Author: -N-

A View From Yaquina Head Lighthouse

In early July I flew into Bend, OR, to visit an old college friend. We drove to the coast, staying in Newport, at an area known as Nye Beach. One of our outings was a trip to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. The area was beautiful and we spent some time in the visitor’s center as well as wandering around. Of course, photos had to be taken.

The day was overcast and rather cold and gloomy – I think maybe 60F at the most in the dead of summer! Wind, too. Despite that, it was a great place to be, in part because of the whole area is so different than Southern California, as it is very lush in summer, rather than our drying vegetation and overall beige coloring. Here, the view is from a pathway leading toward the lighthouse, looking across the cove to Newport. You can see the wide expanse of beach, which is very flat, leading to another headland where I think another lighthouse may be found.

Every Tuesday I spend about 2-3 hours in my painting class. We paint what we want, but have a wonderful pair of teachers who give good advice. Classmates are friendly. Altogether, it is a good place to spend time for many things. I thought this photo would make a good landscape, so I decided to paint it. Initially, I had used acrylics, but it was flat and uninteresting, and the graphic effect I was trying to achieve wasn’t there. Acrylics may be painted over with oils, but not vice-versa, so I already had the colors, values, and mood laid out – and the oils proved far more satisfactory in the end.

Scanning art work is always a crap shoot and I had to do this a few times to get it to my liking. I did manage to capture mood and color. The overcast day dulled the original greens but in post with my photo, I brightened things up to my liking. It may be that the dull colors of my SoCal surroundings really make me push the greens, but the photo was the basis of the painting, even if not reflecting reality quite as it was.

I spent about 3 classes doing this painting, reworking it several times, especially the foreground. In the end, I am rather pleased. It is a bit gloomy and dark, but so is the photo.

Oils, 16×20 stretched cotton canvas.

Summer Fields

Tomorrow is a family gathering, quite possibly the first since last year. This morning I cleaned up clutter and sorted out things, did all the first-of-the-month stuff, and so on. Meanwhile, the esposo is working from home and making both beef and chicken barbacoa in between saving database lives. I have already run around town collecting goodies, as have other family members, so we call enjoy a bit of a feast and each others’ company tomorrow with good food and good company.

Of course, a girl can only do so much and then the painting gods and goddesses beckon. Once more, lavender fields call, so here some are for your enjoyment.

Technique was primarily wet, beginning with they sky and distant mountain and trees, letting things bleed into each other. I like the misty effect and sense of distance it creates, as well as the suggestion of tree-covered hills. From there, greens and lavenders, lines and directional shapes. Final details were some dry brush lines in the foreground and in the tree shapes to create texture and vertical movement. I used a large mop brush (#6, Princeton Neptune) for the entire painting until the end. At that point, I took a small stiff brush to add some of the finer lines and dots.

Part of me thinks I could have done a bit more of a light lavender color, but overall, I am pleased with this painting.

Watercolor, Arches 140# CP paper, 9×12.

Memories of Spring

Memories of Spring

Sometimes we ignore one hobby for another. Photography is one of those. My focus of late is on other adventures, but looking through old photos – digital or analog – is something always worthwhile. All looks different from the distance of time. Here, some daffodils taken last spring with my Nikon Z6ii and 50mm lens, and modified to match this morning’s mood, which is rather grey and gloomy and monochrome with a bit of color.

Trees in the Back Yard

For the past few weeks it is as if I fell down the rabbit hole – nothing made too much sense! The main thing was getting the walking boot off and getting used to being a bipedal organism after weeks of sitting around, walking here and there in the house or at the market, only taking minimal steps. It may sound weird, but for me, actually walking became an almost surreal experience. I am doing fine, too, but my mind and body had to coordinate it all once again. Jumping away from a moving car to save my skin was great, but spending 2 months recovering, and then some, from a badly bruised and messed up ankle is something else.

Doing nothing much sort of leads to a torpor and little desire to do much. I admit, I watched a ton of TV and movies, and played bits and pieces of music, but the motivation to do much of anything was very much missing. But now autumn is in the air, cooler days and cooler nights, light shifts and just that wonderful sense of change that comes with seasons – and being able to gad about – have me emerging.

Classes also help! A couple of painting classes, a ukulele class, and digging out my pen and watercolors have got me moving. Today, my ukulele class is at 5, so I decided to just sit out in the back of the house with pen and ink and pan paints and a waterbrush and sketchbook. As the season changes, leaves change color and drop.

This is my first sketch. We have a beautiful crepe myrtle tree with a rather vase-like base. Large branches spread out from the trunk like a V. It’s the prettiest of the local crepe myrtles, I think, because of this shape. Its flowers, too, are not the usual bright pink but a deep red violet. I decided to sketch with its flowers even though they are mostly gone. The leaves turn an orangish green with the end of summer. I made them greener. At the base of the tree is a small bush that has pink flowers in the spring.

These are podocarpus trees which line the back fence. They are ridiculously fat and poorly spaced – I am innocent! I didn’t do this! – and way too tall. I need to get them removed. They are really rather messy trees, and drop leaves year round as they are not deciduous. Despite these drawbacks, I really rather like drawing them as their trunks have an abundance of texture and the leaves seem to appear in clumps so that colors vary in shades of green depending on the light.

And there we are! I think I am beginning to feel like my life is returning to normal, and for the past year it really has been odd. Breaking and injuring my bones seems to be this year’s theme, so let’s hope it is not going to become a tradition. I would rather spend my time rambling around outdoors, enjoying what there is!

Later . . .