We are having a few beautifully clear winter mornings in the Willamette Valley this year. This is Skyline Trail (under Sprague High School) one such February morning.
Another painting of the delicious shadows in the fields above Joryville Park, Marion County, Oregon
This painting is from a walk my husband and I took mid December in the fields above Joryville Park (just south of Salem, Oregon). The shadows were so delicious that I just had to paint them.
Bi-polar disorder is a bear to suffer through. Being a bipolar bear may not be much better. But this one seems to be barring up well.
I have changed him up a little digitally:
I took the reference photo I used for this painting on the Llangollen Canal, from our narrowboat rental. But it could be still water and trees, just about anywhere.
Another view of Sprague Trail. The woods there are so light, since the ice storm of 2021 thinned the forest.
Having just finished a southwestern commission, I was tempted by yet another pueblo painting.
This Spring Salem, Oregon had back to back ice storms leading to many downed trees and branches. While I mourn many of the trees lost, nature’s thinning does have it’s compensations. One of those is that woods around our house, are an entirely new place, while still remaining beautiful. This lit up hillside was dark, tangled, and mossy just months ago. Now it is bright and open.
This piece was commissioned as a companion piece to Sky City Mission.
Yes I have a visual mind and yes the results can be silly.
Limited Edition Digitally altered prints: 11 x 14 $75 unframed.
I hear the sound of geese returning and I imagine something like these.
Limited Edition Digitally Altered Prints:
One more painting of Croisan Creek Trail. This time after bit of snow.
Digitally Altered Limited Edition Prints:
I have a very visual mind. When someone says “bird brain,” I’m apt to see something like this. But I particularly liked this visual pun, because it hints at the intelligence of birds, which is often as great or greater than mammals with similar lifestyles. Ironically, owls are not particularly bright birds, but crows, hawks, and ravens are.
I think of this as a chimera, but given all of the city equipment, I guess he’s a little bit of a cyborg too.
Our dog thinks the vacuum cleaner is public enemy number one. This is how I think she sees it.
This is my favorite part of Skyline trail, where all of the trees are bearded with moss.
Another painting of the woods below Sprague Highschool, and another one of our favorite walks.
Yet another painting from our favorite local hike, Opal Creek, Oregon. There are just so many standout views on this hike.
During the pandemic I’ve been spending time traveling through my extensive collection photo files. The reference photos for this painting go all the way back to a Southwestern odyssey we made in 2013. This vista is from Painted Desert National Park in Arizona not far from the visitor center.
My daughter says my sheep is smug–smug because he can count. Let him be smug, as long as he, not me, does the midnight counting.
This paintings reach far back into my photo file to an auto trip from Nebraska home to Oregon some ten years ago. These two paintings are of little outcrops in Badlands National Park, South Dakota.
It got pretty dry on our walks under Sprague this summer. The dryness has it’s own beauty.
We often hike in the woods below Sprague High School. This is the upper entrance to the trail. Lit from behind, the shadows are an invitation to walk in the woods.
Our laundry now sports multiple face coverings for protecting self and others during the Covid 19 pandemic. Like all laundry, it’s at least pretty on the line.
We aren’t going much of anywhere this summer due to Covid-19. Lucky for us, nearby Croisen Scenic Trail provides endless scenic fodder. This particular scene, is in the less trafficked part of the trail below Sprague High School.
I’ve always wanted to float on the clouds.
Digitally Altered Limited Edition Prints: 8 x 10 $40; 11 x 14 $75.
In many standing yoga poses the instructions are to root down through your standing leg. That seems particularly fitting for tree pose.
Digitally Altered Limited Edition Prints: 9 x 12 $6o.
A little commissioned piece based on a larger more colorful painting I did some years ago.
The Titanic was whale of a ship. This Titanic is a whale and unlike the original, it’s meant to dive.
A second ink drawing of a pine tree with raven needles. This time a used gnarled and twisted old Ponderosa Pine from the edge of the Grand Canyon as a model.
Digitally Altered Prints Available: 8 x 10 $40; 11 x 14 $75.
When I look at pines I often see things in the branches the way other people see things in the clouds. From there to a tree of ravens wasn’t much of a stretch.
Fine art prints are available. I’ve also digital manipulated the tree so as to place it on a couple different backgrounds for printing. Those images can be seen and purchased here.