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For the next 24 hours, this painting is specially priced at $135! 
After 24 hours, it will return to its retail price of $225. 75% of the proceeds will go to a wildfire relief fund.

This painting is 10" x 7". If you would like to purchase this watercolor, click here.

My cousin is always doing the most fun things, and sometimes when I'm lucky, he invites me to join him and his good friends. This really touches my heart because I am about 20+ years his senior, but they don't mind having me around. Back in July, I was in The Lavender Festival Art Show in Newberg, Oregon. Gary and I had been down to Newberg two times in the last four days, and I needed to go back to pick up my paintings at the close of the show. It's around a 45-minutes drive and Gary wasn't too excited to go again. That's when my cousin stepped in and decided we all could make an afternoon of it. We would go to see the art show, then pop over to one of his favorite wineries, Beaux Frères, for a tour, then pick up my paintings and be on our way.

I will skip the art show part, although if you get a chance next July, go see all the plein air paintings at the Lavender Festival. Over 100 artists take a month and go to lavender farms around the area and paint standing in the middle of the lavender. You have never seen so many purple and green paintings all in one place, and they are all so well done and captivating. 

The Beaux Frères Winery sits up on a hill outside Newberg, OR. I was told it was family-owned and it used to be a pig farm. They still have a pig who lives next to the big building, which was a pig barn and I think they would now call it the tasting room. My friends had been there before and knew Penny, the cat, who walked across the table and sat down to supervise our visit.

Now you could fill a thimble with what I know about wine. Fortunately we had a really cute, young French woman who told us all about the winery and the vineyards. I was absolutely mesmerized by her thick French accent. We had time, so we all crawled onto the golf cart, which was already occupied by Frank, the yellow Labrador, who was lying across the floor in the front directly under our French friend's feet as she drove us up the hill. Grape vines crawled up and over the hill, and when we got to the top there was another hill covered with row after row of grape vines. I believe there are 24 acres in all, and the views from up there are some of the loveliest I have seen. The Willamette Valley is just that way, green and lush with vineyards, orchards of hazelnuts, hops, berries and even grass. We cruised past more grape vines and headed down the hill with Frank running along beside us. My heart was filled to overflowing. It was so much fun and we made it back to the gallery to pick up the paintings before time ran out. 

I've learned not to say no to a special invitation from my cousin to go play. It's always a great adventure. Someday I'll have to tell you about the time we got to stomp grapes! I am very grateful for those special days.

Thank you for reading along, and for supporting me in my commitment to raise funds for wildfire relief. I appreciate you more than you know.

Happy November!
Sending love and hugs to each of you,

Kristi