HEADING NORTH UP THE OREGON COAST

Tolowa Dunes State Park

On our penultimate day in Brookings, we decided to drive south to Tolowa Dunes State Park which is just north of Crescent City.   This is a beach that has areas of small pebbles with people laying flat on their stomachs scratching around in the stones for agates.  It is the strangest sight, almost like a bunch of beached whales except they are gemstone hunters.  We had hoped that we would get some sun for our beach day, but no such luck as you can see in the photo, I am layered up to protect myself from the biting cold wind and damp fog.  

Unger Bay Fish n' Chips

Wednesday was our day of travel.  We drove up to Winchester Bay RV Park which is on a bay where oyster harvesting takes place.  The park is beautiful and is owned by the Salmon Harbor Marina.  Nice wide spaces with grass and trees, modern hookups, and views of either the inner harbor or the outer bay from every site.  The down side is that the wind rushes up the bay almost 24/7 and the fog is pervasive although we did have about an hours worth of sun when we arrived.  The first thing we did after getting settled was head over to the harbor for fish and chips.  The restaurant is actually a floating barge and has some of the best halibut and chips ever.  

In the evening we took a drive around the end of the peninsula to see the dunes.  This is ATV heaven, with trails running every which way over and around the sand dunes.  They had their own campgrounds, thank goodness.    

Dean Creek Elk Reserve

Winchester Bay is located about 5 miles south of Reedsport where we went the following day.   We had breakfast at the Harbor Lights Cafe and then drove east about 5 miles to the Dean Creek Elk Reserve.  Every time we are in this area, we drive to the reserve in hopes of seeing the elk, with no luck at all.  But finally we saw some elk and they were everywhere.  Plus they did not seem at all perturbed with all the people taking photos.  

This reserve was created in the 1990's by the combined efforts of Duck's Unlimited, Fish and Game, and (I think) the Dept of Interior.  In addition to the Roosevelt Elk, the reserve is for migrating birds to have a place to stop, eat, and rest on their flights north or south.  There were four large ponds created and various kinds of bird sanctuary houses were built for the different kinds of birds.   The reserve runs about 5 miles along the Umpqua River.  It was a lucky day in more ways than one because in addition to seeing the elk, the sun also came out.  

NORTH TO BROOKINGS, OREGON

Highlands RV Park, Bishop, CA with the Sierras in the background.

This last week was spent traveling from Bishop to Brookings.   The morning we left Bishop was clear and sunny, but still cold enough to keep the snow on the nearby Sierras intact.  As we drove north up 395, the snow was all along the roadside all the way up to Bridgeport where we stopped for breakfast at the Bridgeport Inn.  At the end of our meal, the waitress brought me a chocolate covered strawberry for Mothers Day.  

Hwy 395, around June Lakes, CA

We continued up 395 past Reno to Standish, CA where we stay at the Days End RV Park which is about the only business in Standish besides a gas station.  But it is charming with flower beds, a dog park, and great views all around.  The next morning we headed west past Lassen National Park to Hwy 5 and then north to Medford, Oregon where we spent two nights at the Holiday RV Park.  Our free day in Medford was spent stocking up at TJ's and visiting used bookstores in Ashland, Oregon.  The weather was rainy and cold while we were there.  Finally on our last lap, we headed up Hwy 5 to Grants Pass and then turned west to travel along the Smith River to Crescent City and then north on the coast hwy to Brookings, CA.  

Brookings Harbor

We always stay at the Driftwood RV Park and right now during May it has many spaces available.  Here on the coast it is cloudy with the sun peeking through periodically.  But that has not deterred Allan from walking the beach with the dogs about 3 times a day.  Since there are not many people on the beach right now, the dogs can run free and explore all they want.   No big plans for us while we are here although we heard that the Azalea Festival is next weekend, so we might check that out.  

BISHOP, CALIFORNIA.... SURROUNDED BY BEAUTY

AT 9000' IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS LOOKING ACROSS TO THE SIERRAS 35 AIR MILES AWAY

We are now staying at the Highlands RV Park in Bishop, CA.  When we are in the Eastern Sierras, we usually stay up in Lee Vining to be close to Mono Lake and Tuolumne Meadows, but we really wanted to explore down around Bishop and we are happy to have found a really great rv park with a grassy dog area and rv spaces under the trees.  The snowy peaks of the sierras peek over the trees in the park to our west and the cooler light blue of the White Mountains are to the east.   The White Mountains are named for the white dolomite limestone which used to be on the ocean floor many eons ago, but now is up at 10,000 feet.  

