Oregon Sketch Journal

I don't know why I was expecting a completely different town when I first visited Frenchglen, Oregon. I was hungry, and imagining a robust place at the edge of the Steens Mountains, with several cafes to choose from. But Frenchglen is a tiny sagebrush town, with an average population of about twelve people.

The Frenchglen Mercantile sits at the center of the tiny town, and sometimes serves as the center for old west style brawls. In the 1990's, when the store was bought by newcomers, fist-fights would play out over the changing character of the location.

Sketched with Copic Markers.

The Point Adams Research Station, located near the mouth of the Columbia River in Hammond, Oregon, houses NOAA researchers who study the effects of different nearshore and river factors of the salmon species that use the Columbia River as a main artery to smaller rivers and streams in North America.

The beautiful, all-white buildings were originally built in 1939 as U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters for the region. It was decommissioned in 1963 and later entered the hands of NOAA.

The house above, known as Station House, is the most well-preserved on the property.

Sketched with Copic Markers.

This old rusting fuel truck on the Astoria Riverwalk Trail caught my eye. The trail, which connects Astoria's booming culture of restaurants and breweries, is unique in that it runs largely along industrial and marine zones, and gives you a first-hand view of the container industry, marine seafood industry, timber freight industry and all the rusting metal and wood of those industries in this port city's past. Watercolor, Copic marker and liner pen.

This old roadside house near Astoria always caught my attention. I finally was able to sketch it. Astoria is known for it old craftsman bungalows, but there are other old homes that have weathered with charm in the dense salt air.

The Flavel Mansion, near downtown Astoria, is a beautiful example of classic American Queen Anne style. Richly crafted wooden homes are a common site in Astoria, and you may remember them from the steep, foggy hills filmed in The Goonies. In fact, this home-turned historial museum was used in the movie as the site of Mikey's dad's job as a curator. Sketched with Winsor Newton watercolors and Copic line marker.

I found and sketched these cars around Portland. This stunning red antique Land Rover 2a near the Portland airport. Copic markers.

Portland is food cart capital of the United States. Nobody planned it, nobody imagined it, it just happened. Food carts have sprung up all over the city, in sometimes small, and sometimes huge clusters. There are over 400 food carts in the city. This year, my plan is to go out and sketch as many as I can.

This is a beautifully-painted Iraqi falafel, gyro and shawarma food cart in downtown Portland.

The urban renewal projects in Portland are moving fast, and the architecture is often stunning. These condos along the waterfront are part of one of the country's largest redevelopment projects. Along with this project will come longer pedestrian routes along the river; hopefully materializing into a long park.

Portland taggers are the least talented on all of the West Coast. Even Fresno has more artistic graffiti. But that's probably a good thing. I sketched this abandoned delivery truck in the Southeast Industrial district in Portland. I used micron pens and Copic sketch markers.

Ainsworth Street in Northeast Portland is filled with historic homes, sometimes repainted in brilliant colors. I sketched these old homes using sepia Micron pigma pens and copic sketch pens.

I saw the Ka'imimoana docked in Newport a few weeks ago. This NOAA ship specializes in studying climate - ocean temperatures, atmosphere, currents, in the tropical Pacific. Seeing the huge amount of instruments, gadgets and devices on this ship was a sight to behold. In 2011, NOAA moved its research ship base from Seattle to Newport, and the base supports four ships and has the ability to service two 'itinerant ships,' which I believe is what the Ka'imimoana is.

Another home on Belmont in Southeast Portland. The bright colors on this home would not be that unique in the Belmont area, where many homes and buildings are brilliantly painted. But this one, and its twin, which is painted in blue and aqua, seemed as if they were designed for the bright palette.

A local construction worker saw that I was looking at the home, and came up to chat with me about it. He said that the two houses were built by the Disney family. The one I sketched above was the residence of Walt Disney's parents. They lived at this residence for a short time up to 1937, when the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves gave Disney reason to buy them a home in Hollywood. Not long in their new home, after complaining about fumes from the gas furnace, the two were found unconscious on the ground in this home. Roy Disney's father survived, but his mother died from the poisonous gas of the faulty gas line; an event which created the internet-age legend that Disney character's tend not to have mothers due to Disney's guilt for removing his parents from Portland.

I always loved the Hung Far Low sign when I saw it on 82nd Street in Portland. It disappeared a few years ago when the restaurant closed. But when I saw the famous sign resurrected in Portland's Chinatown, I had to find out more.

It turns out the owners of Ping Restaurant resurrected the sign in Chinatown with the help of the city of Portland. The original Hung Far Low restaurant dates to 1928. According to Portland Architecture, Hung Far Low translates as, "almond blossom fragrance" in the Taisan dialect.

The traditional wood houses of Southeast Portland are stunning. I found the home on the left in the Hawthorne Neighborhood. The home on the right is now a coffee bar on Belmont.

Farmer's Market. These are my first sketches of people walking around at the Portland Farmers Market at Portland State University, where you can buy mushrooms picked from the coastal mountains, locally caught kippered salmon, and a variety of locally-grown produce.

On the Zumwalt Prairie, hundreds of elk travel in herd. In my piece on the Zumwalt Prairie, the abundance of elk prompted me to ask why so many of the ranchers in the area were opposed to the wolf reintroduction program.

With my family in Odell, Oregon, a small town along highway 35 in the Hood River Valley. It's stunning here in late spring, when the fruit orchards are blooming under the white crest of Mount Hood.

Hood River, about fifty miles east of Portland, is a vibrant sports town; downhill skiers, kiteboarders, windsurfers and kayakers fill the city. I noticed this red vespa parked on a quiet spring afternoon.

When The Encore Condos in Portland had just been built, I was really drawn to their really striking modern architectural design that blended with the Pearl District's industrial-meets-modern aesthetic. I used this condo complex to practice my new hopes of being able to sketch larger format architecture pieces for Notes from the Road. This builded, designed with a dynamic, tiered façade, is glass-heavy and has an organic structure of elegant curves. It has views of the Willamette River and Tanner Springs Park.