September on the Oregon coast

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Posted on September 25, 2016December 22, 2017 · Categories Paintings, Travel

Artist Emily Miller painting en plein air on the Oregon coast

This month, I spent a week traveling and painting along the Oregon coast with my good friend from Kauai, pastel and oil painter Helen Turner. We painted in beautiful locations from Cannon Beach all the way down to Port Orford, with the goal of visiting all Oregon’s coastal lighthouses.

We saw gray whales feeding just off the coast of Yaquina Head Lighthouse, fog on the massive sand dunes north of Umpqua River Lighthouse, and golden afternoon light on the towering sea stacks in Bandon, near the Coquille River Light. I produced twelve new plein air watercolors, plus dozens of reference photos for future studio paintings. Check out the twelve plein airs below!

Cannon Beach from Ecola State Park

Haystack Rock and Tillamook Rock Lighthouse

Fog at Devil’s Kitchen

Golden Sunset, Bandon

North from Cape Blanco

Coquille River Lighthouse, Bandon

Evening at Lake Marie

Fog at Neptune Beach North

Sea Stacks at Siletz Bay

Yaquina Bay Dunes

Yaquina Head Lighthouse from Cobble Beach

Cape Meares sea cliff

Plein air painting allows me to slow down and focus on the mood of a place, providing an opportunity to study shifting details of color, light and weather over time. It is both a challenging and meditative experience that creates a stronger bond with the location. I am more in love with the Oregon coast than ever, and I can’t wait to get started on new artwork inspired by our journey.

2 comments on “September on the Oregon coast”

Helen Turner says:

November 10, 2016 at 12:03 pm

I love them all!! What a wonderful newsletter! You are most definitely rocking the art world girlfriend!!
XOHelen

Reply
1. Carol Maher says:
  
  November 11, 2016 at 7:14 pm
  
  Beautiful work as usual!
  
  Reply

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Ceramics Studio Showcase

Including work from my July 2024 artist residency
Jan. 14 - Feb. 27, 2025
Chehalem Cultural Center
Newberg, OR

Emily Jung Miller

@emilyjungmiller

View on Instagram

More painting in new places!
1: Icicle Creek, Leavenworth WA
2: Dry Falls Lake, Grand Coulee WA
Mahalo @peggy_in_paradise for a lovely trip 🤩
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#pleinair #pleinairpainting #allaprima #watercolor #watercolour #aquarelle #leavenworth #iciclecreek #grandcoulee #dryfalls #washingtonexplored

@emilyjungmiller

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More painting in new places! 1: Icicle Creek, Leavenworth WA 2: Dry Falls Lake, Grand Coulee WA Mahalo @peggy_in_paradise for a lovely trip 🤩 . . . #pleinair #pleinairpainting #allaprima #watercolor #watercolour #aquarelle #leavenworth #iciclecreek #grandcoulee #dryfalls #washingtonexplored

1 month ago

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1/10

Mahalo to J and @helenturnerfinearts for a lovely week of plein air painting in New Mexico. What a different landscape! My 7 finished watercolors are posted on my website www.emilyjungmiller.com, link in bio. New places always offer their own challenges for plein air painting, with different colors and forms and weather than what we're used to. With nearly 20 years painting together, we always rise to the challenge one way or another!! ☀☂🥂
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#pleinair #pleinairpainting #pleinairwatercolor #watercolors #aquarelle #newmexico #newmexicoart #abiquiu #ghostranch #santafe

@emilyjungmiller

•

Mahalo to J and @helenturnerfinearts for a lovely week of plein air painting in New Mexico. What a different landscape! My 7 finished watercolors are posted on my website www.emilyjungmiller.com, link in bio. New places always offer their own challenges for plein air painting, with different colors and forms and weather than what we're used to. With nearly 20 years painting together, we always rise to the challenge one way or another!! ☀☂🥂 . . . #pleinair #pleinairpainting #pleinairwatercolor #watercolors #aquarelle #newmexico #newmexicoart #abiquiu #ghostranch #santafe

2 months ago

View on Instagram |

2/10

Towards the end of my residency at @chehalemculturalcenter I pulled over on the side of the country highway between Forest Grove and Newberg and sat for a few minutes to soak in the view. I commuted to the Chehalem Cultural Center all month, and this beautiful 40-minute drive became part of my experience.