Tuesday we drove to Schulman Grove in the Bristlecone Pine Forest to see some of the oldest trees in the world.  The alkaline dolomite, the high altitude, the cold winters and drought like summers are some of the reasons that the bristlecone pines are so old.  They grow very slowly and the wood is extremely dense, plus they don't grow close together so wildfires can't go very far, there is not enough fuel.  The oldest tree here is over 5000 years old which means that it germinated about 3000 b.c.  We did not take the long hike to see the oldest tree but instead took the Discovery Trail where we saw trees that were about 3000 years old.  We had to hike up a mountain side and at 10,000 feet it seemed like we were hiking Mt Everest.  

When I was a botanist for the forest service I used to be up and down trails like this all the time without blinking an eye, but at 71 years old... I was blinking in disbelief at how a one mile hike seemed more like a 10 mile hike.  I was hoping to see some marmots but not a one appeared.  

Snow in the bark of the tree.

We saw plenty of birds though and lots of chipmunks scampering around.  And because it is still May and because we were at 10,000 feet, we also saw that stuff rarely seen in Phoenix, Arizona.... SNOW.  There was snow along the path at the visitor center and along the trail, under the trees, and even in the trees. It was also very cold.  We both had on sweatshirts and jackets and still the cold seeped through our clothes and sometimes we could see our breath condense as we exhaled.  

Yesterday we stopped at Eric Schat's Bakkery to fuel up for an excursion up the eastern side of the sierras towards Lake Sabrina.  This bakery has been an institution in Bishop for many many years and it used to be called Ed Schat's but has now been passed down to his son Eric.  Good sheepherders bread and excellent sandwiches as well as coffee and danish, cookies, or home made doughnuts.  

Lake Sabrina 

Now fortified with expresso and bagels, we drove up to the lake, only to find that the lake is representative of the drought going on all over California right now.   It was down so low, it was barely a puddle.  Bishop Creek still had water and one fisherman told us he had just caught 7 fish.  

At 8000' in the Eastern Sierras looking across to the White Mountains

We decided to drive up higher to North Lake and see how that looked and on the way we were able to look across the Owens Valley to the White Mountains where we had just been standing the day before.  North Lake still had some water and there was some fishing going on, but we found a place where the creek was running into the lake and set up for painting plein air.

  The air was cold and crisp, and there was a wind blowing through down to the lake, so we bundled up and painted for a couple of hours and then we took a lunch break before packing up to return home to the rv.  As you can see from the photo, winter is still hanging on up here at 8500'.   No masterpieces were produced but the experience was invigorating.

HEADING NORTH

Tehachapi Sunrise

This year we are heading North and this week is the final countdown before we leave on Sunday for Sedona, our first stop on a five month trip.
We will be in Sedona for 3 days to showsit at our annual Spring Show at the Sedona Art Center.  

This year Allan got 3 paintings in the show and I got all four with one of my paintings  (above) getting an honorable mention.  The painting is Tehachapi Sunrise and it is a place we stay frequently in the rv as we travel from Barstow over the Tehachapi Summit to Bakersfield.  From Sedona we will be in Las Vegas for a few days and then we are spending a week in Bishop where we intend to explore the southeastern side of the sierras.  Then on to Brookings, Oregon for two whole weeks at the beach.

 We will then go up to Portland for a week and then to Gig Harbor for a week while we check out the International Open Juried Show of the Northwest Pastel Society.  This year I have one painting juried into that show and we purchased an airfloat box to ship it up to Tecoma, Washington.  The show will run until June 23rd so we will be there to pick up my painting at the end of the show.  

We will be going back to the gardens at Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island.  Check out Allan's painting of a photo we took on a previous visit......     After that we will be staying in Anacortes for about 10 days before we travel up to Vancouver where we intend to visit some favorite places we have been in past visits and also to check out some new places.  We will come back to the US to head east to Coeur d'Alene and then North to Radium Hot Springs which is located on the western side of the Rockies about an hour from Banff.  This is the furthest north we will go and on our return we will travel down through Glacier NP, a place we have never been.... Yellowstone NP, a favorite place..... Grand Tetons... a new spot for us... and we will finish up at the Plein Air Festival in the Grand Canyon.

