Clackamas River Spring Afternoon

In mid-April I was riding with a friend on a partly cloudy but dry-ish spring afternoon and we came up to the Carver bridge over the Clackamas River from the Carver side, and some sunlight hit these trees and lit up their tender new leaves. My friend is really great at pulling off the road for quick photographs, and she found a place—amazingly, because it's a pretty messy road and no shoulder in most places—and I jumped out of the car and ran about 10 feet to take pictures. Another passenger said, "Is she sick?" but my friend explained.

I again used a like-new quarter-inch flat brush to get the bare branches at the top. I have a really hard time getting thin lines in acrylic with a small round; the flat is so much easier.

On to the next one!

Flowering Fruit Trees

Driveway and Cherry Tree

We get this wonderful side benefit of fruit trees—besides the delicious fruit in the summer and fall, we get the flowers in late April and early May. And this pie cherry tree on a friend's driveway was shining with flowers on this overcast late April day. I was over there on a drizzly day and tried taking a photo through my car window, but raindrops got in the way. I was back a few days later when it wasn't raining and got my photo before the flowers faded.

I finally have time to paint again—my glass work is done for a while. I have a backlog of work I want to do from last fall till just lately, so I'll be working a lot this year. And as I look out at my garden, which looks much more grown than last year, I'm eager to get out there and do more plein air painting!

It's going to be a busy year!