Devin Phillips at Jimmy Macks': great jazz in Portland, Oregon

We were so lucky! We headed up to Oregon, stopping first at Breitenbush Hot Springs, where we soaked, hiked and ate and met some really cool people. One of them a jazz musician who combines music with farming with his wife on their ten acre sustainable organic Dancing Roots Farm.

Then further north to Portland. Where my husband found himself a sleek new recumbent bike, and zoomed all over the cycling friendly city.

We had heard about Jimmy Macks' the Jazz Club that Down Beat Magazine rated as one of the 100 best in the world! And as luck would have it Devin Phillips,playful,joyful,Coltranesque sax player was performing on Friday Dec.9 with his New Orleans Straight Ahead. Phillips and Andrew Oliver, the fine pianist who led the band too, are both refugees from the Katrina disaster. They have been in Portland for five years and plan to stay. I've been enjoying Phillips' CD Wade in the Water as I think and write about the sweet jazz evening we had. The place was packed. The food was good. No pressure to keep buying drinks. And - I got really into painting the setting and performers on my iPad. They autographed the painting! Thank you very much Devin Phillips, Andrew Oliver, Eric Gruber (hidden in the shadows - sorry1) Mark Diflorio, and lovely singer Michael Angelo.

We wish Portland, with its bike paths, largest independent bookstore in the world - Powell's, good food and sweet jazz scene was closer!

December art at the Morris Graves' Humboldt Artist Gallery

Celebrating the winter solstice I am showing a glacier topped mountain and a Blue Lucia for you to see at the Humboldt Artist Gallery, downstairs at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka.

The mountain is the famous sugarcane volcano, Snaefellsjoekull on Iceland that Jules Verne used as setting for his fantasy "Journey to the Center of the Earth." I hiked to the foot of the mountain and made four watercolor sketches. It is a three registration oil monotype, 22" x 30".

The other original is a Blue Lucia, Swedish winter solstice celebrant, who is inspired by a photo of my mother at the age of one. She is at the photographer's in her eyelet dress and small boots, standing on a bench made of unbarked birch branches. Adorable!

In the print stand you will find a few Lucia art prints, butterflies, landscapes, and figures. On the counter there are ten Lucia greeting cards. I'll hang new original art each month, as well as fine art prints and a small selection of greeting cards. Once a month I will be in charge of the gallery. I'll post the time on Facebook. Come by and see me! I can show you the art and I'll also give introductions to painting on the iPad. Bring your own iPad if you have one.

Some of the other members of the Humboldt Artist Gallery are Joyce Jonté, Jim Lawry, Frances Kuta, Gary Todoroff, Linnea Tobias, Candy Miller, Julia Bednar and more.