Portland

I spent the last week in Portland and it's surroundings and loved it. ranks up there as one of those cities i could see myself living in for a while (others are Barcelona, Lisbon, Montreal, Paris and Stockholm). great scenery all around and plenty to do intown. back in Santa Cruz for the moment and down to Los Angeles for a bit later this week.

these two pages on my book are based on this little girl we saw walking down the beach last week. she was by herself walking calmly along the shoreline. it was only after we passed by her that we noticed that she had a kite, this kite was about twice as high as any around. mighty impressive and yet here she was just casually strolling by.

Chad, Anna and I close to this town called Camby just south of Portland. behind us was a paper mill and controlled dams. all the old machinery looked great as though out of something more sinister.

stayed w/ a friend, Charley, who i met last year while volunteering in Sri Lanka for tsunami relief work. it was good to see him and hang out in his farm. w/ ponds, frogs, sheep, cows (next door) and plenty of different fruit and trees. this is an ooold truck on his property. my hands were a bit shaky while drawing it... coffee. my watercolours had also stayed behing so had to add colour later.

me, Charley and Chad at South Falls in Silver Falls State Park. just south of Portland yet you feel a million miles away from a city. this trail goes behind the (smaller at the moment i'd imagine) waterfall.

the falls from another angle (loads of crosshatching style for shade in this pic because of lack of watercolour) and a frog. we'd been, unsuccessfully, frog hunting that day.

recognize these doors and lights from the cover of any albums? yes it is the Dandy Warhols odditorium and that is Zia. cool to visit and hang out in her hometown for a change from Sydney :)

on the stage in the odditorium w/ Anna and Zia. couldn't decide on this photo...

... or this one, so i've used both.

a drawing of Zia by the stage. the whole studio complex was cool. all set around the most important room... yes, the kitchen. studio, recording area, offices, dining room, basketball area and all the rest around it. best of all for those nice summer days... bbq area! (is that the Australian in me or what?)

me in front of Multnomah Falls just outside Portland. they would look way more impressive if Anna and I weren't in the photo taking all the attention away :)

see.they had two levels and looked great. especially like the bridge... so i drew it.

while in Portland i had to go into Powell's City of Books bookstore, the largest independent store in the USA, and ended up buying these three books. both 'the Little Prince' and 'El Principito' are used and so were very cheap. third book is also in spanish and is by a Portuguese author Jose Saramago. these are the three i will take w/ me into Mexico, Central and South America so i thought i may as well practice my spanish. (will have read the Little Prince in four languages by the end. portuguese and french others)