 So this week is packing and more packing.... and also finishing up a painting I have been working on for the last week or so.  It is pretty close to done.  The painting is from a photo of Convict Lake, which is extremely picturesque... I just hope I have done it justice.

Buzzing Around

Eel River Farm

We are back on the road again after a very hectic week with an africanized bee swarm that established residency in one of our trees.  The hive that they made was longer than my arm and about as thick as a toaster.  There wasn't much honey which is how the bee men knew they were africanized.  They apparently remove about seven hives a day in the spring and several a day in the fall.  But for us it involved a lot of clean up and pruning as they tried to reform even after the hive was removed and the bee people had to return and give them a second shot.  The worst part was that our dog Elsie got several bee stings and now is afraid to go into the backyard.  No photos, sorry.... we just could not get close enough to take a photo.  

Canadian Goose

While all of this was going on, I was getting some paintings prepared to enter the 6" Squared show in Costa Mesa.  I submitted four and was happy to hear that two of the paintings had been juried into the show.  So I got those ready and sent them off the day before we left for Lake Havasu.  We are headed towards Morro Bay where we will pick up my paintings from the PSWC Show.  

Havasu Falls RV Park

We usually stop off in Needles as our halfway point but it is such a desolate hole with the highest fuel prices in California, so this time we decided to try out a park in Lake Havasu, Arizona.  We stayed at Havasu Falls RV and it was mainly cement pads but it did have pull thrus which are perfect for an overnight stay.  

Mountain Valley RV Park, Tehachapi

Yesterday we drove on to Tehachapi where we will stay for three nights.  The rv park is situated right next to the glider airport and from our back window we can watch them take off and land.  The hills are golden brown now and the trees are turning up here on the mountain where the nights are down in the low 40's already.   Tomorrow we make the long drive to Morro Bay to pick up the paintings.  We are just taking the truck and making it an all day trip.  Then on to Tecopa Hot Springs where we hope to stay about a week soaking and relaxing (and maybe plein air painting).  

SHOW TO SHOW

Dotty Hawthorne Studio

It seems longer than a week ago when we were in San Luis Obispo County sitting by the seashore and breathing in clean ocean air.  But a week ago last Saturday we were traveling through out the SLO county visiting artist's studios for their yearly studio tour.  Whenever we go on some kind of tour like this, we always manage to visit areas that we would never go to ordinarily and it is a special bonus to be able to see another artist's work space, especially when they are pastel artists.   Our favorite painting studio that we visited was the home of pastel artist Dotty Hawthorne, who also had a couple of paintings in the West Coast Pastel Society Show in Morro Bay.  She was superb at capturing the quintessential California landscape with many of her paintings showing golden hills and California Oaks.  www.dottyhawthorne.com   

The Palms

We also stopped by the Morro Bay Art Center and Gallery a couple of times to study the other entries in the show and made some notes on different artists styles and techniques which we followed up back home at the computer by going to each of their websites.  It was a definite thrill to be a part of a national show.  And, as it turned out, we were not able to attend the reception.  Saturday night we went out to eat at what seemed to be a very expensive fish restaurant and I had a prawn cocktail which came back to haunt me in the night and all the next day, which was the day of the reception.

Doug Dawson speaking to the APAA Reception

 On Monday morning we headed off in the rv, arriving in Tehachapi for the evening, then on Tuesday we made it as far as Needles, arriving home on Wednesday afternoon.  We spent the rest of that day and some of Thursday unpacking the rv and returning it to storage.  Then I framed five paintings for Drop Off  at the Scottsdale Artists School to be in our Arizona Pastel Artists Assn Fall Show on Friday.  We also stayed on Friday to help hang the show and then went shopping for wine and water for the reception.  Saturday was the reception which was fabulous.

Lembert Dome Honorable Mention

 What a turnout and Doug Dawson spoke at length about what makes a good painting, how paintings are juried, and then he elaborated on each painting that won an award.  I was completely surprised to find out that one of my paintings had won an Honorable Mention as there were so many really outstanding paintings in the show.  Dawson said that what he really liked about my painting was my handling of the edges, especially around the clouds, the pine tree needles on the left of the painting, and the grasses in the foreground.    But as Carsten so eloquently said "just keep painting".  So back to work, except it can't be work when it is so enjoyable.  

