Wave Study #63-Return of the Gray

© 2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #63, 6"x8", oil on canvas

The gray is back! It is back in the form of coastal fog. Here is wave study #63. The lighting on the photo is weird which gave it that grainy textured look. Unfortunately with the time of day and lighting conditions this was the best photo out of three. There are a lot of subtle colors in the painting that just do not show up in the photo. I think I am going to have to work on that.
Painting on the beach in the fog is a cold proposition. Even though the wind was minimal and I had several layers on, I was pretty cold when I came off the beach. That was about a half an hour ago. I am posting right away as I am not only pressed for time, I have a backlog of posts to blog. Dinner is cooking and I am finishing a welcome mug of hot chocolate hemp milk.
I can't say I am completely happy about this wave study. I struggled with the color and values. I can see improvements but they are slow in coming. One of these days I hope I can get somewhere in the neighborhood of where I want to be. In the meantime, I will keep slogging away.
I need to eat and then come band rehearsal. I have some finished copper paintings to post soon and I am working on the Munsell color studies. In spite of the above gloomy tendency of  the post, I wouldn't want to be doing anything else!

Wave Study #62

© 2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #62, 6"x8", oil on canvas.

When I go to my usual spot at the foot of Neahkahnie Mountain to paint wave studies, I like to go a little before the high tide. The waves are usually at their largest and I can get closer to the action, depending on conditions. If high tide is before noon, I head out in the morning to paint. If it is in the afternoon I head out after lunch. Lately the high tide has been hitting in the afternoon. It is about to hit evening which means I will have to wait until it cycles back around to a reasonable hour in the morning. When that happens, my ideal plan is to head up the coast a few miles to paint in places like Hug Point and Short Sands Beach which are best accessed when the tides are lower.
One of the joys, and sometimes pains, of painting plein air seascapes is that conditions are always different from day to day, and even minute to minute. No squalls yesterday but sunshine and a small insistent breeze. I brought all my rain gear anyway. I learned my lesson!
I was able to remove the rain gear but admit I should have put my outer layer back on toward the end of the day as the breeze was making me cold. I didn't want to stop and do that so I shivered the last half and hour of painting. It is hard to stop when you are racing against sun and tides.
I am studying books and reading blogs to help me improve. Sometimes trying new approaches and making new observations means a step back and some, and sometime most, of the elements slip. Not only am I out of practice but I am trying new things. In spite of the many things I can see that need to be tweaked or fixed on this 2 hour study, I am fairly pleased with the results. I was trying hard to capture the afternoon autumn light on the waves and I feel I did manage to get a tiny bit of it. It wasn't a perfectly clear day and the sunlight was diffused as is often the case here on the coast.
After painting yesterday afternoon and hauling gear for a band rehearsal in the evening, I am a bit sore in my middle today. I am feeling quite well but my body does let me know when I need to back off a little. So today, I am going to go out and sketch a bit and then work on another project that is due this weekend. We shall see if I am fit to go out to paint tomorrow.
Oh, it feels so good to be back!

Shelter From the Storm-Take One

I went out to paint yesterday with a possible storm shelter to try. It was a good day for it as it was windy with frequent squalls. The waves were fantastic of course! My mate had purchase a lightweight backpacking tent a few years ago. It is basically a fancy tarp. I carefully read the instructions and pulled it out to look at before heading out to give it a try on the beach. I actually managed to set it up fairly quickly and crawl inside. Alas! as I sat there trying to look out I realized I would only be able to have a clear view if I was laying down. I quickly packed it back up and set up my painting gear.
Now, I know this might shock some of you considering how careful I am with everything from dressing properly to knowing the tides, and never turning my back to the ocean, but apparently I wasn't quite awake when I set out to paint. I was so confident that the tent would work that I didn't wear my rain gear...or even pack it. Of course, as soon as I set my painting gear up and literally had the brush in hand, a sudden squall came out of nowhere and I was soaked to the skin in about two seconds flat. Just as quickly the squall passed leaving me standing there dripping wet (I did have a hat and coat on but not a raincoat). Did I mention it was windy? Even though the sun came out a little bit, I knew I had to leave. Wet clothes plus cold wind is a recipe for hypothermia. I packed it in and spent the evening researching lightweight storm shelters. I am waiting for another one to try out with hopefully better results.
Today I set out again. I just love painting this time of year with the stormy seas! Here is a quick one hour or so sketch I painted, wearing proper rain gear. I tried a new-to-me approach which means about 5 steps backwards (more on that later) but here it is, Wave Study #61:

