© Pam Van Londen 2010 "The Kite Flyers" acrylic on 18x14-inch gallery-edged canvas.

Josephine County’s CASA program asked me to paint something with a heart to donate to their fundraiser auction. I put two kids in a field with a heart-shaped kite and used as few brush strokes as possible (to keep from over working it) to render an abstracted scene in acrylic.

This piece will be part of the “Hearts and Heroes” art exhibit and auction to benefit the Children’s Advocacy Center and CASA program in Josephine County, OR, which starts April 1, 2010. April is National Child Abuse and Awareness month. Each piece to be exhibited includes a heart.

All work will be auctioned May 7, 2010 at a benefit dinner. One-hundred percent of the money raised goes towards Child Abuse Advocacy in Josephine County, Oregon.

For weeks now, I’ve been trying to work out what this painting ought to be. I think it is done now. Not sure if this one is the start of a new series or not.

If you like it, let me know and I’ll make more.

I have plenty of my own photos to paint from until I can get outside to paint plein air.

But I have never been to Norway to paint, so I have done it virtually, for the Virtual Paintout monthly challenge. It uses Google Maps to help artists find a view of the city they want to paint.

View this month’s submissions from international artists.

This month’s Painting Challenge is Winter Creek, a complicated landscape with confusing branches and subtle colors; one I find the hardest to paint.

I am still working with a transparent oil technique, this time on gesso rather than Claybord, so I’ve left the crimson underpainting showing through and exaggerated the color where I could.

This location is my favorite in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland.

Etsy Treasury by Sara Montegue

One of my Canyon Dreams paintings has been included in an Etsy Treasury compiled by Sara Montague. See her lovely highlight of my work.

Sara is a collage artist and photographer who describes herself like this: Christian. graduate student. future psychotherapist. grammarian. woman. bibliophile. idealist. feminist. artist. thinker. feeler. loner. listener. learner. lover.

The transparent oil technique that I’ve been using the last couple of weeks took a new turn this morning with this painting on Gessobord (instead of my usual Claybord.

The topmost oilier layers push the bottommost layers to the side, creating thin dark edges. I like this style and will try it again next painting session.

I had time to paint in spite of the very busy day!

One of a series of the MolallaRiver at Canby. Look for 5 more coming soon.

From 3:00pm to 7:00pm on Friday, Feb 26, the Mod Pod will be hosting Artist’s Night, which will feature local artists in the store, including me!

View my latest abstract works and various landscapes.

Fresh start at a new Valley Morning painting

Latest attempt to fix an evolving painting.

This mornings efforts to add more work to my Valley Morning series have gone haywire. Or you could say what was once a lovely abstract is now a color field painting. It will probably be something else tomorrow.

Who said, “There will be days like this.”