Rabbit Mountain

In an effort to try out some of the things I learned at the workshop we went off to Rabbit Mountain and I took along some painting materials. Due to our unusually wet summer and spring, Rabbit Mountain is still fairly green and lush. The clouds were a big storm north of us as we drove home.

Oregon

After leaving California I flew to Oregon to meet an old friend, and we drove up to her mountain cabin for a few days near the Columbia River Gorge. Here are a few pictures from the area.The first picture is the view at sunset, the second one is basically the same scene in the morning light. The third one was taken down along the river. The scenery is wonderful and you can see two volcanoes from the property. I do not have good pictures of them however. We were too busy talking about old times to go out actively photographing.

Monterey and Pacific Grove

It was cold and foggy at the coast, much colder than I expected. Two separate unconnected people, one in California, and one here in Colorado, quoted to me an old saying supposedly from Mark Twain, something like "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco". Well, it's just as cold in Monterey. It was around 55 and a very cold windy fog set in on the second day and never really went out again. Here are a few pictures of the sea. I wish I had known this while packing clothing for the trip, I should have done a little more research. Painting outdoors in those conditions is daunting.

Over Utah

The setting sun reflected off the Colorado River and the reservoirs above the Grand Canyon as my plane flew over the area last Friday. I was heading to a workshop in California. I hoped to see the Grand Canyon but it ended up on the other side of the plane. More pictures of California will follow.

Irresistible Art and Story

I talked before about Barbara Stone's plan to make over the front of her shop into a gallery area featuring artists who have books of their work or the stories behind their work. She has published several books of her own polar bear art.

We got the plan together and signed up for a four month trial experiment. She emptied the front of her store and we each have a 6'x 9' tall space on which to put sample work and a shelf featuring the book we published.

There are spaces for ten artists. So far we have five filled. We have a painter, a photographer, a collage artist/photographer, myself and Barbara's polar bear drawings. We can change the art periodically whenever we like. Everyone has a different kind of shelf and a different look so it's kind of interesting. We installed it yesterday.

Today I go back to put up cards and tags. The opening is at Artlink (former Artwalk) this Friday evening. We will see how people like the whole concept. Here's a picture of my space. I still have the artist statement/sign to put up. And here's a picture of three of the other spaces.

Bench

Here's a little picture I did last weekend. Getting ready for a new show going up later today.

cherries almost done

We picked more over the weekend and I processed them. We now have maybe 56-58 cups frozen. There are not too many left on the tree and most are bird-pecked. The tree is starting to get bare. It is still quite popular with the robins, grackles and sparrows, so I guess they are still finding enough to eat on the leftovers. Garden status: The lettuce is starting to fade. The spinach has bolted. Cherry tomatoes are starting to get ripe. The swisschard is growing nicely and beans are starting to ripen. I also have some baby peppers coming along.
Hot and dry
Typical July

Riding the alleys

We went alley-riding on Sunday. It was a very hot day but it clouded over toward early evening and was perfect for a ride. Alley-riding means taking our bikes to the older parts of town and going up and down any alley we come across. You can see a lot of interesting things in alleys. The first clues to any ongoing renovation can be seen there, with the big construction bins and debris strewn about. Brand new garages are next to decrepit ones that look like they were built with the first pioneer households, sagging wood roofs, weathered lumber, hundred-year-old doors. You get glimpses of houses with gorgeous back yard gardens and others filled with wrecked junker cars. There's a lot of trash in those alleys too which surprises me. The houses are fairly nice out front.

There's always a stray beast or two or three roaming about and lots of cats that duck over or under fences as you approach. And of course you get barked at. Sometimes you even see a fox. Speaking of foxes, there are three adjacent large empty lots behind one of the streets. There is an old junk car in the far lot next to a row of trees. Someone said it's an old Ford Fairlane. A family of foxes lives under the car. Lately we have been going down on bikes to watch them. Often a parent fox stands guard on top of the car, or sleeps curled up on the trunk and if you are lucky you can see two or three or four other foxes pouncing and playing and meandering around in the far fields. At one point we saw six of them but only three looked like pups. They are getting bigger now and are almost adult sized. People come to the car wash across the street with binoculars to watch sometimes.

Heavy rain again

It just poured here, a dramatic booming thunderstorm - 4th big storm in as many days. This is unusual July weather. It hasn't been that hot either. Weird weather but at least we don't have to water the lawn.

Pulling Teeth

So I am working on this painting, and have been for a while, off and on since May. It keeps changing, never seems to work. The total surface is now completely different than what I started with. Still it doesn't seem to work. What is it with this canvas - I feel like it's cursed. What should I do with it - keep fighting it or set it aside and not look at it for a couple months? At this this point it is totally undermining my confidence. It's like the writer's block of the art world. Fourth of July was a nice diversion, and hooray for all the rain we have been getting. Also I've been picking cherries and freezing them.