Farmers Market

Another Wednesday at the Portland Farmers Market at the South Park Blocks, this time I painted colorful vegetables across from the Rick Steffen Farm booth.  It's wonderful to paint something that looks good enough to eat, and then it is!  Oil on 12" x 16" canvas board.

Sunday in the Park

It was a lovely Sunday at Laurelhurst Park with artist friends.  Za Vue brought Jennifer, our model, dressed in a fairy tale dress.  Any dwarves, gnomes or fairies, though, are a figment of the imagination!  Jennifer 1 (side view) is 12" x 16" and Jennifer 2 (front view) is 11" x 14", both on canvas board, painted in oil plein air with some finish work in the studio.  

Farmers Market

The South Park Blocks in downtown Portland become a Farmers Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays,
providing feasts of every type.  I set up my easel across from flower sellers displaying sunflowers and dahlias of every color and variety and painted in the dappled shade, with nearby banjo music.  This 9" x 12" canvas board is painted in oils in plein air.  I brought home more dahlias to inspire more paintings.

Summer on the river

Tuesday was hot so we took a drive down the old Columbia Gorge highway to the Sandy River, to swim and paint and people watch.  It was crowded for a weekday with boaters and floaters.  I managed to find a spot in the shade with a view of the river just large enough for my easel and body.  One step back and I got stuck by a sharp branch, shrubs on my sides, a steep sand dune in front.  So I painted fast and took lots of photos for future reference!  8" x 10" oil paint on canvas board.

Day at the beach

Sunday was a long, sunny and warm, productive day at the beach on Sauvie Island for Scott Gellatly's plein air workshop.  We had informative talks and demonstrations and plenty of painting time at this private residence on the Columbia River.  I brought two 12" x 16" canvases, the first divided into four parts for thumbnail studies as an aid to select a view to develop a larger painting. Doing several studies also focused attention on the way light changes through time.  I especially concentrated on the warm hazy sky colors, and later in the afternoon clouds appeared on a darker blue sky.  I experimented with oil paints and a new gel medium from Gamblin that works well on a plein air palette.  Loved the slow drying flow of oils compared to acrylics, but hated the bits of debris that get stuck in the wet paint!  

Smith Rock

This is another painting of Smith Rock, oil on a 12" x 12" square canvas, from the same photo I used for two acrylic paintings for the Muse Art Artist a Day series.  In this more compact version, I emphasized the warm colors of the sun gleaming on the  nearly vertical stone faces, the edge of the Crooked River Caldera formed from a huge ancient volcano.