Monday, March 28, 2016

That Oregon Coast again

Today, 28 Mar 2016 it snowed... from before sunup until late in the afternoon, We need the water but I think it killed lots of buds on the trees.... which means no fruit this year for the early blossomers. My indoor lemon trees have bloomed and this seasons crops are on the branches.... and I'm loving it. :-)

So early one morn I was walking along the Oregon Coast and just before the river delta I caught this image. It was better than my painting with it's sparkling beauty and sun shinning thru the river's canyon. Maybe next time I paint it I can get more into it.

 A healthy environment is essential to a livable Oregon and a strong economy. Ted Kulongosk

This activist loves Oregon more than he loves life. Tom McCall

The redwoods you can see in Muir Woods are nothing like the redwood titans that stand in the rainforest valleys of the North Coast, closer to Oregon. These are the dreadnoughts of trees, the blue whales of the plant kingdom. Richard Preston

You can't get away from trees, farming and sustainable living with these Oregon quotes because that's what Oregon is all about. In my painting you can see the trees on that blue mountain in the background ... they are everywhere and even the beach scenes have trees close at hand.



oil on mat board 7x12

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Bright Spot in the Morning Fog

On one of my early morning walks in Oregon while taking pictures I saw the fog burning off and things started getting brighter. Sunlight seemed to stream in every now and then lighting up bright spots. It was cool and refreshing and enjoyable. I was glad to be there.


“Under the thinning fog the surf curled and creamed, almost without sound, like a thought trying to form itself on the edge of consciousness.”  ― Raymond ChandlerThe Big Sleep

“Ben Bernanke is like an economist on a misty morning, because he hasn’t the foggiest clue.” 
― Jarod KintzThis Book is Not FOR SALE

“When the fog lifts on this economy, I think we’ll find a lot of people refusing to ever turn off their caution lights.”   ― Jarod KintzAt even one penny, this book would be overpriced. In fact, free is too expensive, because you'd still waste time by reading it.

Oil on Mat Board  8x10

Friday, February 26, 2016

Poppy Field

Poppies are so delicate and I haven't painted a field of them before.

I sing the Poppy! The frail snowy weed! The flower of Mercy! that within its heart Doth keep "a drop serene" for human need, A drowsy balm for every bitter smart. For happy hours the Rose will idly blow-- The Poppy hath a charm for pain and woe. Mary A. Barr Quotes

And would it not be proud romance Falling in some obscure advance, To rise, a poppy field of France?  William Alexander Percy Quotes 

And far and wide, in a scarlet tide, The poppy's bonfire spread.




Oil on Mat Board  7x11

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Beyond Repair

Another old barn biting the dust ... sad to see all these relics of past ages returning to the earth. Maybe I can capture some of them in paintings before they go... and before I go  :-)



I made all these great musicals with Judy Garland. It was all about me going into a barn and saying: 'Let's put on a show.' That's what me and Judy did. Mickey Rooney



Oil on mat board  8x10

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

2 Fat Pears in a bowl

Today I am posting part of the painting process. I took the black W/c paper and sketched the outline of my drawing.  Next I did a value study  in whites and shades of blue to blue-black.. This is what it looks like at this stage.  Next stage I add color... matching the values but not paying attention to detail. Finally I finish off with the color & the details.



Oil on Water color paper  7x10

Sunday, January 24, 2016

What's for Breakfast?

Well this tasty treat did not last long.

I want it said of me by those who knew me best,that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow. - Abraham Lincoln

Life is like a grapefruit. Well, it's sort of orangy-yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in the middle. It's got pips inside, too. Oh, and some people have a half a one for breakfast.  Douglas Adams

Because at some more flexible period he had advanced from oranges to grape-fruit he considered himself an epicure.  Sinclair Lewis, 'Main Street' (1920)





oil on canvas paper  5x7

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Lemons and more lemons

These are fresh lemons... from my refridge and that "bubble" is actually a float for fisherman's nets.... and old one at that.... it's glass ... just a glass bubble now. My good friend, another artist, from Texas sent it too me. This is the first time I've painted it into a picture but it wouldn't be the last.... I'm just getting started.

When life gives you lemons, squeeze the juice on your fresh, wild salmon ... I said that. Here's what others say:

“When life gives you lemons, squirt someone in the eye.”  ― Cathy Guisewite

“When life gives you lemons, you don't make lemonade. You use the seeds to plant a whole orchard - an entire franchise! Or you could just stay on the Destiny Bus and drink lemonade someone else has made, from a can.”   ― Anthon St. Maarten

“when life gives you lemon, take it. don't waste food”   ― giselle marquez



oil on canvas paper  8x10

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Pear Apple & a Pitcher

Can't seem to end it with the pears... I love pears. I have one left from the bag of organic bosc pears I bought at Costco. Maybe I'll pick up another bag Monday or Tuesday. Oh yea, the organic apple is also one I bought. I try to eat an apple a day.... don't always make it but I'm working on it.

