Looking for paintings - Part 23

Loose Ends - Number 2: People along the way

The people I spent time with over the last three months are very special and helped make this a memorable journey. I thought of this entire trip as a vacation, but I was really looking for something - a job, an experience, a chance to visit some old friends, to revisit that part of my childhood that spent the summers of the 40s and 50s traveling throughout the eastern United States, to answer the call of the wild, the lure of the open road, to see if there was more to life than Los Angeles. The job I got at Laika Entertainment and the two months I spent there were terrific. I was blown away by the caliber of talent among the artists and technicians working there and got to know a whole bunch of people who made it a pleasure to go to work every morning. There were old friends from Los Angeles who had moved to a better life in Oregon and Washington, and one who was always smart enough to live in Seattle. As soon as I figure out how to add their links to my sidebar I shall do so.

Jack and Hae Jung Heiter. I don't think this trip would have worked out if it hadn't been for their kindness and hospitality. Jack and I worked together at Warner Bros. in 1995. Hae Jung is a great preparer of great food and plays a mean game of Dominoes.

Gerry and Angele Woolery. Gerry owns and operates Gerry's Kitchen restaurant in Freeland on Whidbey Island, Washington. Angele is a fine artist in every sense of the word. They both create good stuff. They opened their home to me and I had the opportunity to really explore Whidbey Island, share some great meals and enjoy some fine wine. It was tough to leave.

Jorgen Klubien and Brian Ormiston. Jorgen and I met at Disney's in 1986. Here he is going over some storyboard sketches for his animated feature Jack and Ben with storyboard artist Brian Ormiston. Both amazing talents.

Brian Ormiston. I'm lucky I shared a cubicle with this guy. I love his work and we talked about almost anything, from Kurtzman to Kurosawa, from conspiracy theories to books, from restaurants to the edge of the universe.

I have no idea who this woman is. I was having lunch one day about a week before Christmas at Elephant's Delicatessen in Portland when I saw her standing there, waiting for a place to sit and eat her lunch. She looked so nice, I had to take her picture. She fit right in with the festive ambiance of the delicatessen, which was done up nicely for Christmas.

That's me pitching my storyboard to Jorgen and some of the storyboard guys for a segment of the Jack and Ben feature that I'd just completed. They weren't laughing at my board - they were showing the security guard who to throw out.

Jorgen Klubien and Robert Lence after dinner at Jorgen's home in Portland. This reminded me of the available light scenes in Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, but without the period costumes.

Jorgen, me, Robert, admiring the work of Mary Blair. Either that or getting ready to fight over the last piece of cheese on the table.

Me and John Lustig, creator of Last Kiss, the online humor panel about to make its appearance as a Sunday Feature in The Seattle Times. Here's a link to John's site:

http://www.lastkisscomics.com/

John making good use of the wreath hanging on the front door to his home in Seattle. Didn't I see this in the Sistine Chapel?

The Laika studio Christmas party. We all indulged in the great Danish Christmas drink, Glugg, but without the oomlats. That's Chris Kiser giving me the evil eye. He and his brother Tommy came here from DNA in Texas where they worked on Jimmy Neutron.

Tom Knott chatting with Brian Ormiston and Ovi Nedelcu. Here's Ovi's website:

http://ovinedelcu.com/index.html

Josh Look, who, we figured out, remembers me from when I was in the Apple store in Glendale, California where he worked before coming to Portland. Was it the way I walked, or was it the altercation I had with the security guard at the Apple store? Hey, isn't that the security guard next to him?

Vanessa and Robert giving me the eye.











Me, holding Jack and Hae Jung's genetically modified cross between a cat and a bear, commonly referred to as Pepper the Schnauzer. This is an amazingly entertaining little dog who spends a lot of his time on his hind legs demanding attention, and getting it. Hope he remembers me when I come back. It's December 26, 2006 and I head back to Los Angeles tomorrow to begin work at Disney's on January 8. I can't wait to come back here again, maybe for good. This whole region is wonderful and I think it'd be a perfect destination for plein air painters. By the way, I never got any paintings done. I was so busy driving around the next bend in the road, down some dead end side street, along some washboard farm road or timber road, exploring the scenery and taking pictures. The paintings may come in the near future and I think I found plenty of them. I just haven't put them on canvas yet. Stay tuned.

