heading to the great northwest

i have done neither painting, nor blogging in the last week or so as we are preparing for a trip out to portland, oregon, for the holidays. all our kids and grand kids live either in portland or seattle. it will be the first time in about 8 years since we have all been together for thanksgiving and christmas so we are naturally looking forward to this journey. it will take us until about friday (11/18) to arrive in portland as we will take a leisurely approach to the whole thing and it looks like we may get held up just a bit by a winter storm in the northern rockies. this will probably be the last post until i get a studio set up out there, which shouldn't take too long. i am interested in getting back to jim's portrait as i like the way that it has started and at least the drawing has a good likeness of him. some may remember the portrait of spotted elk that i started out in borrego springs earlier this year. i am taking that along and will see what i need to do to get back to painting that as well. the area obviously offers an unbelievable opportunity for landscape, so i will be disappointed if the whole 2 months we are there slides by without taking advantage of it.

i did manage to get to the life drawing/painting session last week so i do have these last offerings for your viewing. westward, ho!

25-minute pose

15-minute pose

40-minute pose