The Wreck of the Peter Iredale
My newest painting: “The Wreck of the Peter Iredale”
Almost every time I travel down the Oregon Coast, I try to stop at Fort Stevens State Park (just outside of Astoria) to visit this shipwreck. There is always something a little shocking about seeing her in person. Each time, there seems to be a little bit less of her as she rusts away and buries herself ever deeper in the sand. Someday, she will be gone.
A little background from Wikipedia:
“The Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River. She was abandoned on Clatsop Spit near Fort Stevens in Warrenton about four miles (6 km) south of the Columbia River channel.”
If you’re interested, you can read the whole entry here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Iredale
She’s not always accessible if the tide is up or there are a lot of people around, but I was able to get a few good reference shots the last time I was there this past October.
I’ve been wanting to paint her for close to a decade. I do love old subjects of all kinds- abandoned barns, vintage trucks rotting in fields, rusty mufflers- so it was really fun to finally tackle this.
This painting is small- 8″ x 10″; oil on board.
04/20/2023 @ 8:27 pm
The tides have drawn back a lot of sand this winter. Photos from the last few weeks have exposed most of the perimeter and its shape can be seen.
I have never seen it so exposed. I’ll see what I can forward to you.
04/20/2023 @ 9:35 pm
Check this out Rose. Drone footage from last week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh7PkUYtCsc
04/21/2023 @ 11:31 am
Wow, that video was interesting to watch. Thanks for sharing it. I had no idea of the actual size/scale of the Iredale- can’t tell from the exposed bit in front.
05/03/2023 @ 12:41 pm
It makes me feel like if you dig there you’d find Viking artifacts
04/21/2023 @ 3:21 am
“… wives and the sons and the daughters … ”
Inspirational catalytic blogging ☮. My goodness! 1906 was 117 years ago hereupon so well embellished with Mr. Stone’s contributed aerial. Exquisite seascape, Rose. Now I’m prompted to display this to my wounded warrior dive rescue seaman buds who now resides at the Clement Zablocki VA. As a civilian he’d invested and expertly served eons salavaging Great Lakes’ shipwrecks. More ‘deep stories’ than the Library of Congress & this illustrative work would assuredly make his day. Dude already is an ‘old time movie’: U.S.N decorated hero … anchors away we’ll proudly sing! Maybe I’ll attempt further entertainment (alto sax) with ‘Stranger on the Shore’. Yeah that’s it💘
04/21/2023 @ 11:35 am
Wasn’t that video wonderful?
I’m planning my next mini-show at the gallery to include only seascapes. We each get an app. 8′ wide wall; different wall each month, can hang whatever we want.
04/21/2023 @ 7:32 am
I verbally loved this up on insta to the maximum word limit, but looking at it again this morning, I’d add that I see a voracious rust monster, a disintegrating metal crocodile dragon, hissing at a wave. Maybe that’s because I tend to turn crabapples and bread slices into fierce biting beings and am projecting. Maybe it’s because I didn’t get enough sleep last night.
In terms of feedback and encouragement, I really like what happens to your palette when you do the rust. The brights and pastels of the flowers are beautiful, and work well, the rust takes you out on a new limb though, and you’re doing fine.
Do you ever sketch on site? This looks like a beautiful spot, one that you connect with. Sketching in situ is never enough time to get the small details, but sketching helps me establish an intimacy with the subject I wouldn’t have from photos. It’s hard to talk about how this informs final works, just that it does.
Re: tides covering and revealing. The Andy Goldsworthy documentary shows him studying tides, how they affect his structures through a complete cycle. Also him sketching in his truck, which floored me, that icicle and rock ball sculptures start with drawing!!
04/21/2023 @ 11:42 am
Rust is really fun to paint, partly because of the change in palette. Ima go see if I can find a pic of one of the old trucks I’ve done…yep, found it…2018
04/21/2023 @ 1:59 pm
Insta is wonderful for follower emoji affirmation, but my favorite is when someone says a drawing is funny. That doesn’t happen often, and I love when it happens, so thank you 🙂 The corn bird is only half the drawing. The other half is a startled adversary, a rock barred hen. Who is predator and who is prey is ambiguous. The whole drawing is on both insta and my website if you want to look at the whole thing.
The truck is lovely. My first response was that it’s a melancholy image, but there’s so much lush weedy beautiful goodness, maybe not.