Next: I don't know...

Looking for Paintings - Part 22

Loose Ends - Number 1

I have a lot of photos that don't fit into any particular time frame or category so I'm going to post them here, under Loose Ends. This first Loose End will be pictures taken from my balcony in Portland, looking toward Mt. Hood, over a period of two months, between October 25 and December 23, 2006. The seasons change dramatically in that timeframe, and the weather is always exciting, even when it's raining. So, from sunshine to clouds, to fog, to nighttime, from leafy trees to barren branches, from warm to cold, here's what I see from my balcony.





















Next: Loose Ends - Number 2: People along the way

Looking for Paintings - Part 21

Christmas comes to Portland

The air is cold and crisp. My face tingles from the chill wind. People zig-zag along the sidewalks, bundled in scarves, hats, and big, bulky coats, steam pouring out their mouths, packages dangling from their arms. There's an energy in their walk, a youthful spring in their step, an enthusiasm brought on by the twinkling glitter of storefront decorations, holiday lights and general good cheer. Store windows are also dressed for the holidays, adding a festive look to an otherwise colorless downtown area. Restaurants, pubs and bookstores invite you and your fellow shoppers in for a hot meal, a perfect Martini, or a comfortable book to curl up with when you get home. It's Christmastime and this is the way it's supposed to be.

The Pittock Mansion.
Henry Lewis Pittock was born in England in 1834 and came to Portland by wagon train in 1853.

At the age of 19 he began working for Thomas Jefferson Dryer's Weekly Oregonian newspaper.

A consummate businessman, Pittock gained ownership of the Weekly Oregonian in 1860, changing it to a daily newspaper. In 1860 he also married 15-year-old Georgiana Martin Burton and they spent the next 58 years together. He went on to build an empire incorporating real estate, banking, railroads, steamboats, steamships, sheep ranching, silver mining and the pulp and paper industry.

In 1909 he started planning and designing his mansion in the Northwest hills overlooking Portland. Completed in 1914, the mansion contained some very progressive features, including a central vacuum system, intercoms, and indirect lighting. He hired Oregon craftsmen and artisans, using Northwest materials, to build the home. Georgiana died in 1918 and Henry died in 1919.

In 1958 the estate was put on the market. A severe storm in 1962 caused extensive damage to the home and the threat of developers brought concerned citizens together to raise funds to restore the estate. Recognizing the important historical value of the home, the City of Portland purchased the 46-acre estate in 1964 for $225,000.

After 15 months of restoration, the mansion was opened to the public in 1965. Every year at Christmastime, the Pittock Mansion Society calls upon local designers and interior decorators to take one room of the mansion and decorate it for Christmas. I feel very fortunate to have been here at this time of year so I could experience first-hand what a fantastic home this is, and to enjoy the amazing decorations done especially for Christmas. I spent a lunch hour touring the estate and took 98 photographs. Here are the best of them.

















Merry Christmas, everyone, from Portland, Oregon, December 23, 2006.

Looking for Paintings - Part 20

Hillside Homes.

Hillside is a district of Northwest Portland where you'll find some of the finest old homes in the city. Other districts known as Goose Hollow and Southwest Hills also have many grand old homes which I'll post pictures of in a few days. But first, let's see what the homes of Hillside look like. I have no information on any of these homes. I just drove around and took a picture every time I saw a house I liked.
























That's just a smattering of what's there, but you get the idea. The homes in Goose Hollow and Southwest Hills are more grandiose and stately and I'll put those up soon.

Next: Christmas comes to Portland.