Why is it important to move slowly? This question came into my head that morning as I began my commute, and the rest of the poem accumulated during the drive. I wrote it down that day in clay slabs. This is a preview of some of the text, and highlights of my process creating the porcelain tiles using ocean mud and shells gathered from my grandparents' home place in Deer Isle Maine, and reclaimed fishing rope from Kauai.

Processing loss and connection in both places, thinking about the complicated meaning of home and homes, when the tides of family ties have shifted and "going home" becomes something we must choose to create and sustain for ourselves.

Text on slides 9 and 10 reads:
Why is it
important
to move
slowly ?

Ask a child
an elder
a redwood
a dragonfly
In fact
ask every
tree
in the forest

Ask
in the
bursting
of spring

Ask
in the silence
after
wildfires
Ask
every day
.
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#poetry #ceramics #keramik #clay #pottery #reclaimedmaterials #wildceramics #portlandartist #pdxartist #oregonartist

@emilyjungmiller

•

Towards the end of my residency at @chehalemculturalcenter I pulled over on the side of the country highway between Forest Grove and Newberg and sat for a few minutes to soak in the view. I commuted to the Chehalem Cultural Center all month, and this beautiful 40-minute drive became part of my experience. Why is it important to move slowly? This question came into my head that morning as I began my commute, and the rest of the poem accumulated during the drive. I wrote it down that day in clay slabs. This is a preview of some of the text, and highlights of my process creating the porcelain tiles using ocean mud and shells gathered from my grandparents' home place in Deer Isle Maine, and reclaimed fishing rope from Kauai. Processing loss and connection in both places, thinking about the complicated meaning of home and homes, when the tides of family ties have shifted and "going home" becomes something we must choose to create and sustain for ourselves. Text on slides 9 and 10 reads: Why is it important to move slowly ? Ask a child an elder a redwood a dragonfly In fact ask every tree in the forest Ask in the bursting of spring Ask in the silence after wildfires Ask every day . . . #poetry #ceramics #keramik #clay #pottery #reclaimedmaterials #wildceramics #portlandartist #pdxartist #oregonartist

3 months ago

View on Instagram |

3/10

Leaf soap dishes from my residency at @chehalemculturalcenter. The gorgeous gardens surrounding the Cultural Center greeted me every day during my residency. I gathered leaves from redbud, heuchera, and geraniums in their gardens, and rolled the leaves onto clay slabs to make seven leaf soap dishes. I gifted these to the ceramics studio community. Unintenionally inspired by the Korok forest spirit masks from Zelda. Yahaha🌱

Direct prints are a new exploration in ceramics for me. I'm enjoying the layers of meaning that are added to a piece by these textures, impressions of the site and the experience that are both more real and more abstract than anything I would have sculpted on my own.
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#ceramics #keramik #pottery #handbuilt #natureprints #oregonartist #artistresidency #portlandartist #pdxartist

@emilyjungmiller

•

Leaf soap dishes from my residency at @chehalemculturalcenter. The gorgeous gardens surrounding the Cultural Center greeted me every day during my residency. I gathered leaves from redbud, heuchera, and geraniums in their gardens, and rolled the leaves onto clay slabs to make seven leaf soap dishes. I gifted these to the ceramics studio community. Unintenionally inspired by the Korok forest spirit masks from Zelda. Yahaha🌱 Direct prints are a new exploration in ceramics for me. I'm enjoying the layers of meaning that are added to a piece by these textures, impressions of the site and the experience that are both more real and more abstract than anything I would have sculpted on my own. . . . #ceramics #keramik #pottery #handbuilt #natureprints #oregonartist #artistresidency #portlandartist #pdxartist

