Priceboro Bend 6 X 8

I painted this in June, I believe. It is in a lovely farming area just east of I-5. I used to take my dad for drives out there. It was 2013 when I brought him to Eugene. He was failing physically and mentally. Although he was living in a facility, I spent a lot of time with him and handling his financial and legal affairs. I wanted to do that, but it took my focus away from painting. He passed almost 2 years ago. This is a long winded way of saying I am so glad to finally be focusing on painting again.

Firelight 8 X 10

We've had a lot of smoke in the valley lately because of all the forest fires that are raging in Oregon.
It makes for some atmospheric perspective that we don't usually get.

Mount Pisguah Trail 8 X 10

It was a lovely, warm summer morning at the back side of Mt. Pisguah. I love the tranquility of painting in this area.
It's been so long since I posted. I'm finally back to painting!

Grapefruit with Little Bottle 6"x 6"

I wanted to try painting the bottle exactly at eye level so I stacked some painting panels on a white wooden block. I love the blue color of the grapefruit rind when it is back lit.
Yesterday I signed up with DPW to sell my paintings on line.  I'll be posting some of the better ones from the last few months as well as new ones.
I put the red primroses on yesterday and it got chosen as a pick of the day which was a nice surprise.

SOLD

Lovely Day for a Hike 6"x 8"

I've been noticing lately how the clouds stack up in layers from the horizon forward and wanted to try painting that. This is out at the end of Royal Ave in the wetlands.

Path through the Meadow 6"x 8"

I painted this last week at one of Eugene's newest public parks The South Eugene Meadows. This is the trail that leads from the parking lot into the oak savanna. Very few people are using the park yet so it's a very tranquil place to paint. I wish I had cropped it just to the right of the foreground tree.
I've been in a kind of painting doldrums lately, catching up on other stuff in my life but am feeling ready to get started back painting soon.

Coburg Hills from Priceboro Road 8"x 10"

So many things I'm working on now. I actually chose this scene because the road ended in a highway overpass but when I started doing the drawing, it just seemed like it complicated the scene. I'm also trying to figure out what would constitute "bling" in a landscape painting. So far I have sky holes, tree branches and that little straight line at the top of the horizontal plane. Also tried using a little cobalt blue and I like it.

October Vines 6"x 8"

I'm happy with this composition. I didn't see it until I simplified it quite a bit. Going to try to focus on doing that.

Perky Little Primroses 8"x 8"

Here in the northwest the dear little primroses are everywhere these days at the entryways to local businesses. These little sweeties came from Bi-Mart. They dried out twice waiting for me to get a chance to paint them. Didn't complain and cheerfully posed for me today. I'll reward them with a larger pot and a few days of rest and recuperation in the greenhouse.

SOLD

Hazy Sunlight in the Cascades 6"x 8"

Nice to finally be back to painting but I felt a little lost today. Still experimenting with different grays, struggling to find reality in a photo.

Heading Home from the Fisher Unit 8"x 10"

We had a little break from the cloudy weather a few days ago so my dog Lulu and I went out to the wetlands to get a few pictures. Just love being out there. The geese fly over making such a ruckus with their squawking. We even heard a few bullfrogs. I hope I can get out there to do this in real life soon.

Sailboats at Orchard Point 6"x 8"

I was again starting with a gray for my color mixes but today it was ultramarine and burnt sienna. That makes a nice color but I don't think I'll do it again. Also tried using manganese violet in place of alizrin but won't do that again either.I'm glad I'm experimenting though.

Old Juniper near Bend 8"x 8"

I painted this from a photo I took in a Juniper wilderness area east of Bend. It's a wonderful, unimproved area called the Badlands.
I was trying a suggestion I read in Terry Miura's blog which was to start with a gray mixed from cad yellow, cad red and ultramarine. Mix it with white to get four graduated values, then start your color mix with the appropriate value of gray.
My gray was kind of green although I tried to make to make it less so. I'm going to continue working with this concept for a while.