Looking for Paintings - Part 19

The Steel Bridge

Okay, bridge buffs, here are some shots of my favorite bridge. There are 16 bridges in the Portland area, seven of them in or near downtown Portland, all of them beautiful in their own way. But my absolute favorite is the Steel Bridge, accessed at the eastern end of Everett Street, carrying cars, buses, trolleys, trains and pedestrians eastward over the Willamette River to the Oregon Convention Center, the Rose Garden Arena, the Lloyd Center and the northeast area of Portland. Westbound traffic flows into Oldtown, Chinatown and the wonderful Pearl District. The Steel Bridge has been photographed a lot by other photographers with greater skills and equipment than I have, but we all share an appreciation for this wonderful bridge.

The bridge was built in 1912.

For more information and images, go to these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_Bridge

http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,0,28,0,1,1-portland-oregon.html

Here are my images:


















The evening of December 9, I went to the Steel Bridge looking for a good vantage point for the Willamette River Christmas Boat Parade, but the turnout was small and downriver from where I was, so I didn't get any pictures of the parade. But then I discovered the extended exposure option on my camera and started photographing the Steel Bridge at night.






This is a wonderful bridge with tons of character and history. The texture and color of the steel and the massive beauty of this bridge evoke an emotional response that pays tribute to its stature as a grand old lady who holds her 94 years very well. Check out the information on the Wikipedia link above.

Earlier in the day I was around Amtrak's Union Station. Here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_(Portland)

I got this shot of The Amtrak Cascades train sitting in the station.

Later, as I was taking those night shots of the Steel Bridge, along comes the Amtrak Cascades. Another thrilling thing about the Steel Bridge is how much it moves as a train goes over it. Very exciting. I hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Next: Great houses of Portland NW

Looking for Paintings - Part 18

Columbia River Gorge - December 2, 2006

I've been living and working in Portland since October 16 and have taken full advantage of the opportunity to see as much of the region as time allows, which is usually weekends. I've been very lucky - almost every Saturday has been clear, with maybe a smattering of obvious weather, which I thoroughly enjoy. I think gray skies, a little rain and tolerable cloudiness mute the colors of nature just enough to make photographs better.

A friend of mine has arrived from Los Angeles, doesn't have a car, and has not seen anything other than his apartment, his office, and whatever lies in the five blocks between. So I happily offered to show him what I saw a week earlier (last post) so I could revisit some of the great scenery and check out his reaction. So we headed out the same route to Washington, but detoured almost immediately to visit The Fort Vancouver Historic Site just off Route 14 about 1 mile east of the I-5. Now, I'm not a big tourist trap, gift shop, guided tour, droning docent, historical recreation kind of guy, but this was one terrific detour that I'm glad I was talked into. Granted, it didn't take a lot to talk me into it, but normally I would have driven right past and made a beeline for the big scenery.

"Since 1966 Fort Vancouver's palisade and several buildings have been reconstructed on their original locations. Together they can give you an idea of what life was like when Fort Vancouver was the most popular settlement in the Pacific Northwest."

The first fort was built around 1825 and this reconstruction lies on the original site.

This gentleman is one of a small army of local volunteers who donate their time to make this historical destination worthwhile. He was a wealth of information about blacksmithing, tools, and pioneer life at Fort Vancouver in 1825. He took the time to explain how things worked, how things were made and the ingenuity the early settlers displayed. My thanks to him for his time and knowledge.

The smokey light of the blacksmith shop was a great opportunity to utilize available lighting very nicely. Sunlight streamed through the windows while the warm glow of the fire added some warmth to the scene.











The nearby infirmary as seen through the windows. (Below)

Adjoining the infirmary, the pharmacy.
An unexpected, elegant dinner setting.

Back at Cape Horn, overlooking the Columbia River Gorge. Please note the white caps on the water below. Maybe (maybe) this will give you an idea of the wind chill factor at this overlook. It was extremely cold here. We'd hop out of the car, grab a shot, then leap back into the car for a minute before jumping out to grab another shot. Don't let those pleasant shadows and sunshine fool you. It was windy, freezing cold and face numbing.

