Emily Jung Miller

Cherry Tree over Crystal Springs Lake, 11×14″ plein air watercolor ©2018

Please join me if you can, at the opening reception for my solo exhibit of Oregon plein air paintings! “Here and Now” features twelve of my original plein air watercolors, including eight from the past 12 months. The reception is part of Alberta Street’s Last Thursday art walk and street fair in Northeast Portland. Art prints and notecards of my paintings will also be available for purchase. Click here to view the full exhibit catalog.

Red Clover Hillside, 8×10″ plein air watercolor ©2018

“Here and Now” continues at Local Discoveries through September 20, overlapping with two more Alberta Street festival days in August: Last Thursday art walk on August 30, and the annual Alberta Street Fair on August 11. Alberta Street will be closed to vehicle traffic during these events, with music, food and craft vendors set up on the sidewalks.

My plein air paintings focus on the seasonal changes in Oregon’s landscape – cherry blossoms, autumn leaves, lavender and roses; sun and fog on the coast, growing crops in the vineyards and valleys. Never before have I lived in a place with so much change in the landscape from month to month. It is so exciting, as a plein air painter, to be surrounded by new colors and compositions in every season. (So far I haven’t had a chance to paint the snow, and I’m looking forward to trying this winter!)

Haystack Rock and Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, 6×9″ plein air watercolor ©2016

To me, plein air painting is like a meditation on the landscape. Careful study of the shifting light, shapes and colors, recognizing relationships and harmony to create a composition. Creating art in the landscape gives us the gift of being still, in nature, and becoming aware of the rhythms of the day with all our senses. Each painting holds a memory of all my observations and experiences from those few hours: the smell of flowers in bloom, sunset light racing across the fields, distant peaks moving in and out of the clouds.

Mt. Hood from Portland Rose Garden, 8×10″ plein air watercolor ©2014.