This Week in The Pearl – June 20, 2025


Today is Summer Solstice. Sunrise this morning was at 0521, where it has been for the last 10 days. Sunset will be at 2103, the latest of the year. That makes the day 15 hours and 42 minutes from sunrise to sunset here in Portland, Oregon. Soon the days will begin to shorten by a…

This week in The Pearl – June 13, 2025


Last Sunday we got back to our longstanding practice of Le déjeuner dominical (it has been jokingly called le messe du ventre – the mass of the stomach). Tricia and I both cook, I resist using the phrase “cooking duties” as that implies a burdensome task; for us it is a pleasure. The Brits use…

This week in The Pearl – June 6, 2025


After a busy month of traveling in May we are planning to stay pretty close to home for the next month or so. The more we get out and about in The Pearl the more we like it. We discovered that we have easy access to the north end of the Willamette River Greenway Trail…

TheTravelsketcher’s Tuesday Tip – June 3, 2025


To make your bright areas more intense make your darks darker. I did the painting on the left first, it really did not look too bad. The Sunset at Otter Crest was quite dramatic so I wanted it to “pop”. I darkened the rocks and even the distant, dark, part of the ocean, as well…

TheTravelsketcher’s Tuesday Tip – May 27, 2025


Add people to your sketches. Including people in your sketches adds interest and perspective, and it turns it into a story – it is quite simple and they don’t have to be portraits. Check this sketch I did of a road we walked often near our home in France. The first is without a person,…