Wacky Weather and Loose Trees

With two special days to celebrate between my hubby and I, we headed up to sunny Portland for festivities. Originally we'd chewed on going camping. As we watched to weather in Oregon, it continued to be chilly and rainy. Shoot! Ok, we'll head south, to sunny California. We researched the weather near beautiful Burney Falls. But ~ alas ~ rainy there too. So, heck we'll go check out the totally the opposite direction where its usually rainy, Portland, Oregon. And, you guessed it. Sunny and in the 90s.

Roland made reservations overlooking the rolling park at the river's edge at the "RiverPlace Hotel". Now we have to take Cody, our Golden Retriever, and the hotel is great, even offer us "puppy sitting" options for when we dined at the restaurant. We refreshed with the "Strawberry-Cucumber Water" available in the lobby and ride up to our room. Once unpacked and settled in, we set out to enjoy the glow of the sun and greeness of the park.

When we return from our walk along the sparkling river, in our room we find a "breakfast-in-bed" tray with two dog bowls resting on it, accompanied by this autumn-ish card ~ for Cody. Inside it read, "Welcome Cody! We are delighted that your parents have brought you to stay with us at RiverPlace. Your comfort is of the utmost importance to us. If there is anything we can do to enhance your stay please let us know." Signed "RiverPlace Hotel Staff". Roland and I smiled at their attentativeness and Cody, well, he enjoyed the biscuits from the bowl!

This was the sweeping view we had from a corner room on the 9th floor. Portland is a yummy city ... we stumbled upon their "Rose Celebration" with parades in the evening and amusement park rides along the river by day. As always, went we head home, we stop by the delicious "Pearl Bakery" to pick up fresh bread and treats for us and our neighbor, Mary, who loves good baked good almost as much as we do. And a fond g'bye to Portland we wave.

Perched adjacent to our Portland visit is a playful and colorful demonstration I worked up for one of my private students. Her request was to learn "trees" . . . so I did a quick rather abstract rendition on the left, then replicated a more detailed sample for her on the right. You'll notice how much of the shaping of the trees is established with shadows and negative painting around the highlighted front trees. For the trees on the right I used some white wax crayon to save those "sky window" holes and also, used a mist-er to squirt a sprinkled, random water pattern, into which I dropped a variety of greens. The mist-er technique is an easy way to create a leafy pattern with colors running into one another.

I'm learning to live life as loosely as these trees were paiinted, but I'm probably more effective in that with the trees :) At least I have a visual example . . . and plenty of patient friends.

Any feedback, my wise and worldly audience?