3 months ago

View on Instagram |

4/10

Process pics of the net mugs at @chehalemculturalcenter, with texture created by pressing ghost net from @surfriderkauai into soft slabs of clay. I love the element of randomness that comes into play with this process. Lots of fun choosing how to divide up the slab into mug shapes.
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#pottery #ceramics #keramik #handbuilt #slabmug #oceanplastic #fishingnet #fishingrope #oceaninspired #oregonartist #portlandartist #pdxartist #reclaimedmaterials

@emilyjungmiller

•

Process pics of the net mugs at @chehalemculturalcenter, with texture created by pressing ghost net from @surfriderkauai into soft slabs of clay. I love the element of randomness that comes into play with this process. Lots of fun choosing how to divide up the slab into mug shapes. . . . #pottery #ceramics #keramik #handbuilt #slabmug #oceanplastic #fishingnet #fishingrope #oceaninspired #oregonartist #portlandartist #pdxartist #reclaimedmaterials

4 months ago

View on Instagram |

5/10

Sneak peek at new net mugs from my residency at @chehalemculturalcenter! These mugs were my first experiment using reclaimed fishing rope and net in my ceramics. I used some of my favorite bits of ghost net collected by @surfriderkauai, washed up on Kauai beaches from around the Pacific Ocean. Now that I've done it, I'm lowkey amazed it took this long for the rope~x~clay crossover to happen.

These five mugs will be headed to Chehalem Cultural Center's holiday fundraiser to support their future artists in residence 💞
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#pottery #ceramics #keramik #handbuilt #slabmug #oceanplastic #fishingnet #fishingrope #oceaninspired #oregonartist #portlandartist #pdxartist #reclaimedmaterials

@emilyjungmiller

•

Sneak peek at new net mugs from my residency at @chehalemculturalcenter! These mugs were my first experiment using reclaimed fishing rope and net in my ceramics. I used some of my favorite bits of ghost net collected by @surfriderkauai, washed up on Kauai beaches from around the Pacific Ocean. Now that I've done it, I'm lowkey amazed it took this long for the rope~x~clay crossover to happen. These five mugs will be headed to Chehalem Cultural Center's holiday fundraiser to support their future artists in residence 💞 . . . #pottery #ceramics #keramik #handbuilt #slabmug #oceanplastic #fishingnet #fishingrope #oceaninspired #oregonartist #portlandartist #pdxartist #reclaimedmaterials

4 months ago

View on Instagram |

6/10

Mold-making process for the Urchin Cups! Thanks to @chehalemculturalcenter and the Chehalem ceramics community for your support. I've been thinking about making these cups for a few years now, and this residency was just what I needed to make it happen.

Slide 1 ~ Finished four-part Urchin Cup plaster mold, ready for slipcasting, disassembled to show detail. The rest of the slides show step-by-step how I got to this end result.

Slide 2, 3, 4 ~ First I create the original solid clay model for the Urchin Cup, thrown on the wheel upside down and detailed by hand. This original will be destroyed during the mold-making process.

Slide 5 ~ Next I start making the plaster mold around the original clay model. Here, liquid plaster has been poured into the first of four plaster mold sections. The body of the cup will be divided into 3 mold sections, and the foot of the cup will be a fourth section. Planning how to make slipcasting molds is solving a 3D puzzle that's different for every project.

Slide 6 ~ All four mold sections casted in plaster around the original clay model. The half-round registration keys will lock the mold sections together as a single unit for slipcasting.

Slide 7 ~ Original clay model removed, four-part plaster mold cleaned up, reassembled, and banded together ~ ready for slipcasting! I usually make some modifications to the plaster mold after seeing the first slipcasting result. In this case, I widened the mouth of the cup, smoothed some of the flat areas, and carved out 8 or 10 points where the slipcasting was getting caught as it came out of the mold.