That's me, trying to look like some macho tourist enjoying the pleasant weather and stunning view while exuding total immunity to the elements. Truth is, I was shaking like a leaf and urging my friend to "just push the damn button!"

This mountain north of Bonneville Dam is too pretty to look as cold as it must have been up on it. I was freezing my XXX off where I was standing, so I can't imagine what it was like up on top.

Another cold mountain with a cold lake in the foreground. Skinny dipping, anyone?

So I'm zipping along Route 14 near White Salmon, Washington when I spot something out of the corner of my eye. I thought I had seen some sail boards and wind surfers! I immediately pulled off the freeway and took some local roads down to the water's edge and sure enough... There were some guys windsurfing on the Columbia. I chatted with one guy who was packing up his board and getting ready to leave. He said the water was 41 degrees, the air was 30 degrees and the wind chill factor dropped it down to about zero. And these guys were wind surfing across the Columbia (it took about three minutes to cross the river which is about a mile across at this point.) I don't know what else to say except Brrr.. But that somehow doesn't quite do it.

On I-84 back to Portland on the south side of the Columbia.

Back home in Portland, it's clear enough for a late afternoon shot of Mt. St. Helens from my balcony.

Next: The Steel Bridge

Looking for Paintings - Part 17

Columbia River Gorge, November 25, 2006

Taking the I-5 north out of Portland, across the Columbia River into Vancouver, Washington I took the 14 east and got off that freeway as soon as possible. I switched to the Evergreen Highway about 4 miles down the road and found myself enjoying the drive and the scenery at a much more leisurely pace, saw some great old homes and some gorgeous new estates. I even stopped to compliment one of the owners on his house. You can do that here without people getting nervous or wondering if you're going to sell them something.

Near Washougal is the Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge, teeming with geese and a few deer. This shot is facing east where you can see Mt. Hood in the distance. Click on the picture to make it full-screen sized.




East of Washougal the road starts climbing, offering splendid views like this one. The mountain on the left is dusted with snow on the higher elevations, fading down to no snow at lower elevations.




Very high up, the road turned to the left and suddenly there was this sign for Cape Horn. A little past this sign was a small place to pull off the side of the road, but there's not a lot of warning and it's not big enough for more than three cars. I was definitely not expecting the view to the right, and I remember saying something along the lines of, "Gee, what a nice view." Yeah, that was it.

I wish I could present these as a single panoramic shot, but we'll have to settle for three separate images that you can assemble in your heads.




Reminded me of Alaska's Inside Passage, Norway and Switzerland. Please click on the images to get a better look and a bigger look.


That's the road that the previous three images were taken from. I'm now down on Cape Horn Road which I thought would get me down to the shoreline, but there was a gate that prevented me from entering somebody's private property. Snort.

This is Cape Horn Road leading to the gated private property.


I love meandering small roads like this, but it really irks me that there's usually a no trespassing sign, a private property sign or something that deters me from getting around that final bend in the road that would reveal something fantastic.





Approaching Bonneville Dam I spotted this nifty little passageway under the railroad. There's a small sign that says something about this being a private road and permission to use it is reserved for whoever lives on the other side. Snort.

Bonneville Dam. Tourist season is over so a lot of the typical attractions, like the salmon ladder, access to the innards, views from the catwalks are shut down for the winter, so I didn't get much. Besides, I thought my earlier posts on Grand Coulee Dam covered it better.

This is from Bonneville Dam looking west.

Back home in Portland. I'd managed to turn a 100 mile day-trip (according to the map) into a 200 mile drive that took about 6 hours. Typical. Nice storm clouds rolling in from the east, where I just came from.

Next morning, sunrise with Mt. Hood.

Next: Columbia River Gorge a week later and about 30 degrees cooler. Brr...

Looking for Paintings - Part 16

Sushi, barns, meadows, lakes and Erik Larson

My friend Jim will appreciate this.
Somewhere in Beaverton.
Where's my cat?







