Iris Garden

Schreiner's Iris Garden near Salem is a wonderful place to visit on a sunny Spring day.  I wandered the garden, and settled on a group of irises and lupine to paint plein air.  Later, I brought home a huge bunch of a dozen violet and yellow irises for a still life.

Billy Goat

Too wet to paint outside, I looked through my photos and found some of goats I visited recently.  It was easy to befriend this guy, I came prepared with carrots!  Painted over a previously done 10" x 10" canvas.

Paint Out Wednesday

Last Wednesday was a wonderful day for painting out at Sauvie Island on the Columbia slough, near freshly planted fields.  With me were fellow plein air artists Vicki Zimmerman, Anton Pavlenko, Dave McBride, Michael Orwick, and Don Bishop.  Herons joined us!  I worked small, and quickly, as the light changed and acrylic paints dried.

Paint Out Friday

Last Friday I went out in search of red:  crimson clover and red barns near West Union and Helvetia.  The fields of clover are brilliant against green, and the sunshine rendered everything in dazzling intensity!  I worked plein air under a shady tree and afterwards with photos.

Irises

Irises remind me of my Mom, and not just because they bloom around Mother's Day.  She was an artist who painted landscapes and nudes in oil and watercolors, and made linoleum block prints of flowers.  My favorites are the prints of irises hand tinted in different colors.  My front yard is bursting with irises now so I put a bunch in a vase, then painted them bursting out of the canvas.

Paint out!

Yesterday went to Woodland, Washington to see the Hulda Klager Lilac garden with my friend, Vicki Zimmerman.  It was a beautiful sunny day, a perfect start for the paint out season!  There were blooming lilacs in the back, but I chose to paint the garden in front of the 1880's farmhouse with rhododendrons and other flowers of many colors.  My shade disappeared, shadows changed, acrylic paint dried faster than I could paint, people sat in and moved the lavender lawn chairs, etc, the usual paint out in plein air complaints!  But it's all so worth it!  Hulda's Rhodies and In Hulda's Garden, both 11" x 14".

Marina

On a sunny day a few weeks ago I went to the South Waterfront River Place Marina to sketch and photograph boats, later painted from one of the photos that included the Hawthorne Bridge, purple flowers.  The 16 x 20 acrylic painting, "Marina", will be part of the Great Nautical Art Show at the Oregon Society of Artists and Oregon Maritime Museum.  Receptions will be at OSA Sunday May 13, 1-4 pm, and at the Museum Sternwheeler Sunday May 6, 1-4 pm.