Last October we took a few days away in Oregon, primarily to visit some universities. It had been a little while since I went to Oregon, and it was good to see something more than Portland or Medford, and our first stop was to the city of Corvallis, about an hour or so down from Portland. Corvallis is where the huge Oregon State University campus is located. We were given the guided tour, starting at their enormous football stadium, they are the ‘Beavers’. I was well impressed by the campus, I’m not dissing Davis or anything but it was pretty nice, very well kept. The sort of place I’d like to have been a student. Though I am glad I went to Queen Mary. They have those little delivery robots going all over campus. I had never seen one before! I thought I’d sketched one but I must not have. After we had done the tour the family explored a bit more, and I sketched this big grand building, which I believe is called Weatherford Hall. After looking around campus, we looked about town, finding two very interesting guitar shops. I say ‘very interesting’, it was really just interesting that they had two, always a good sign. Also bookshops. Plus a big river valley that made me start wondering about how often it floods here. Apparently, a moderate risk. I did draw a couple of fire hydrants, which are orange here, just like in Portland, but are a different shape from Portland. It would be a shame if the whole world was all the same.

I also sketched a movie theatre, the Whiteside (made me think of Norman Whiteside, Manchester United player from the mid-80s), which was opposite a big booskhop we spent some time in. They were advertising a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show that evening. My family had never seen it, and we didn’t go on this day, but I made them watch it when we got back to Davis. Not sure what they thought of it.

We stayed the night in Salem, the state capital, but I didn’t sketch anything there. We looked around Willamette University the next day, a nice and very old private liberal arts college (in fact it’s the oldest college in the Western US, founded in 1842, so it’s older than Association Football, Marxism, the Telephone, the country of Italy, and every single Hollywood movie ever made. That’s pretty old. Still compared to for example Oxford or Cambridge Universities, it’s a right Johnny-come-lately. Still, it is very very old in American terms. It was very small too, smaller than a lot of high schools here. It didn’t take long to look around, and so we looked about Salem, then headed up to Portland.

It had been a good while since I was in Portland; we stayed on Broadway, and I was saddened to see that Bailey’s Taproom, which I had visited last time I was here, was now a State Farm insurance shop. Voodoo’s Donuts and its long line were still there though, delicious. We had a little look around the Saturday Market, and then I walked along the river and sketched the Steel Bridge. You have to, if you’re in Portland as an urban sketcher. The very first time I was here was for the first ever Urban Sketching Symposium and we had a workshop down here, with Lapin, just drawing the bridge. I sat in between Lapin and Gerard Michel watching their very different styles and approaches, it was one of those formative moments of the whole Urban Sketching thing for me. I also think of Liz Steel when I see this bridge because we joked at the time that this bridge was named for her, and so I always think of her sketch of it when I see it. When I would visit Portland in subsequent years I’d often stay over by the Lloyd Center, and so if I was out downtown at night I would walk back over the Steel Bridge to get back to the hotel, this makes me think of that. I have walked a lot around Portland over the years. After sketching this though I took a walk through Old Town, towards the hotel, and drew a couple of hydrants.

Old Town seemed to be a lot more worn-down than the last time I was here, with many more shops and cafes closed down. I was looking for Floating World Comics, but that was no longer there on NW 4th Ave. I sketched the hydrant in front; I have drawn it before, when it was still painted orange (my old sketch looks pudgier, I think the hydrant lost weight in that time). The other hydrant I drew on NW 2nd (on the left) is very rusty looking, I love sketching that sort of hydrant.

It rained a lot in Portland; “it’s what we do, mate” as Ange Postecoglou would say. I don’t mind at all – more time to spend in Powell’s Books. We did spend a lot of time in there too, exploring everything they had. The rain did ease off so I could draw the shop itself, including the guitarist outside, and the fire hydrant across the street (below). We had been exploring Portland State University that day, but it was a Sunday and it was mostly closed, so we just walked around the campus and the neighbouring area. The leaves were all turning autumnal,

We had some more time that day so drove out to Multnomah Falls, the big double waterfall I had previously only seen in LEGO format (in a display at the airport). I didn’t sketch it, but we took a lot of photos. It was getting late, but our flight was not until quite late in the evening so we went for dinner at one of the McMenamin’s places, I have forgotten which one now. Then we returned the car, and went to the airport where we sat for ages in the lounge while our delayed flight got delayed even further. I was so tired but I managed a few sketches. I really don’t like airports much.

And that was our brief trip to Oregon. Not sure when I’ll be back up that way again but it was good to see some new places.