Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Driftwood, Seaside, Oregon


52 Weeks 100 Paintings
Painting #25 - Driftwood
7" x 5"
Oil on Canvas Board
Sold to Lacey Schnell

Angela married me 16 years ago yesterday. We flew out to Seattle the day before, I met her parents and siblings for the first time, and the next day we drove east across the state and were married at a little bed and breakfast in Couer d'Alene, Idaho. A few days later, I was to meet the rest of her extended family at their annual reunion in Seaside, Oregon. Scary enough meeting a large group of complete strangers who were now family members, but it was going to be on the ocean, and there's nothing like a little splashing in the surf, and a little fun in the sun in the warm water on expansive, white sand beaches. Turns out, having spent all of my beach time on the southern Atlantic coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, I was not aware that there are different types of beaches, and different types of ocean. I ran out, ready to make a sand castle and do a little body surfing, and found this. Rocks of all sizes as far as the eye could see, huge piles of driftwood, a stiff, cold 25-mile-an-hour breeze freezing me to the core, and an ocean that was a full 30 degrees colder than any water I had ever attempted to frolic in. After this minor shock, at least I could look forward to meeting her entire family, or at least a large percentage of them, which was frightening in and of itself (there were 40-50 of them, all complete strangers who seemed to know more about me than I did of them).

It turns out that they are some of nicest, funniest, warmest people I have ever met. They welcomed me into the family immediately and unconditionally, and I have looked forward to the reunion every year since. I now love Oregon beaches. I love the rocks. I love the cold. I love the driftwood. The driftwood in the painting is probably 7 feet tall. It's the spot where we have the official beach party every year, and every year it gets a little smaller and a little blacker, slowly burning down as it used by others who make beach fires at its base. But as it gets smaller, the love that I feel for this place, these people, and especially Angela, continues to grow.

Coconut Cupcake


52 Weeks 100 Paintings
Painting #24 - Coconut Cupcake
7" x 5"
Oil on Canvas Board
Sold to Michelle Marshall


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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Peppers with Knife


52 Weeks 100 Paintings
Painting #23 - Peppers with Knife
7" x 5"
Oil on Canvas Board
Sold to Michelle Woodbury

Bert Pez


52 Weeks 100 Paintings
Painting #22 - Bert
5" x 7"
Oil on Canvas Board
Sold to Judy Sell

I picked up the first Pez when Sean was probably a year old. We were at the grocery store, he was in the seat in the cart and we were going down the candy aisle. I looked down and Fred Flintstone was looking up at me. I picked it up, Sean smiled and reached for it, and that was pretty much it. He's now taller than his Mom and and inch, inch-and-a-half shorter than me. He no longer fits in the cart. But we've been picking up Pez whenever we see a new one ever since. I'll get around to Fred eventually, but Bert's been on my mind lately. 

Monday, July 16, 2012

Sunflowers


52 Weeks 100 Paintings
Painting #21 - Sunflowers
5" x 7"
Oil on Canvas Board
Sold to Sarah Miller

Friday, July 13, 2012

Cherries


Painting #20 - Cherries
7" x 5"
Oil on Canvasboard
SOLD
7.13.12

When the people next door dragged their Christmas tree into the side yard and it sat for six months, it seemed a bit rustic. When it sat for a whole year, they graduated to trailer park status. But when the following year's Christmas tree, complete with strings of lights still attached, joined the dried out tree from the previous year, I knew that they had truly graduated to White Trash. We lost the White Trash Neighbors about six months ago when they finally abandoned the house. Although it's not so much that we lost our White Trash neighbors, but that we gained the giant cherry tree in what used to be their back yard. At first we just picked the ones that hung over our side of the fence. But finally, when I realized that the cherries were dropping, overripe, into the waist-high grass beyond the fence, I decided to take the matter into my own hands. Molly and I went over with a step ladder and picked more fresh cherries than I've ever seen in one place at one time. Plain cherries, cherry cobbler, cherry almond ice cream, we've enjoyed them in a variety of ways - it's been a veritable cherry fest around here. And now the very last of them are here in a white ceramic bowl by the kitchen sink.

Cookies


Painting #19 - Cookies
7" x 5"
Oil on Canvasboard
SOLD
7.8.12



Sprinkle cookies? Sugar cookies? Neither of those sound right. Angela says technically they're called 'Lofthouse' cookies. Whatever. All I know is that they're the best mass-produced grocery-store-bought cookies I've ever had.

Friday, July 6, 2012


Painting #18
Happy 4th of July
5" x 7"
Oil on Canvas Board
SOLD
 
This is what I see when I stand on my driveway and look due east.
Happy Fourth of July, everybody (even if it's the 5th)

Monday, July 2, 2012


Painting #17
Baby Bluebird Egg Cup
5" x 7"
Oil on Canvas Board
$17.00

I think part of it is in honor of the baby birds that hatched in the nest on our front porch today. But it's more because I've been looking at this baby bluebird egg cup behind the kitchen sink every day for what will be 16 years at the end of this month. And it makes me think of my Sweetie.