Bar View, Tillamook Bay

This is a Plein Air oil painting of the mouth of Tillamook Bay on Oregon's north coast.  The wind was blowing off the ocean, right into my face.  I was painting on a larger than normal panel, 12x16", so it made a great sail, blowing the easel over twice.  I was also dealing with an outgoing tide, so the tide pool in the foreground was draining. The elements finally won the day, so I packed up and went home, returning the next day at high tide. As can be seen in the second photo, I pointed my jeep right into the wind and set the pachade box inside.  I would stick my head out and take a view and pull back in out of the wind and paint. 

Bar View, Tillamook Bay
12x6" oil on canvas hardboard panel Recently displayed at Ryan Gallery
Lincoln City, Oregon, Rogue Gallery and Art Center, Medford, OR, and Art Presence Art Center, Jacksonville, OR. Currently In Wirfs Studio Collection.

Trinidad

18 x 24" Oil Painting on Canvas Panel

Painting from a great weekend trip to Crescent City and Trinidad, California. This Picture was recently hanging at Ryans Art Gallery in Lincoln City, Oregon. 

Currently on Display at Art PresenceArt Gallery, October/November 2022 Main Gallery. Jacksonville, OR

ArtPresence.org

Dirty Shoes

11x14" Acrylic on stretched canvas 

Painted for a charity art auction donation.  We were all given the same canvases upon which we could paint anything we chose.  They were hung to together and open to for bid silent auction.  It was a lot of fun because the bidding was open for several days and we could follow the bidding on the internet.

Oceanside at Sunset

24x24 on Stretched Canvas

The last rays of sun on the little village of Oceanside, Oregon. This painting was shown at Ryan Art Gallery, Lincoln City, OR, Rogue Gallery Art Center, Medford, OR, and Art Presence Art Center in Jacksonville, OR.

It is currently in a private collection. SOLD

Manzanita Beach

Manzanita Beach

Oregon Coast

Oil Painting of Neahkahnie Mountain from Manzanita Beach.  24x24 In on stretched canvas.  Painting sold from Ryan Gallery in Lincoln City, Oregon.

Beach Squall

 

Beach Squall

Oil on Panel

16" x 20" unframed

 

 



 

 



This painting captures a winter squall coming onto the beach.  All I could do was snap a few photos and run for cover.  I would prefer to have had the time for a plein air painting, but often nature doesn't cooperate, so it was painted in the studio.  I think I was able to capture the immediacy of the moments anyway.

 

The scene is of the beach near Bob Straub Wayside in Tillamook County, Oregon. The Painting has been on display at Ryan Gallery in Lincoln City, Oregon. It is currently in the Wirfs Studio Collection.

 

Neon Night

Neon Night

Acrylic

Artist:  Walt Wirfs

Acrylic

Size: 18" x 24"

 

Working with acrylics after years of working in oils was a challenge.  My goal was to capture the neon glow of a sign at night and felt that I could only do it with the transparency of acrylic paint.

 

The sign is one of Jacksonville's icons, located on California Street in the center of town. The tavern is always open and always hopping.  Jacksonville's historic committee bans the use of neon in the town  but this sign was "grand-fathered" in.  Originally Jacksonville was a gold town, and a hand-painted depiction of a prospector panning for gold along Daisy Creek was included in the sign.

SOLD

 

 The painting is currently on display in a private collection.