High Desert

I recently completed this painting of the forest outside of the High Desert Museum, near Bend, Oregon. The leaves were starting to turn gold and brown on a warm, sunny October day. The Museum is a great place to visit for Oregon history and natural history, indoors and out. This painting is based on a photo I took. Looking forward to sunshine and painting plein air, but meanwhile, there are photos, memories, still lives, figure models, my cat, imagination.....

Spring Begins

Now that Spring is officially here, it's time for some sunshine! What we get in Portland is invisible solar flares, rain and hail after a few clear, cold days. But painting an abstract, even if it does end up looking like a landscape with river and sky, means that I get to pick any colors I like, and this combination makes me feel warm.

Almost Spring

"Spring Flow" is a departure for me in two ways: it's vertical and it's abstract, although based
loosely on some of the rocks and waterfalls I've painted. It's almost a landscape, with the feel of water. Also, it's a paint-over on top of a previous painting that is now gone from existence except for texture and bits of color peeking through.


"Spring Gorge" painted last year at Rooster Rock State Park on the Columbia River when the water was high from Spring rains. This 16" x 20" painting is on view at Oregon Society of Artists.

Smith Rock

This second painting of Smith Rock is a tighter composition focusing on the sharp fortress - like rock. It's really hard for me to imagine scaling such a vertical plane, but some people walk on the wild side! Smith Rock 2 is 12" x 12" on gallery wrapped canvas.

Seeing Red

Feeling the need for more hot red, I put some paint on a square with no subject in mind. It became a figure in the lotus position. Tibetan nuns and monks wear red robes and I've been reading "Across Many Mountains" about a nun and her monk husband and daughters who fled across the Himalayas, so the monk came to visit in my painting. But it wasn't hot enough, so I put more richer reds on a previous painting that became flowers against a cool blue background.

Both are 6" x 6".

March

Two of my paintings will be up this month, "Lavender Summer" at O'Connors in Multnomah Village, (shown above) and "Gorge Spring" at Oregon Society of Artists. The opening reception at Oregon Society of Artists is this Sunday, March 4, 1:00 to 4:00 pm. For more information, see http://www.oregonsocietyofartists.com/. Hope to see you there!