DROP OFF DAY AT THE MORRO BAY ART GALLERY

Last Saturday, Allan and I drove over to Morro Bay to drop off my paintings at the Morro Bay Art Gallery.  It was similar to dropping off paintings at our own shows, with artists coming in and checking their names off, setting out the paintings along the walls and saying hi to old friends.  We didn't have any old friends, as this was a new venture for me, but we were happy to meet Jerry, the show chair and he chatted with us for quite a while and made us feel welcome.  One thing that was different at the drop off, was that a numbered sticker was placed over the signature on the painting so that when the judge came by on the following day, they would not be able to see who painted any of the paintings.  But I am pretty darn sure that the painting next to mine was a Terry Ford, with her characteristic deeper, darker, and richer colors.  We will see tomorrow when the gallery opens the show to the public.  We did notice that every single one of the paintings was great.  It did not matter whether they were portraits, landscape, or still life.... each one was beautifully executed.  If you are in the area, the reception is on October 12th.  

On Tuesday, we headed up to Paso Robles to purchase Italian Sparkling Grape Juice for myself and also for our own show reception at the Scottsdale Artists School on October 18th.  I would have loved to purchase the wine there also, but it is a little out of our budget.  
Last night, we headed into San Luis Obispo to the downtown evening farmers market and it was well worth the visit.  There were no arts and crafts at all, just produce and food stalls, but it covered about four blocks and there were plenty of folks out for the event.  

Almost immediately, Allan spotted a pasty stall and his Australian heritage called out to him.  He got a steak and rutabaga pasty, I got one with chicken pie ingredients.  Both were delicious.  
At the produce stalls, we purchased bunches of tiny carrots, beets, beautiful Spanish onions, a whole box of shallots for two dollars, tomatoes, pluots, strawberries, blackberries, assorted lettuces, garnet yams, and a cucumber.  

We walked back along the street, listening to all of the various street musicians, ranging from a Scotsman playing some sort of long necked fiddle to a classical violinist to the usual folk guitar and finally a teenage boys rock and roll band (which was quite good with sounds of the 70's filling the night).   At the other end of the market were all the food stalls and there must have been at least ten different rib stalls, with the vendors doing everything they could to attract the customers to their own ribs.   It was definitely a fun evening and we came home with plenty of produce for the week to come.

GROVER BEACH, CALIFORNIA

Le Sage Riviera RV Park

After a very long trip from Apache Junction, we have finally arrived in Grover Beach which is just a couple of miles south of Pismo Beach and about 11 miles south of San Luis Obispo.  For some reason, this tiny hamlet of Grover Beach has escaped our attention, even though we have been coming to this area for years and years.  Usually we stay in Morro Bay, but because of OctoberFest, all of our usual rv parks were full.  So we are staying in Le Sage Riviera RV Park, a small facility which is located adjacent to the long expanse of Grover Beach.  

Pismo State Beach Golf Course

Although the rv park is not more than a tight parking area, it is across the street from the Pismo Beach Golf Course and within about 50 feet from the rv park is a well maintained boardwalk that runs about a mile up to the state beach camping area and then on into Pismo.  

Board Walk

The beach itself has a dunes area which separates the sand from the golf course and dogs on leashes are allowed, so Allan, Murray, and Elsie are getting their beach fix each morning and evening.   
Also nearby, on the beach, is Fins Seafood Restaurant which we hope to try out before we depart.   And the town of Grover Beach is flat enough for bike riding so as soon as we replace my bike, we will be taking some rides.  

Grover Beach, looking north towards Pismo Beach

Yesterday we needed a couple of things from the store and drove up through Grover Beach to Arroyo Grande, which is another little town that we have never seen before.  It was charming with chocolate shops and garden art shops, cafes and bistros.  We stopped at Nan's Used Books and made a few purchases while petting the bookstore cat and chatting with Nan, who just got back from Cuba.  Then we had lunch at the Italian Restaurant where I had a meatball sandwich and Allan had hot pastrami.  Later in the evening, we walked the beach and I took photos.  As you can see from the photos, the weather is lovely.  Sunny, in the high 70's with a coastal breeze.  