©2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #61, 6"x8", oil on canvas

It is still in the flat shape stage, no highlights and just the suggestion of wave shaping. The tide was just reaching its high point when I had to pack it in due to a rather nasty squall coming in fast. The cross waves were just beginning to form at this stage and they were quite large. There is just a suggestion of the cross waves in the painting. I am not going to do anything more to this study because I like the energy. There is actually a lot of information I can use in this one if I wanted to create a studio painting from it.
This is the first time I have painted sitting down. I didn't have much of a choice as the gusts were pretty powerful. I used rocks to help anchor my painting tripod and stayed low by sitting on a rock. The wind suddenly got stronger and I looked up to see this coming at me:

Fortunately I can pack my painting gear up in about 3 minutes. Huge drops were splattering around me as I scrambled. Well, tried to scramble. I had been so absorbed in painting and was sitting on a rock, when I got up my legs didn't want to work and I almost toppled over. It was more like lurching around packing up. It took the three photo shots above as I was hiking down the beach in the rain. I just got the back end of the squall as the winds were from the Northwest. The storm went south before hitting the shore.
It is probably just as well I packed up as I was pretty cold. I has spent a little time before starting to paint just observing, something I try to do whenever I go out.  I need to wear more layers. I haven't used my new foul-weather gear I purchased this summer yet. It is for pretty serious weather. When I got home I made a cup of hemp milk hot-chocolate in celebration of the Fall storms.

Fancy sipping chocolate from The Beehive in Nehalem.

One final note, as I was heading home I passed another plein air painter standing in front of her hotel room sliding glass door painting away. She had a nice set up and was sheltered from the worst of the weather. At first I thought, Hey, another painter! And then, the rather silly thought that she was somehow cheating went through my head and out again. I quickly realized that although she had a lovely view of sea and dramatic sky, she could not really see the waves very well from where she was. I want to paint waves. I also realized I really love being out in the thick of it all even if it is very challenging at times. She looked like she was having a good time and I hope she gets some great paintings during her stay here.
Stay tuned for more on my efforts on finding shelter from the storms while painting on the beach with the ocean roaring, wind screaming, and waves surging around my feet... OK, maybe I am getting a bit dramatic here. Chocolate does that to me!

Wave Study #60: Puny Waves

 

© 2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #60, 6"x8", oil on canvas

After the strong fall storm we had last weekend where the waves got up to about 25 feet, today's waves were very disappointing. They were about 2 ft high and very few. The water was beautiful though and the winds were light. The sunshine was, well, warmish. It seems like the storm brought not only wild weather but fall temperatures and fall light. High tide today was around noon. Not the best time to paint as the light flattens out. I arrived at my usual painting spot about 10 am and watched the waves for a bit while deciding how and what to paint. The clouds were a lovely shade of pale lavender at the horizon and there were many reflections in the water, just not very many waves.
I decided to focus on the layers of value (lights and darks), or tone, and on getting some of the reflection. I also tried to get a view with a slight angle and even drew an arrow in paint detailing the direction the waves were traveling. I wasn't exactly successful with the wave direction. In the process of working the painting they straightened out a bit too much.
There was also another challenge. To get the angled view, my easel had to  be positioned with the morning light falling full on the canvas. Just to clarify, I am on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean. I kept the challenges that the situation creates firmly in mind and checked my painting progress frequently by looking at the painting in shadow, off to the side, and squinting to make sure the values weren't too dark..
This was a two hour painting but I took my time and gave more thought than I usually do to my painting decisions. I also remembered to squint and stand back more often than I usually do.
Over all, I am pleased. There is plenty of room for improvement though. I got the values pretty close but they can still use a tiny bit of tweaking.
When I was sitting and observing the values  before I started painting I realized that I have been getting the values some of the reflections too light in general. It can be easy to do. There is also more of a range of values overall. I am starting to see some of these things while painting the sea en plein air now. It "only" took me 60 wave studies to see this much! I have forty more studies to go to reach 100. The studies will continue past 100 but I will start making more finished paintings after I complete the first 100.
It was a joy to get out to paint again. I feel stronger and healthier every day. I can almost walk at my normal pace with my pack on. I still go carefully. I don't want to get careless and have any set backs at this point.
This weekend is packed with performing music with the band and my monthly shopping trip up the coast. I will be back to painting and drawing on Monday. Have a great weekend everyone and stay safe.