The drawing on the table now employs areas of full color, for the first time in a decade. I was full color for years before catching the monochromatic bug, and returning feels awkward. When I pull it out to work on it, there’s a moment when I go, wait who drew that?
04/21/2023 @ 11:46 am
And no, I don’t sketch on site. Not since college, when we did it all the time. It would surely help my skills.
Someone at my gallery has started up a series of live figure drawing sessions, starting tonight. I will definitely be going to these.
04/21/2023 @ 2:05 pm
Let me know how it goes? An artist friend sets up a clothed model every Tuesday night at a local pub, and has poked me multiple times to come. The pub expects you to buy drinks, and I’m a terrible drawer when I’ve had even a swallow of wine, but she’s done some creative set-ups, so maybe.
04/21/2023 @ 3:41 pm
I will!
Actually I’m a bit anxious about it.
04/26/2023 @ 7:50 pm
Rose, leaving this link here for you. I just registered for an online zoom lecture at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, abt Georgia and her fashion sense on May 3rd:
https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/events/georgia-okeeffe-crafting-an-identity/
Maybe ‘see’ you there!
05/04/2023 @ 8:22 am
Rose..if you haven’t checked this talk out, I think the museum recorded it. Georgia, what a bad ass!!
04/21/2023 @ 8:10 am
In case anyone wonders what I meant about vicious raisin bread, here is a drawing of the deadly corn bird 💀
I confess. I chewed those cooked kernels out to suggest a predator head. Even poked the ‘eye’. Art is full of weird fun
04/21/2023 @ 11:38 am
I love this. I love how you transformed an ear of corn into the deadly corn bird with such subtle humor!
05/05/2023 @ 9:39 pm
Hi again Suzanne,
I wasn’t ignoring you, promise! It got crazy at the gallery, some head-to-head nonsense with the gallery manager, who thinks she knows more than she actually does, and who was stepping on my toes about an issue. I don’t like confrontation, but couldn’t avoid this one. It really took it out of me. Still not resolved. I’m actually considering stepping down, because I think she is putting me in legal danger. wow, right?
Then, we went away for two days to the Washington Coast and just got back tonight. It wasn’t as relaxing as I had hoped.
Tomorrow and Sunday I will be in the pottery working out my frustrations.
Tonight, I’m gonna have a glass of wine and turn off the phone.
YES, I want to see the Georgia thing, and if it’s recorded, I will get to it!
05/06/2023 @ 8:00 am
That sounds awful! Can you smile and walk away? Artists are kind of renowned for their herd of cat tendencies. My MO for years, is to avoid art boards, chairs, and orgs no matter what, since the head of a former artists group said because I taught, I wasn’t a ‘real’ artist. Grrr. Her art was crap btw 😉 Well, I’ll be your witness if it come to litigation, which it won’t, she’s being puffy and huffy and is why they call us divas.
So…the Georgia fashion zoom was so so so good. If you’re feeling frustrated and need some cool girl inspiration, take a down moment and watch. They did record it and the link is on the museum site. Btw, someone asked about her shoes in the chat….I have a photo of her navy Keds! (didn’t I share that w/you? if no, lmk)
05/08/2023 @ 7:23 pm
Actually, smiling and walking away is not an option. It’s something that has to be resolved because it involves State laws and City permits.
Washington State allows art galleries an exemption from having a liquor license in order to serve free wine at public art gallery events, as long as we carry liquor liability insurance (we do) and our servers go through a State certification (we did), and we follow the rules on service (we do).
The city now apparently wants us to get a city alcohol permit, which we are not eligible for according to their rules. But that is unclear and needs to be resolved.
The gallery manager thinks we just go ahead and keep serving wine like we always have.
My name is on the lease, on the insurance, and on the Secretary of State filing.
It’s my ass on the line if the city decides to go after us.
The gallery manager (who is also on the Board, which I feel is a conflict of interest at this point, because she is a paid employee as well as a member of the art cooperative) thinks the Board should get to decide whether or not we serve wine.
I say my personal liability outweighs the “opinion” of the Board. She was threatening to quit the gallery if I made this decision without Board approval. So, I held a vote anyway, just to show her, and it was 6 to 1 in my favor. Of course.
I wasn’t able to be there for First Friday May 5, when we would usually serve wine, so I had my VP let me know whether or not the gallery manager went ahead and served it anyway.
She didn’t.
