Well, Open Studios is over and many thanks to all of you who traveled north to visit my studio.  As always it was fun to see old friends, meet new folks and have some good conversations about art, and a few other interesting topics as well.
One of my very special visitors was Walt Pieper, whose portrait was featured on my email invitation to Open Studios and is also posted below on March 19.  While Walt was here, he heard a familiar sound coming from the sky, and we stepped outside in time to see a B-17 Flying Fortress fly over the house.  How is that for synchronicity?  You can barely see it to the right of Walt.

Wildflowers

Sandy invited me to go on a wildflower walk at Fort Baker Ranch earlier this week.  Here we are taking a break from our looking at wildflowers.  It was such a treat to roam those beautiful hills with our hostess, Peggy Rice, a knowledgeable and kind guide, and other nature lovers.  I wish I could say that I remember (or paid much attention to) the names of all of the flowers that we saw, but I was content to take lots of photos in preparation for an upcoming watercolor series (more on that later), and just enjoy some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.

North Coast Open Studios

This weekend is the beginning of North Coast Open Studios.  Studios all over the county will be open two weekends, June 2,3 and June 9,10  from 11-5. 

I'll be showing new work---especially recent drawings of the World War II Veteran Portrait Project, which is my real focus these days, and of course a few dog paintings, plus some florals, contemplatives, and recent archival prints.  Come on by!  We might even have a couple of agility demonstrations. 

Eugene AKC Agility

Mike, Emma, Raleigh and I spent four days in Eugene at the Eugene Kennel Club's AKC Agility trial.  It was a great weekend and Raleigh once again showed himself to be a steadfast competitor.  He ran 11 times and qualified in ten of those, earning two titles.  Oh, and he placed first each time.  He is shown above with some of his ribbons.  It would not be honest to omit the fact that often there were only three dogs in his class, and sometimes only one, so it wasn't very difficult to come in first place.  But, he ran well, and considering the unimpressive skill of his handler (me), it is pretty remarkable that he does so well.

Emma on the other hand, continued her pattern of zooming all over the course, jumping off of obstacles, and being pretty out of control.  In spite of this, she did title in Fast, which at this point is her only real attribute in the sport.  Raleigh's performance took a bit of the sting off of the fatal fault received by one judge (definitely deserved), and being whistled off the course by the other (again, totally in order).