Wellesley Court, SE Portland

I snuck out on Friday when the weather unexpectedly turned clear and painted the Wellesley Court Apartments on 15th and Belmont.

The Wellesley isn't exactly a scenic cottage, which makes it perfect for my quirky vision. A friendly neighborhood stroller put me onto the brick building, and, since I had scarcely had any opportunity to practice my brickwork since Basin, when the sun came out I packed up and trotted up the street to Belmont.

My first look at the Wellesley was fairly daunting (and it really helps make my point that the photo is keyholing and crooked.) But I sat on my folding stool and watched the local inhabitants, including a small yappy dog who wanted to bite my ear off, and a couple of college age kids dressed up and packing for an art installation up the street. And of course there were the bicyclists.

And the building started to grow on me -- they almost always do. So I painted my put-it-in-context version and made plans to go back to see what I can do with the long narrow courtyard, located just behind the head of the speeding biker.

This is the original pleine aire version, not worked over in the studio. It needs its telephone wires and a couple of unleafed trees, but has to dry a bit before I can add them.  It's 12 x 16, oil on board. And I got sunburned arms in the process. Now there's a novelty for May in Portland! --June

Comments

[June]

I was checking with Google to see if I had spelled "Wellesley" correctly when I ran across your blog entry. The last thing I read on it was that you had put in an application to live there. Glad to see it was approved.

I'll be back to paint Wellesley Court from other viewpoints as weather permits. And I've reworked the original painting now so it's looking spiffier.

Thanks for checking in

[b!X]

Oh, that was you. I live at Wellesley and saw you across the intersection when you were working on this.