WILLAMETTE FALL AT FIVE

Last summer, we spent most Friday evenings down at the river with a picnic, watching the boats go by, and the sun go down. This summer we didn’t get down a single time. Our spare hours were occupied with preparations for our trip to Peru, and when we got back, to recovering from Peru. So it is nice for a change to be sitting by the river once again, painting to the music of jet skis.

SHADOWS OF OLD TREES

These old maples are bulging with burls, festooned with leaves up and down their trunks that catch any rays of light filtering through the canopy. Light and shadow change minute by minute. In paint, I try to remember the light.

GNARLY MAPLE

Today I paint with my friend, Irene. She has some new acrylics she wants to try out, and suggests my backyard. It is pleasant out on the deck, with scattered gray light and shade in the wooded back.
These old maples are a joy to paint. They have lived full and richly intertwined lives, their old burls harboring mosses, ferns, and insects. I love looking at the varied colors of the mosses. I wish I could say we painted to the sound of birds, but today someone in the neighborhood was running a power saw.
Here is a portrait of one old geezer. When I bring the painting indoors, it is almost black, a testament to the changeability of oil in different lighting. It is going to need a home with a spotlight.