-R.L. Delight

Breather

Storm tossed bottle washed ashore.

This is my 260th post on this blog. I had hoped to post my 60th wave study but we are currently experiencing some very strong fall storms here on the wild Northern Oregon Coast and painting on the beach will have to wait. I am four weeks post-surgery as of tomorrow with another two weeks of restrictions yet to go. I have had more time than I have wanted to think, reflect, and plan. With the loss of my beautiful dog Twill and a somewhat drastically changed body, life has taken a bit of a bend in the road.
For the past 25 years I have been outdoors at least once or twice a day (and often several times a day) every single day due to animals and pets. I thought when our beloved Twill crossed over, our last pet for now, I would have a complete day indoors more often. So far I haven't been indoors all day yet, I didn't even miss a day when I had surgery. I guess after 25 years being outdoors no matter what the weather has worn a deep groove in my neural pathways. I get terribly restless and irritable until I get outside. I usually burst out of doors with a huge sense of relief.
The first of this month of September would have marked the end of my four years of art school had things gone as planned. I would have been deciding where to go from there. So many bends in the road these past five plus years.The past few months I have drifted off my preferred track, for several reasons that I won't go into here. With the deep thinking time I have had recently I have been realigning my path and getting back on my art track. I have been unhappy not being able to paint and draw much.
My art school training was heavily based on drawing the figure and still life. All of which is excellent training no matter what genre and medium. With all the thinking I have been doing I have come to realize that I am happiest when I am able to paint outdoors, en plein air. It goes deep. I feel as if I have been made to paint outdoors. Of course, there will be plenty of studio paintings too and I still have a lot of work to do honing drawing and painting skills, studies that will be done in the studio.
I plan to spend the next 5 years painting on the Oregon Coast with travel stints elsewhere. In the next 5 years I would like to:

• Take a train journey across Cananda with stops along the way to paint.
• Take a kayak expedition/tour of the Queen Charlotte Islands with my painting gear.
• Travel to England, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Sark to paint.
• Take a seascape painting workshop with Don Demers.
• Take a train journey to the East Coast of the US to paint.

Of course I could add a lot more! I have no idea at this time how I will accomplish this. All I know is I need to put my head down, work hard , and stay focused. I will be working on more paintings to sell as those are skills I need to build too.
Well, I could go on but this is the kernel of all the thoughts I have been thinking about these past weeks. At the moment, we are having a sort of breather between storms. I say sort of because although the strong winds have died down for now, the rain is still coming down in torrents. I can hear the roar of the ocean waves from my spot on the couch here at home. I love it. I love the sea and the wildness. I love the beauty. Here is a short video I made today around 5pm when the storm abated.

 

Storm Warning

I had planned to rest today after yesterday's first time back to painting after all the challenges I have been through lately. I was skimming my Facebook page this morning and I saw a storm warning posted by our local weather guru. Coming in tomorrow will be high winds and a lot of rain. In other words, another fall storm. Today was a lovely warm fall day coupled with that underlying uneasy feeling that the sun just doesn't quite feel right, as if it is slightly off.
It looks like the weather won't be very cooperative for painting on the beach for a few days so I decided to go out and paint again.
I am still shaking off the cobwebs on my painting skills so I decided to try something different. I usually paint near the foot, or perhaps I should say toe of Neahkahnie Mountain. I decided to paint the toe portion that runs out into the sea. The mountain continues up twice as high as the toe and shelters our little town from some of the storms that come our way. Here is my effort after 2 hours of painting.

