Alpine Christmas

Outdoor beer garden... Edelweiss flowers painted to the right!

Town Christmas tree... sorry for the blur

Nordic skier of times past

We took a quick jaunt to a lovely little town called Leavenworth, WA. It was in the height of Christmas and oh so beautiful. It was patterned after a Bavarian Alps village in the 1960s and has a few ski areas close by.

I'll share more night scenes soon... not sure if I'll be posting here before the new year or not. Either way, have a wonderful holiday! (I'm off to plan my Christmas dinner shopping list- an old fashioned English Christmas this year... roast beef with Yorkshire pudding... trimmings and trifle for dessert! - with the help of my mom, of course - she's the real cook around here.)

Shapes in Mid Day Travels

Look above the truck... the sky is falling!

Quilter's banner - each quilter in a class made a mini piece for a collective banner. So cool.

Love the colors of this old building... thinking about our house which desperately needs painting.

Lovely texture in a mod chandelier.

Little pane windows... none are broken, they have different degrees of frosted spray paint or some other fragments from the past.

I know, I promised sunsets last time but the blogger wouldn't allow me to add more photos to this post, the nerve! So, next one... for sure. These are all Portland, discovering the many crumbling, papery, shadowy etc. textures throughout my afternoon... I wanted to document all of these findings. I have a plan to translate these yummy, found textures onto 300lb. watercolor paper - stitching, hole poking and graphite mark making are some of the things planned. I've been hoarding it long enough :)

Still working on the mermaid art quilt... the size is making it a slow project. What I really need is a larger table!

Spring Break...part one

Lake Oswego... our fave park there, George Rodgers Park. This is the boat launch. In art school, we used to come here for drawing class and later watercolor class too. So beautiful and idyllic... some of the best days of my life. Now, we bring our kids here - also some of the best days of my (our) life!

Upon arrival in Portland, Oregon - we always go to 'our village', Multnomah village. Lunch time at Grand Central Bakery. It was Sunday and packed with late risers, still eating breakfast very slowly. Yum.

Water tower in the Pearl district. Waiting to be picked up from Utrecht - a fab art store (needed more small portfolios - the kind that tie) in an utter downpour. I shot several photos from all directions of where I was standing - it's a great way to imprint the brain with memory of a place.

Sipping wine at dinner with old friends under lovely lamps and art. It seems in every pub, bakery, coffee house or restaurant we visit, there is an aesthetic experience to behold. Love that about Portland :) Part 2 coming soon... sunsets promised. Happy Friday to one and all!

What in the Sam Hill....?

Vineyards at Maryill... on the Colombia river.

On our travels back to Spokane, we stopped at the Maryhill Museum in Goldendale, WA for a picnic and some art. Samuel Hill was a wealthy business man who built the Colombia river Highway... and collected art. He had a mansion built, perched above the Colombia river, thinking it would grow into a nice farming community someday. It never really happened and he never even lived in the house. His famous dancer friend, Loie Fuller, convinced him to turn it into a museum.

There's a nice collection of Rodin sculptures, a collection of gems, paintings, furniture etc. from Marie, Queen of Romania... a fashion display from the 40's-50's, as well as a stellar chess set collection. Currently, William Morris - a glass artist - has a beautiful show inspired by the northwest and walks in the wilderness. (I believe he's a teacher at the Pilchuck Glass School).