a lot of plein air studies to work from this winter in addition to working on improving my drawing!

I had to think a while to decide if I wanted to share this on my blog. This blog is about the journey I have been on as an artist. This is part of it. I consider myself very lucky. I will recover from shingles in another week or so and go on a bit more wisely. Some people don't get a second chance to make life corrections.

So I ask this question: Do you make self-care your first priority? If not, why not? I can come up with a lot of excuses to put other things and people ahead of myself but it just doesn't work. It will bite you in the rear end sooner or later!

To your good health,
-Renee

P.S. Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. After having chickenpox the virus sleeps in the nerve tissue of the body and may or may not become active again later in life. My mate had shingles at age 28. I am just over 50. There is a lot of info out there on the internet. Some of it good, some of it not so good. I did not get the shingles vaccine as it is not considered 100% effective. I tend be allergic to many ingredients that are included in vaccines. There is no cure for the shingles. I went with a natural care treatment under the supervision of two naturopaths. I am recovering nicely and expect to be up to full health soon.

Challenge End and Beginning

The 30 paintings in 30 days Challenge is officially ended. Strangely enough, even though I got the least finished paintings completed on this challenge, I got the most growth. More than the last two challenges put together. A lot of important things came to light this past month and I will let them unfold over the next few months as they come up.

Today I cleared off my plein air study bulletin board. Here is what it looked like before I cleared it. It was crammed with 40 plein air studies:

© 2014, R.L. Delight, Plein Air Studies

I always pin the studies as they are completed starting at the top left. It is educational and fun to see them all together because I can usually see the progress I make. This is the second time I have filled the board with plein air studies. The first time I had 35 studies. I went a bit longer before clearing it than I should have and was sort of cramming them in.
I paint on canvas that I tape to a panel for my studies. I like doing that because it is inexpensive, I am still painting on canvas, and they don't become too precious. I won't be tempted to sell my reference material either since they are not really in what would be considered a salable form. These are oil sketches, and since I don't use photos, this is what I will be relying on to paint from.
Here they are all stacked up:

© 2014, R.L. Delight, Study Stack

Since I tape them onto a panel, there is a white boarder left when I pull off the tape. Handy to label each painting with the date and other info. There are a few studies that I did on panels. They don't get pinned on the board. All together I have 77 wave studies plus several landscape studies. I haven't counted those yet, either in the wave study count or on their own. I haven't made it to 100 wave studies yet but I am getting there!
So, the board is all ready to fill again. In fact, there are already a few studies on it. You might notice a slight difference now:

© 2014, R.L. Delight, Plein Air Study Board, Fall 2014

 These studies are 8"x10" and 9"x12". Up until recently, my studies have been 6"x8".  I will still be painting 6"x8" studies when the situation calls for it but I will be painting larger studies too.

Speaking of studies, I have quite a few Short Sands studies. I want to paint a few more but my goal is to paint a larger studio painting using these studies this winter when the winds and rains are howling around my studio. I want to do some detail studies and a few more graphite sketches this fall before the weather closes in.

The sketch I posted last time is of Neahkahnie beach. This is part of the beach that is a five minute walk from my front door.  That sketch is the start of an idea for a painting of that area too. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be as predicted and I can get out first thing tomorrow morning to catch the light on the waves and mountain. It was pretty stunning this morning.
I am going to fill my study bulletin board as fast as I can this fall!

-Renee

PS, I got too curious and went back up to the studio to count the landscape studies. I have at least 24, there might be a few more stashed away too. That adds up to just over 100 plein air studies, 77 of which are wave studies. Counting the finished paintings I have completed on panels I have my first well over 100 paintings done! I know that is a modest amount for some painters but it is a milestone for me. Hmmm, I wonder if I can paint double that number in a year?

30/30 Challenge-Day 25:Art Studies and Organizing an Art Life

Neahkahnie Morning After the Storm

 

Fall has finally arrived with a bang. The first storm of the season blew in the other day. It has been way too long since we have seen a good rain here on the Northern Oregon Coast. For a place renown for its rainy gray climate, it has been a bit spooky. The upside of all the sunshine is that I have taken advantage of every moment I could to get out to paint. I have neglected quite a few things in the process.

I have also taken advantage of these rainy days to work on correcting my discovery that this challenge has unearthed. To refresh the memory, I discovered at the beginning of this challenge that I did not have my life organized to focus on art full time. It was a bit of an eyeopener to me. I am correcting that this month. It has not been an easy process for me but little by little I am making progress.

I have using the time spent inside due to the stormy weather to get a few basic life systems in place to free up more time. One of these is food and cooking. Good healthy food to nourish the mind and body without taking too much time away from the day. Being organized is not exactly a natural state for me but I have seen the necessity for it.

