Winter Waltz 2012

 Sketch from the Winter Waltz at Benaroya Hall.  It was a wonderful event again.  Great music fun event.  The place was full and waltzing was like maneuvering in 5:00 traffic!

Glassy Baby Sale

Saturday I stood in line for two hours to get into the Glassy Baby Store for their annual Seconds Sale. I didn't think I would be in line for so long...but once I was there for an hour and a half I couldn't just leave.  After two hours in line I finally got in.  It was so crowded in there you literally could not move...wall to wall people.  In 5 minutes I found what I wanted, paid and got out of there!  Later a friend told me her niece came down from Bellingham to go to the sale.  She was there by 4:45 am and was 4th in line!  The sale didn't even start until 9:00 am.  So she waited over 4 hours!  I didn't have my sketch book but I found a piece of cardboard in my purse and also had my ink pens.  Here are the sketches I did while waiting in line.  And a picture of the actual line as we got closer to the store.

Volunteer Park Conservatory

Rain and Mist at Juanita Beach Park

My car provided the shelter and, with an occasional swipe from the windshield wipers, I tried to capture the changing mist.  The rain is relentless.

View of Portage Bay

I volunteer with the Puget Sound Blood Center, giving juice and cookies to fine donors. One of the rewards is that it  brings me to many surprising places in Seattle. This week I found a  lovely view of Portage Bay from the Vista Cafe in the new Foege Building - warm, dry and coffee too. This building is named after William H. Foege, who was instrumental in eradicating small pox.  I felt a little guilty sketching peacefully while all around me, really smart people were making progress in genome research.

Welcoming the Year of the Dragon!

Like David H. last weekend I did the WW Sketchcrawl solo. Escaping the lack of power and water in Olympia, I came up to Seattle's International District in hopes of catching the opening Lion Dance. I missed it but caught the dragon at the Wing Luke and colored it using Brushes on an IPad. 


I still have to work on the second dragon sketch. Think I'll use real paint for that. 


I may go again this weekend for the full celebration depending on the weather prediction. It's such a colorful and lively event and Seattle's ID was listed as one of the top places in the country to celebrate the lunar new year.

Interiors of the First Church of Christ Scientist

Sunday I went to the open house of the First Church of Christ Scientist which we sketched for sketch crawl in September.  The church has be broken up to 12 units opening up to the center as a common  lobby.  You would have to like walking stairs to want to purchase a unit.  It is interesting to see that they kept all the detail along the exterior walls. New interior partition walls terminate at the detail, so you might have a portion of a door or portion of a pediment if the partition wall is located in the middle of a detail.  I guess they wanted to save the historic pieces in place and express that this was an adaptive reuse of the building.  I sat in the largest unit and did some quick sketches.  Painted at home from photos.

By the way, I haven't been commenting on sketches because the blog won't let me leave a comment for some reason.

Interior Unit 3 upper level looking toward the exterior deck.

Unit 3 Ceiling and cornice detail.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl

I celebrated the lack of snow with a cup of coffee and a sketch.

Seattle Snow

Jack from Missoula just sent me a snow sketch he did while in Seattle.

Sketching @ the Winter Waltz Sunday January 29th

Here is another sketch opportunity for you all. Garfield High School Orchestra will be playing at Benaroya Hall Next Sunday from 7-10 pm for the Annual Winter Waltz. Last year I went and sketched some as well as try to waltz. It was really an amazing event, great venue and opportunity to hear wonderful waltzes while you sketch. Tickets are now on sale for $40.00 each. See attached information and link to ticket sales. Tickets prices @ the door are more.

Melting Snow

Sitting looking at the snow melting and the new house being constructed across the street.

SAAM

Here is another SAAM Sketch from Jack Oates who was visiting from Missoula Montana. He and his wife Kelley joined us for sketch crawl last Saturday.

Winter Snow Sketches

Okay let's see all those winter sketches. This should be fun! Here are mine from the last couple of days.

