Friday, May 30, 2014

Pacific Northwest :: Peter Iredale

Not exactly sure why, but I've been feeling like painting lately. My youngest just got a great new set of watercolors, and so she and I have been playing around with colors. 

This is a second in a series I've been working on called 'Water Life.' The first was an iconic bridge in the Portland area, and this is a landmark shipwreck on the coast of Oregon called the Peter Iredale. The ship ran aground in 1906 and its rusting hull is still standing out in the surf creating one of the more iconic views that I know.

This is near Astoria, which is where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. At what is called the 'mouth of the river' it is 4 miles wide, which makes for an enormous body of water crashing into the sea. It causes one of the worse bars (the Columbia Bar) to cross in the world. A bar creates large standing waves that make it incredibly rough to cross. I have crossed the Columbia Bar once in my life, and I can tell you it was a calm day, and I'll never do it again.

15 comments:

  1. Hi,Cynthia:
    Very interesting blog post-very beautiful and moody painting,warm with colors of the impressionistic sunset.The Peter Iredale's shipwreck -very schematic,but very much appealing.
    I am very much impressed.
    -All the Best-
    -Halinka-

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  2. Your creativity stuns me and this painting gives such a strong feeling of place and time.
    'Red sky at night/
    Sailor's delight.'

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  3. So beautiful Cynthia! I love your use of color. The style is wonderful too! I always wished I could paint. :)

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  4. Wonderful! The vivid sunset colors, combined with the shipwreck - a richly dreamy and evocative statement of the co-mingled past and present. Or maybe not. Beautiful any way you look at it.

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  5. Lovely painting Cynthia! I haven't seen the that shipwreck in real life yet since I really haven't spent much time up near Astoria. I think I need to get up that way more often!

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  6. Love your depiction of the Peter Iredale ship wreck. Hubby and I have been there, last year. he wants to go back to that 'neck of the wood's and explore.

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  7. What a beautiful piece! I love the vibrant colors of the setting sun!

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  8. This is truly a beautiful painting - something I could not even attempt! I followed your links - what an interesting factoid about the Columbia! Someday, you'll have to blog about "the one time" you crossed it - it sounds rather fascinating!

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  9. Beautiful painting and very interesting facts! Thank you ;o) Hugs ;o)

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  10. Gorgeous painting! I love all the warm colours in it. I have never heard of the Columbia Bar, but it sounds quite intimidating!

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  11. your new header is absolutely stunning!

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  12. The painting tells such a story in its simple lines. Being outside in this kind of sky...there is nothing like it and your painting captured that...and that what is left of the Peter Iredale is always out, no matter the color of the sky. The bright colors really grabbed me after seeing the darkness of the beautiful painting you brought this weekend...I want to be one of those ladies walking in the rain/snow :-)

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  13. Lovely painting!!!
    Have a good week, dear Cynthia!! my g+ for you , always!!:)))

    Besos, desde España, Marcela♥

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  14. What a beautiful painting! I love the colors. And I love Oregon. I lived there in the late 90s. :)

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