Headland at Sunset (watercolor 5 x 7) SOLD

Sunset at Agate Beach (watercolor 5 x 7) SOLD

Sliver Stream (watercolor 5 x7) SOLD

Like yesterday’s paintings, I did this little watercolor at the gallery last Wednesday.  Postcard sized paintings work really well for gallery shifts.  Space at the gallery for painting is limited and I want to be able to drop whatever I am doing to greet and talk to patrons.  At this scale there’s hardly ever a bad moment to stop painting.

These little paintings make good sketches for working out larger work too. It’s so much easier to experiment with composition when the paper I’m risking is only 5 x 7.

The subject is Agate Beach in Newport at sunset.  If the stream has a name, I don’t know it.  And it wouldn’t surprise me to discover it seasonal runoff.  It’s course over the sand varies every time I visit.  But it’s always wide and shallow.  This Spring the it’s mouth was over fifty feet wide and perhaps two or  three inches deep.  I liked the silver reflections in the late evening and early mornings.

The palette is burnt sienna, new gamgee (yellow), quinacridone deep red rose, cobalt blue and phthalo blue.  I painted the sunset colors in tandem working first in the sky and then in the reflections and back again to the sky as I added new colors.  I began with the yellows, then worked along through the oranges, reds, and purples.  The purple is phthalo blue and quinacridone.

The Brothers and the Sea (5 x 7) SOLD

This is another little painting I did at the state fair. I used yet another photo of the two brothers who were trying to give a log back the the sea. No sign of the log here, just companionship and beautiful afternoon light.

The palate is once again phthalo blue, raw sienna, and burnt sienna. Burnt sienna is more orange than it is red; so the paintings that I do with this trio tend to be earthy in feel with blue-grays and brown-oranges where one might expect there to be purples. Obviously there are no bright reds either. I find this a useful pallet for the Oregon coast as it makes very easy to reproduce the actual colors of the beach and ocean. On bright days the addition of cobalt blue helps to get the water as blue as it really is.

Sisters on the Rocks I (12 x 16) $100

“A solitary rock is always attractive. All right-minded people feel an overwhelming desire to scale and sit upon it.” Dorothy Sayers, Have His Carcase.

Sayers was right. And my children are certainly right-minded. Given a rock they will climb. And the volcanic rocks found on our beaches are just meant for climbing. They’re tall and the have plenty of hand and footholds. And what a view there is when you reach the top.

This is once again a three pigment painting: burnt sienna, yellow ocher, and French ultramarine. The earth colors are perfect for our cold gray coast. I used granulation medium for the rocks. Given that extra bit of texture in the paint, they practically painted themselves. I did the sky wet into wet and the sand in layered washes.

Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.com.

Winter Morning Solitude II (10 x 16) SOLD-Prints Available

This is an early morning in February on Agate Beach, Oregon. The light isn’t sunrise but it’s reflection in the Western sky.

The painting is all broad washes and wet into wet. I began by masking the white water. Then I painted in the reflection of the sunrise with yellow ochre into which I dropped rose madder quinacridone. While that dried I washed the sand and rocks with raw sienna, followed by burnt sienna, followed by raw umber, followed by cobalt blue. I finished the sky wet into wet with mixes of Prussian blue, cobalt blue and burnt sienna. The ocean is cobalt blue and burnt sienna. The rocks are burnt sienna followed by burnt umber followed by cobalt blue.

Purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.