Cody DeLong Studio

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Portugal
Porto
Cody DeLong Studio

Lifelong Artist Working in Oils for over 30 years
Commissions Welcome Semi-retired artist

05/06/2026

There's a week or two every spring when Porto stops being a city and becomes something else entirely.
The wildflowers come out along the riverbanks. The light goes soft and diffuse — that particular northern Atlantic quality where everything glows without harsh shadow. The Douro turns a color somewhere between green and blue that I've never been able to name exactly.

The red boat had been there a while — you could tell. But with the flowers coming up around it and the bridge cutting through the haze in the background, it looked like it had been placed there by someone who understood composition.

Some paintings you have to wrestle. This one just wanted to happen.

I meant to post this before my surgery. Here it is now.
Spring along the Douro — oil on canvas, 50×40cm (20×16in). €650, unframed, shipping included. DM me if it speaks to you, or reply below. Link in bio to get on the collector list and see new work first.

29/05/2026

New painting: Other Side of the Tracks — oil on canvas, 80×60cm (31×24in).

The title works on two levels.
The literal one: a view from the tracks in Porto — one of those quiet urban moments where the geometry of the city opens up unexpectedly. Rails, rooftops, the particular light that hits the old buildings in the early morning before everything wakes up.
The other one: me. Four years ago I was showing work in Arizona. Now I'm painting in Portugal. If that's not the other side of the tracks, I don't know what is.

I've been leaning into more abstraction with the Portugal work. The Southwest paintings I'm known for are about grandeur — space, canyon depth, that enormous light. Porto asks for something different. Compressed. Layered. The beauty here is more intimate and you have to look for it.

This one is available — $1,500 USD, oil on canvas, unframed, shipping included. DM me if it speaks to you, or reply below with questions. I'm also building my VIP collector list — link in bio... be first to see new work, hear new stories, get freebies and more.

27/05/2026

Here's a little peek into my design process for cityscapes.
This is a Porto cityscape I'm working on — and yes, that's masking tape. It's not a mistake. It's me thinking out loud on canvas.
When a composition has strong architectural geometry — rooflines, shadows, the hard edge where a facade meets the sky — I'll sometimes tape off sections to audition where the abstract passages will live versus where I need to commit to a specific shape. It's a way of holding the decision open a little longer.
Porto has this quality where the old and the modern are stacked right on top of each other. Azulejo tile from the 1700s next to a glass apartment building. I want the painting to feel that way too — part careful observation, part pure paint.
The tape comes off before the final layers. What you see underneath determines everything.
Friday I'll show the finished piece, stay tuned...

25/05/2026

I live in one of Europe's great cities. And usually at least once a week, I ride out of the city to mountain bike and to remember what the world feels like when it's quiet.

Porto is magnificent — but it's dense, it's urban, it's stone and tile and the noise of a city that's been alive for a thousand years. The MTB trails above it are how I stay connected to nature. To the light. To the reason I paint.

When I left Jerome in 2022 after 23 years, people asked what I'd do without the red rocks, without the canyon light, without all that open space. The honest answer? I found a different version of it. You climb above the city on a trail at sunrise and suddenly you've got sky, water, the Douro valley opening up below you — and your head clears the way it only clears outdoors.
I've spent my whole life chasing that feeling. Four years in my 20s in a small RV with my dog. Two decades in the high desert of Arizona. Now this.

The rides keep me inspired. I come back with my head full of compositions.
That's the thing nobody tells you about changing your life at 60. You don't lose your eye. You just point it at something new.
More Porto paintings coming this week. Stay tuned.

🔔 If you're new here — I'm Cody DeLong, oil painter. I paint dramatic landscapes with a lot of light. I sell originals and prints, and I share the whole messy, beautiful process right here

22/05/2026

There's a side canyon somewhere along the Colorado River — I've done enough weeks on that river that I couldn't tell you the mile point — where the sound of water does something unusual.
It was barely a trickle. A thin thread working through the rocks. But the walls took that sound and amplified it, bounced it around until it filled the whole space.

I've stood in a lot of quiet places. That was one of the loudest.

Amplified Tranquility — oil on canvas, 20" x 12". Available — DM me if interested.
Collectors on my email list get first look at new work. Join the list — link in bio.

20/05/2026

Reposting this because...
Someone asked about the inspiration for the name of this piece, 'Amplified Tranquility', and my thought process while creating it.

This is where the painting lives for a while before I know if it's going to work.
The canyon walls came together quickly — I knew that light, I've stood in it enough times. But the foreground is still a conversation. Rocks and water sitting in shadow are one of the harder problems in oil painting. They have to feel heavy and still while everything above them is on fire.

I'll post final thoughts and the finished piece on Friday...

18/05/2026

In 2021, after nearly 23 years, I closed my gallery in Jerome, Arizona.
Covid had already shut it down for six months. When I reopened, I stood in that space and realized something had shifted. The wanderlust I'd felt earlier in my life — the years I spent traveling the country in a small RV, just me and my dog — had come back quietly and was now standing right in front of me.
After two decades in one place, I was ready for a new adventure.
I'd always been drawn to Europe. The history. The architecture. The way old cultures carry their age differently than in the West. I thought about it for a while, and then I asked myself the only question that mattered:
If not now, when?
I moved to Porto, Portugal in 2022.
I still paint the Southwest — some places don't let you go, and the American Southwest is in my blood. But Europe is asking me new questions, and giving me an opportunity to grow in new ways.
If you're new here — welcome. I post about the work, the places, and the long game of making art that matters. Follow along, and share with someone you know who might enjoy my journey.

13/05/2026

Prints on paper, canvas, metal and more at codydelong.com

02/01/2026

Rain, mud and friends...life is good 🔆

30/12/2025

Taking advantage of a sunny day to cut some panels on my Veranda ☀️

Endereço

Porto

Website

http://www.codydelong.com/

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