It has been years since I have used colored pencils, but I recently bought a pack and wanted to try them out with a quick sketch. Found a handy subject in an African Violet in the living room. Tried a fairly representational approach, good practice for the hand/eye coordination, drafting skills and seeing details - colo

A sampling of the early summer flowers we saw along our walk at Oak Creek in Corvallis yesterday.

Friday was a day for waterfalls at Silver Falls State Park. This spring was a very wet one so the streams and falls were flowing strongly. The first waterfall, below, is a very small one on the way to North Falls.

A report on Oregon's "Creative Vitality Index" for 2009 is available from the Oregon Arts Commission website (scored slightly above the national average).

My Website, RobRRobinson.com, has a new look and many updates. Please stop by and take a look around.

This female Anna's Hummingbird was a colorful visitor just outside our kitchen window.I would love to capture on video the dives that the male Anna's Hummingbird makes to protect its territory. It will fly about 100 feet straight up, then come diving back down, looping up at the end with a noisy, hovering shake of it

Some interesting patterns, colors and shapes can happen in the paint on an artist's palette. These happenstance images can be the source for an abstract painting or lead to a new technique.

Congratulations to Lynn Powers, one of our APES members (Albany Painting Enthusiasts), for her best of show award at the Albany Artists Show! Her beautiful watercolor portrait below received the honor.

Here is a link to an article on our Albany Artists show which runs thru May at the Giustina Gallery at Oregon State University:http://gazettetimes.com/entertainment/article_b674fd3e-5904-11df-9bde-001cc4c03286.html.

This Scrub Jay really gets into its bath - fun to watch.

This past weekend, besides the cropduster biplane, I got a chance to take some photos of another expert flyer. The violet-green swallow was taking a brief rest from his aerial maneuvers catching insects on the wing. This swallow's colors are incredible and usually difficult to glimpse as it darts by. The one below was k

This morning I had a surprise photo op. I heard an airplane flying very low outside, grabbed my camera and went out to see what was going on. There was a cropduster spraying a grass seed field nearby and his flightpath brought him fairly close.Below are a few photos that I took. (Click an image for a larger view)

Friday is the last of two drop-off dates for our Albany Artists Exhibit at the Giustina Gallery at Oregon State University. The exhibit is being sponsored by the APES (Albany Painting Enthusiasts) and the Albany Arts Commission. The exhibit will open at the LaSells Stewart Center on Saturday, May 1 and run through May 3

Here are a couple of images from the recent trip down south to Brookings. There are more of each type at my Image Odysseys Blog. (Click on the images below for larger views).

Watercolor Society of Oregon members from Brookings and the townspeople were very good hosts for the WSO Convention held there this past weekend. There was plenty to see and do, good food to eat, and scenic views/subjects galore. Harris Beach State Park, just a mile north of town, is certainly one of my favorite locations o

There is a new free live classroom website that should be an excellent resource for creative subjects like photography, painting, imaging and web software, design and video - some of my favorite things! Take a look at the introduction video on

Today was the day for the spring meeting of the Nature Photographers of the Pacific Northwest (NPPNW). George Lepp was the invited speaker and gave some very informative and enjoyable talks. The subjects included panoramas, HDR, time-lapse movies, and extended depth of field. He also demonstrated some of his "gigapan" image

Here are a couple of photos from a hike yesterday along Sweet Creek near Florence, OR. The weather was great, there was plenty of water in the stream and wildflowers were abundant - it was a great day.There are also some photos of whitewater kayakers pa

I have a brand new Flickr Photostream - http://www.flickr.com/photos/robrrobinson/ .The first set of photos is from a recent trip to Cape Lookout and Cape Kiwanda on the Oregon Coast. Below is on

Sunny and 70 today; this willow is "springing" to life.

There is a good exhibit at Linn Benton Community College until April 16. There are watercolor and acrylic paintings by Mark Allison, Bill Shumway and Bruce Tucker. A reception and gallery talk are on April 7 from 12 - 1 pm. The exhibit is in the North Santiam Hall Gallery.

Some more wintry, frosty, icy photos...

On the way home from the coast the other night, I had a lot of fun taking photos of the lights outside the car as we were going down the highway (I was not driving). I enjoyed moving the camera to add to the movement of the car to make some interesting abstract patterns. Plus it was a huge change from shooting nature photog