Beer with the guys from work at one of Portland's many, many fine pubs and breweries. Portland is one of the best beer towns on the planet, with local breweries producing some of the best beers in the country. If you must, you can get an ordinary commercial beer, but that would be foolish. I've had beers here that are 7.5, even 9.5 alcohol. I don't know what the line is between beer and white lightning, but this stuff is right there. At this place I got the sampler tray of about ten beers in double shot glasses, from dark and bitter to light and sweet, and I only made it through about 5 double shots and I was double shot.



Somewhere southwest of Beaverton I found this magnificent barn, probably one of the best I've seen so far. A real beauty. A three-story structure with waterfront access in the back.

Schoolhouse or church for sale, fixer upper, southwest of Beaverton.

I don't know what this is or was - part barn, part church, part root cellar, meeting hall, schoolhouse. It's fantastic!

This is Erik Larson, author of Isaac's Storm and The Devil in the White City signing copies of his new book Thunderstruck at Powells Bookstore in Beaverton. He gave a good hour-long talk to a crowd of about 100 fans, discussing his work methods, routines, research methods, adventures and professional background. It was a fascinating talk peppered with terrific anecdotes and amusing events in his career. We chatted briefly but I got to tell him how much I enjoy his work. He must have signed 300+ books because people had multiple copies of Thunderstruck and copies of his other books, each of which he cordially signed. He lives in Seattle, about a 3-hour drive from Portland.

Next: My Saturday November 25th day trip to Washington to explore the north side of the Columbia River and the Columbia Gorge.

Looking for paintings - Part 15

The Oregon Coast and Tillamook Bay.

After a scary drive down Route 6 from Banks to Tillamook, I finally made it to the Oregon Coast. One thing I really like about Oregon beaches is that they're flat and hard. No mushy white sand to struggle across. The perfect beach for playing Frisbee with your dog. These shots are on the beach in Oceanside.




Night was falling as the white foam intensified and I realized I'd be driving back to Portland in the dark through the Tillamook State Forest on some scary mountain roads and with stormy weather visible in those mountains.

This is Tillamook Bay, looking east. It reminded me very much of Ireland and Scotland with that silvery steel blue-gray water and the foreboding rain clouds in the distant mountains.

Isn't this a fantastic picture? I was zipping along this two-lane, rut-infested bayside road hoping to reach civilization before the light disappeared entirely when I saw this. As usual, there were no other cars in sight, so when I stopped abruptly to grab this shot I knew I wouldn't have some bumper-sniffing Hummer plowing into me. The lighting is amazing. The setting sun is actually behind me, illuminating the storm clouds to the east, where I'm headed. Those old dead trees look like some long-abandoned pier, and I don't know why they happen to be arranged in such an orderly manner, but I sure appreciate it. Click on any picture to make it full screen.

Next: Sushi, barns, meadows, lakes, houses and Erik Larson.

Looking for Paintings - Part 14

More exploring around Portland and beyond

About four miles north of Portland on Route 30 is the town of Linnton... oops... there it went. On the south end of town, just off the road where you can easily miss it if you blink, is Linnton's old train station, built in the 1930s. It sits quarantined behind some oil company fence that prevents you from walking on private, highly toxic ground and getting too close to this asbestos laden building that looks like it escaped from a Charles Addams cartoon. I had an entertaining chat with the security guard for the company that owns the land (and probably the building) and he said there had been talk of converting it to a museum of some sort, but the asbestos in the building presented a problem. So there it sits, isolated and brooding, locked away from admirers of buildings of great character who are forced to keep their distance by the chain link fence that surrounds it. Isn't it magnificent?









On November 18 I decided to finally drive to the coast, about 1.5 hours drive under normal conditions and with a normal driver who wants to go from Point A to Point B. But, hey... it's me.

