AUTUMNAL CASCADE II

Last week, between walking on the beaches or hiking in the woods or randomly exploring around Brookings Oregon, I sneaked some time to paint. This is the second of a series of acrylic/collage/real maple leaves on gessobord. It's mounted on black foamcore, ready to hang or frame -- overall size 6 X 13.

Gone fishing!

We went ocean bottom-fishing Monday, for rock fish & Lingcod.  Caught way over the limit of black rockfish & gave the extras to  people who didn't catch many, but we got skunked on the Lingcod ;-(  Kept the largest of the rockfish and now the freezer is full of yummy fillets (similar to true cod, maybe a bit lighter).  We're having a great time on the southern coast of Oregon: wonderful ocean, beaches, tidepools, scenery, woods, hiking trails, wild flowers, SEAfood, clean air, etc.  More to come!

It just doesn't get any better than this!

June 2015:  What a Wonderful Month!
We started the month in Nevada, just outside Carson City and close to Lake Tahoe.  I flew to Chicago to witness my Granddaughter Rhia graduate from Law School, making a stop in Colorado to spend time with friends & family.  Our next RV stop was Redding CA where I visited my Aunt Evelyn - we hadn't seen each other in about 50 years!  And now we're in Brookings OR, the southernmost town along the Oregon Coast; we'll be on the coast the rest of the summer.  The icing on the cake was celebrating being best friends with my hubby Jamie for 27 years and in a monogamous relationship for 25 years, and we're still 'happy together'. :-)  It just doesn't get any better than this!

LATE DAY ON THE MADISON

Just finished this piece, the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park. Photo taken late afternoon early September 2014. This is another trapezoidal-shaped piece that will go above our 'living-room' sitting area, where the roof of the trailer slopes. I've never been much into, nor particularly good at, painting landscapes; however, creating fond memories from our travels has been delightful -- the trailer walls are almost full now . . .
—   feeling accomplished.

 

 

DEATH VALLEY DAYS #1:

We've spent the past couple weekends in Death Valley National Park. When we visit one of our incredible national parks, we try to absorb as much of the place as possible, often exploring areas most tourists don't make it to. Late Sunday afternoon we drove through 'Twenty-Mule-Team Canyon', for the good lighting & late-day shadows -- it was well worth the time & effort; the scenery is spectacular. This canyon celebrates the twenty-mule-team ore wagons that were used to transport Borax from mines in the Park. If you're interested in the history, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-mule_team

Shoshone California: an Oasis in the Desert

Shoshone California: an Oasis in the Desert. We stumbled upon this tiny village on the SE edge of Death Valley National Park, and decided to stay here several weeks to explore the area. We're in a funky little RV park, which had it's beginnings as a trailer park in the '50s; we have trees & welcome shade (we would have had full sun at the Death Valley RV parks), the temperature is about 12-15 degrees cooler than Death Valley, the place is clean and quiet, and there's a delightful bonus of a warm mineral water swimming pool large enough to swim laps. We have great access to the surrounding areas, including Death Valley. The geology is fascinating, and there's a rich mining and railroad history; the area attracts researchers in most of the natural sciences -- geology students recently camped nearby. While Death Valley & the lower canyons have yukky air pollution from both southern California coast and LasVegas, we're a bit above it most of the time.

Another 'Common Raven'

A fellow RVer, Betty Jean, fancied my painting of 3 Ravens and tried to con me into selling it to her; she has a special fondness of these incredible birds. I couldn't part with my 'memory' painting, so I did this one for her -- kinda knocked her socks off & she's framing it with barn wood, which should be perfect!  It made me happy to make her happy as she's a very special lady.