2011 Yamhill Lavender Festival

Arrival  9x12  pastel  -N Equall

This weekend is the Yamhill Lavender Festival in beautiful Yamhill Oregon.    The festival takes place in Beulah Park, three blocks west of Hwy 47.  This is also the site of the Yamhill Plein Air Art Show.  I'm thrilled with how great the show looks and the many beautiful paintings that were submitted this year.

Over fifty artists participated in the paint-out and show.  This is a plein air show, meaning that all paintings were painted in the open air (plein air) in the lavender fields.  Registered painters had access to more than twenty lavender farms in Oregon for the two weeks prior to the show.  This year was a challenge due to weather (the first week was cloudy, cool, and wet), and the late blooming of many varieties of lavender.

Yesterday was the day to submit paintings in Yamhill, and I had a great time checking the paintings in, making tags, and helping to hang the show.  The show was judged by Eric Bowman, and there was an artist's reception in the evening.   The festival and art show are today and tomorrow.

My painting "Arrival" got an honorable mention.   I thought that was pretty funny since I considered not bringing it.  Isn't that how it always goes?  I did the painting at Stonegate Lavender in West Linn, and really thought it was too simple/simplified.  I have a similar version of the scene done on a large (24x24) canvas that I didn't finish, but probably will work on later.

I submitted three paintings total to the show.  The other two are "A Wild Sequel" and "Jackson School Lavender".

A Wild Sequel   24x24  pastel -N Equall

A Wild Sequel was painted at Wild Rain Lavender Farm in Yamhill.  I love this farm!  The Yamhill River runs just down the slope from the field, and the farm itself is a little jewel at the base of the coast range.  Laura Grady, the farm's owner has poppies planted along the border of the field, and I've honestly never seen that deep shade of crimson before.  I couldn't begin to capture the color of those poppies.  There are lots of song birds that hang out in the trees along the river, and the day I was there was one of those perfect summer days with hot sun, a cool breeze and that intoxicating smell of lavender wafting through.

My sweet lab Deuce got to come with me, and he had a great time playing with the farm's dog Indie.  They swam in the river and spent a lot of time laying paw to paw in the shade.  The dogs met four years ago and acted like they were old friends even though they hadn't seen each other in several years.  Such a nice day!

My deer visitor at Wild Rain Lavender Farm

I stayed and painted until about 9 pm, and just before I started packing up I heard a rustling in the bushes.  I figured it was one of the cats, but after a while saw a pair of what I thought were rabbit ears.  I told Deuce to stay, and was surprised to see a deer finally come walking out of the brush.  It was maybe ten feet away from us, and didn't seem at all bothered by us.  It browsed its way down the field, in no hurry.  I could hear other noises in the bushes, and expected more deer to appear, but they had other ideas and took an alternate route.

Jackson School Lavender  16x20 pastel   -N Equall

My third painting was painted at Jackson School Lavender on my first day painting for the festival.  I painted until the rain obscured my view of the neighboring farms.  I bumped the color a bit since the lavender wasn't in full bloom yet.  It will look more like this in a week or two.  I figure it's my world on the paper, so I can do whatever I want.