Backyard view

Back yard view 2

View from the window seat

How I spent January 18th

I am so fortunate to be here in Santa Barbara. I took a painting class yesterday on a bluff overlooking the Pacific. Thinking of you all.....

Snow day Sketches

    

I grabbed some paper towels when I headed for the bus after my office closed today. Took advantage of riding instead of driving. The man on the left represents the Fellowship for Reconciliation and holds signs for peace and justice every Wednesday, mid-day, at Sylvester Park in downtown Olympia. He was riding the bus today, apparently heading towards his usual Wednesday destination.

Downtown Marina

Bird outside kitchen window

Ski Trail

This is a pencil and watercolor sketch from a recent XC ski outing along Icicle Creek Road, near Leavenworth, WA.

Snowy Magnolia Hill vista

 

This is a view of Magnolia Hill looking west.

This is my second time with the group, but first time in sharing time with the sketchers.  Great to see everyone's enthusiasim and desire to come even with the snowy weather.  All my drawings were with a #2 school pencil.  Will need to add some mechanical and wider range of pencils for next time in a museum.  I added some tones in the computer to experiment with alittle color on some of the pencil linework.




Watching Frank Sketch Kimono




George TSUTAKAWA Bronze



Chinese Monk



7th &8th c. Horse Statues



Original and Quick Study



After Photo of Photographer







SAAM

Because I usually reserve the pencil for use in my book illustrations, drawing on location with one was certainly a different experience for me. As Gail said, we should definitely do it more often. The first image of Virupaksha was done with a 2B wood pencil, while the second sketch of the Fuller Garden Court was done with a 0.5mm click pencil.

Snowbound at SAM

It was quite an adventure. A few flurries upon arrival, 5 inches upon departure. Chained up and got down the hill after a some delicious pumpkin soup and sandwich at the Hopvine Pub on 15th. 
Watching the snow fall in Olympia today (Monday) I took advantage of being housebound and colorized yesterday's drawings.

Porcelain Dwarfs

 Entry way, much more elegant than I have depicted

Fellow urban sketcher

My favorite room at SAM Asia in B/W and color

Seattle Asian Art Museum

The graphite sketch is a sculpture of a monk at the moment of enlightenment, to be honest he looks like me trying to read a menu with out my glasses.

Took Metro into Seattle to meet up with fellow Seattle Urban Sketchers and spend time sketching exhibits at the Seattle Asian Art Museum (Capital Hill) out of the weather. Though there was a just a trace of snow when I walked in, a couple of hours later there was four inches of snow on the ground and not letting up. Capitol Hill is beautiful covered in snow and I enjoyed the walk to the Metro tunnel (downtown). It is much less stressful being a pedestrian in a snow storm……..Catching a bus home was a different story.

Seattle Asian Art Museum Japanese Stoneware

Vessel, early 1970s by Yanigahara Mutsuo. Harder than it looked to draw!

Seattle Asian Art Museum Korean Wrapping Cloth and Floor Mat by Han Soonja

I have been doing yoga and recently tried meditation for the first time. After rushing to be on time and driving through snow to get to the sketchcrawl, this scene caught my eye and I thought I'd multitask and meditate while sketching.

Seattle Asian Art Museum Sketchcrawl

Frosted Donut

Here are a few more photos from today's sketch crawl at SAAM.

SAAM Sketchcrawl

Despite the threat of snow we ventured out to the Seattle Asian Art Museum for this month's Sketchcrawl.  I was surprised at the number of people who did show up.  Many new to the group, we had about 20 people show up.  The exhibit was great and well worth the visit.  I would like to go back and see it again.

We sketched indoors using pencil.  It has been a while for me so my sketches were a bit rough.  I used a flat carpenters pencil for my first sketch in the Porcelain room.  The sketches of the Richard E. Fuller room and the iron gate was done with a mechanical pencil.  It was a great challenge to just use the pencil...I will have to practice it more. 

Urban sketchers on a snowy sketchcrawl.