Portland Grain Facility

I did this for a friend.
I tried to balance the darks and lights of this late afternoon scene.
The clouds were fun to paint.  I need to do more clouds!

Orange Dumpsters

I have been working madly making frames, painting and dreaming of art openings...
This is a quiet scene from the NW Industrial area.

New Subjects

After doing the Mississippi alley paintings, which I like, I have to admit that certain subject matter is a harder sell than others.  I still need to see if I can get some play with the alley offerings, but these next few are more obviously Portland.

The last scene is of some orange dumpsters in the NW industrial area.  It could be anywhere, but Forest Park is in the background...

I hope to get back to work on these soon.

Alameda Pick Up

It has been way too long since I have posted!  I have been busy with architectural work and have been neglecting my painting.  Before the Holiday break, I completed a painting that I will be donating to our kids school auction/fundraiser.  I just need to fill out the paper work and hand it over.

I was taken by this scene, which shows the landscape at the end of the summer.  The grass is dry and brown and the shadows are long.  The back side of the old school building has a lot of stuff going on.  As an architect, this building is a mess, but it has some interesting massing and contrast.  The boy running in the center of the painting adds some energy to it.

Some Plein Air Painting



 



Imagine three grown men standing under the Marquam bridge overpass, in the wind and rain, with their easles out trying to paint.
This was my first time painting outside in a long time. 
What is funny is that these guys had all summer to do this and they finally went out on one of the first bad days of fall.
This painting is much looser than I usually do. 
I may have to try this again when the weather gets better...

F.Y.I.  I did not know what plein air painting meant until fairly recently.  It is French, of course, and just refers to something done outside.  They could call it "Outside Painting" but "Plein Air Painting" is fancy and we need to be fancy.

More Alley Paintings



The shadows cast by the power lines is interesting to me.  Maybe that is all I have to say about that.

















This is the largest of the four Missippippi alley paintings (4 ft x 4 ft).  The red wall creates a tension in the painting which I am not sure that I intended.

Lebbeus Woods - Death

Lebbeus Woods died this past Tuesday.  Here is a link to a NY Times web article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/arts/lebbeus-woods-unconventional-architect-dies-at-72.html?_r=0

I have been intrigued with Lebbeus Woods and his complex design and artwork for years.  It was in grad school that I first learned of his work.  I had been following his blog, which he had recently taken a permanent break from.  I wondered what he was dealing with.
While Lebbeus had only a few built works (his art installations the exception) he had a big influence on the architectural underground. 
His drawings are futuristic, post apocalyptic, but also beautiful and well crafted.  He challenged ideas of war, natural disasters, poverty and human survival.
His blog reminisced about his past work, but always provoked a current discussion about architecture and art. 

Here is a link to his website:
http://lebbeuswoods.net/

I like that he was a sort of architectural vigilante who would use architecture as a way challenge conventional thinking about world issues.  His work was often dark, but also optimistic and inspiring.
He was a very unique voice in a cacophony of architectural rhetoric and I will miss him.

Rest Well Lebbeus...