Garden Color

For borders, my 'go to' plant is the New Guinea Impatient.  They can tolerate more sun than traditional Impatient's, and will fill in nicely.  In warmer zones, you can plant them as early as March, but here in the NW, where it's been such a rainy spring, I'm finally getting around to planting them!  That was my job last night- luckily, the soil was moist and workable and they went in pretty quickly. As they fill in, I'll post a photo of my garden, but I'm about a month behind since it's been so wet!  Roses and Peonies are full of rust spots...grrrr!

Movin' On

We had another fun meeting of  The Art Buddies (We really do need an official name), at Dinah's yesterday.   We decided to save 'backgrounds' for another time when more of us could attend-which may be in the fall with everyone's summer schedules.  Anyway, we were the 'Mighty Four' and had fun thanks to Dinah's hospitality, lovely flowers, and  everyone's good company.   We s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d  our comfort zone painting car fenders, and in spite of the comments "OMG, This is hard!" etc. I think we had some pretty good results!

In case you're wondering about the flowers: Dinah salvaged a fantastic vase from the trash in her office.  The shape allows the flowers to be arranged perfectly, hence the photo.  We started talking about cameras, and the consensus is that people are loving the Canon PowerShot.  Mine's a SD960 IS with 12.1 MegaPixels.  This whole digital thing is relatively new to me, despite the fact that I've been a professional photographer since college.  With a Hasselblad, all you needed was a good light meter, some knowledge of posing and light composition and you were set!  Digital is a whole other story.  In many ways, now you can do so much more with a lot less of a camera investment. I was able to put my camera on Macro 2x and get the close-ups of this peony.  We decided to bring our cameras and the instruction book that came with it to our next session, and teach ourselves how to take pictures for our art.

Below, Carol shared her find from Art Media.  There's no tray on the bottom for pencils etc, but it tilts up and you can tape your work on it.  It's great if you don't want to sit all the time while painting.

It's always fun to have Show and Tell (Thank you, Jude).  I always think we learn a lot from each other.  I always hate it when I take an art class and don't get to see other students finished work.  Above, Carol shared a recent finished pencil drawing, and showed a layering technique in which you paint a grey wash and then add your color for increased value.  Maybe she will do a show and tell when we're all together.  Carol showed us some of her beautiful work.  I especially loved the creek scene below, where she used pencils on watercolor paper, and it had a lovely texture.

Dinah shared this Lake Oswego bridge painting from her journal.  I was so impressed, since I've tried to paint that same bridge with dismal results!

Hard at work...

I brought some car photos from an exhibit from the High Museum in Atlanta, and it was fun painting them.  I had to leave before everyone was finished, but I think we did good!

Carol's great color mix

Dinah emailed me her finished work.  WOW, it's fantastic!  She even got the overhead display light reflection. 

Judy made this impressive drawing, and then added a wash.  The drawing is so good, you wouldn't want the paint to distract, so the wash was perfect.

My car with the fun wheel interest.

What's your Favorite Summer Holiday Dish?

We've been eating pretty healthy around here, but with Memorial Day being the unofficial start of summer, you just have to have a little Potato Salad!  This is where I get my 15 seconds of fame- from my Mother at least!  I'm convinced it's the dill.

Vickie's Potato salad

8 Yukon Gold potatoes

1/4 c apple cider vinegar

1 1/4 c. light mayonnaise

1/4 pickle juice

1/4 c mustard

1 c chopped sweet pickles

1 c. chopped celery

5 scallions chopped 

3 tablespoons fresh or dried dill

5 hard boiled eggs chopped

boil potatoes until soft, drain, peel, and cut into cubes

in a large bowl, add ingredients, toss, cover and refrigerate

top with Italian Parsley, and Hungarian paprika

 

Great served with ribs, and corn on the cob!

Dining in Luxury

After a hard day of wine tasting, we wanted to get a quick bite before picking up the dogs at Mom's. It used to be the kids, now it's the dogs!  LOL  Anyway, after munching our way through the Oregon wine country, on lovely cheeses and pate and chocolate, we just wanted a light meal.  It worked out perfectly to also check out the new Allison Inn and Spa.http://www.trails.com/the-allison-inn-spa-hotel-127962.html  Wow, what an amazing place.  I could see coming here for a special anniversary or occasion, since it's quite spendy-rooms start at $295 a night....but, what a beautiful place! 

From the back, it's four stories tall! 

The building is very sleek and modern, and as you can see, the rock work is incredible! 

Beautiful natural features.  There were lots of places with covered decks, so even in Oregon's unpredictable weather, you could sit outside.

I loved all the things they used for sustainability, like the succulent roof-top gardens!

The grounds had a beautiful 'English Garden' feel... 

