Category: Landscapes

On hot days, it’s helpful to get out of the studio and paint outdoors under the shade of riverside trees.

This painting is an impressionistic view of Mary’s River at Avery Park, in Corvallis. Families showed up just after we did, to cool off, jump in from the rope swing, and give their dogs a bath.

This composition is interesting to me, but the light/dark pattern I loved about the water that day is missing. I’ll be adding cool shadows to the background, refining the grass, and defining rocks on this version, but I also want to paint another with large flat shapes rather than impressionistic brushstrokes.

I’ve sold this painting on a layaway plan. Let me know if you, too, would like to purchase a painting with payments.

When I was hanging the show at Corvallis Montessori School this week, a few passersby commented on the Smith River piece, which I have been ignoring. It was my son who first told me it was worth hanging.
The second in the series is not as interesting or easy to understand, but the third one, right, has the same color scheme and personality, which, as one person commented, “makes you want to get out on the water in a canoe.”

SOLD © Pam Van Londen 2007 Otter Rock Retreat 1 acrylic on canvas on 14 x 18 x 1 canvas

Over the years, I have enjoyed many weekends at Otter Rock, where you can watch surfers at Beverly Beach or find agates and star fish at low tide near the Devil’s Punchbowl.

I started three paintings there last weekend; one I finished. I forgot to bring cerulean blue (again) so I painted the ocean without it. Needless to say, they will get finished at home (can’t have ocean without blue).

Otter Rock Retreat 1 is of the old front door to a friend’s cottage. I visited at just the right time; the garden was in full bloom. I mostly finished this one and hung it in the show I have displayed at the Corvallis Montessori School this summer.

$450 © Pam Van Londen 2007 Pismo Beach Garden acrylic on canvas on 24 x 36 x 1.5 canvas

This painting is a favorite of many friends and others who’ve seen it. Perhaps one of you lucky art lovers will get to purchase it at half price (until Jan. 2008)!

This painting placed 2nd in the Professional Landscape lot of the Open Class section of the Benton Country Fair in August 2006.

In the final stages is this 24x30x1.5 acrylic of a garden in Pismo Beach, CA that I started 3 or 4 yrs ago. It’s looking brighter and simpler now that I’ve removed a large flower, boulder, and gecko that was distracting.

I’m leaving out the two Adirondack chairs planned for the top left because the scene is already a bit busy.

I find foliage difficult to paint, so have not been motivated all these years to finish it. The key is to simplify, simplify, simplify!

SOLD © Pam Van Londen 2007 Echo Amphitheatre 2 acrylic on canvas on 12 x 24 x 1 canvas

New Mexico is the land of enchantment; every corner of the Northern area provides a shocking vista to paint.

Echo Amphitheatre is a great place to sing or play the flute as well as paint. The campground was closed for renovation but the host allowed us to dry camp so I could get up early to paint. A large painting group showed up later in the day to watercolor.

I got up early at this magical place and painted three works. What fun I had keeping the colors bright and the brush loose.

There are other spectacular views at this location, but I wanted to focus on one subject all day; I had no idea I would paint so fast.

While in Santa Fe, NM, we spent time at the O’Keefe Museum, which hosted Many paintings I hadn’t seen yet. I found several favorites and grabbed some postcard prints to hang in the RV for inspiration.

Her paintings blend smooth the roughness of the high-desert landscape and sometimes abstract or make surreal the jungstiposition of hills, plateaus, pines, rivers, arroroys, bones, and flowers.

This painting was done very quickly in the afternoon heat with the wind threatening to blow my supplies away. The trees are not right for the scene and will be revised. I have a ways to go before I can emulate O’Keefe’s style!

$110 © Pam Van Londen 2007 Ode to Sante Fe acrylic on canvas on 16 x 20 x 1 canvas

This painting includes typical subjects/objects found in historic Santa Fe.

Property values are high in this high-altitude city, so most homes in the tourist areas are well cared for.

I borrowed the plants, door, furniture, and architecture from three photos I took last week.

SOLD © Pam Van Londen 2007 Kentucky Horse Park 1 acrylic on canvas on 12 x 9 x 1 canvas

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to paint a horse while visiting Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.

The horses would not stand still for me, so I took photos and finished this piece while camping next door.

Kids love this piece!

Our campsite in Hollywood, SC, just outside Charleston, was so beautiful that we stayed 2 extra days so I could paint and visit the nearby Edisto Beach, where trillions of large shells wash up on the shore.

This painting of Lake Aire is still in progress. It’s my first thin vertical format and I’m not sure about the composition yet. The posts may have to go and the water may need revising.