It is SO satisfying to pop the slipcasted cups out of the plaster mold, especially after putting so much into the mold-making process, and avoiding multiple potential points of failure along the way. (Liquid plaster running everywhere... badly mixed plaster not capturing the detail of the original model... mold sections not fitting together tightly... mold sections stuck to each other... mold sections miscalculated so the slipcasting gets stuck in the mold... I could go on...!)
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#slipcasting #moldmaking #plastermold #ceramics #keramik #oceaninspired #urchincup #seaurchin #oceanceramics

@emilyjungmiller

•

Mold-making process for the Urchin Cups! Thanks to @chehalemculturalcenter and the Chehalem ceramics community for your support. I've been thinking about making these cups for a few years now, and this residency was just what I needed to make it happen. Slide 1 ~ Finished four-part Urchin Cup plaster mold, ready for slipcasting, disassembled to show detail. The rest of the slides show step-by-step how I got to this end result. Slide 2, 3, 4 ~ First I create the original solid clay model for the Urchin Cup, thrown on the wheel upside down and detailed by hand. This original will be destroyed during the mold-making process. Slide 5 ~ Next I start making the plaster mold around the original clay model. Here, liquid plaster has been poured into the first of four plaster mold sections. The body of the cup will be divided into 3 mold sections, and the foot of the cup will be a fourth section. Planning how to make slipcasting molds is solving a 3D puzzle that's different for every project. Slide 6 ~ All four mold sections casted in plaster around the original clay model. The half-round registration keys will lock the mold sections together as a single unit for slipcasting. Slide 7 ~ Original clay model removed, four-part plaster mold cleaned up, reassembled, and banded together ~ ready for slipcasting! I usually make some modifications to the plaster mold after seeing the first slipcasting result. In this case, I widened the mouth of the cup, smoothed some of the flat areas, and carved out 8 or 10 points where the slipcasting was getting caught as it came out of the mold. It is SO satisfying to pop the slipcasted cups out of the plaster mold, especially after putting so much into the mold-making process, and avoiding multiple potential points of failure along the way. (Liquid plaster running everywhere... badly mixed plaster not capturing the detail of the original model... mold sections not fitting together tightly... mold sections stuck to each other... mold sections miscalculated so the slipcasting gets stuck in the mold... I could go on...!) . . . #slipcasting #moldmaking #plastermold #ceramics #keramik #oceaninspired #urchincup #seaurchin #oceanceramics

4 months ago

View on Instagram |

7/10

Progress on my new line of Urchin Cups developed during my artist residency at @chehalemculturalcenter. These images are "greenware" which means they are unfired, fresh and fragile. This cup will go through at least two cycles of firing in the kiln before it's finished, but so far so good! I'm excited to see how it looks with a few different glaze color combinations. Ceramics is such a process of presence and patience. You learn to move at the speed of the clay.

My Urchin series of bowls (and now cups!) are slipcast, meaning they are made with liquid clay in a plaster mold that I created, rather than wheel-thrown or hand-built. The second slide shows one of the reasons why I chose this process for the Urchins: slipcasting creates a beautiful internal texture reversed from every detail on the outside, just like a sea urchin or a crab shell.

Mold-making and casting is an involved and technical process that I've been studying since an early college summer art program at @see_saic when I was 16. Over the years I've made molds and castings for glass, metal, and ceramic artwork. In ceramics, I also create wheel-thrown and hand-built work. Partly it's about the right process for the right project, but also, each process has its own mood. So when I choose how to start my day, I think about what mood I'm in - am I feeling technical and precise or am I wanting to get messy and let the clay take the lead?
.
.
.
#ceramics #seaurchin #oceaninspired #oceanceramics #pottery #keramik #slipcasting #slipcast #porcelain #urchincup

@emilyjungmiller

•

Progress on my new line of Urchin Cups developed during my artist residency at @chehalemculturalcenter. These images are "greenware" which means they are unfired, fresh and fragile. This cup will go through at least two cycles of firing in the kiln before it's finished, but so far so good! I'm excited to see how it looks with a few different glaze color combinations. Ceramics is such a process of presence and patience. You learn to move at the speed of the clay. My Urchin series of bowls (and now cups!) are slipcast, meaning they are made with liquid clay in a plaster mold that I created, rather than wheel-thrown or hand-built. The second slide shows one of the reasons why I chose this process for the Urchins: slipcasting creates a beautiful internal texture reversed from every detail on the outside, just like a sea urchin or a crab shell. Mold-making and casting is an involved and technical process that I've been studying since an early college summer art program at @see_saic when I was 16. Over the years I've made molds and castings for glass, metal, and ceramic artwork. In ceramics, I also create wheel-thrown and hand-built work. Partly it's about the right process for the right project, but also, each process has its own mood. So when I choose how to start my day, I think about what mood I'm in - am I feeling technical and precise or am I wanting to get messy and let the clay take the lead? . . . #ceramics #seaurchin #oceaninspired #oceanceramics #pottery #keramik #slipcasting #slipcast #porcelain #urchincup

