MT HOOD FROM JONSRUD VIEWPOINT

MOUNTAIN MORNING, 6 x 8 oil

I never get tired of this viewpoint.  As the morning wears on, the snowfields on Mt. Hood emerge out of the shadows.  It is quiet in the valley, with just a hint of river sound, like the echo of a distant highway.

NEWPORT AQUARIUM

I Am Not a Fish, 9 x 12 oil

We have been invited to paint inside the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.  This is a great treat.  I really enjoy watching the jellies floating in their tank, and spend quite a while watching the fish and painting in the deep sea tank.  As the morning wears toward noon, more and more people crowd around, some watching me paint, some captivated by the fish and oblivious to my presence.  I escape the narrow passage and settle in to watch the pipefish drifting among the eelgrass in the sandy bottoms tank.  I think the eelgrass moves more than the fish.

YACHATS NORTH SHORE

Swaying Sea and Rocks, 9 x 12 oil

The most blustery day so far at the coast.  I am bundled up in layers of sweaters and a windbreaker, with the hood tied down to hold my hat.  Definitely no umbrella.  Dotted among the rocks are other painters, equally bundled, so I can't recognize who they are.

Yachats is famous for its rocks and crashing waves.  I am well back from the spray, but still it feels as though one of these piles is going to come down on my head.  The gulls are flying hard to hold station in the wind.  I feel as though I am too.  Even the trees try to escape the wind. 

Cliffedge Pine, 6 x 8 oil

DEPOE BAY

Depoe Bay Harbor, oil 12 x 16

Billed as the smallest harbor on the Pacific Coast, this cozy little haven for boats looked just as busy as any other.  Fighting the wind, as usual on the coast.  My umbrella lifted right out of its holder and nearly skewered another painter.  I finished the painting sans umbrella, and it wasn't really that hard.  Ah, how we get used to our equipment!

CUMMINS CREEK

Path to the Sea, oil 16 x 12

Too windy to put up an umbrella.  What to do?  Sit in full shade, peeking out at the beach.  I seem to be fascinated with tree shapes this trip.  Everywhere I look, I see interesting trees.

ROCKY CREEK

Coast Pine Tangle, oil 9 x 12

Every year at the Oregon Coast, Erik Sandgren coordinates a group of painters for two weeks, painting together each day at a different location.  This year, I join the group during the second week at Rocky Creek.  I have driven from 90 degree heat in the Willamette Valley, and it is something of a shock when I climb out of the car and am hit by a blast of cold air.  I almost climb back in, but I have come to paint with these other painters, so the least I can do is to see what they are up to.  After a half-hour of visiting with friends and acquaintances, I have adjusted to the temperature and a tangle of pine trees snags my attention.  I settle on to the grass a few feet from my car and paint.

SUCCESS

Sunset Orange, oil on panel 6 x 8

What does success look like?  Feel like?
"Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventy-five."  from THE WAR OF ART, by Steven Pressfield.

SAND MAKERS

Sand Makers, oil on panel 9 x 12

It's hot in the Valley, therefore windy at the coast.  I'm painting with Carol Phillips, she with a knife and I with a brush, at the Road's End park in Lincoln City.  We're looking at the same scene, and our paintings are nothing alike.  The nature of art.

This is a favorite view of mine.  I've come here countless times with my kids, who loved to dig in the sand and climb the sand cliffs while I plotted mystery novels with a friend.  It seems like a lifetime ago, but the cliffs are still here and the waves breaking down on the point.  Known places are a background for a timeline.  Sometimes they change, reminding us that we have changed.  Sometimes they are like a photograph of the past.