Northwest Beach

The great thing about the coastline in Oregon and Washington is that the forest often times comes right down to the beach. Being someone who loves both the forest and beach this is the best of both worlds. The downside is you will not be going for a swim in this water. This is a practice painting of such a place.

Fujimori

Here is another painting of a small village in Peru's Sacred Village, you will notice on the building it says "Fujimori ...Si cumplio" Fujimori was president of Peru in the 90's and is credited with defeating the shining path movement and thus making Peru a much safer place to live and visit. However he is also a controversial figure due to his violation of human rights and stealing money from the Peruvian Government despite this he still receives quite a bit of support in Peru. I thought this political history made this otherwise mundane scene interesting. There are also a couple Alpacas in the scene that did not come out as good as I hoped.

Peruvian Roofs

Back In 2006 I went on a trip to Peru, it is a wonderful county to visit particularly Cuzco and Machu Picchu. The people are hospitable and the scenery is amazing. I have wanted to do some watercolors from the trip for some time, but don't want to attempt painting Machu Picchu I don't think I have the skill to do it justice. The small villages in the Sacred Valley (between Cuzco and Machu Picchu) were some of my favorite places we visited, here is a small 5"x7" painting composed of the roofs from one of these villages.

Happy Snow Day

If you live in the Pacific Northwest you are probably not working today due to the snow storm. Those who do not live in the area may wonder why can't you work when it snows? well Portland pretty much shuts down, its impossible to drive anywhere the schools close and everyone flips out. So I am going to stay home and take the boys sledding in the neighborhood and hopefully do a little painting. Here is a recent painting I did of a snowy day on a Willamette valley farm.

Stormy day on the Deschutes (15"x20")

This is a watercolor of the Deschutes river, one of Oregon's most well known trout Rivers with large and strong red-band rainbow trout. Located on the Eastern side of the Cascades the landscape is a high mountain desert like something out of an old Western movie.