Places I like - Oregon

I decided to bring out the water colors and experiment with some quick landscapes, in between feeding babies.
here are a few of the places that are close to my heart here in oregon

Haystack Rock Cannon Beach

Mt Jefferson From Pacific Crest Trail

Columbia River Gorge Goat farm

The Smartest Animals in the world

While I have been on FMLA I have been staying busy feeding and changing diapers on the triplets. But also have managed to watch a number of documentaries; documentaries about animals. Two stand out in my mind one about Crows and one about elephants. The one about crows confirmed what I already knew- Crows are the smartest animal in the world (along with elephants and chimps), this made me happy since I am a huge crow proponent, and feel that they are misunderstood. Two interesting facts are that crows can recognize people faces and associate them with events, they can also make tools to solve simple problems, this already makes them smarter than a lot of people.
I also learned some new things about elephants: they are smart too, maybe not as smart as crows but they can pass knowledge down from generation to generation which is cool.

Here are two paintings that celebrate the brains of the animal world....thank you crows and elephants you make the world a much brighter place.


"Wise old Elephant"

Trout Illustrated going International

My pectorial paintings caught the fancy of Italian Blog author "Captain Rusty Hook" (Mattia),

check out the great piece he did on my art even if you don't read Italian.

Next week Paris.

Thanks Mattia!

His blog also has some sweet home made lures, music of the day, photography and other cool stuff check it out:

http://capitanrustyhook.blogspot.com/search/label/Fishing%20Art

"Back to School"

This is my latest painting "Back to School" inspired by the wonderful fall weather and that smell of learning in the air (i am not going back to school but many kids are). I imagine these 3 jouvenile trout are on there way to school to learn about the dangers of fishermen, ospreys, beavers and other adversaries of creek life, but from the look of it they are just going to goof around all day. I think this painting has more of a childrens book illustration style to it so that it appeals to people of all ages regardless if they like fishing or not.

I actually did this painting for my Friend Don for fund raising auction he is helping out with. Hopefully someone with a kind heart will buy this painting to help out "Quiet Waters" a non profit organization design to help people with developmental disabilities.

http://www.quietwatersoutreach.org/

Clear Water and Small Cutties

Recently I did a backpacking trip into Bull of the Woods Wilderness, along Elk Lake Creek, with my friends Les and Phil. The clarity of the water in these remote creeks is truely remarkable (thanks to the protection from logging in this area). The fishing for small native cutthroats proved to be non stop action with any choice of color Elk Hair Caddis, unfortunatly the largest was only 9-10" but still a load of fun.
I also fished a Beaver pond and spotted my first Oregon Beaver as well as a Bald Eagle flying above the creek. It was a great time and probably the last pack trip I will be doing for a while with the Triplets well on their way.

Octopus 1

So this is definitely not a trout, but now as I prepare to be a father I will be painting more sea creatures most notable octopus and maybe squid. This is the first in a series of three that I am doing for the kids room. If you are interested in the triplet development check out our other blog:
Pitts trips

Holding Rainbow

this painting was of a trout I caught in a small lake on the oregon coast.

crows in the snow

here is another crow painting

3 crows a study

I decided to paint something a little different. This painting is not of trout, not even of fish at all but Crows. I have always liked crows, being one of the smartest animals in fact i want a bumper sticker that says " my crow is smarter than your honor student" but non exist that I know of.

A brown for old time sake

It has been a while since I have had time to throw down some water colors. Finally got the chance this evening, decided to paint an old brown trout just for the "heck" of it.