Upcoming ad-hoc: Himalayan Blue Poppies

Hoping you'll come! If you've never been, it's a treat! The rare Himalayan Blue Poppies are just beginning to bloom at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Federal Way. Check the website for more info. (Yes, May 17 is the official Blue Poppy Day, but I can't make it then, so I want to go this week! - Kim)

Meet in the parking lot at 11 am this Friday 5/9. Throwdown at 1:30pm at the ticket booth.

https://rhodygarden.org/
Rhody Botanical Garden, near the old Weyerhauser campus in Federal Way.

#usk #USkSeattle #usktacoma #urbansketchers

Cold Chairs at U Village

 

4/27/25 University Village

University Village is one of USk Seattle’s tried-and-true for transitional seasons because the retail center has some sheltered areas to keep us dry. Sketchers can make themselves comfy at all the public umbrella’d tables without having to patronize venues. Except for stores and restaurants, however, U Village is all outdoors, so a cold morning is still a cold morning – made even colder because the chairs are made of metal. Yikes! Although I typically stand to sketch anyway, I sat just for a moment to keep my lettering straight, and yowza, was that chair chilly! Despite that common complaint, everyone’s enthusiasm was high.

Trying to study color temperature again, I was in the mood for a primary triad to capture the bright colors of red umbrellas and new, green leaves on the Japanese maple trees (plus a U Village icon, Leo Sewell’s “junk” penguin sculpture).

Colder than ever from standing longer than I expected (color temperature studies always take me longer than I think they will), I took a brisk walk around the Village. Finding a spot in the direct sun (if the sun were to appear from behind clouds), I looked around and found bronze sculptures of a calf and a turtle. To add to the menagerie, I caught a living, breathing pup waiting for his human to finish snacking.

Problem with our email

 

The USk Seattle Gmail email account is having an issue.  We're working on it and hope to have it resolved in a few days. We know what's wrong and but there will be a delay before it can be fixed.

Meanwhile, we might not be receiving emails, including the requests to be added to the Google mail group as listed on the right margin of this page.  Emails might be bouncing back to you. 

If you've sent such a request in the past 2 days, it hasn't been received.  So hold off another week or so and it should be fixed.  

If you've received a response to a request from me, than you've been added to the Google mail group.  I respond to every request. If you haven't received a response, than the email didn't get through. 

 

UPDATE:  4/25 @ 5PM:  I did get email from a sketcher asking to join the Google mail group.  Thus it's still working. 

Kate Buike
co-Admin

 

Trunk Appreciation Day at Sunset Hill

 

4/4/25 Sunset Hill neighborhood

For Day 2 of USk Seattle’s pink marathon, we headed west to Sunset Hill and my favorite street of cherries. Since I had already sketched them earlier in the week, I used this second opportunity to try – ta-da! – gouache again. I was disappointed when I tried it last year, but this time I limited the paint to the blossom areas only (with a bit of Caran d'Ache Neocolor II for texture), and stayed with my tried-and-true Pentel Pocket Brush Pen for the trunks and shadows. I like this approach better.

That one done, I declared it Trunk Appreciation Day and spent the rest of the outing making small vignettes of some of the most amazing trunks. Many trees on this block are nearly a century old, and I always feel the need to honor and revere their beauty, whether or not they are in blossom.

It’s a good thing we went when we did, as the leaves were starting to sprout, and I could tell that the blossoms were past their prime. Although I had started out in my down parka and gloves, by the time we left at noon, I was ready to take the top down for the drive home!

Sunny sketching!

Blossom-Sketching Marathon on Capitol Hill

 

4/3/25 Capitol Hill neighborhood

Time’s a wastin’! With so many pink blossoms and so little time, USk Seattle offered a marathon of cherry tree-sketching opportunities on Thursday. First, in the morning, we met on a quiet residential block near Holy Names Academy. Petal peepers and sketchers alike could walk slowly down the middle of the street, where trees arched over from both sides. Although not as mature, these trees are of the pink (not near-white) variety similar to my favorites on Sunset Hill (above and below).