4 months ago

View on Instagram |

8/10

I'm celebrating Lammas for the first time this year. It's the first of three traditional Celtic harvest festivals ~ time to celebrate the abundance of the year, begin to reap the hard work and gifts from past months, lean in to the end of summer and prepare to turn towards autumn.

One of the first things I did after completing my July ceramics residency at @chehalemculturalcenter was put together this breakfast (I know, 2017 Insta vibes) and eat it slowly outside in the sun. Blueberries from our yard, figs shared by a lovely potter from the Chehalem studio community.

I'll be sharing more here about my residency work, but wanted to start with acknowledging this moment of rest, and exploring the idea of a harvest season in our perpetual-growth culture. Harvest is hard work, but also a celebration and recognition of our earlier work that made this abundance possible. Harvest work is not about beginning new growth, but bringing in and loving what we have nurtured and developed over the past months.

I'm finding it's important for me to create space for celebration and harvest. Acknowledging accomplishments and the gifts of the year thus far. There is a season for planting, sowing, and chasing the new. And a season for reflection, recognition, and enjoying the bounty.

Traditionally, Lammas is celebrated with bread and beer, which sounds fantastic, and I thought about baking a loaf of fresh bread to mark the season... but washing and slicing 4 kinds of fruit was all I had in me, and I'm perfectly satisfied with that.
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#lammas #lammasblessings #summer #summerfruit #breakfast #harvestseason

@emilyjungmiller

•

I'm celebrating Lammas for the first time this year. It's the first of three traditional Celtic harvest festivals ~ time to celebrate the abundance of the year, begin to reap the hard work and gifts from past months, lean in to the end of summer and prepare to turn towards autumn. One of the first things I did after completing my July ceramics residency at @chehalemculturalcenter was put together this breakfast (I know, 2017 Insta vibes) and eat it slowly outside in the sun. Blueberries from our yard, figs shared by a lovely potter from the Chehalem studio community. I'll be sharing more here about my residency work, but wanted to start with acknowledging this moment of rest, and exploring the idea of a harvest season in our perpetual-growth culture. Harvest is hard work, but also a celebration and recognition of our earlier work that made this abundance possible. Harvest work is not about beginning new growth, but bringing in and loving what we have nurtured and developed over the past months. I'm finding it's important for me to create space for celebration and harvest. Acknowledging accomplishments and the gifts of the year thus far. There is a season for planting, sowing, and chasing the new. And a season for reflection, recognition, and enjoying the bounty. Traditionally, Lammas is celebrated with bread and beer, which sounds fantastic, and I thought about baking a loaf of fresh bread to mark the season... but washing and slicing 4 kinds of fruit was all I had in me, and I'm perfectly satisfied with that. . . . #lammas #lammasblessings #summer #summerfruit #breakfast #harvestseason

4 months ago

View on Instagram |

9/10

@emilyjungmiller

•

NEW DATE! My Heritage workshop at @chehalemculturalcenter is rescheduled for Friday, July 26. Sign up for a one-hour time slot 5pm, 6pm, or 7pm. $30 sliding scale. Details and signup link in bio! Workshop Details: Create a ceramic talisman “memory tile” that shares your story in clay. What simple, everyday objects hold deep meaning for you? Bring a few items that symbolize your identity, origins, or heritage. We will press the items into soft clay and write a few words about their significance. Participants will create 2 pieces, one to keep and one to share in the upcoming CCC residency exhibit. All ages welcome, however kids must be accompanied by an adult. . . . #oregonartist #portlandartist #pdxartist #ceramics #heritage #memory #communityart

5 months ago

View on Instagram |

10/10