Greener than Green

Columbia Gorge Collagescape, mixed media on board, 12”x12”

It seems every time a friend returns from a visit to Washington or Oregon they always pretty much say the same thing, “It’s so green up there.”  Up in the Pacific Northwest they seem to take the green for granted – well at least west of the Cascades.  And you know, it really is green up there.  Even California’s wettest winters and greenest springs are different from the green up north.  The dense lush grass on every roadside, the skies that quickly go from blue to lead gray, the muted light – it is striking how a place that is not that far away can be so different.

I wanted to capture some of that green for the Collagescape Series.  I chose one of my favorite places in the Pacific Northwest — the Columbia River Gorge just east of Portland.  It’s one of those over-the-top landscapes that the Western United States does so well.  But unlike the arid West, up north it’s green, so many shades of green with occasional break of a tall, narrow waterfall and the blue flow of the river itself.

This is another work to be included in my Collagescape show opening in August.  In the meantime, prints and additional items with this image are also available from Society 6.