BY THE SEA, AT LANE GALLERY

You are invited to my show at Lane Gallery in Portland, info below.  The shark painting on the postcard is one of my pieces inspired by a visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

PAINTING FRIENDS

Kapa'a Sunrise Rose, 9 x 12

This morning, just as I am finishing my sunrise painting, I turn around to see a crowd of onlookers: pigeons. Many of the pigeons are pecking hopefully at the ground, but the rest have an eye turned on me.  I've been sitting here for so long, I must have some food for them.

Down on the beach in the soft sand, some movement catches my eye.  It is a shore crab, running for his half-inch burrow in the sand.  Once I see one, I see twenty, scuttling in and out of bits of driftwood, picking with their claws for food.

Suddenly I'm hungry too.  Back to my room for breakfast.

KAUAI SUNRISE

Kapa'a Sunrise Cumulus

The roosters began announcing the dawn at 4 AM.  I know this because I set my alarm for 5 to give me time to walk down to the beach and set up for the 5:50 sunrise.  The roosters beat me to it.  On Maui, I always had to sit in the sand to paint sunrise.   Here there is space under some ironwood trees, with scrubby, broad-bladed grass to keep the sand from leaping into my paint box.  (I have not yet acquired my obligatory three-dollar grass mat.) Some intrepid grains of sand still manage to make the leap into my paints (two feet, I make it), and a few even get onto the painting, which is a full three-foot leap.  How do they do it?  Maybe I should give up and stand.  Except that sitting by the beach to paint sunrise is tradition.  It's part of the peaceful experience.  I will sit, and risk the sand.

ANOTHER HIBISCUS

Hibiscus and Sky
12 x 9

MORE HIBISCUS

Hibiscus Profile
12 x 9

HIBISICUS

Hibiscus Bold
12 x 9

In this winter weather, I am returning to some old photographs of Hibiscus that I originally painted in watercolor.  The intervening years of experience and change of medium reveal interesting changes in my approach.  I find that I still appreciate the original composition.  However, my drawing skills have grown tremendously, allowing me to move objects and lines that I never would have adjusted before.  In the oil paint, I have considerably more range of color expression available to me. I am less focused on the details and more aware of the overall effect.  A revealing benchmark painting.

COASTAL MIST AND PINE

Coastal Mist and Pine
12 x 9

Winter is the perfect time for finishing up plein air paintings.  Each painting is a little memory from the past summer.  I remember it was pretty cool in Newport when I started this painting.  Cool is relative.  Right now, I have zero desire to go outdoors and paint.