1.Contents Section Title Prologue The Cartoon Department Chapter One The First Hairpiece Chapter Two The Dissolute Desk Chapter Three The Image Department Chapter Four The Repertory Company Chapter Five Kaitlan Enters the Oval Office Chapter Six Kristen Keeps Her Voice Down Chapter Seven The Lackey on the Right Chapter Eight Packing the Court Chapter Nine […]
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The Springer Lake Incident
The Springer Lake Incident – the whole story
Test block – the whole story
Mesa del Contadero
Mesa del Contadero, sometimes called Black Mesa because of the dark basalt that forms its cap, rises abruptly from the landscape of northern New Mexico. The mesa has long held religious significance for the native people of the area and has attracted many artists over the years. I have painted it on more than one […]
Woods Interior
This is a scene from one of my favorite places near Vallecito Lake in Colorado. There was nothing particularly dramatic about it—just a quiet interior of the woods—but I was attracted to the variation in the trees and the way sunlight broke through onto the foreground. I wanted to capture that contrast between the cool, […]
Garden near the House
Gardens have always interested me less as collections of individual flowers than as arrangements of shapes and color. In this garden, the tall leaves rising through the center gave me the structure for the painting, while the flowers provided bright notes of yellow, orange and red against the darker foliage. The quiet lawn on the […]
Top of Astoria
Most visitors to Astoria look north toward the Columbia River and the bridge. I looked the other way. From high above the town, I was attracted to the broad sweep of sky and the fields and trees stretching into the distance. What interested me most, though, was the river, barely visible as it winds through […]
South Fork of Rock Creek
This scene is from a small creek behind a rest stop on the way to the Oregon coast. I have painted this creek numerous times, finding something different in it with each visit. Here I was particularly interested in the sunlight filtering through the woods and catching the trees from behind, while the creek and […]
Along the Garden Wall
Along the Garden WallI was less interested here in describing individual flowers than in the shapes and colors that make up the garden. The curved stone boundary gave me the structure I needed, leading into the darker mass of foliage and the warm fence beyond. I painted this one rather freely, letting the yellows and […]
Colorful Arrangement
The flowers in this garden seemed to arrange themselves into two groups—the softer pinks above and the brilliant yellows below. Against the dark foliage, the yellow roses almost seem to produce their own light. I was interested less in the individual flowers than in the way bright color can organize an entire painting.
Red Roses
The red roses appear at different heights throughout the garden, some bright and distinct, others nearly disappearing into the darker foliage. I liked the way they were scattered across the scene, little spots of red holding the garden together.
Yellow Roses by the Fence
Yellow Roses by the FenceThis is one of two paintings I made of the same corner of our garden. I often return to a subject when I feel there is another painting hiding in it. The subject may remain the same, but the colors, shapes and emphasis inevitably change. Here it was the bright yellow […]
Flowers near the Street
Flowers Near the Street These flowers grow near the edge of our yard, close enough to the street to be passed every day without much notice. What interested me wasn’t any particular blossom, but the way the roses emerge from the darker tangle of leaves and branches behind them. The garden is dense and a […]
Natural Garden at Fogarty Creek
Fogarty Creek is one of those places where nature seems to do its own gardening. Shrubs crowd against one another, branches reach across openings, and patches of light appear unexpectedly among the darker shapes of the woods. I was drawn as much to the color of the place as to the place itself. Cool blues […]
Canada Goose
I have painted the pond at Miller Woods several times. It is one of those places that keeps changing—not dramatically, but with the light, the season, and the growth along the water. Here, a single Canada goose was enough to give me a reason to paint it again. I was interested in the smallness of […]
The Eagle Nest Squall
The Eagle Nest Squall – the whole story
The Eagle Nest Squall – the whole story
One early spring, my boss Ron and I drove up from Los Alamos to fish Eagle Nest Lake. Ron was a former Army officer, and he was a pretty unflappable guy. As it turned out, that was a useful quality to have in a fishing partner. We were using my old twelve-foot aluminum boat—the same […]
