August in Oregon Painting Plein Air

At the end of July, I flew to Eugene, Oregon to visit my twin sister, Peg, who is also an artist.  Our first outing was a trip to the coast in Newport to join a group of Eugene Plein Air Painters.  The coast is so, so beautiful in Oregon with rocky cliffs, coastal pines, pale sandy beaches, and outcroppings of basalt that line the shore--waves crashing, sea lions sunning themselves, sea gulls and of course the beautiful setting sun.  Most of the Oregon coast is wild with few tourists, and every inch of it is public land. Here's my first plein air painting in Newport, near the light house:

"Fog Approaching", alla prima oil on canvas panel, 12" x 9".

In the next few days, I'll post my other Oregon paintings.  On this Labor Day weekend, as the summer comes to a close, I hope the past three months have been all you wished for.  As always, I'd love to hear from you. And please pass this blog along to other you think may enjoy it.

Portraits in Oil using the Zorn Palette

Lately, I've begun to paint portraits in oil which has been quite compelling because I half way feel like I'm creating a new human being.   This is partly because they sometimes don't look quite like the model, i.e. a "new" person, which I find quite fun and intriguing.  Being new to painting portraits, I'm learning with two painter friends.  We've been watching a DVD by Jeffery Watts on "Painting the Gesture Portrait" using the very limited palette of Anders Zorn, who lived near the turn of the century in Sweden.  The portraits are painted with only four pigments: White, Black, Yellow Ochre, and Cadmium Red Light.  His portraits using this limited palette are truly amazing and beautiful!  My goal is both to learn to paint rich paintings with only four pigments (and no blue) as well as to paint with greater gesture in my brushwork--to loosen up!  This is how it works:  Black is very cool and therefore offers a subtle blue;  yellow ochre and black make a green of sorts; cad. red and black make a purple of sorts, yellow ochre and cad. red make an orange; yellow ochre, cad. red and black make a brown. So there you have it.  Now to transform those four pigments into a loose, gestural portrait.  This is my second oil portrait ever and the first with this Zorn palette.  It's "Andrew",  12" x 9", oil, from the model.

Painting is "life-long learning" and learning always adds to much to life.  Remember, I always appreciate your thoughts and comments.  Please forward this to your friends who might be interested.