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Colleen's gone Coastal, Oregon USA (2 Viewers)

Wonderfully painted, Colleen! Yes, having bought an Airstream trailer earlier this year and now having put 8,000 miles on it on my fall trip, the 'moisture management' part of RV'ing is a challenge. Now that we have it stored for the winter (outside, unfortunately, as finding covered storage around here is hard to do), I'm monitoring it carefully. I've got three of the chemical dryer containers in it (the salt crystals absorb moisture from the air and combine with the salt to become brine, then you have to throw the brine out from the collector pan periodically). However, when traveling on the road or living in it, they're impractical, so a dehumidifier is no doubt the best bet.
 
My latest massive struggle, dont even ask how many times I repainted it
The place is boiler bay I'll try to post a photo of the area....the waves when big create a massive display, In the photo look for the little people just outside the fence in the upper right, and you'll get some idea of the scale.

I put gulls in the painting to give some size reference. This is 6x8 and the main thing I was trying to get is the different levels of value
Too bad I cant take my own advice and leave things alone, but I just had to solve the main problem I set out to solve on the, ie 3 distinct levels of values in the rocks, I mean darker richer closer, mid range color and value in mid rocks, and the final lots of spray graying out the color and detail of the far rocks, complicated by the fact I made the focal pt there with the spray which calls for more color and/or shaper edges at a place that is supposed to go back more. So really no win problem....So I painted again just to resolve the value issue and ignore all the other short comings. Poor little 6x8 scrap of canvas :)
 

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sorry mobile post on iphone only allows me one photo apparently
so will try the photo here mentioned in prev post
Boiler Bay Oregon, storm surf. a couple of weeks ago. I hang out here a lot as the waves are always bigger and badder than anywhere else
 

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The most recent one looks fine to me! I've been to Boiler Bay - it is definitely an impressive place, even when there are no storm waves. Seeing the two people in the photo standing beyond the fence gave me pause, as one of my wife's relatives was lost in Hawaii while picking opihii (spelling?) - limpits - along the rocks past Hanauma Bay. He never came home and was presumed swept off by a wave and lost.
 
I was warned about that when I lived in Hawaii, I never knew anyone it happened to tho. I would not stand there myself, but it must be an adrenaline rush to do so. There are other unfenced places I go that are probably only marginally better, but I can't help myself, I want to see it close up. Having lived a lot of my life by the sea, I am very careful and respectfull, listening intently and not venturing close until I get the pattern of the waves and then only when the tide is going out. Nevertheless you never know whats going to happen at the sea. When they are really big you can feel the ground shake as they hit the cliff below. I've found one place where I can be fairly safe almost at eye level to the wave.

Its the greatest challenge in painting I've faced trying to capture this in paint.
 
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I've never tound it easy to follow my own advice! A striking painting nonetheless.

And apropos of nothing didn't you once express admiration for Bob Kuhn, way back when? I just wanted to let you know there's a new book about his work that just been published. I got it today and am impressed. If you use the link to the publisher from wildlife art journal site I think that there's a 10% discount. It's quite a hefty book even in the cheaper paperaback version that I bought.
 
a new place Moolack beach where I finally got the gulls to integrate with the wave and not take over...I need more practice with the complex sky around here tho
trying out a new way to post pics as its really hard using this site for mobile posting which sometimes will not let me upload photos very well.

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lets see how it works probably will only have a link
 

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These continue to have a sense of a place actually seen, Colleen, something I think is surprisingly difficult and unusual with something so indistinct as seascapes. My guess is that all the individuality has to come from the artist themselves and their response to what they see.
 
I think you have tackled the sky perfectly Colleen :t:
I have big goals with the sky yet to achieve, of all the places in the US I've lived here in Oregon I think the sky is close to what I see in the British landscape painters. The major problem is it changes so fast that I cant really capture it.

Thanks Gaby :)
Ken, Im printing off your remark, it is probably the meta desire of my work. I think little work has been done to immortalize the Oregon coast seascape, like the artists in the last century did for the Northeast Coast or the Southern California area. I'm overawed at the moment at the task ahead, and hope my skills improve to be able to paint it
 
Colleen - we're practically neighbours - I'm just a few hundred miles up coast :) your seascapes quite simply resonate...the colours are wonderful and the light feels just right...can't wait to see the next painting...
 
thanks Mike,
Chris what a nice compliment.
Here is a view out of the box for me...a lighthouse Yaquina, the first one built in the 1800's along the Oregon coast, This is a "postcard" typical view around here but not such a good choice for a painting, this is the best I can do with this impossible composition. I have resolved it as best I can, learned a great deal. learning to mass complicaed areas more...increase arial perspedtive beyond what I see, to stick to my concept even if its out of the box, learned to get some some movement of the eye so the lighthouse does not take over the painting. I paid a lot of attention to the warm cool relationships, of the clouds, the lighthouse, the rocks....and finally I got the bird just exactly as I saw it, a brilliant spot, in a mass of dark rock shining like a light just below the lighthouse......I'm so glad to be done with this one... Its a surprise gift for my bro and his wife.
6x8 oil on linen
 
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