We ordered food in the bar area, and you could see the chefs preparing meals in the kitchen.  The dinningroom is on the left.

Rick ordered sausage with mashed potatoes, and I ordered a burger with feta and caramelized onions, which he also shared.  it was all very good.

Ghost Hill Cellars

We happened upon this wonderful spot while driving on the back roads on our wine tasting adventure.  It looked so interesting that we had to stop, and were welcomed by Mike Bayless and his wife, Dendra.   The winery is on the land that Mike's grandparents bought in 1906, and was once a sheep ranch.  It's called Ghost Hill, since legend has it that a miner was murdered for his gold near Oaks Springs Road.  Apparently, more gold was taken out of Oregon in the 19th Century than in California!

The Tasting Room at Ghost Hill reminded me of the Oregon Wineries in the 70's.  When I transferred up here from The S.F. Bay Area in the late 70's, most of the wineries were in the vintner's garages or makeshift  outbuildings.  Those vintners went on to become some of the biggest names in the Oregon wine industry.  The Bayless' were tasting a  Rose and a Pinot, both lovely.  Rose wines are pretty unusual in Oregon, but theirs had a refreshing light grapefruit taste. It will be fun to watch these wines develop.  

Some friends were visiting and displaying their Rolls and Bentley cars.  I had so much fun  photographing them for watercolor painting later.

Everyone was so friendly...it was a fun ending to a memorable day!

Touring the Wineries of Yamhill Valley

We were supposed to head to the Oregon Coast for the holiday weekend, but DH had just returned from NY and we felt too many things needed to be done around the house to sacrifice a whole weekend, so we just took one day off instead.  You can't go wrong heading to Yamhill Valley when the most wineries are open only two times a year-Memorial Day and Thanksgiving weekend.  The sheer beauty of the place takes you breath away, especially on a clear day.

Our first stop was at The Anderson Family Winery, where Cliff and Alison provide an excellent Chardonnay and Pinot.  We met them last fall, when we realized that they were avid Oregon Duck fans, and have been friends ever since.  Their winery is perched on a rocky hill with a commanding view of the valley and definitely worth a visit. (see above) Cliff uses wood barrels from France to age his wines. 

Our next stop was Bella Vida, where you'll find another beautiful vista.  It's an interesting switch-back road leading up to the tasting room, which they are expanding.  Three winemakers bring a boutique approach to the Pinot production. 

They also have a highly rated 2008 harvest, which produced a wine they call Gris-Ling, a mix of 80% Pinot Gris and 20% Riesling.  It has a wonderful flavor and we bought some to pair with an appetizers and salad course at one of our wine dinners.  Not that we consider ourselves experts, we're just in it for the fun!

Of course I come for the amazing scenery as much as the wine tasting, and my camera and sketchbook are always with me to capture some of the beauty at these wineries.

Winderlea Winery was our next stop and I loved the design of their tasting facility, which has garage style doors that open over the valley where their wine in produced.  As we sampled their excellent wines, there was some mention that the winery might hosting food and wine pairing lunches in the summer...definitely something to investigate! 

 Our next stop was at Stoller Winery.  We've been acquainted with Bill and Cathy since we were in an Investment Club with them

many years ago.  They started producing wine in 2001 from grapes on the land that was once a turkey farm, owned by Bill's family.  This winery is very environmentally friendly has has earned lots of certifications for their sustainability.

In addition to their excellent wines, the setting of Stoller Winery is amazing- a perfect place to picnic and  play Disc Golf.

What a fun day!  We did go to another winery, Ghost Hill, but I'm saving that one for another post.  We also stopped on the way home at a wonderful new Inn and Spa for a bite to eat, and that will be in a separate post as well.  If you're looking for something fun to do over Thanksgiving weekend, it's worth the trip to support the Oregon Wine Industry.  You won't be disappointed.

Show and Tell at the Daily Cafe

After the Ex Libris Exhibit, we all went over to the Daily Cafe in the Pearl, for lunch and Show and Tell. I couldn't resist a photo of these beautiful flowers, which would make great watercolor subjects!

The Daily Cafe is a really fun and bustling place. The food is good, atmosphere is friendly, and it's easy on the pocketbook.  I'd recommend it!  We were having so much fun talking, that I didn't take pictures of the food that we ordered, so you'll have to trust me.

The things we do for art!  JoAnn found a dead bird, which she photographed and painted -No, she didn't kill it!

Judy had just returned from an Alaskan cruise, and had some fun things to share.

Dinah and Carol had just returned from Hawaii

 where they had gone with girlfriends, and here, Dinah showed off the cards they made while there.  It sounded like my kind of vacation-paint, beach, drinks with umbrellas, more painting, repeat!

At Joanie's last time, (I missed), the group played with a Wet-on-Wet Watercolor Technique, and showed off the results with these cards.