Heading for Tillamook, I started west along Route 26 and meandered onto some of the side roads before switching over to Route 6 near the town of Banks. It took me four hours to get to Tillamook. A week earlier there had been some terrific rainstorms in those mountains, something like ten inches in a day, and it all ran down into Tillamook, washing away campgrounds, RV parks, lots of land and trees, and probably some cattle. Some houses I saw in Tillamook had mud levels as high as 7 feet. Lawns were littered with furniture, clothing, toys and miscellaneous household goods ready to be salvaged or trashed.

Route 6, the road I took to get there, had been littered with mud, rocks, trees and ruts, and it's a major east/west road. Sunlight was fading quickly and by the time I was done shopping at the Tillamook Cheese store, it was dark.

I had found Route 6 through the Tillamook State Forest to be so treacherous and nerve-wracking that I decided to take a different route back. I opted for Route 53 about 25 miles north of Tillamook. Big mistake. I learned later that there are no homes, businesses or people along most of Route 53 and that the reason I didn't see any signs of civilization along the way is because there was none. About every ten minutes or more I'd pass another car coming from the opposite direction. It was pretty much a winding two-lane road, it was pitch black except for my headlights, and it was raining heavily, with intermittent hail and sporadic fog, sometimes all at once. Driving with high beams in fog is like driving into a sand-blasted mirror. Driving with low beams forced me to do about 20 mph, relying on the road I could see about 50 feet ahead and hoping that some deer or Mr. and Mrs. Bigfoot didn't leap out in front of me. Every inch of me was tense, alert and anticipatory so that the 18 mile drive on Route 53 felt like 100 miles. I was exhausted when I finally hooked up with Route 26, and at that point it was still 65 miles back to Portland.

And that's why I don't have too many photos of this day trip. But here are some pix from somewhere off Route 26 earlier in the day.

And, of course, another obligatory weathered farm structure. There's something so attractive about barns, clouds and open pasture! All of the landscapes here can be found within 40 minutes of downtown Portland and only recently have developers begun pushing to the west, primarily around Hillsboro. West of Hillsboro is the small town of Forest Grove which is the end of the line for the current MAX light rail service. I'm sure in the very near future, that rail service will extend further west toward Banks. Check your Yahoo or Google maps. And don't forget to click on any picture to make it full screen.

Next: The Oregon Coast and Tillamook Bay.

Looking for Paintings - Part 13

Portland

This is a re-posting of Part 13. For some reason only the text part of this post went through and I don't know how to edit just that text, so I'm going to re-post all of Part 13. Here it is, again, with 13 pictures...

For those of you who want to know, all the photos you've seen posted on this Blog were taken with a Canon PowerShot S400 Digital Elph, 4.0 Mega Pixels. This is a sturdy workhorse of a digital camera and I've been very pleased with the results I've gotten with it. I carry it in my coat pocket, shirt pocket or pants pocket, depending on the weather or how covert I want to be. The only complaint I have with it is a very minor one: Sometimes I just can't get a second shot off fast enough because of the camera's response time. It's not like one of those motorized 35mm film cameras where you get a shot, get a shot, get a shot, as fast as you can push the button. The fastest I can get a second shot is about four seconds after the first. No big deal, except for those moments when you want to get consecutive action or grab two or three shots of something in passing. I can live with it. None of the photos have been Photoshopped or altered in any way except for those few where I cropped the image to emphasize a composition or to frame a scene. What you see is exactly what I saw the instant I saw it. I always prefer available light and seldom resort to using flash except when a) It won't matter, such as wide open spaces where the flash will have no impact or b) Where the only source of illumination is the flash. Usually the flash shots are obvious, like guys drinking beer in a dark old bar. Okay, let's move along...

My rental condo is the fourth one from the left, second floor, partially obscured by that evergreen tree in the foreground. The construction stuff you see in the picture is for a new 20-story condo complex that probably won't be finished for another year. It ought to obscure most of the view directly eastward for the folks that live in the first three condos. Meanwhile, my view directly eastward looks like the next three shots.

That's early morning fog blowing off. Below is a night shot.


My kind of road, in the hills about three miles behind my condo.