It hasn't been all chores and organizing though! I have also been putting in time for study, sketching, and building my drawing skills. This morning during my morning walk I took my sketchbook and spent a bit of time sketching out an idea for a painting. Here is the sketch even though it is more of a road map rather than picture book. It is the beginning step of this piece.

© 2014, R.L. Delight ,Neahkanie Fall Light sketch, water soluble pencil on paper

I am taking this painting through a deliberate process. I will be elaborating on the process and painting in a future post.

I have been studying the Hudson River School painters. I have always loved Luminism style of painting that this particular group of painters were known for. The landscapes they painted were majestic and rather romanticized. I don't feel called to paint in exactly the same manner but would like to get my colors as luminous as theirs and some of the detail. It is their art process that I find particularly interesting.

At the moment, I am reading these two books that I got from our library system.

The first book is the older of the two. The pictures aren't as nice but I am finding the text more informative. There is a section on each of the Hudson River School painters along with associated works. The second book has stunning pictures but doesn't delve into each artist in depth. I am learning a lot about how these artists worked from the first book.
Since I left school I have been busy not only teaching myself how to paint but how to paint en plein aire. It has been a struggle at times, but I am always wanting more! I have neglected my drawing and sketching a bit but not entirely. I need to bring that back into balance and push my drawing skills further. This month I have been remedying that. It doesn't make for interesting blogging at this point but I will talk about it more in the future.

Saturday is forcasted to be partially sunny. I plan to get out and paint if the conditions allow.
More on the above topics to come!

-Renee

30/30 Challenge: Day 20: Wave Study #77?

Wave Study #77?, 9"x12". oil on canvas

I have lost track of what number wave study I am on! Part of the problem is my wave studies and coastal/beachscape studies sort of blur the lines. I do consider a painting that only has waves a wave study. Others that have wave and rocks I determine by the intent or focus. I will have to check a bit more carefully and give the official number of this wave study later.

We had a wonderful few days this week enjoying the company of a dear visitor whom we have not seen in many many years. I took yesterday to regroup after our visitor left and we took a rare morning this morning sleeping in a bit. It was too late to get out to get the morning light as it hits the waves so I decided to go for an afternoon painting.

It is the last day of summer and unusually warm here on the northern Oregon coast, again. I went down to the beach at 4:00 pm to paint and there wasn't any wind. It was beautifully warm and misty. The waves were fairly large, 7.5-8 ft. I had a brief moment of deciding between painting Neahkahnie mountain or the waves. Neahkahnie was obscured by a bright mist so, waves it was. The waves probably would have won out regardless as they were quite stunning.

Color is a bit challenging to see as the sun sinks behind the waves. I also didn't have much time to get this wave and spent about an hour and a half on it. Tricky lighting. As I was working with a 9"x12" canvas, I had to work pretty fast. There are several things I am not exactly happy with. I didn't quite nail the atmospheric effect the warm sun was causing. I also didn't quite get the dazzling bright light on the water to my satisfaction. The wave shadows were quite dramatic and the color and tone is not quite right. The edges also need to be softened.

I am pleased that I captured enough of the scene to give me good information for future use. I am fairly happy with some of the detail elements too in spite of not really having time for much detail. I had fun experimenting with subtle color in the shadows and I am enjoying working in the slightly larger format.

The tide had turned toward the end and was coming up at a rather alarming rate due to the large waves. The tide and light pretty much limited the length of painting time. What a beautiful day!

Painting afternoon at Neahkahnie Beach

-Renee

Day 13: 30/30 Challenge

It was a beautiful day to get out and paint. It wasn't as hot as the last day I painted at Short Sands but it was still quite warm. I used my easel umbrella as there was no wind until the end when it started gusting. I just closed the umbrella while I finished that last five or so minutes.

This is an hour and a half study. The shadows change so dramatically in such a short time. This is not a great painting and I would certainly not consider this a finished painting. It is a good working study. I also learned quite a bit. I was working on not only catching the stunning shadows and rock shapes but starting to get a bit of texture and form. Here is a close up photo and then a photo of it on my easel.

 The last picture was taken as I was packing up. Note the difference in the shadow shapes between the painting and the actual scene in the background. Please ignore the drawing. It was heading south as I was struggling to nail the shadow shapes and keep them there in my painting. I was working so fast that when a trio of gentlemen came over and asked if they could peek, (I said of course and explained that I was just starting the painting out), I never saw what they looked like as I never took my eyes off the scene I was painting!

Short Sands Study, 9"x12", oil on canvas

Short Sands Study Shadows

I used larger canvas size than I usually paint on. I want to try painting a little larger plein air studies too. I am actually liking the larger format. It will take a bit of adjustment though.

To finish up my post about my road trip to the Coos Bay Art Museum I will say I had mixed feelings about the exhibit. It really was educational to see other work up close but I was a bit disappointed. I have had the opportunity to see the work of a few artists that I admire tremendously. My goal is to get to the same level of skill and quality that they are. I will note here that I am not trying to copy their style. They have worked at art much longer than I have and worked hard. It shows.