Willamette Valley Grays 4.5"x 9.5"

I've been inspired by Dutch painter Roos Schuring to go outside to paint even though it's cold. I had such a good time! I meant to take my saved up gray paint along but forgot. Hopefully next time that will help me gray it down a bit more.

Thai 10"x 8"

This is my dad's cat Thai. She lives with him in memory care but had to spend a few days with us last week so I got some good photos.

Grapes and Persimmon 6"x 6"

This persimmon has been sitting around in my studio for months--maybe three. It is definitely past its prime, lumpy and shrunken. The grapes were still pretty good. I am so surprised how much orange I have to mix in. They seem more blue to me but it doesn't work on the canvas. But then I added even more to try to make them harmonize with that noisy orange persimmon.

Clustered Grapes 6"x 6"

I had a lot of difficulty trying to mix the colors for the grapes--both light and shadows.

Darling Radishes 6"x 6"

I love this. And it was so much easier to paint than what I've been doing since the drawing was much less critical. But I did learn a little from all that fooling around trying to paint white. I was always scared of Pthalo blue but now I'm using it. Also, lemon yellow, for me, is a much cleaner color than cad yellow.

My Grandma's Egg Cup 6"x 6"

The egg is not quite that intense but maybe I should have toned it down a bit.  This studying whites has been a real challenge. I hope I try something a little easier tomorrow.

3 Little Tomatoes 6"x6"

A little frustrating. Finally got the color just right in my photo but it shows up yellower on the blog. Well, I give up. So the white is just a tad less yellow. I like the shadows of the tomato's leaves and the cup handle.

Pear in a White Study 6"x 8"

Once again a little yellower than reality. I'm trying to learn a little about mixing whites. So much harder than I would have thought.

Orange Segments 6"x6"

Whoa!! That background is soo yellow. It's really more peachy. Can't figure out how to change it, but probably another color would have been better.

Meyer Lemon on a Copper Plate 6"x6"

Well, this one was a challenge from the get go. A lemon from my own darling little tree.

Water in the Fields 6"x6"

I tried painting on gesso board today since I have a lot of them.  Sure is different from my little Raymar panels. I did this from a photo that didn't really have much color so I did a fair bit of inventing.

Lulu's Jaguar 6"x 6"

I came downstairs a couple days ago and saw one of my dog's toys standing in the lamplight. So I tried to recreate the scene in my studio today.

Old Road through the Wetlands 6"x 8"

This is my second try today for the Leslie Saeta challenge.  I don't like it as well but still think I learned a bit by experimenting.

Golden Ash Trees 6"x 8"

I signed up a little late for Leslie Saeta's 30 day challenge. I'm not expecting that I'll be able to paint every day, but I've been surprised at what a good effect it is having on me.
Didn't like my still life yesterday and wanting to get back to landscapes, printed some old photos and worked from them today. Experimenting, trying to really simplify the compositions and try new things. I like this one quite a lot.

Mussel Shells 6"x 6"

These mussels looked so beautiful after I cooked them that I've wanted to paint them for several days. But I don't think they were a good choice. Just too dark.

Dark Houses #2 6"x6"

I thought the horizontal planes in my last painting were a lot lighter than reality so I made them darker. It's kind of interesting how dreary the light gets here in winter.
Wasn't sure if I should leave that white canvas showing through but in the end I decided I liked it so left it. That white door--probably should have made it darker, but I just didn't want to.
6"x 6" sure is a fun size.

Dark Houses #1 6"x6"

I'm often quite annoyed with our dark days here in Eugene. I really like painting how light falls on objects. While waking my dog the other morning, I came upon the idea of trying to exaggerate  the lack of that light defining objects: alight grayish sky, all the verticals a dark value and then making the horizontal and tilted planes lighter.
So this was my first attempt.
I couldn't quite make myself simplify as much as I had hoped. It's kind of fun. So I tried another one.