Trying to get some mood and atmosphere in these paintings.... and be painterly.... that means broad brush strokes that show after the painting is finished. I keep working on it.

It is, in my view, the duty of an apple to be crisp and crunchable, but a pear should have such a texture as leads to silent consumption."Edward Bunyard, 'The Anatomy of Dessert' 

The pear is the grandfather of the apple, its poor relation, a fallen aristocrat, the man-at-arms of our domains, which once, in our humid land, lived lonely and lordly, preserving the memory of its prestige by its haughty comportment."
Francois Pierre de la Varenne


Oil on canvas Paper
8x10

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Flaming Pear

I know that this looks like the other painting I did of a Riviera & a Mason Jar... I painted it again this time added a few things extra. The photo came out a little dark so the grape in the lower right is a little difficult to see. Heh heh ... but it's there. The background colors make it look like it's on fire... maybe it is.... a poached pear. :-)



Oil on canvas paper  8x10

Monday, January 11, 2016

Royal Riviera and a Mason Jar

Here is the Royal Riviera and a Mason jar with the upgrades



Sunday, January 10, 2016

End of the box

Here are the last pears from the box.... yes I ate them all. So I painted a little more on this trying to incorporate Matt's suggestions. Looking better, eh?


Oil on canvas paper 6x8

Bosc standing

I bought a bag of these at cosco.... almost gone now...... this is a "refined" painting I did a while ago.
I think it looks better now.


Oil on canvas paper  6x8

Dish of Pears

Well only one pear fit in this dish... a LARGE pear. this is the latest version. Hope you like it.


Oil on canvas paper  6x8

Saturday, January 9, 2016

One Green royal Riviera

Well they came in a box of 12 pears ... mostly green... but they did ripen up nicely so I go to eat them all. My photography is not all that good yet but I'm working on it. Some of the transparent colors seem to disappear but I think this is better than the first posting of this pear.



Bartlett Pear

My very tasty Bartlett pear. Couldn't wait to eat it. Delicious. I think I improved it a bit from the first one. What do you think?




Tomatoes again

I pulled out  several paintings after Matt 's critique and tried to improve them so I will post the "improved" paintings. Sometimes the changes will be very subtle and sometimes the changes will be very noticeable. I'll leave that part up to you.

Enjoy.

Oil on canvas paper 6x8

Monday, December 28, 2015

High Peaks

 Still thinking about Arizona.

Everyone in California lives on a white, sandy beach.” False. The only people who live on California beaches are vacationers from Arizona, Utah, and Nevada who own condos.
– Erma Bombeck

 You know you’re from Arizona when you drive two miles around a parking lot looking for a shady place – even in the dead of winter. – Author Unknown

 You know you’re from Arizona when you feed your chickens ice cubes to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs.  Author Unknown




Saturday, December 26, 2015

Reminiscing

I had such a great time visiting the Grand Tetons in Idaho and Wyoming I had to go back .... just kidding... it was a mental "go back". Totally day dreaming and wandering back to the scenes of days gone by. Loved it anyway.

Theodore Roosevelt
"We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune."

"We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so."

"...wild flowers should be enjoyed unplucked where they grow."

"It is not what we have that will make us a great nation; it is the way in which we use it."

"We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation."
"I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us."
"Nothing could be more lonely and nothing more beautiful than the view at nightfall across the prairies to these huge hill masses, when the lengthening shadows had at last merged into one and the faint after-glow of the red sunset filled the west."

There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm."

"The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom."

Oil on canva paper 8x10

Thursday, December 24, 2015

It's white today

Hope this is an indication of the Winter to come. A couple days after the Winter Solstice and we have a nice covering of snow down here in the valley.  I love Winter. Tomorrow the sun may come out.


And there is quite a different sort of conversation around a fire than there is in the shadow of a beech tree.... [F]our dry logs have in them all the circumstance necessary to a conversation of four or five hours, with chestnuts on the plate and a jug of wine between the legs. Yes, let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius. ~Pietro Aretino, translated from Italian


[W]hat a severe yet master artist old Winter is.... No longer the canvas and the pigments, but the marble and the chisel. ~John Burroughs, "The Snow-Walkers," 1866


Winter is a time of promise because there is so little to do — or because you can now and then permit yourself the luxury of thinking so. ~Stanley Crawford, A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm, 1992


One kind word can warm three winter months. ~Japanese Proverb


Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Tomatoes from my garden again

My Grandson's wife told me that her mom pulled up the tomato plants at the end of the year and hung them indoors to ripen the last of the tomatoes that were hanging on the vine still green. Not having a barn or shed I hung them in the guest room which has a large South facing window which warms up the room nicely during the Winter. It works fine. I love tomatoes..... salad, soup or in a snadwhich... whatever.