There was good work at the show, again by artists who have been working a long time. I was disappointed because it was pretty obvious that all most of the work was painted from photos. I have mentioned before that I believe that using photos as reference is a personal choice. I don't use them because I love painting from life and I believe I personally paint better when I am responding directly to my subject. To me the paintings made from photos looked, well, like photos, rather flat. They also looked too stiff.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting but I did think there would be some plein air paintings and paintings made from life studies, etc. That said, I came away with a few important personal observations. I also enjoyed looking at the art. That all makes it completely worth the trip!

One more unusual week to get through and then hopefully settling into a routine. I am working hard on getting a routine down and am determined to make good progress in my skills.

-Renee

Road Trip!

I am back from a wonderful thee day,  two night road trip. I wanted to see the Maritime Exhibit at the Coos Bay Art Museum put on by the American Society of Marine Artists. I missed the international one that came through last year. This year is the regional one. I am pretty isolated up here and it was good to get out and see what others are doing.

Coos Bay is about a 5 or 6 hour drive down the Oregon coast from Manzanita. I decided to make a couple day trip of it so I could check out the coast with an eye for good painting spots and also to have a chance to do a little painting as well. I stayed two nights in Yachats, one of my favorite little towns on the central Oregon coast. All of the Oregon coast is beautiful but I find the central coast particularly so.

I took a scenic detour on the way down and swung by Pacific City which is off of Hwy 101.

The Beach around Pacific City

 My next stop on the way south was at Boiler Bay which is on the north end of Depot Bay. I had an unexpected treat as there were migrating gray whales passing by. I was in no hurry so I spent a while watching them swim by. They were so close you could hear them spouting.

Thar be Whales at Boiler Bay

A close up view of Boiler Bay

Hotel fun.

I made a few more stops along the way but finally arrived at my destination, The Fireside Hotel in Yachats. I got the least expensive non-view room but I could still see the ocean from the side of the front window. The rooms were clean and comfortable. I would recommend this place to stay.
It sits, along with other hotels and houses, right on the bluffs above the ocean. Beautiful!

Beach in front of hotel.

I had a nice long walk before dinner along the historic 804 path. The path is dotted with memorial benches and tables to enjoy the view. It was quiet at night and I slept well, lulled by the familiar sound of the sea.

The next morning I took another walk as the sun rose over the coastal mountain foothills. The moon was still hovering over the ocean as the sun came up.

The start of a beautiful day.

I left at 8am and drove down to Coos Bay. I got there just at the museum opened and enjoyed looking at the exhibit all by myself.

The exhibit was very educational for me. I will talk about it in a bit more detail in my next post.
After I spent a good long time at the exhibit, I drove a little further south to meet with a friend and classmate I haven't seen in 30 years! It was quite a treat and we had a good time trying to catch up.

On the way home, I started having car troubles. A radiator leak to be exact. The engine was starting to run hot. I stopped to get gas and then pulled over to have a look as the gauge was starting to look alarming. What a mess! It wasn't at critical yet so I nursed it along to the nearest Fred Meyer store where I was able to buy radiator fluid, and a stop leak additive. I must mention, I was also on the phone to my mate periodically who talked me through the whole thing. I added some fluid to the overflow tank which the car manual said to do. The sun was going down and I didn't have time to wait for the engine to cool down unless absolutely necessary. I decided to make a shot to get back to the hotel room which was about 18 miles or so up a winding, narrow coastal road.

I managed to nurse the car along with one eye glued to the heat gauge and another to the sinking sun. Both eyes on the road of course! Yes, I know that makes four, I got out the spare pair. : )

I made it back to the hotel room not long after the sun went over the horizon. It as a bit tricky through some spots. Needless to say I was very relieved and exhausted too. I got back a little before 8 pm.
The car cooled overnight and this morning I added all the fluids. I had planned to paint this morning but the car was too much of an unknown factor still. I was completely distracted and I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate due to worrying about the drive home. I packed up and left.

It was a very hot (for the coast) and beautiful day. I stopped at an auto part store to pick up radiator hoses as we figured they needed to be replaced anyway.

The car ran fine! Apparently the stop leak additive worked like a charm. I made another stop at Boiler Bay to enjoy the migrating whales and then headed north again to home.

It has been an enjoyable little trip overall. I am disappointed I didn't get to paint as I had planned but I will just have to go back. I did achieve my main objective of the trip and got in several bonuses too. It has been a grand little adventure and I have a lot to think about.

Here are a couple of parting pictures from Yachats:

Yachats

A touching memorial for two strapping young men swept into the cold water by a waist high sneaker wave. They were dead in three minutes. The memorial beseeches one and all to respect the power of the sea.

Sunset at Yachats

Goodnight all. I will be heading out to paint first thing in the morning!

-Renee