Have Brush Will Work for Art

It's been an intense past couple of weeks as I've been on the road going from paintout to paintout. I've met some wonderful people, artists and country. The weather has been spectacular and I've found homes for quite a few paintings.

The end of August saw me in Hood River which is an amazing location. 10 minutes in any direction and you can be a different landscape. East to the desert and steppe, South to Mt. Hood, North to Mt. Adams both dormant volcanoes and West towards Portland and what is know as The Gorge.

Everyone I met is there because of the wind. Windsurfers and kiters. I've never seen so many skinny people. Winter it is skiing. A lot of good energy and I look forward to going back.

Check out the event blog at http://pleinairhoodriver.blogspot.com// They even had a pleinair writing event. We'll have to wait a bit to see the results but it should be interesting.

Cathleen Rehfeld was our coordinator. She had pre-arranged sites such as the Whitehouse Bed and Breakfast where I painted this painting I call Madame Pear Bottom. I hadn't notice the figure until Joe Howard took a peak over my shoulder and said, "Looks like you've been away from home to long." I didn't get it until he pointed out the nice female anatomy of my pear tree. I honestly didn't paint that on purpose but now that's all I see. Sheesh!

Cathleen not only guided us around but is an awesome painter. The sale of that weeks efforts was awesome and couldn't have happened without the support of Rich Kruger a true patron of the arts that Hood River is fortunate to have. We painted at the Cathedral of the Airplane otherwise known as the Airplane and Auto Museum, http://www.waaamuseum.org/, every plane flies and there are over 100 planes. An amazing place if you ever get the chance to visit. One of my favorite highlights was the Maryhill Museum and a painting, "Solitude", by Lord Alfred Leighton. It is an awesome technically accomplished painting, done in the pre-Raphaelite manner. The painting itself is over 100 years old and there is not a crack in it although it is highly glazed. The work reminds me of opera and what it is possible for the human hand or voice in the case of opera, to achieve. It is also curious to find such a treasure, as well as many more, to be found on the arid steppes of the columbia river.

I then went to Coupeville, WA. I made it in time to get my canvases stamped and painted into the night doing my first 'nocturne', wearing my LED hat to see by. The painting was of the Dog House Tavern in Langley and came out well although I didn't get a photo of it before it found a home.

I was home a couple days to check on the horses and chickens. All was fine so I took off for Coeur d'alene, Idaho where the Oil Painters of America were holding there western region show at the Devin Gallery. They also held a paintout in which I participated and found a home for another painting. Each time I sell a painting I meet another great person with an interesting life to learn about. An emissary of art, my paintings are my calling card. OPA was well attended but the real show for me was at Stephen Gibbs, Art Spirit Gallery which was showing works by George Carlson, one of the geniuses of the today's art world. He had a series of oil paintings which were highly inspired. Reflecting "Big Ideas" as Bill Reese would say. He is the one that considers Carlson a genius which made me look even more closely at Carlsons paintings and sculptures. Carlson's work shows me what is possible if one commits to the highest levels of reflection.

I'm off to Wenatchee to paint with William F. Reese, one of the patriarchs of oil painting in the Pacific NW and the nation. I hope a little of his knoweledge rubs off on me, then I am off to Ellensburg for a paintout and N. Idaho for a paintout and benefit for creating a wilderness area of Scothman Peaks.

Stay Tuned