Creek Spill

This is what I`ve been working on the last week or so. Whenever I focus closely on something, the realism increases.

Alders, Meadow, Sky

John arrived today and we walked out Cascade Head. Such a spectacular vertical climb, it`s like hanging in the air! This oil was painted after walking the same hike the day after getting here. The alders are so gorgeous with their silver bark. The meadow is absolutely vast and the sky very close.

Estuary Island

I thought this was finished last August and I hung it in my bedroom. Over the months I could tell something was off but I wasn`t sure what. As I painted it, I wanted the island compact and autonomous in an ocean of shifting fog. The right balance of calm areas to agitation was delicate. But it was too egg like so I developed the vegetation and intensified the color somewhat. It`s better now.

Fog on the Mountain1

One of a couple of larger pieces coming from my walk in the rain on Thanksgiving.

Estuary

After delivering paintings to the White Bird Gallery a couple of weeks ago, we returned home on the Washington side of the Columbia. For reasons unknown to me, this area is still undeveloped and gorgeous. Tides and weather flow upstream from the Pacific creating a fluid environment. Land, air and water comingle here in a dreamy pastoral countryside. The challenge in this painting was to suggest that flux.