Beach escape

Here are a couple of fun photos from our beach escape yesterday afternoon---relaxation for one, work for the other ;)---got a chance to paint proposal rock in Neskowin---then some play time.

Unofficial Studio Friday

Ok I'm not registered, or anything like that, but heard it was about the outside of your studio--so here's what I saw today through my studio window. Signs of fall!

Painting last week

About 25 miles east of Newport is Burnt Woods. If you turn south there and drive in about 8 miles you come to Harlan---a few houses, a cemetery, a church, and not much else besides a lot of farmland. One of its highlights is the view of Mary’s Peak, the largest mountain in the Coast Range. Normally one sees Miss Mary from her east side, considering that’s where most of the population lives. A few lucky people get to see her from her west side---including many in the community of Harlan. Last week, our plein aire group had the pleasure of painting in Harlan. One of our members is a retired vet & he received permission from some of the land owners to drive onto their cattle field to paint. Others parked themselves near the church and painted scenes from there. Another favorite site was the local cemetery. Here are some images of Harlan and what I chose to paint. I’m especially happy with the colors I played around with in the foreground field.

amazing sunset

While driving home the other evening, my daughter and I experienced the most amazing sunset of my life---it's a wonder I didn't drive off the road --- I couldn't stop watching it! The changing colors, the mix of yellows, oranges, cerulean blue, magenta & violet evolved each second---the cloud shapes went from looking like the pattern of sand as the waves wash over it to candy cane striping. It truly was phenomenal... here are just a few of the digital photos we shot...just a taste of how inspiring they were...

Clicking on a photo will enlarge it a bit if you want more impact!

Sledding in the summer!

Wish I'd had my camera....

My daughter was babysitting yesterday, and called to invite me to go to a park with her and the little boys. We had fun watching them play on the swings, run in the grass and climb on the dinosaur "bones". The little guys are 5 years old and 18 months, and when we walked over to see the train we noticed people sliding down a small grassy hill sledding in the 80º heat!! They were riding blocks of ice with a folded towel on top!!

Totally new to me, but my daughter said they did a similar thing with blocks of ice at camp last year---only they hung onto the blocks of ice while laying face down with a partner holding their legs wheel-barrow-style---then they were hustled forward, spun around an end point & slid back to the starting point!

At the park, this group was sitting on their ice blocks, leaning back, holding up their legs & balancing with their arms out to get momentum for sliding down the hill. The little 5 year old with us watched a while, which prompted a nice teen fella to invite him to try out the ice. The little guy said no thanks, then climbed around on the train a while with his brother & the two of us. At one point he was watching the "sledding" again so I offered to ask if he could try. He then said he was "too shy". After some more climbing, he asked if I would go see if he could have a turn---it was too tempting for this "shy" guy! The nice teen saw he was interested again & offered his block and soggy towel. That was it, little N could have spent the whole rest of the day slipping down the hill! He had difficulty perching his little self on top of the ice---often the block took off while he plunked down with just the soggy towel, but he'd determinedly push the block back up the hill and try again! Luckily the group had lots of ice blocks, so they didn't mind in the least he'd taken over one. A young teenage girl even helped my daughter hold the leg & hands of little B the 18 month old so he could slide down a couple of times... Sweet memories :)!

Space Aliens?

Nope, just the promised photos of the bronze pour. First photo shows our friend adding more ingots of bronze to the crucible which is being heated inside that cylindrical hot pot.

Next we have my husband in the shorts & the artist (friend) lifting out the crucible full of molten bronze to start pouring into the molds. Nothing like a little gear to wear on a hot day in a very hot room!

Here they are pouring, and a close up shot below.


These molds were different from the previous set---more open, like he was pouring bars of some sort...

Good to the last drop...

Of course, one can't help but get a bit goofy...sure it's only a sauna in that room, but hey, wouldn't this be a great Halloween costume?

Red hot molten bronze

A friend invited us over to watch him pour bronze today---he especially wanted my husband to be his number one helper (I think the term was dead-guy for some reason!) The actual pour and process was quite interesting, but the standing around waiting part was a bit of a drag... I could see this process being much more desirable during a cold winter day, but a hot summer day with the heat involved in melting metal makes for quite the sauna! I was lucky being assigned to be the digital photographer I didn't have to suit up like my husband did. He put on a leather apron that extended to his ankles and strapped around his legs like chaps. Next he had heat proof gaiters he wrapped around his ankles & over his heavy leather boots. The upper body was enclosed in this reflective silver jacket, fastened tight over the chest & he then wore a pull-down mirrored face shield. Oh, sure, lets put this on while it's almost 90º out and lift heavy red hot crucibles of molten bronze!!

We were there almost 3 hours---waiting for the bronze to melt, everything to heat correctly, and finally 2 different pouring events. The artist was making plaques to be placed on a bench as a memorial for a friend. The couple that commissioned these plaques were there to watch the process, and oddly enough the friend that is being memorialized was there too---a gentle kind musician that's fighting lung cancer. He'd just recently found out he had another year added onto his life expectancy. I guess he wasn't supposed to still be alive today, but is fighting a good battle. Unfortunately the noise of the foundry made conversation difficult, so it wasn't easy to chat.

The camera I was running wasn't ours, so hopefully they'll send us some photos I can share.

Saturdays

I love our summer Saturdays and today is another good one! Love sleeping in while my sweetie is out conquering the hills on his mt. bike, returning charged and amped from the adrenaline rush while I'm calmly sipping coffee reading the paper. We then get ready and ride bikes to the Farmer's Market downtown where a riot of color, people, dogs, kids, & music awaits. We wander, perusing the veggies and flowers, picking out our favorites of the week. We wave to people we recognize, chat, bake in the sun, then stop at Great Harvest for a cookie and a slice, taking both back to the market where we find a bench in the shade. There we listen to Ramblin' Rex sing the blues while munching our goodies, and watching people, bikers, life go by. It's such an inspiration for me. I love the small town feel, the connectedness with the community and the earth, the rich bounty of the valley, the lush green grass of the river front park, the rush of wind as we ride along the bike path home. Life is good :).