Warm breezes help the painter paint! Yesterday in the Gulf of Mexico the sky was blue and the palms were swaying. Now it’s raining, so this painting in progress will have to wait until the sun returns.

Picnic tables are set up high on the jetty park visitors center so I was able to set up the scene with depth. The palms are rearranged a bit to balance. As you may know, the area is flat for miles and miles, so filling the plane means taking artistic license.

$25 © Pam Van Londen 2007 Texas Pond 1 oil on canvasboard on 12 x 9 x 1 canvas

It’s been since high school that I used oil paints. I enjoy the buttery feeling and how I can paint in a strong breeze without the paints drying out.

There is nowhere to store a wet oil painting in an RV, so I’ve placed it in a plastic bag with the opening wide to allow air flow. The fumes are something to deal with as well.

I think I’ll have to wait until we reach Oregon again to make more; just don’t have a shelf to store them.

$300 © Pam Van Londen 2007 Texas Pond 2 acrylic on canvas on 30 x 24 x 1 canvas

This much larger acrylic painting sits on top of some other painting that I’ve forgotten about (probably a good thing). I just love to paint large with large brush strokes and bright color.

$300 © Pam Van Londen 2007 Arizona Pasture 1 acrylic on canvas on 30 x 22 x 1 canvas

Between cold, wind, and rain storms outside New Waverly, TX, I’ve managed to start a painting that’s really set in some other place; not sure where. The mountain is like AZ, but the pasture is green and there are no cacti. So it’s neither AT or TX.
The part-time residents at Timber Lodge RV park where we’re parked have been asking where the painting is set. I’m painting outdoors facing the horse pasture, but my painting doesn’t look anything like what we see! Artistic License.

$150 © Pam Van Londen 2007 Sedona 1 acrylic on canvas on 16 x 16 x 1.5 canvas

$150 © Pam Van Londen 2007 Sedona 2 acrylic on canvas on 16 x 16 x 1.5 canvas

$72 © Pam Van Londen 2007 Sedona 3 Oak Creek acrylic on canvas on 12 x 12 x 1 canvas

The highlight of our Thanksgiving on the road was not cooking turkey in our propane oven, but painting the striking red formations that are seen all over Sedona, Arizona. The horses were friendly and so was the weather.

After we returned from the Grand Canyon a week later, I painted the Oak Creek. I was upset that day, due to paying $180 to get my mail delivered to me, and wasn’t sure I could paint. Once again, I learned that painting makes me feel healthier! I cheered up within the hour.

I’ve been working on this square painting of the horse and finally completed it.

SOLD © Pam Van Londen 2007 Mission Bay Palms acrylic on canvas on 12 x 12 x 1 canvas

Before winter set in, we had time to visit Sea World and bike around Mission Bay in San Diego.

We met a women earlier who’s father helped build the park many years ago. We love the park; it’s flat so biking is easy.

I used the bike as an easel (yes, I used duck tape to hold the canvas) so I could paint this 12×12 acrylic of the palms and bay.

Rick Eckel’s Bed and Breakfast in the countryside outside Ashland, Oregon is a peaceful place to walk the creeks, check email on the porch, or walk up the railroad tracks to Toshi Choling Shrine. I painted this scene outside the front porch, looking south west, I think.

A new father strolled by with his newborn son while I was sitting along the edge of Johnson Creek in Portland this summer.

I was painting a small canvas and feeling quite frustrated that I could not simplify the water and tree branches.

These challenges were not important to the father, however. He offered to purchase the painting to remember the first peaceful week of his son’s life.

$25 © Pam Van Londen 2007 Johnson Creek 2 acrylic on canvasboard on 12 x 12 x 1 canvas

When I return to Oregon, I’ll be sitting there again to make another attempt. Perhaps the light will be more interesting–in the previous lighting the water looked muddy. I don’t really care to paint brown. Not sure that can be helped if the water is in shade on an overcast day.

Later, in 2007, I painted another rendition with bright colors on canvasboard. This summer I hope to try again.

I was commissioned to design a logo, brochure, web site, and poster for the 2005 first annual Harvest Music Festival. In addition, the art for the promotional materials was commissioned to me and auctioned at the event.

My first experience at the The Cauthorn Home, where the event was to take place, was a photographer and artist’s paradise. I shot numerous photos on a sunny day. Each corner of the property had rich details; nothing on the property is overlooked. This painting incorporated the gazebo and lavender field seen as you drive into the main gate. I added Mary’s Peak in the background to show the regional location.