If she had, I would have stepped down as Prez and nobody wants that, bc nobody wants this stinkin’ job.
I was halfway to quitting the gallery completely. But that would be cutting off my nose to spite my face, so no.
The gallery manager and I have been very lovely friends up until now. I haven’t spoken to her yet but will need to do that this week.
We have a Board meeting on Thursday.
Arghhhhhh.
05/09/2023 @ 11:00 am
Oh good lord. There’s always someone like this in an arts group. You did good, and it seems everyone else agrees, so throw that weight!
Alcohol permits are a pain My employer doesn’t have one now, even with multiple openings a week, mainly because some students are underage. For a bit we tried carding. You can imagine how well that worked. Another factor for us, and maybe you too, large openings were attended by houseless folks, sometimes in largish groups, and why not, tons of food, and back then, booze. Things got rowdy around the serving table a few times. We also attracted a few regular characters who hit on young female art students. One guy, who’d hit on me back when I was an art student, hit on my students when he was even older–over seventy at least. I had words with him after he hit on one of my teaching assistants and invited her back to his ‘studio’. Robert. After all those years, I still remember his name! One of our biggest alcohol snafus was when someone’s drunk mother stumbled into a student’s senior thesis project at the exhibit opening, fell into it, spilled a glass of red wine, staining and soaking what she didn’t break, a giant sculpture made out of coffee beans, then got up and staggered away without telling anyone or apologizing. Except…half the attending crowd saw her. The student was undone, an entire year of work ruined, and her parents were angry bees. Somehow admins discouraged a lawsuit. I heard an apology and money were involved.
Ennyhoo, this kind of stuff is at best a pain in the butt, a big legal liability at worst, for a college or a gallery, so you were wise to nix it. Seltzer is delicious and less dangerous when spilled on artworks. Then the drinkers can go out afterwards. You might tell your frenenemy the story abt the drunk mother and ask her to imagine if that was her work!
05/09/2023 @ 11:35 am
Wow.
We haven’t had any serious issues as of yet. There are a couple of people who come in from the streets for events, especially when they think wine is going to be served.
Under State law, technically we are only allowed to give one small glass of wine per of-age visitor, but some of our servers have been more than a bit lax about. We’re not allowed to set up a table with cups of wine, but we do. It’s supposed to be served one at a time by request. If wine service does come back on the menu, we will have to tighten things up. Also, the servers are not allowed to drink themselves- but they do. Some of our own gallery artists are the worst offenders- they go ahead and have as much as they want and have gotten a bit tipsy at openings.
All of this loosey-goosey stuff is reason enough to stop serving wine, in my opinion. It’s just too much liability and opportunity for the kind of things you describe.
We always include a non-alcoholic drink anyway, like fruit-infused water that people can serve themselves.
05/09/2023 @ 1:07 pm
Tales of drunk artist bartenders are pretty funny/awful too! The local arts association openings here are often like that. They get individual permits for each specific opening and at a certain hour are supposed to stop serving, which they ignore of course. Leftover bottles also typically disappear into someone’s bag.
At school, we’re under contract to use the giant corporate college catering company for events, and there’s a fine if we don’t. Still, you always have to buy their overpriced ice in a bowl, no outsider ice ever, which is how they gouge your beverage budget.
Often in my dept. we just pay the fine, then bring in tasty outside stuff, because the catering co. prices are so jacked and so untasty. For our gala senior portfolio night, we get near to five hundred people, and it ends up being less expensive to pay the fine than use the catering co.. Instead we order delicious baked dessert items from an amazing artisan bakery that are hundreds of percents more delicious than what catering co. offers for half their cost.
tl;dnr: Fruity seltzer drinks are where it’s at!
05/09/2023 @ 8:05 pm
Great big fun! Gave me an kaleidoscopic visual of an Eiffel Tower constructed of chicken bones (dayglow exclamation point and question mark implied). Need I mention I’ve got a telephone in my bosom? Or that tiny bubbles make me feel happy? Trim that sail–ladies💌 T Y
05/09/2023 @ 8:37 pm
Hart blushed as though a neon rainbow./.input(s)
*’an’
determiner the form of the indefinite article used before words beginning with a vowel sound’ an – – Wiktionary and thought of Truman Capote with Andy Warhol scavenging Times Square for chocolate … then hummed K athy’s Clown as he swept barefooted {L0;}
*wiktionary.org