Copper Painting and More Epic Clouds

©2013 R.L. Delight,"Solstice Turbulence", 6"x6" oil on copper.

Today I broke away from the wave studies and brought a copper canvas to paint on. The clouds continue to be stunning and the weather unusual. In fact, the National Weather Service issued warnings of possible "cold core funnel clouds"! That boils down to epic clouds that tower over our tall mountains and unusual lighting conditions. The weather on the beach is perfect for painting, not too windy, and warm! I haven't been rained on either.
I am pushing myself a bit and am using some different approaches to painting than I have in the past. Whenever I try a new-to-me painting technique or approach, I hate it. Knowing that, I make myself try it several times before deciding if it is something I want to add to my tool box. So here, I am trying to use more paint and I am trying to think about my brush strokes. I actually am enjoying myself as it feels more like playing.
 One of the nice things about not having to worry about producing for a gallery is that I can take as much time as I want to experiment without the pressure of needing to have finished work for sale. The downside is, I don't have finished work for sale (or not very much)! I do need to start thinking about that so this piece will be going up for sale soon. I do want to let it sit for a couple of days to study it. I don't want to tweak the painting too much and lose the energy of the work.
If the clouds continue to be so stunning, I will go out again to paint, maybe even another copper.
I am off to walk my Twill dog and wrap up the day. I will leave you all with a picture from my "office" this morning.

A view of my office on the Northern Oregon Coast.

Wave Study #57: Epic Clouds

We are having rather stunning weather on the Oregon Coast today and over the past few days. The temperature is a pleasant warmth and the skies are stormy with plenty of sunshine in between. Here is a picture I took this morning while walking Twill:

Neahkahnie Thunderheads.

Of course, the picture doesn't do it justice! The clouds are huge and dwarf Neahkahnie Mountain. There were shards of rainbows tucked into the clouds this morning as well. The beauty is breathtaking.
I have three days off from my new part-time job and I am planning to paint and study as much as I can. I went out right before the high tide this morning. I set up to paint so that I was slightly at an angle looking out over the waves, a slight deviation from my usual head-on take. I will be doing more of that but I still really like painting the waves looking head on.
Here is Wave Study #57:

©2013 R.L. Delight: Wave Study #52, Epic Clouds, 6"x8", oil on canvas panel.

I really could have spent the entire time just painting the clouds!

I have a lot to squeeze into little time so this will be all to the post for now. I am determined to paint on copper over the next two days. The studio painting continues to evolve as well.
Onward!

Wave Study #56

©2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #56, 6"x8" oil on canvas

Just when I get a new schedule figured out fate shuffles the deck again! Events have been happening so fast that I haven't posted in a while. I have been steadily working in the studio and also studying a bit as the conditions for painting on the beach haven't been the greatest.
I also started a part time job which basically forced me to toss the previous schedule out the window! I have been busy reorganizing and re-arranging to  make things go as smooth as possible. The good news is I figured out how to get exercise and meditation in. The bad news is I have to get up at 5 am and therefore to bed early. The bonus of doing that is that I can get an hour of painting in before I head to work! I am too tired after work to paint anything effective.
There are still a few things to get into place but so far so good. On my days off I do my best to get to the beach to paint if the conditions allow. We have had a run of beautiful sunny and warm days but they have been too windy by the time the tide rises. The waves are pretty puny too.
That said, today is a day off and the day is overcast with a lovely diffused light hanging over all. It was warm and calm on the beach. The waves were still pretty small but I looked on that as a challenge.
Here is Wave Study #56, painted as the tide came in. I worked on trying out some new to me brush work as well as keeping a mind on the values and edges in the wave foam. It was challenging to decide what to paint as the light and colors literally changed by the minute. I stuck to my plan and am glad I did.
I am going to overlap two of my blogs slightly. My sewing had also come to a halt in all of the chaos of events but the new job has put an even greater urgency on the necessity to create some clothing. I will be updating that blog soon.
I am off and running again. Feels great to get out to the beach once more and am looking forward to settling into a rhythm.

Wave Study #54 And #55

I have stepped up and publicly put an end date for my first 100 wave studies. I have until the end of August. I will be going on to another 100 marine studies after that. The marine studies will not only be of waves but rocks, beaches, seaweed, sea-life, birds. All things relating to the sea.

The sea gets deeper under my skin with every painting and study I paint. There is so much to learn!

The weather has been stormy. I didn't get out yesterday. The rain and wind was just a bit too much beyond the capabilities of my gear. I spent the day studying painting and seascapes. It was a lovely way to spend the day. I did get out on the beach for an hour to watch and observe. It was raining and blowing but watching is doable.
Today the storms are marching north. There are great thunderhead clouds and squalls on the horizon but they are traveling northwest and I stayed warm and dry while painting. I did two one-hour-plus (10-20 minutes) wave studies. I could have spent an hour just painting the magnificent clouds! As it was, I rather hastily got them in and worked on the waves.
Here is wave study #54

©2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #54, 6"x8", oil on canvas.

And Wave Study #55:

© 2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #55, 6"x8", oil on canvas

I decided to push myself to paint one hour or so wave studies. My goal is to be able to get enough information to paint a larger and more detailed painting in the studio. These wave studies really don't have much detail. The detail will come from many hours spent in observation, past, present, and future. I do not necessarily want to make larger copies of my plein air studies, although I have made a few, but use them as a starting point for my own compositions.

I am trying a slightly different approach to how I proceed through the wave painting process. I am also trying different color combinations in my color mixing process. In addition I am working on different brush handling techniques too. Still so much to learn!

