ACROSS THE RIVER (palette)

Across the River (Palette)
8 x 6

A little 8 x 6, painted in the studio to study the color harmonies for a larger painting.  The reference photo is from Sunriver, an area I love to visit and paint.  I changed the shapes considerably from the photo to this composition.  This is easiest for me to do in the studio, with just a little detachment from the immediacy of the landscape.  

SWIRLING CLOUDS AND MT HOOD

Swirling Clouds and Mt Hood
More about this painting

I am painting at the Gorge Crest Vinyard in Washington, with hordes of other painters in the Pacific Northwest Plein Air 2011.  The vinyard has an expansive lawn, bordered by tall Douglas-firs, highlighting this view of Mt. Hood.  It is a sunny day, but we can see hints of weather to come.  The mountain collects weather around its skirts like small children wanting to dance and play.

VALUE PLANS

Today I begin my painting for the Sunriver Arts Festival poster. This is an intimidating project. After all the things they told me they love about my painting, how can I possibly reproduce those in another painting? Can I possibly have that much control?

I decide to spend extra care on designing this painting, especially since I have a deadline, and no other canvas prepared to work on. Of course, there is always the safety of scraping off, which I have recently discovered to be very useful. Even so, I get out my gray markers and make value sketches. I make much more elaborate value plans than the thumbnails I usually do outdoors. This allows me to work out horizon line, numbers of trees, and a few other crucial shapes. It will help when I begin painting.

DROP IN THE SHADOW, Multnomah Falls

Drop in the Shadow, 12 x 24
more information on this painting

Multnomah Falls must be the most painted and photographed waterfall on the West coast. (Unofficial tourist statistic, created on the spot for your entertainment.)  Most of the time, I have painted up near the "official" viewpoint, looking up into the scattered spray.  This time, I am painting from the grassy median between freeway roaring East and freeway roaring West (buffered by the central parking lot.)  Despite the noise, it is a lovely spot, and I am standing in full sun, painting barefoot (highly recommended).  From here, you get the full impact of the upper falls, un-foreshortened, as I am looking across at it, not up at it.
This painting has a magical response to light.  When you shine a strong light on it, the colors brighten into their original incarnations, out in the sun, looking at this cool, shadowed falls.
(Small confession: blog entry delayed by 2 summers.)

Puerto Vallarta Dawn Sky

Dawn sky.  The air is warm,  even at dawn.  Back here in the Oregon Spring Monsoon, I am trying to remember what that felt like.

Palapas at Dawn

My Spanish dictionary has no entry for Palapas.  These are wood posts with umbrella-like supports, covered with palm leaves-- the permanently placed umbrellas on the beach in front of our hotel.  At dawn they are deserted,  but in the afternoon all the guests sit there reading while vendedores walk up and down the beach trying persistently to sell them jewelry and Hawaiian print dresses and sugary snacks.  I would prefer to take an umbrella in front of this mess and sit closer to the water, but alas, no umbrellas.  A security guy confronts me for my room number.  I am sitting on the sand.  I guess no one sits on the sand, so I look out of place.  This is not the only way in which I look out of place.

LAS PALMAS

P ineapple, papaya, playa
A loe, apple banana, agave
L ime,
M ango,
S and, surf

Palms are such an iconic image of the tropics.  They almost make Puerto Vallarta seem less like Mexico, more like a bit of the Caribbean.  Seeing the sun set the sky aglow over the palms gives me a warm glow.  For my happy place, give me palms.