Sketchers make the best models. These guys sat still for 45 minutes straight. I still didn't get their faces right. Maybe next time.

Sunday at Hales

brew house

Hales Brewery

Great turnout of Urban Sketchers Sunday at Hales.

Hale's

There were plenty of good options to sketch at Hale's today, as well as comfy couchs and good chairs.














I love the size and shapes of industrial machines.

 

And the charming phone booth in the lobby.

 

Hale's Ales Pub

Great place to sketch on a cold, wet day.

Seattle February Sketchcrawl

Charles driving us to Joshua Tree.

This was drawn from the back seat. The woogly lines (check out Charles' visor) are from the bumpy ride. It's not easy drawing with pen in a speeding car, especially when Charles is driving- holy moly!

Cousin Charles and Lynn's place in Long Beach, CA.

Wonderful week spent with some great, hospitable, creative people in South California.

Lionel Hampton Jazz Fest and Sketches along Highway 26

Just came back from the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival where our son was singing with the Garfield Vocal Jazz group.    Here are sketches from the trip and of the group performing at Haddock Hall Lionel Hampton School of Music. For more on this event see Garfield Vocal Jazz @ Lionel Hampton

Garfield @ Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival

WA 26

Washtuca, WA

Interbay Gas-Works

My take on the weather.

Should I stay home today?

Portland 2 21 2011

I went to Portland to enjoy some of the same sights as the Symposium participants.

Better late than never.

Leavenworth

We spent President's Weekend at a time share in Leavenworth, WA. Beautiful weather and scenery made it difficult to leave so soon, definitely will come back to paint here.

Am closing in on the end of the Marty Sketchbook - This was straight watercolor a rarity for me, this is looking out our back deck at the Leavenworth Golf Course and Cascade Mountains.

Sketching At Hales Ales Sunday February 27th 10 a.m.

Thanks to Lori B. for lining this up for us.  We will sketch next Sunday at Hales Brewery in Fremont.
We will meet inside the front entry in the lobby at 10 AM.  There is on street parking surrounding Hales, and additional parking behind Hales near the Fred Meyer.

Sea Monster Lounge and Rain Sushi

Last night we had a chance to go out.  Here are the sketches I did.

Sea Monster Lounge and Rain

Sea Monster Lounge

Rain Sushi

Maui....mmmmmm- a thousand alohas

I spent the second week of February in Maui with my mother and sister. 

Just breathing the sweet air is rejuvenating... wish I could have stayed till May.

 Keawakapu Beach - South Maui

 The Dog 'n Duck Irish Pub - Kihei, Maui

 Maui Beach Girl

Kihei Caffe

Vocal Jazz Practice

Isn't it wonderful that our region has such great music programs in our public schools.  Tonight I went to Garfield to hear the Vocal Jazz Choir practice for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival coming up in Moscow Idaho.  My son is singing a duet in it. 
Here is a sketch I did while listening to them practice.  Still working on drawing people which is my weakest skill. This was good practice. 

Chinatown, Vancouver, Canada.

Jazz Competition

Am so very proud of my daughter (Kiersten) who plays trumpet for the Kentridge High School Jazz Band. They played in a competition at Bellevue College against nationally ranked schools like Seattle's Garfield and Roosevelt. This page was a collection of quick sketches done throughout the day. Pen and ink in the Marty sketchbook.

Rainier Club Interiors

  
Had the opportunity to go to the Rainier Club for a fundraiser dinner tonight.  So I just had to sketch something while I was there.  Just before we left I sat down to sketch the columns in the lobby. The interiors are Art Deco and it was designed by Charles F. Gould in 1929.

On the train to Vancouver.

Vive le France, Vive le Republic (du banana)

 

From projections of power to subtle undertones, appearances can and do constitute reality.  Reality though, can at times seem like a surreality.  This wonderful building (Seattle's downtown Banana Republic) got my attention on the way to the library. Complete with the banners usually reserved for nations, the building has within it the classical order of Le Brun adorned with a rights of man motif.  However, for all its visual appeals, it celebrates a different kind of triumphalism.  This dissolution of context, only fully recognized after sitting on the sidewalk and sketching, has replaced "Aux armes, citoyens " with "Aux factories des Enfants!", almost without skipping a beat.

Down and out man, muses with toothpick and appears stately at Seattle Central Library

Seattle Central library is truly a triumph of civic architecture.  That being so, I was struck by the contrast between its lofty and progressive forms and the reality of the library's more social fabric.  Any time spent listening to conversations will yield talks about shelters and subsistence rather Kant or the new must read.  Functionally, the library is a modern knowledge center and an ad hoc social services depot.  I started to draw this man, and in quick gestural strokes, his worn shoes and plastics bags gave way to an impression that is almost stately.  A human focus reduced purely social and extraneous cues, and in this sketch's destruction of context, it elevated my impression to his essential self.  I think this man could be an English Prime Minister in some storied hall, rather than the homeless man, a continent away.