(cars whizzing) (camera shutter clicking) - People complain that it always rains here, and there's definitely some truth to that, but it's not the same day in and day out.

Sky actually changes here by the hour.

I end up taking reference photos all over the city, and mostly, I just like being out and about, walking.

(upbeat music) Sometimes it's because I'm interested in going to and capturing a certain place that I have in mind.

Sometimes it's just I'm doing whatever and the way the light is striking something in front of me is captivating and I needed to remember how it made me feel.

(camera shutter clicking) Then go home and try to capture that on canvas.

Growing up here in the Pacific Northwest, in the Willamette Valley, I've been really comfortable with the wet, rainy climate, to the point where it feels like home, and I keep getting drawn to that in my artwork.

One of the things that I wanna do is draw attention to the many different varieties of weather patterns and rain here, and the different ways in which they're beautiful.

I love the way light plays off of reflections and wet pavement, the way that bright, saturated colors, like the green moss or the funky Victorian houses, pop against the gray backdrop.

And I think that there's a vibrant spectrum of grays to be seen here.

I'm most interested in capturing aesthetic wonder, those blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments.

(canvas scratching) My process usually involves working in acrylic first for the underpainting layers, before going over that with oil.

(tape stretching) There's a few different reasons I do underpaintings.

Sometimes it's just a solid color, which is also called toning the canvas.

Sometimes I use the underpainting to actually block out shapes in the piece.

Sometimes I use complimentary colors to what's gonna go on top.

I love that red iron oxide color for underpaintings because it creates warmth, especially because I like to use a lot of really cool gray tones, that drama and contrast helps the painting come to life.

I already pretty much know what's gonna go on top of this, this is gonna be a specific scene.

(upbeat music) (camera shutter clicking) With a vantage looking from Mount Tabor.

(water splashing) (container scratching and knocking) Yeah, you're gonna want to see this.

(tool thudding) I love the way that watered-down acrylic drips.

(canvas scratching) I was at PCC for four years, followed by PSU for four years.

I'm a big proponent of community college as an option, and that it's not the school you go to, it's really the people and the teachers that you meet and what you put into it.

That's gonna be cool.

My final project in my BFA program was called "Words for Rain" and because my focus was on water, weather, the interaction between light and the wet climate here in the Pacific Northwest.

- I think Portlanders often feel connected to Josh's work because Portland is a city built of small neighborhoods, and when Josh is able to sort of capture the characteristics of a particular neighborhood and you live there, you very much recognize your community.

- Portland is a beautiful city, but not everything about Portland is beautiful.

That's why, for instance, in my series, "Ghosts of Albina", I wanted to draw attention to historic redlining practices and the demolition of buildings in the historically Black Albina neighborhood of North Portland.

A lot of those paintings used superimposed imagery to sort of tell a then-and-now narrative.

And folks were responding to those paintings, in some cases, by realizing they had no idea what used to be at a certain corner.

At North Williams and Russell, there's an empty grassy lot where a gorgeous historic building that was an entire commercial block was taken down in the 1970s through imminent domain.

- In essence, these paintings function as monuments in a way, right, and testaments to things both here and things gone, and how those things that we can't see anymore are still affecting what it is in the here and now.

- One of the biggest challenges I have definitely has to do with my hearing.

(somber music) I lost my hearing early in childhood, but I didn't lose all of it and I was raised to speak and hear.

The fact that I speak and I don't sound deaf to people makes it a bit of an invisible disability.

During COVID, especially with masks, it is often almost impossible or basically not possible for me to understand what people are saying to me.

I became more and more interested in capturing the expressive beauty of sign language, the way hands move and create signs.

We maybe forget that sign language is a language, but the hands can basically speak.

The hands also, in my case, are the tool with which I make my artwork.

I'm really into process, I'm really into just getting into the studio every day.

(stand rattling) So I'm using a small projector to project the reference image for the painting onto the canvas.

So now I'm gonna use that as a means of basically tracing the composition.

I'm all about using whatever tool helps get you to the point where you can pick up the oil paints and be more creative.

Now, nobody is allowed to even breathe on this.

(upbeat music) This part of the process is really not concerned with precision.

Just really loosely blocking that in.

I really wanna preserve this awesome streaking and dripping that we got.

(canvas scratching) - Because the canvas is wet, I can get some really exciting brush marks that just blend fluidly.

So basically, this is Bob Ross right now.

Feel free to paint along.

I try to avoid overworking a piece.

When there are infinite options for changes to make, it's hard to know when to stop.

(camera shutter clicking) (camera shutter clicking continues) (truck engine rumbling) (attendees faintly speaking) This is my opening reception for my show, "Traces".

So I've got over 30 paintings in this show.

(upbeat music) One of the things I always like people taking away from my work is just seeing things in a different way.

Seeing a familiar moment, the way that the light might strike at a certain time of day or in a certain place, and noticing something like that that resonates with them in their own lives.

And that's something I feel is really special to me about the visual art that I create.

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