Drawn the Road Again

Author: Chandler O’Leary

  • Portland pig-out

    Portland pig-out

    Portland is absolutely chock-a-block with edible kitsch. This is the city that’s home to the neon pink doughnut shop filled with naughty puns, coffin-shaped party boxes and velvet Kenny Rogers paintings. The artisanal salumeria that made a tongue-in-cheek cameo on Portlandia. The coronary-inducing but oh-so-delicious pork-sandwich lunch counter, appropriately (or prophetically) named Lardo. The trouble…

  • Bear crossing

    Bear crossing

    Okay, no more bear jokes. Especially since we didn’t exactly feel like laughing after the Tailor and I almost hit the real thing. (Thank goodness for reflexes and broad daylight.) Obviously I didn’t do this sketch while the moment was happening—but it was easy enough to cobble the scene together from memory. Because, you know,…

  • Exit, pursued by a bear

    Exit, pursued by a bear

    Speaking of bears, the great state of Montana must have a lot of them… …since they get their own highway exit and all.

  • Beargrass, bare grass

    Beargrass, bare grass

    When I was on Mount Adams, the ravenous bugs prevented me from sketching the most spectacular part of the scenery: the endless meadows of cream-colored beargrass. So when I spotted it again at a native plant garden this spring, I jumped at the chance. As an aside…I have no idea how beargrass got its name,…

  • Notes from the front

    Notes from the front

    Don’t let these pictures fool you—it might look like I was sketching in an idyllic environment, but I couldn’t spend much time marveling at the scenery or relaxing with my paints. That’s because I had to take a break approximately every 4.5 seconds to swat at biting insects, or to take cover from the dive-bombing…

  • Island in the sky

    Island in the sky

    I’ve talked before about being on Island Time—and in a weird way, this is kind of the same thing. You see, islands don’t just exist in water; you can find them in the middle of the desert, too. The Chisos Mountains, in the heart of Big Bend National Park, rise 4,000 feet above the parched…

  • T-time

    T-time

    Twice in my life (about 15 years apart) I’ve lived within an hour of Boston; and a couple of years ago I got to show the Tailor around my old stomping grounds. The city’s undergone a lot of transformations in recent years (Big Dig, I’m looking at you), but I love that the trip in…

  • Raise a glass

    Raise a glass

    Whenever I feel like I’m going stir-crazy in my solitary studio, I go and have a pint of cider with my friends Barry & Renée, who own a gorgeous taproom called Pint Defiance. Next week is the first anniversary of their opening day, so I thought I’d help them celebrate by posting a couple of…

  • Cropping up

    Cropping up

    I spent one of my teenage years living on a rural military base in North Dakota. An interesting side effect of having to bus half an hour into town every day for school is that I learned to recognize every type of crop in the fields along the way. But when I moved to Washington, where…

  • Dark skies

    Dark skies

    One of my very favorite things about the Red River Valley (of the north) is that the land is so perfectly, endlessly flat that you can see entire weather systems grow and unfold before your very eyes. Then again, it’s not so fun when that weather catches up with you. I did this painting in…