Cha!Cha!Cha! show extended through August 31st

Good news! My show at the Cha!Cha!Cha! Restaurant in Milwaukie, OR—at least a portion of it—will be up until the end of August. Seven paintings are still hanging there. Two were sold and the other three are back at home or on sale on my Etsy site. The two that were sold are:

Forest Sunrise

and

Cascade Waterfall

I've been working on a new project—the cover for my next Kindle book release, coming soon. I'll have the first attempt done this week. I have two really different ideas and I might end up trying both of them before I decide for sure which to use.

Back to work!

Mixed media paintings on display in Milwaukie, OR

Cha!Cha!Cha! Restaurant - Home of my first solo show, July 1-31, 2014

A dozen of my big mixed media paintings are spending the month of July in the Cha!Cha!Cha! restaurant in beautiful downtown Milwaukie, just a few miles south of Portland, OR. The show opened yesterday and won't come down till July 31st. Most of the paintings in the show have appeared on this blog, but a few are older ones which were done before I started this.

I'm really thrilled to have my first solo show in this wonderful Mexican restaurant. Mexican food has been one of my most favorite kinds of foods since I was kid, so I have many decades of happy memories of sharing Mexican food with family and friends. Being here feels like a big thumbs-up from the Universe to me. The owner and manager of the restaurant, Carmen Mojica, has been really great to work with and is very supportive of local art and artists. And, the food is great and very affordable—and the margaritas are, too.

So if you're in the area and just a little bit hungry for good Mexican food and lots of bright colors and friendly people, pay a visit to the Cha!Cha!Cha!, at 11008 SE Main Street in Milwaukie. It's just one block off the 99E, between Oregon City and Portland. For hours or reservations, call 503.659.2193. They also do take-out!

Group show at In Bocca al Lupo Gallery, Milwaukie, OR

Fern Lake

Last night was the opening of the "Pollen Count" group show in beautiful downtown Milwaukie at the In Bocca al Lupo Gallery of Roxanne Clingman. I was there last night with three of the other artists, Dianne Jean Erickson, Bridget Benton, and my gardening & art buddy, Marilyn Woods. Roxanne shared one of her mixed media paintings, a beautiful large sunflower with brilliant colors, rich and splendid. All the artists were really fun to meet and talk to, and their works both include encaustic, and they're really strong compositions and very worthy paintings. Bridget's painting explored the macro-micro juxtaposition with luminous colors, and Dianne's struck me as a higher-level abstraction, an ethereal essay on Nature, that on reflection makes me feel as if I were standing outside in a garden. Marilyn's new acrylic florals combine strong abstract elements with very delicate flowers that remind me of Odilon Redon's floral pastels. He has been a favorite painter of mine for several decades.

The First Eden

Roxanne generously included two of my mixed media works, The First Eden and Fern Lake. This is my first time in a gallery in a few years and it was really fun. In Bocca al Lupo ("In the wolf's mouth") is a bright but intimate gallery in the south part of Milwaukie, which is a walkable small town halfway between Portland and Oregon City right on the 99E, and there are plenty of restaurants and tea and coffee shops nearby to make it a lunch or suppertime destination. The gallery hours are limited, Thursdays and Fridays 1-5pm, and during Sunday Markets, 9:30am to 2pm.