Paia, Maui

Here's another sketchbook page from my trip to Hawaii. The tropical plants and sunlight are such an inspiration.
This is the view from the Green Banana in Paia.

Hawaii

Blue Surfboard.
Watercolor and white gouache
3.25x4 inches

Gingerbread Queenslander

Nay's neice Kyra installed the roof tiles. The front steps and roof trusses we made out of Rice Krispy treats.

Christmas in Australia. Naomi and I decided to build a gingerbread house in the local architectural style: high set, with a wraparound verandah, a swimming pool, and no snow. No snow was my favorite part because it meant we could have lots of color.

Here's Jessamine having a look

For the yard I wanted to do a candy collage instead of building specific plants. Naomi made some awesome palm trees out of the big peppermint sticks and some cotton candy, which started drooping and contracting immediately. You can tell in this photo: she did the blue one first

The humidity (87%) was a big issue. After sitting overnight, the house looked like it had been hit by a cyclone (also be an authentic effect). The hard candy was melting. The melted-sugar glue turned back into liquid and dripped off the board onto the floor. The railings fell off and everything sagged. The gingerbread, instead of going stale and stiff, stayed soft and was delicious to eat.

This is just from standing overnight.

We transported the whole thing to the Christmas Day luncheon, where the grandchildren eventually destroyed it.

Naomi and I decided we have outdone ourselves (and the candy budget--$115.00) and have nothing left to prove. In the future we will build only small gingerbread houses...unless there's a contest or something.

Mural at Raleigh Hills School

"The Garden Grows; We Grow" was the theme for this 4x27' framed mural. 512 enthusiastic children contributed ideas, painted dots, and offered daily encouragements as they passed by--"Good job!" "I like your painting!" "Hi Mrs. Artist!" I love my job.

Mafficking on the River

At a fundraiser this evening for the Multnomah Arts Center Association, six of the guests sat on the pontoon boat long enough for me to put them in the painting. Thanks to Bill and Marge for a beautiful evening on the river!

Progress of a Painting

Here are two stages of a painting I'm working on for the October show at the Glenn & Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center in Hillsboro. I'm working from a snapshot I took without time to properly frame the picture, so I've cropped it and reorganized things a bit. There's still quite a way to go on this.

This painting is 30 x 32 inches

New Additions to the Sophie Series

These oil studies on acrylic-coated Bogus Sketch paper are from last Saturday's Open Life Session at the Multnomah Arts Center. Sophie has modeled for me so much that I could have a show of paintings & drawings of just her.

Another way to treat paper so that you can oil paint on it is to give it a coat of hardware-store-variety shellac. It doesn't warp the paper like the acrylic matte medium does.

Those clips in the corners are clothespins holding the paper to the venetian blinds.