The Gorge

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This one's been sitting in my studio for a while. My husband asked me to keep it, but I really hate keeping paintings - I'm always moving on. So don't tell him. (shh) It's from back in the spring when I went to Hood River with a group of painting gals. The weather was terrible (cold and rainy) but we luckily had a friend with THIS view, from her BIG house windows, and space for about 6 of us to stand inside, cozy and warm, and paint it - lucky us! It's actually a place one can get married, or have other events, so check it out.

Fertile Valley

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This is my second painting from Hood River. My friends and I were at a park that I'm pretty sure is called Panoramic Point. I was especially inspired by the fields of growing things (orchards, I think?). There was TONS to choose from, but no perfect scene, so I mixed and matched different elements from different parts of the view. It makes me very afraid every time I do this, but I seem to get better each time, and so less afraid.

After we left Hood River there was a plein air competition there. My friend Kathleen won first place with this beautiful painting, done from (I think) the same place, on a different day. You go girl!

Over Hill and Dale

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As promised, (a while ago) here is my first Hood River painting. It is the end of summer here in Oregon, and dry as a bone. All our grass is golden, which makes for some really lovely contrast! I especially love the colors that happen in the shadows on the grass.

My friend's, Patti and Cathleen, were painting just up the path, around the bend to the right, just out of sight. They were my lovely companions on this trip. Here they are standing in front of our hobbit-sized airbnb lodgings.

Dappled Rocks

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This is my last (and personal favorite) from my Hood River trip (of the half I've deemed worthy of posting). For this one I used a little trick. I've had this app on my phone for years that lets me look at just the values of a scene. It's meant for plein air, but have I used it for that? No. Until this day, when I pulled it out to make sure there was enough contrast in the scene to make it interesting. I actually took 2 pictures, one of this and one of another possibility, before I started. Then I flipped back and forth between the two, and picked my favorite. The app is called "Value Viewer." I also noticed, in the black and white version, that the rocks in back that are in total shadow, were critical to the whole scene working.  As the light changed, these rocks changed, but I made sure to keep them in shadow in the painting.

Creek vs. River

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I was trying to be really diplomatic on our recent plein air trip to Hood River and paint wherever everyone else wanted to. But secretly I only wanted to paint rocks and water. I never mentioned that once. Nope. Because I am a nice person. (you believe that, right?) Eventually they got some sort of sixth sense anyway and we found this creek, right next to the Hood River, where I proceeded to do 2 paintings and be in heaven.

My buyer fell through for this 6x6 rose painting I did a while back, and it's one I really like, so I am re-listing it here. Click to Bid for -->

Carefully Cordoned

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This is the second painting I did on my recent trip to Hood River. We were there at the same time as the NW Plein Air Festival, and this was one of their "offical" painting locations - The Dalles Mountain Ranch. It is late in the summer, so the grass is golden, but what you can't tell from the painting is - it was WINDY! And I am capitalizing that whole word because ... the wind mentioned in my previous post was nothing compared to this wind. I had to strap myself and my easel to a nearby fence in order to remain upright and stationary.

Across the River

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This is the first painting I did in Hood River during my recent 4 days of intensive plein air. My friend Patti and I found this lovely spot by the Columbia river. She painted the view downriver, and I painted the cliffs across the way. My view was slightly less spectacular, but more doable in a square format. Our only annoyance was the incessant wind! It was blowing so hard we couldn't even think about using our umbrellas without our gear blowing clean away. So we had to either set up in the shade (as Patti smartly did), or deal with the dapples (as you can see I did). Doh! Lesson learned.