This weekend I will be doing some much needed catching up on the domestic front. Have a good and safe Memorial Day weekend. I will also be honoring those who have served our country past and present.

Wave Study #53: At Storm's End

© 2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #53, 6"x8", oil on canvas

Yesterday a storm came through bringing wind, rain, and a dramatic drop in the snow level in the Coastal Range to the east of us. I actually tried to get out to paint yesterday thinking that I could slip in before it hit too hard. Unfortunately, it had gathered a pretty good steam by Tuesday morning. I spent time studying the waves but did not paint as the wind and rain were blowing directly in my eyes.
I spent yesterday afternoon studying and went out again this morning. This time I got some painting in, although I was hit by several squalls. I got a bit wet. That isn't really a problem as I was dressed for it but when it gets too wet, it starts to interfere with the paint sticking to the canvas. I waited out the worst of the squalls and got this much painted. I would have liked to have painted a bit more and been able to add more of the foam detail but the rain picked up again as I neared the end so I called it good.
I tried a few new things but mainly focused on the foam of the breaker waves. I am trying to get a better value range and a better sense of the shape of the wave foam while still maintaining the subtlety of the waves on a gray day. The wave foam has a distinctive series of shapes. I can see them but getting them on the canvas is another thing altogether. I will keep working on it.
I love it when the weather is wild. It is challenging to be out on the beach in those conditions but the rewards are great. The waves were stunning which is a bit hard to tell from the painting. I have to simplify things quite a bit to make the studies. Perhaps one day soon I will do a painting the puts a lot more of the action in. There was also a couple of resident Bald Eagles feeding on the beach. The storm tossed up some good things for the critters who dine by the sea.
This afternoon I will be studying to help me push to the next level. We shall see what the weather brings tomorrow.

Wave Study #52: Refining the Focus

©2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #52, 6"x8", oil on canvas

I am continuing to build my skills at wave making with the remaining half of the first 100 wave studies. However, I have decided to add a bit more of a focus which I touched on in the previous post. I am diving back into my books and videos...again, to see what more I can learn from them as I progress. Every time I do that I learn something new as I become ready for the next step. It keeps it fun and interesting.
I decided that, since I never know what exactly I will find when I head to the beach, I would make a basic list of various aspects to focus on and see what presents itself that day. Today was a beautiful sunny day. There wasn't much wind when I arrived and I optimistically even put up the umbrella. About half way through the wind came up and shifted around to an onshore breeze. I had to take the umbrella down. I had a good deal of the painting on my canvas by then so I also turned my easel about 90 degrees to face into the sun. I would either turn to look at the sea or look over my shoulder. It worked fairly well!

Today I decided to strive for two aspects to focus on. I wanted to work on the foam of the breaker wave as I also mentioned in the last post. I also wanted to work a bit on keeping the darks translucent or transparent. White paint, being opaque, clouds the transparency of the paints that are transparent. With that in mind I used a different approach than what I had been using to paint the waves in.

The results are not quite what I wanted but it will be worth pursuing as I can see what I was aiming for. I had a hard time getting the reflective light on the water blue enough. I think it was because I was being too conservative. Next time I need to push a little more. The waves were pretty dark green, although that changed as it got closer to noon, with the reflective light reflecting the blue of the sky.
The darks in my waves are fairly close to the correct value of what I was seeing but the color temperature is a bit off. The waves themselves were fairly opaque as the sun was at a low angle from behind me. Later in the day the sun moves behind them and they become translucent in spots.

I didn't do much detail at all on the scud line and the sand. I just got the general idea in. I gave the most attention to the breaker wave. I still need to push the dark values deeper so that the light values can pop just a bit more. I haven't used pure white anywhere in this painting. It is always fun to see how many colors you need to cram into the whites to get them to look right. If I was to paint this in the studio I would mix and lay out a string of values for the darks and lights in the wave foam. I never have time to do that out on the beach as the conditions change so fast.

With such a lovely sunny and mild day today, it is easy to get lulled into thinking that we would be in for a spell of nice weather. Unfortunately, weather in the Pacific Northwest is notoriously fickle. We have a storm coming in (arriving as I write this) and the temperature will drop by 20 degrees overall with the snow line plummeting several thousand feet. Warnings have been posted for the coastal mountains and we will probably get hail. We will see if I make it out to the beach tomorrow to paint.

As I wrap this post up, my thoughts are with the folks who have been hit with the latest tornadoes and storms. Even though I do not watch TV, sad news always travels fast.

Take care everyone,

Wave Study #51- Roiled

© 2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study#51

Well, this one did not exactly come out as I would have liked it to. Part of the reason was that I was trying a few new and different things. The waves were quite lovely and roiling today. There was at least three times more wave action as what is in the painting. The light was very weird. It wasn't sunny but there were bits of blue in the distance and  a front was moving through. The light on the water was a strange sickly color.
I painted this late in the afternoon and the water was highly reflective. I believe I used too much white. Actually I didn't start out with too much white but the painting was looking more impressionistic than I liked so I smeared and smoothed it out before going back in on top of it.

I admire many paintings and painters that use an impressionistic style but it isn't the way I want to paint.

As with every study and painting I do, I learn. Sometimes I learn what not to do! I thought about tossing this painting out of my wave study count but decided that it was worth keeping as a study. If I was going for a finished plein air painting with this one, I probably would have wiped it off.
This was a one hour study. I was painting later in the day because the tide was coming in. With the days staying light later I can catch a late incoming tide more often.
The weather continues to be a bit unsettled but feels like it is becoming a bit more solid for lack of a better word. The beach changes daily and today there was large piles of kelp from further out to sea. It felt good to be out and painting again!