Just across the Columbia River in Washington, about ten miles from Portland on I-5 is the Vancouver Lake Wildlife Preserve. The day I drove there, Canadian Geese were gathering, ready to begin their migration south. They'd been gathering at Vancouver Lake and were in for the night. This felt like one of those African Safari movies showing the wildlife gathering at the watering hole. There must have been thousands of geese here, all honking they're beaks off. Click to enlarge the picture and start counting.

Southwest of Portland, near Beaverton and Tualatin, I found some protected marshland where more birds were gathering. I got as close as I could, but not close enough to photograph the birds. So I settled for some fall foliage, late October.





And the obligatory weathered farm structure...


And a nice, early morning foggy fall foliage shot to wrap it up for today.



Next: Some great old buildings, more landscapes and the odd...

Looking for Paintings - Part 12

The last posting was a bit confusing. I was trying to fix a date to some of the images, most of which were taken about two months prior to this posting, and moving suddenly into past tense made it sound like I was talking about things that happened today. Not so. I'll try to put a reference date to the posts from now on. Sorry for the confusion.

In and around Portland, probably October 21, 2006

This is the Burlington Northern Santa Fe bridge, about four miles north of Portland on Route 30, used exclusively for BNSF trains. Access to it for a good photo was almost impossible. This is the best I could do.

Here's a link to a website with more info, and a shot of the bridge in the up position to let a ship under. That's facing Portland which can be seen in the background to the right.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:BNSFBridge(Portland).jpg

This is under St. John's Bridge which crosses the Willamette River about a mile north of the BNSF bridge. It's a real pretty bridge with a beautiful park underneath.

Here's a link to everything you ever wanted to know about St. John's Bridge:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:BNSFBridge(Portland).jpg










About two miles east of downtown Portland is Laurelhurst Park, a stunning neighborhood park surrounded by equally stunning turn-of-the-century homes



Strolling through this park on a Sunday morning made me think of Lady and the Tramp and that era when people went strolling through the park, saying "hello" and appreciating the serenity.

One of the cozy little pathways along the water's edge, stuffed with colorful foliage.





The park takes up about one city block.

Here's an interesting link for more info:
http://www.ourlaurelhurst.org/wiki/index.php/Laurelhurst_Park

Next: More Portland pictures, weather and stuff.

Looking for Paintings - Part 11

I had my meeting with the Laika folks and am set to start work on Monday, October 16. This set of photos was taken on October 15, 2006. This condo is owned by my friend Jack Heiter and it became available for rent today. It has one bedroom, bath, living room and kitchen, with stove, fridge, dishwasher and a balcony. The cleaners will clean the place today and it should be ready to move into on Tuesday the 17th when the rental furniture arrives. I stopped by to check out the view so I can share it with you. The condo faces east. Just imagine that the following seven pictures are linked together to form one huge pan shot. You can see where the overlaps occur for the David Hockney panorama I'll piece together in the future.

The pan starts facing South.The pan ends facing North.

The crane in the second picture is for the construction of a 40 floor hotel or condo complex, I'm not sure which. It should pretty much block the view of the condo owners about two buildings over, and I'm sure they appreciate it.
The second crane in the last two pictures is being used to finish off construction of another condo complex to the north, and it won't be anywhere near as tall and scene-ruining. The weather for just about my entire trip so far has been like this. Tomorrow, when I start work, it'll rain. And in a matter of days, autumn will arrive and the seasons will change conspicuously.
Next morning the first hints of autumn moved in, but the view is still great. In the weeks ahead I'll be taking lots of pictures from my balcony, capturing the changing weather patterns and season's colors as they roll by.
Sunrise around October 18. That's Mt. Hood in the distance, about 50 miles away.
Probably the same day. That's Mt. St. Helens in the center of the picture in Washington. Small and very faintly in the distance, visible to the left of Mt. St. Helens is Mt. Rainier, about 85 miles away (not that easily visible lump to the left but the faint one that's kind of hard to see). I have better pictures coming, when the weather was better, but this was impressive.

Next: Local color and more balcony stuff.