Painting in Spain

My Wife and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary in Spain earlier this month. It was an amazing time and I had a lot of good sketching and painting opportunities. Here are a few of the paintings, I filled a 60 page sketch book on the trip but still have to water color quite a few of the sketches, more to come.

Santa Maria Cathedral - Cadaques  Spain

San Juan de Luz, France

San Sebastian Spain

Pinxto Hopping - San Sebastian Spain

Plaza - San Sebastian Spain

Parte Viajo - San Sebastian Spain

Beach San Sebastian Spain

Plein Air in Central Oregon

Last weekend we went on a family camping trip to Lake Billy Chinook in central Oregon. While the weather was not great but I did get in some quality sketching and painting in. I love painting the colorful cliffs around the lake and spring is a beautiful time of year in this area (before things get too dry) This was my first outing with my new Plein Air Pro Travel easel outside of Portland.

" Coffee Talk"

This is Dragon Fly Cafe a little coffee shop on NW Thurman its a great place to stop on your way to  Forest Park. I really like painting and sketching Cafes and here in Portland there is an endless about of coffee shops one of the main reasons I love living here.

"Coffee Talk" 11"x14" $225.00

In the Shadows

This scene captured my eye riding into work this week. The whole street was in shadow and the sun was lighting up the corner of the old building. The more I paint I am discovering that scenes with good light and shadow and contrast make for the best paintings, and the area with the most contrast should be the focal point of the painting.

"In the Shadows" SW Taylor and SW 1st Ave  8"x10" $150.00

Wet Streets - SW 2nd and Yamhill

I recently purchased Ron Stocke's new book Watercolor en Plein Air. I really like Ron Stocke's work and approach to painting. I am trying to apply some of his principles in my work, this one below uses mainly gray hues with a punch of color in the blue awnings. I think this is appropriate for the winter weather here in Portland. This was done in the studio but I plan to do a lot more Plein Air painting as the weather improves.

"Wet Streets" SW 2nd and SW Yamhill 11x14  $225