©2013 R.L. Delight, Neahkahnie Fall, 6"x8", oil on canvas

The water along the shoreline is not finished. This time of the year the sun starts to dip lower on the horizon and the golden light of fall hits the cliffs. We are able to see just how rugged the cliffs of Neahkahnie are. The shadows were changing literally every minute. It was challenging because I would look, then paint while looking at my canvas, and then look again and find that things changed. I will have to paint it again and get more practice.
I wanted to paint a wave study too in the final hour so I broke off painting after two hours. There is still more to paint before I would call it a finished study. In addition to outdoor painting challenges, I grabbed a different tube of white paint that was not cooperative. The white paint was incredibly sticky and thick and fought me all the way. Ugh. I will be taking it out of my plein air paint kit.
Here is wave study #59 which I painted from 4-5 pm today. The difficulty was the sun glaring in my eyes as I looked out to see the waves. It was tricky to get the colors right. The shapes look different in that light too. To be honest, I am just not used to painting in the sunlight! Sunlight on the Oregon coast is completely different then sunlight elsewhere, such as on the California coast! Here is the wave study:

© 2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #59, 6"x8", oil on canvas

I am thinking of using this one to create a finished painting from. I like the way the waves were stacking on top of one another and going at different angles. The extreme lighting and glare lent added difficulty. My farthest swell is still looking a little too even. I was concentrating on getting the color and light effects on canvas. I will have to keep working on it.
Tomorrow after battening down the hatches, I will be working in the studio. I want to take one day a week to work on basic skills such as drawing, color matching, brush strokes, etc. If the storm delays a bit I might be able to squeeze another wave study in too.
Stay warm and dry everyone!

I Am Back!

Neahkahnie Mountain, at the Toe!

Fall is here and, right on schedule, our first fall storm on the Equinox. It has been not quite four weeks since my surgery and I am healing well. So well that I am chaffing at the restrictions. Fortunately I was told I could walk and so I have been. I walked up to the foot of Neahkahnie on the beach during the storm to admire the waves. They have returned in full force and looked magnificent! It was about a four mile round trip walk in pouring rain and thundering surf. The smell of Shore Pine and Cedar mixed with the smell of the sea which will always remind me of home.
Technically, I have to admit, I have about 2 more weeks of the "no heavy lifting" period. I have been pretty good at taking care and I am healing well and faster than the doctor anticipated. I credit it to healthy living and good wholesome organic vegan whole foods. Today, I just couldn't stand it. The storms have passed, the sun was out, and the waves were lovely. This morning I very carefully hefted my painting pack an inch or so off the bench. Hmmm, heavy. Perhaps if I unload some of the weight, lift it up to my higher platform where I can reload it and slip it on without using my abs. Bingo! That worked! I very carefully walked around my house with my attention on how my abdomen felt. I hardly felt a thing. While I was walking around the house, I stepped on the scale. I have never weighed my loaded pack before. It weighs 17 pounds.
The waves were calling. I had to go paint. I got everything ready to go and off I went. I drove to the beach and parked and then very carefully slipped on my pack from the car seat without having to lift. The pack weight sits on my hips and anchors from my shoulders as any good backpack does. I still had a little less than a quarter of a mile to hike on the beach to reach my usual spot. I walked slowly and carefully, half my normal pace, in spite of my impatience to get there.
I found a large log to repeat the supported offloading of my pack and happily set up my easel to paint. I am woefully out of practice and messed up on the swells in the painting by going too light too soon. I didn't really have any high expectations for this wave study. I just was happy to be out painting. Here is Wave Study #58. It is time to get these studies done!

© 2013 R.L. Delight, Wave Study #58, 6"x8", oil on canvas.

I will wait until the canvas is dry and then repaint the swells properly. The photos never do the subtle colors justice on these paintings. Other than the swells, I am fairly pleased. Still plenty of room for improvement. The waves were piling up with the shore breakers coming in at an angle to the beach as they hit hidden sand bars and rocks. The tide was coming in.
I am tired but satisfied at the moment. I will see how I feel physically tomorrow but I will be heading out now as often as possible.
It is good to be back!