Near Holy Names Academy

Immediately following the throwdown outside Holy Names, some of us continued on to nearby Volunteer Park, where more sketchers met for the afternoon session. A few of us opted to walk just outside the park boundary to Lake View Cemetery (below), where we had heard about a large grove of cherry trees. None of us had sketched these gorgeous, mature trees before! Actually, I think I did when I sketched there years ago, but it was fall then, so I didn’t know they were cherries. You can bet I put this location on my perennial petal-peeping list!

4/3/25 Lake View Cemetery

It was a long, beautiful day of pink!

Just before the throwdown, I made a quick sketch of one of the two
dromedaries outside the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

4/3/25 A few more bits from my fun day on Capitol Hill!

A Joyous Celebration of Pink

 

3/30/25 UW Quad

Although USk Seattle meets at the University of Washington Quad every spring to sketch the glorious cherry trees, this year felt very different to me. Even the heavy crowds on a dry Sunday morning didn’t bother me as much as they sometimes do. With so much disgusting “leadership” going on in our country, and tragedy, horror and devastation elsewhere in the world, it was truly uplifting to be part of this joyous celebration of nature. Everyone seemed so happy! It was impossible to walk among those trees, even bumping into each other, without feeling a bond with humanity: All of us brought together by tiny pink blossoms.

Thank you, brilliant cherry trees, for giving us such joy.

At upper left, I tried to show some cosplay characters being photographed, but my sketch doesn't show them well. See photo below for what they actually looked like.

These are the characters I saw being photographed. In addition, several groups of choreographed teenagers were being video'd, probably for their TikTok channels.

So much exuberance everywhere!

So many cherries...so many people

Urban Sketchers Seattle had our traditional outing to sketch the beautiful, old, Yoshino cherry trees in the quad at the University of Washington.

It turned out to be the perfect day…but so many people! I sat on a low wall out of the way of most of the mayhem. There were so many more people than in this sketch. Several stopped to look as I worked and I gave out a few flyers to people who said they draw.

 

While there were less than 10 at our meetup in the morning, there were about 30 at the throw down!

More photos here.

360 at Third Place Commons

 

3/29/25 Third Place Commons, Lake Forest Park

Five other sketchers and I tried something fun during this morning’s USk Seattle outing. Sitting together around a table, we each sketched the slice of view directly in front of us, forming a 360-degree view of Third Place Commons. When I’ve participated in 360 sketches previously (once at the downtown public library and another time at the UW Quad), the participants sat in a circle facing out. For this one, we all faced each other toward the center of the table, which meant we all included fellow sketchers. Fun!

After I finished my first sketch that included Kim (at right), I turned around in my seat 180 degrees to sketch whatever had been directly behind. I like that sketch better (below) because I could see further out into the distance.

During the last half hour before the throwdown, I walked around a bit and sketched a few more people enjoying the Commons on a Saturday morning.

Our 360 throwdown was incomplete because a couple of participants had already left by the time we remembered to photograph all of them together!

Sketchers Give Life to Empty Wallingford Center

 

3/23/25 Wallingford Center

Even before the pandemic, Wallingford Center was a reliable but quiet mainstay for USk Seattle during the wet, cold months. If the weather cooperated, we had all of the Wallingford neighborhood to explore. If not, the Center’s cozy historic building kept us comfortable. After the pandemic, it never really recovered, but at least we had Trophy Cupcakes to keep us caffeinated and sugared. Unfortunately, Trophy recently closed, so there’s not much left there except a couple of retail shops and one restaurant. It’s a good thing we sketchers showed up this morning to liven up the otherwise ghost town vibe!

Although a few hardy souls sketched in the cold drizzle, I opted for the warm and comfy. Wallingford Center has enough window views that I could still capture one of the neighborhood’s classic bungalows, trees and street furniture. I also got snippets of the few remaining retail spots and some other sketchers, of course.

A great turnout in an otherwise empty space!