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.

Tide Water (9x12 cold press)

I did this painting from a tutorial I found on You tube by watercolor artist John Baxter. Since I have not had lot of watercolor training I find that you tube videos are a good resource to pick up painting tricks and techniques. This painting makes use of a limited pallet of Ultra Marine Blue, Raw Sienna, Paynes Gray and burnt Umber I added a bit of Quinacridone Rust to hint at flowers in the foreground. This scene is not from Oregon but the scene reminds me a lot of the tidewater rivers around Tillamook on the Oregon Coast like the Wilson, Nehalem and Kilches river.

Winter Scenes (5"x7" 140 lb cold press)

Here are 3 quick snowy studies each 5"x 7" these are not painted from a particular place but they remind me of the Provo River in Utah one of my favorite places to fish. This white areas left on the paper really make the blue in the river pop snow scenes are a lot of fun to paint I plan to do more.

Cape Horn Lookout

Cape Horn lookout overlooks the Columbia River on the Washington side of the river, its probably one of the scariest lookouts I have been too, just a few feet of the Highway is about 600' drop to the valley below not a good place to text and drive. I feel this painting captures the scene pretty good.