I am painting with pastels in the southern Willamette Valley in Oregon. I am perched above a meadow defined by Blakeslee Creek. It is solitary here but I have good friends in art in Eugene and Corvallis for company and critique. Place is very important in my work as I paint many landscapes, real and imagined. Perhaps it is from my career making gardens and parking lots as a landscape architect before ending up here. Weather also plays a big role, as it does for everything here in mild but changeable Oregon.