Last weekend I had the pleasure of meeting my daughter for an overnight at the Big K Ranch in Elkton Oregon, which is about equidistant from here and Portland, where she lives. We both drove through rain the entire trip until we turned into the 5 mile driveway to the guest ranch house and were treated to that sparkley sunshine that comes through rain clouds in mid afternoon. We arrived within 5 minutes of each other and spent the rest of our time there marveling at the Oregon-ness of the place. I was so glad I brought my field easel and paints!

The sheep were not part of this composition when I chose the scene–they wandered in after they decided I was just a new lump on the land. Although most of the the painting was done on site, I did work on it after I got home, and when the green field was dry enough I stuck little pieces of white paper on it with wax and moved them around until I felt the “sheep” were where they should be. I don’t really aspire to being a great landscape painter, but it sure is fun!

On that note, Terry Miura will be coming here to teach a plein air painting workshop June 6,7,8. give a shout if you are interested in attending. I will mention this again with more details.