The Springer Lake Incident – the whole story
When I was living in New Mexico, my brother came down from Colorado for a visit. He had heard that Springer Lake had a good population of northern pike, so naturally we decided to go fishing. I had a little twelve-foot aluminum boat that, as it happened, I had originally bought from him. We hauled […]
The Five-Pound Brown
The Five-Pound Brown – the whole story
The Five-Pound Brown – the whole story
For several years, my older daughter and I had a Memorial Day tradition. We would drive up to Vallecito Reservoir in Colorado, camp for a couple of nights, and fish. We used my little twelve-foot aluminum boat—the same boat I had originally bought from my brother. One year we were out on the reservoir and […]
Georgia Detour
Georgia Detour – the whole story
Georgia Detour – the whole story
It was spring break, probably 1966, and four of us were driving from Pittsburgh to Fort Lauderdale. We were college students, and I believe this was before seat belts were common. We were traveling in a new car belonging to one of the guys, and naturally we took turns driving. Somewhere in Georgia, another member […]
The Deck
The Deck – the whole story
The Deck – the whole story
I was about sixty-five and getting our house ready to sell. The house had decks outside the bedrooms, about twelve feet above the ground, and I had removed the flooring from one of them to do some repair work. I had laid a sheet of plywood across the exposed joists so I would have something […]
Playing with Fire
Playing with Fire – the whole story
Playing with Fire – the whole story
I was probably eight or nine years old, living in Indiana, and I was trying to start a charcoal fire in a cooker in our backyard. The fire was not going well. I remember being dissatisfied with it. I wanted to help it along. At that age, I already had the instinct to solve a […]
Overboard
Overboard – the whole story
Overboard – the whole story
Overboard — the whole story I was about twelve years old when my grandfather decided I was finally old enough to go fishing by myself in his boat. To a twelve-year-old boy, that was a pretty big promotion. It was a very hot day, and at some point I stood up in the boat just […]
Bear Encounter – the whole story
The Bear Chauncey and I had hiked this canyon many times. It wasn’t far from our house, and on this particular day we made the familiar short drive to the trailhead. I remember something strange about that drive. As I looked at the surrounding hills, I seemed to be seeing images in them—lines and shapes […]
Deluge in the Canyon – the whole story
The Deluge Chauncey and I had hiked this particular route many times. It was really a combination of two canyons. We would hike down a broad canyon for about a mile until we reached a normally dry streambed. Then we’d follow the streambed back up through a much narrower canyon, eventually returning to where we’d […]
Chauncey and the Cliff – the whole story
Chauncey and the Cliff I had walked the trail around Vallecito Lake many times. Chauncey usually went ahead of me, as he always did, exploring the trail while I followed behind. I rounded a turn and noticed something odd. The path seemed to lead directly over the bank—and Chauncey was nowhere in sight. I knew […]
Bear Encounter
Bear Encounter – the whole story
Deluge in the Canyon
Deluge in the Canyon – the whole story
Chauncey and the Cliff
Chauncey and the Cliff – the whole story
Pee Wee Trump?
Little Nestucca
Fogarty Creek in Bloom
Fogarty Creek in full bloom is a sight that never fails to stop me in my tracks. I’ve walked this creek countless times, but on that first morning, the place seemed touched by something rare and fleeting—light, color, and vitality all joining together in a single moment. I knew I had to try to capture […]
Wall Creek Toward the Lake
This view of Wall Creek looks downstream toward Haag Reservoir, which is hidden just beyond the tree line. The creek emerges from beneath the road where I was standing and winds through a thicket of dense Oregon greenery. In this piece, the focus is on the overwhelming presence of the vegetation — layers of green […]
Fogarty Creek: Upstream Abstraction
This abstracted view of Fogarty Creek looks upstream from the bridge, where the forest leans close to the water and light skips between the trees. This work explores the rhythm and texture of the creek without trying to capture every detail. I’ve painted this location many times, but in this version I focused on gesture […]
Welcome
I am primarily a landscape artist, and I focus on painting the Oregon outdoors. I paint in both oil and acrylic on either canvas or hardboard. If you are interested in acquiring one of my paintings, please email me at mkschck@gmail.com.