And Sometimes Your Heart Breaks

Twill 200-2013

Friday afternoon's post on my Facebook page:
 

Today a bit of beauty slipped from this world.

Run free my golden heart, until we meet again.

Golden Weaver of Sunlight, Laughter, Mischief, and Love:

Twill

2000-2013

All of us who live with beloved animals in our life experience heartbreak when they cross over that rainbow bridge and I am no exception. Twill was slowly declining and struggling to walk. Her spirit was good but I could see her pain. We knew she wouldn't get better so we decided to let her go and help her into the next world. 

She went peacefully with me by her side petting and kissing her. 

I miss my sweet girl.

Transitions are always rough. I have a bit of a bumpy ride ahead of me these next couple of weeks. I will post when I can before settling back in to regular posts. 

I am so very fortunate to be surrounded by loving and generous friends, neighbors, and family. I am truly blessed. 

Until the next post, 

It Has Been a While...

Hi everyone, I have had to take an unplanned bit of time off from blogging and all. Sometimes life can become a bit chaotic.

I have been working four days a week at a women's clothing store here in our little town. Health issues have led to exhaustion, and painting and drawing has slowed down. Not stopped thank goodness! The health issues are being addressed and will take a bit of time but I am happy to be on the path to wellness.

This is a transition time in my life (again!). Issues like these always come up in our lives to give us a chance to stop and think and to hopefully take positive action.

It has been a busy summer in many ways. Summer is the time for many in our little town to make enough income to survive the slow stormy winters. The store I work in is one of these and our summer has been very busy indeed.
Summer is also a wonderful time for the band I am in as we play a lot of outdoor gigs. We will be playing at the local Farmer's Market next Friday. I love going to our little Farmer's Market where I stock up on veggies and fruit for the week. This week I also picked up a bunch of sweetpeas, a bottle of flower essence, and a tin of lavendar shea butter for my hands. All locally made and crafted.

There is always music too and I like to sit and sketch after I get my marketing done. Here is a quick sketch of a musician friend playing at the market.

©2013 R.L. Delight, Farmer's Market Sketch, graphite on paper.

And another quick sketch of his musical partner when they were playing at the opening of The Beehive, a local tea and coffee hang out.

©2013 R.L. Delight, At the Beehive, graphite on paper.

I love filling my sketchbook with people and places. It is a relaxing habit to have as I make no expectations on these sketches. They are meant for practice and for my own enjoyment so I only occasionally share them with others.

I have sad news to share too. Our beloved and beautiful dog Twill is now 13. She has had problems walking and had to be carried into the house on Monday evening, in spite of ramps. We took her to the vet the next day and found out that she has an advanced case of bone cancer in her hip. There is not much we can do but make her comfortable and lavish her with love over the next few weeks. She is on medication for pain and has perked up. She is able to still go on walks and sniff the smells as well as get into the occasional bit of mischief.
I took this picture a couple of days ago. I walked her down to the beach. It will probably be her last time on the beach as the sand is really hard for her to walk on. She ate a lot of things she found so we headed back home.

Our beautiful Twill

We knew she was approaching the end but we are going to miss her. Until then we make her comfortable. She is a joy.
I have plans to get back to wave painting when the fall storms arrive. I even have new foul weather gear! Until then I sketch and continue to slowly work in the studio while healing.
I will try not to go away for so long from the blog too!

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.