September 2025

Last Friday and Saturday Katy attended a writer’s workshop in Centralia, WA. I tagged along as her support team, but while she was in her sessions, I explored the surrounding countryside and painted these Centralia watercolors. I found winding valleys of grassy pastures beneath forested ridges, and lots of farms, barns, and sheds to paint. I especially liked the grouping of barns and sheds in the above painting.

This is the W.O. Willen farm, a historic property on Lincoln Road. I especially like the combination of red roofs and white buildings with shadows. While painting it, a man and his wife stopped in their pickup truck. The man has built hundreds of barns, and now spends his retirement repairing and restoring old barns. I’m glad someone cares for our rural heritage.

The setting for this farm is stunning. I found it at the end of a winding valley of grassy pastures. There were no other farms around; it was pristine. Before I started painting, I went up to the farmhouse to ask for permission to paint, bu there was no one home. So I set up on the county road. Just as I was finishing, a Sheriff’s Deputy drove up to check me out. He said that someone had called in a suspicious car parked on the road. I showed him my painting and he understood right away what I was doing. He liked the painting, too!

I liked this collection of buildings on a hill above Salzer Valley. As I was painting, a small herd of curious goats came out to check me out, bleating as they came. Later a tall young man strolled down the lane to see what I was doing. When he saw I was painting, he was quite friendly.

Katy and I stayed at Centralia Square Grand Hotel, a historic hotel in downtown Centralia, and we ate at McMenamin’s, located in the old Olympic Club. I found Centralia to be a charming small town (as long as you stay off the Interstate exits).