I love judging food by its smell and feel and taste. The healthiest tomato isn't always the perfect one that's been covered in pesticides.




Oil on canva paper  5x7

Monday, December 14, 2015

The fishing shacks at Monterrrey

When you go down to the boardwalk at Monterrey this is one of the first things you will see.... it may be one of the most famous and most painted sites. It seems a little tilted... but then maybe I was on the down-slooped sidewalk.... maybe my head was leaning .... maybe I just goofed when painting this one. Well, there it is, the fishing shacks at Monterrey

Never stop doing little things for others. Sometimes those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts.





oil on Canva paper 6x8

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Meandering on the Beach

I just can't leave the Oregon beach. Just about every morning we were out there walking up and down... North and South. The view was always different because we wandered around at different times of the day but the sun always made long shadows about mid-morning because it had to rise above the hills to the East........ and it sometimes took a while to burn off the morning fog. There was always someone else running or walking or picking up sea shells.... and an occasional dog prancing about. So who can't feel good at the beach.

The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter. Blaise Pascal
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. John Ruskin



oil on canva paper  8x10

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Rocky shore line

Still painting pictures of the rocky Oregon coastline on a warm almost winter day ... it,s only 6 Dec so we are a few days from winter. The sun has dipped way down in the southern sky and shines over to my desk part of the day which is really, really nice. I love it when the sun shines thru those big windows.

“Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.”  ― Helen Keller

“Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine.”  ― Charlotte BrontëJane Eyre

“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.”  ― Joseph Addison

“Some people are so much sunshine to the square inch.”  ― Walt Whitman


oil on canva paper  8x10

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

On da beach

It's a little dreary here today... but nice. Cloudy skies and not too bright... but I like it .... but not as much as the beach ... ahhhhhh , the beach. Who could not like the beach

 And me? I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know it's not some place you can look for. Because it's not where you go. It's how you feel for a moment in your life when you're a part of something. And if you find that moment... It lasts forever. - Richard

A simple life is good with me. I don't need a whole lot. For me, a T-shirt, a pair of shorts, barefoot on a beach and I'm happy. Yanni

To go out with the setting sun on an empty beach is to truly embrace your solitude.  Jeanne Moreau



oil on canva paper  6x8

Friday, November 20, 2015

Looking for shells

One day I went walking early in the morning. It was the normal foggy coast and it was beautiful. Down by the edge of the rocks were a couple of young folks.... I say young... I was going to say a couple of old geezers but then I remembered.... I'm probably older than they are. It was a good day to be looking for shells.

Those who live by the sea can hardly form a single thought of which the sea would not be part.

The loneliness you get by the sea is personal and alive. It doesn't subdue you and make you feel abject. It's stimulating loneliness.

So, would you visit me in a dream.. By the sea water, memories...Floating on the breeze...fantasies, would you visit me????








Oil on canva paper
6x8

Friday, November 13, 2015

Oh see the sea



My soul is full of longing
For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
Sends a thrilling pulse through me.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.


 To reach a port we must set sail –
Sail, not tie at anchor
Sail, not drift.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

 Sea-fever

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over”
John Masefield, Sea Fever: Selected Poems





oil on canva paper  6x8

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Dreaming of the Coast again


I signed up for another workshop on the coast ... will I ever learn..... but it will be fun anyway.

You need to lose yourself and disappear in the depths of the repetitions? Find a coast and watch the repetitive waves! Soon your mind vanishes away and when your mind disappears you disappear!” 
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“The coast is an edgy place. Living on the coast presents certain stark realities and a wild, rare beauty. Continent confronts ocean. Weather intensifies. It's a place of tide and tantrum; of flirtations among fresh- and saltwaters, forests and shores; of tense negotiations with an ocean that gives much but demands more. Every year the raw rim that is this coast gets hammered and reshaped like molten bronze. This place roils with power and a sometimes terrible beauty. The coast remains youthful, daring, uncertain about tomorrow. The guessing, the risk; in a way, we're all thrill seekers here.” 
― Carl SafinaThe View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World


You spoke to her, in hidden dreams...and smiled at her through open doors. She felt your secret love surround her at times. And while alone she felt your breath, heartbeat and more... Serenity of hers is never-ending, soothing....it leads, lures, calls you... Ah, timeless burning flame!.. Her kiss is ocean salty water, you drink and thirst increases...you long and pray for more...” - ― Oksana Rus


Well here is my sketch for the day.... Lover's Leap Monterrey California




Oil on canva paper  6x8

Friday, November 6, 2015

Hanging out in the meadow

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain.
- Vivian Greene
Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
- George Bernard Shaw

Go out and enjoy what you have near. It might be better than you imagined

Carson River near Genoa



Oil on canva paper 6x8