MALIBU AND LACMA

We are now staying in Malibu at the Malibu Beach RV Park which is very expensive but right across the street from the ocean.  We can see why it is so expensive as everything in Malibu is costly from the gasoline to the groceries and of course eating out is a bit pricey too.  But we had decided early on that this last week was to be our treat and so here we are, and having a good time too.  

We are parked up on a bluff and our neighbors are mostly foreign in rented RVs.  As a matter of fact, almost everywhere we have been on this trip, we have been surrounded by foreign visitors in RVs.    When you are an artist, you are always prepared for the beach.  Notice Allan sitting underneath the plein air umbrellas.  This photo is taken right across the street from where we are staying.  

Because it was a week day, we had the beach to ourselves for a couple of hours but the drawback was there were no dogs allowed on any L.A County Beach.  So we had to drive north about 10 miles to cross the county line into Ventura County to take the dogs on another day.  Elsie especially loves the beach and she dug a huge hole in the sand, heading for China and then got down into the hole and laid on her back with her legs sticking up.  By the time Allan got the camera out and stood up to get her photo, she was out of her hole and ready for a walk.

On Saturday we went to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) to their special exhibition of EXPRESSIONISM:  VAN GOGH TO KADINSKY.

Restaurant of the Siren at Asnieres, 1887    Vincent Van Gogh

 It was exceptional, and we did not think that any exhibit would top the Norton Simon museum, but we were wrong.  There were 70 paintings and almost as many prints or sketches.  They had been borrowed from museums around the world and also from private collections.  Some of the paintings we were allowed to photograph and others not.  It was held in the Kessler Hall which was huge and arranged by art movements, beginning with Van Gogh, then into the post impressionists such as Gaugin, then into the Fauvists...like Matisse, and so on until we reached cubism.  

The House of Pan-Du, 1890    Paul Gauguin

There were many paintings by German artists, many of whom we had never heard of and the exhibition was arranged to show the effects of post impressionism upon the art of Germany at that time. 
There were many artists who were trying to find an alternative to impressionism with its emphasis on accidental natural impressions of light.

Paul Signac - Color Lithograph of the Chromatic Circle  1888

 Neo Impressionism was a next step which is based on the scientific theory of juxtaposing separate dots or patches of colors to the paintings surface, usually following the new chromatic theory of allowing the viewers eye to mix the colors.   Charles Henry created a chromatic circle in 1888 to explain his theory and Paul Signac did a color lithograph using the chromatic circle as his inspiration.  
Although Van Gogh was dead for 15 years when his paintings were in a show in Germany, his vivacious brushstrokes were instrumental in sending the German artists in search of a new way to express their art.  

Henri Matisse, Studio Interior, 1904

They also found it in Matisse, who was quoted in an essay called "Notes of a Painter", that "What I am after, above all, is expression".  Matisse was considered to be a Fauvist, mainly because his new way of painting was considered "wild" at the time.  Although Impressionism was esteemed because it had liberated art from the Academy, the Fauves wanted to create pictures that reflected their own emotions not just to break up objects in light.  They wanted to free themselves of common conventions of color and form.  They wanted to EXPRESS something, not just depict something.  Hence the word, Expressionism.  

Murvau, Burggrabenstrasse 1, 1908    Wassily Kadinsky

Flat or highly simplified forms and symbolic colors were appealing to the German artists who did not take naturally to the inspirational daubing of light, but were more mathematical in mindset and could use expressionism to arrange flat spaces and forms.  Wassily Kadinsky was one artist who took naturally to the new direction and spent several summers in Murvau village where he underwent the evolution towards abstraction with more flattened forms.

Still Life with Apples, 1894   Paul Cezanne

And, of course, Paul Cezanne was well represented with many paintings in this exhibition as he had begun experimenting with abstraction in the early 1890's.  He was painting still lifes from different angles and experimenting with vision, by setting up curves and countercurves which can be seen in this painting of the green jar with the opening enlarged.  This greatly appealed to the Expressionists and also the Cubists later on. 
Although we have been reading about art for years and knowing the artists we favored, it was a real revelation to see this exhibit which closely examines the transition from Impressionism to Cubism.  As I said earlier, it was exceptional.  Many of the paintings that I would have liked to photograph for you to see here in the blog, had the No Photograph Symbol next to the painting.  But if you are interested in seeing all of the paintings in the exhibit and cannot get to Los Angeles, they have printed a book of the exhibition called Expressionism in Germany and France.   This book has colorplates of all the paintings and prints in the exhibit, plus other smaller color plates which are used as examples of their thesis.  

SANTA BARBARA..... FINAL DAYS

We found out that Goleta Beach allowed dogs, so one morning we took the dogs down to the beach.  As you can see, we had the beach all to ourselves and the dogs had a great time running and digging and eating seaweed.  Elsie fetched the tennis ball until it became so caked with sand that she didn't want it in her mouth anymore and Murray ran after seagulls and everyone had a great time.

On another day, we had breakfast at Moby Dick's down on the pier and then checked out the marina and harbor where we found a crabbing boat, just in with about 50 baskets of crabs.  These guys are separating the large front claws from the crab prior to sending it all to market or restaurant.  Allan got a lot of photos of boats and hopefully some of the photos will work well for his painting this winter.

We also went to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.  It was a small museum but had a surprising number of excellent paintings.  
They had several paintings by Claude Monet, done while he was in London from 1899 to 1901.  This is Charing Cross Bridge painted from his room at the Savoy Hotel.  You can just make out the square houses of parliament and the pointed spire of Big Ben as ghostly silhouettes in the atmospheric early morning fog.  This is an example of Monet's late poetic work.  

We were surprised to see one of Van Gogh's early works, painted just after he had arrived in Paris.  The Outskirts Of Paris (1886) is painted in the somber palette and bleak, dreary subject matter similar to his paintings of the Netherlands where he had encountered abject poverty.  This was done before his style underwent the first of several radical transformations.

There was a new name among the old....  Roderic O'Conor, an Irish Impressionist who spent most of his career in France and made his name painting landscapes in Brittany.  After moving to Paris in 1904 he turned to still lifes and his energetic brushwork and bold palette testify to his close contact with Matisse.  This painting is Dahlias, 1908.

There was also an Alfred Sisley painting called Saint-Mammes, Banks Of The Seine, 1885 which he painted in quick nervous, flickering brushstrokes to suggest the swift movement of the river which was his lifelong inspiration.

Pont Saint-Michel, 1901 was painted by Henri Matisse as a subject done in a series of multiple canvases from the fifth floor of his apartment window overlooking the Seine.  He was emulating both Monet and Pissarro's work they had done in series.  In this painting, Matisse uses simplification of forms and a luminous palette which shows his movement towards the techniques he admired in Cezanne's and Van Gogh's paintings.  This new technique would get further flattened with a more lurid and fantastical use of color as he moved into his Fauvist years. (1904-1906)

Another artist to work in a series at this time was Eugene Boudin.  He was encouraged by Monet's Rouen Cathedral series.  Boudin painted Abbeville:  The Church Of Saint-Vulfran in 1894 as one of a succession of paintings, each done at a different time of day or from a different point of view.  Boudin was nicknamed the King Of Skies by Camille Corot as he was a prolific landscape painter and had been instrumental in encouraging the Young Monet to be true to nature and always paint outdoors.  

It probably seems as if we are always looking at Impressionist Art, and that would probably be mostly correct.  Neither of us care for paintings with cupids or stiff portraits of generals, so we usually end up spending the most time with the French Impressionists or American Artists.  But there was a lovely exhibit of color woodblock prints in the Santa Barbara Museum by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1839-1892.  This print is Moon In The Cemetery, 1886 and is the 3rd month from the series "100 aspects of the moon".   The old woman is seated on a fallen grave and is the celebrated poetess Ono no Komachi (9th century).  Once favored for her intellect, personality, and beauty, she reflects that although she is losing her beauty, position, and wealth, she has gained enlightenment regarding her situation, stated in a poem..... 
     the flowers beauty faded but
     no one cared
     I watched myself grow old as
     the long rains fell.

She and I must be simpatico.  So I am sending her a poem back in time.....

As I sit here in my rv
with the bumpers rusting and paint peeling
watching myself grow old
back aching and memory feeling weak
but traveling on as the long rains fall.