Lakefair, Olympia

Just after the Tacoma sketchcrawl Olympia hosted it's annual civic party and carnival, Lakefair. It often been something I try to stay away from, but from a sketching perspective it's quite fun. 

trip through Fremont

5 - 10 minute sequence views through Fremont; Gordon Cullen works.

Seattle League of Arts at Seattle Center's 50th Anniversary

As Seattle Center celebrates its 50th anniversary, Seattle League of Arts celebrates having shown their art for sale there every summer since the World's Fair.
You all know how dogged it can be to work a sales table.  Fortunately I brought my sketch kit.
Here is a very rugged sketch of my friend Lynn Kerr's A-frame display rack, one of maybe 30 set up in what is now (again) called the Armory -- but which many of us natives still think of as the Food Circus.  Be aware this sketch does her beautiful artwork no justice.

 Here are sketches of Gage student Ethan doing 30-minute portraits on demand, some random visitors to the Center, and the flowers on our sales table!

Today is the last day you can come to meet June Anderson Evanoff (till 3 pm) painting live.  June was chosen at the 1962 World's Fair to represent Northwest Artists, and her painting is still in the Smithsonian.  She was interviewed at the show last week by City Stream (channel 21) and we think this will air August 2 at 7 p.m.

More Tacoma Sketches

I've been so busy sketching lately I've haven't kept up with posting. Here are a couple of my sketches from our Regional Sketchcrawl in Tacoma on July 21. One of our best sketchcrawls in my opinion. Great weather, great people and lots of interesting things to sketch.

Lopez Island

Plein Air Watercolor workshop, day 4 simplification.

Sketching with Suhita at Olympic Sculpture Park

I had a chance to sketch with Suhita Shirodkar this morning at Olympic Sculpture Park.  She was here for a short time before going on an Alaskan Cruise.  It was amazing seeing her work from her sketchbook and seeing how fluidly she uses the watercolor.  Check out her blog for her Seattle sketches when she gets a chance to post.

Here is my sketch from this morning.

Richard Serra's Wake At Olympic Sculpture Park

At the Beach

I don't often draw people, especially people who will want to see the finished drawing, because my quick and dirty method- no pencil, no planning, no measuring; just attack the page with a pen-- leads to some crazy distortions. My poor subjects always end up looking less attractive than they really are. But I'd finished the lighthouse and didn't want to stop drawing, so...

Tacoma Sketches

I really enjoyed spending the day with all the sketchers from Portland, Whidbey and Seattle.

It was a day to share stories and creativity with a great bunch of people.  I enjoyed sketching the Glass Museum because of the forms, capturing some other sketchers (Billie and Kate) and because my friend Wyn was the designer in Erickson's office who designed the building.

Lunch was fun because we all sat around sharing our sketch books, stories and a wonderful meal at The Swiss.  The wait staff did a great job of getting 35+ lunches to us and keeping the tabs straight.

Afterwards I sketched The Swiss to help me remember the meal in the future.

(Posted the rest of my sketches from the day on the flickr USkSeattle site).

Sharing sketches after the morning session.

The smaller group sharing sketches in the late afternoon.

Saturday in Tacoma

It was great to draw with the group again. Now I wonder why I was away for so long. It is really impressive to see the effort that Tacoma is putting into preserving this area, rather than just tearing everything down and putting up a bunch of boring/ugly/overpriced high-rises, like another nearby city that I know of. This old art-deco theatre is built on a steep side street- I wonder, when there is a line for the show, if it goes uphill or downhill? 

After lunch I wandered around until this array of railroad signals caught my eye. I was taken by how "purposeful" they looked, all lined up, meaning business, not to be ignored.

See you next time. Hope the weather holds.

Fisherman's Terminal, Seattle

...a slight lean to the right, a great afternoon sketching.

A Perfect Day in Tacoma

We really hit the mark on Saturday.  No rain and a perfect day for sketching.  Tacoma is so picturesque the scale of the city is just right.  Sky, water, historic buildings,  the Glass museum and about 35 urban sketchers.  We had a great turnout for our second annual Pacific Northwest regional sketchcrawl.  It was great meeting up with the Portland Sketchers and Whidbey Island Sketchers. Seattle had a great turnout of longtime and new sketchers.  Thanks all for coming and making it a great day!

Looking at Union Station from the Washington State Historic Museum

On the Bridge to Tacoma Museum of Glass

Tacoma has charm.

What a great sketching day! Saturday was the first time in many years that I have explored Tacoma. I was excited by the many interesting possibilities for sketching and will have to go back for more!

SR 509 cable-stayed bridge (1997), Thea Foss Waterway, Tacoma

UW Tacoma Library

Tacoma Museum of Glass

 Infinity pool with Museum of Glass beyond.

It was so inspiring to meet sketchers from all over the region.  Great location with lots of sketching subjects.

Tacoma Sketchcrawl

While at Lunch I took the liberty of sketching the group at the Swiss.

Discovery Park Lighthouse

When the sun comes out and there's a little breeze, there's no place I'd rather be than Seattle, and no place I'd rather avoid than the inside of my car on the freeway. So at the last minute I bailed on the Tacoma Sketchcrawl and instead walked to Discovery Park and went to the beach, right here in my own backyard.

The sun finally came out for today's sketchcrawl!  It was lovely watercoloring and sketching with the sun on my back.  Watercolor done on the Thea Foss Waterfont looking southward.  I didn't get to meet-up with the rest of the sketchers because Marie Watt was giving a lecture at the Tacoma Art Museum, I hope to see all of the sketches on the blog.

beautiful bloggers

The usual suspects and more!  Here are just some of the sketchers from Portland, Seattle, and the islands -- forgive and correct me if I left out a represented region! -- who gathered in Tacoma today to exploit the grandeur and wreak general havoc.  A great time was had by all!
And here's my own sketch, truly sketchy!

Sketching by my Lonesome

I was camping at Priest lake in Northern Idaho for the WW Sketchcrawl. There is absolutely nothing urban here but it was lovely, lovely, lovely.

With Whidbey Island Sketchers

I joined the Whidbey Island Sketchers last Friday

in their weekly sketchcrawl in Langley.  They have a great group

 that met at the Langley Marina to sketch and socialize.

The weather was a little rainy at first, but cleared as the

afternoon wore on.  They were very welcoming and

I appreciate being included in their group for the day.

I was sitting under the dock while doing this sketch to avoid the rain drops. 

 I almost got sprayed with a water hose from a boater who was washing off

something on the dock above me toward the end of sketch time. 

 The ketch in the middle of the sketch pulled out and left while I was
laying out the sketch.  I had to work quickly to remember details.

World Wide SketchCrawl on Beacon Hill

This is actually three different scenes melted together. The car was a warm up sketch at the bus stop, at Jefferson Park there was a Samoan cricket match going on, and in the background a sketch of the Beacon Hill neighborhood looking north to the Seattle skyline.

Pen and ink with a watercolor wash.

Took a break from the rental project to spend lunch time at Dash Point on Puget Sound just south of Seattle. Pen and ink  with a watercolor wash in a 4"x4" Handbook Sketchbook.

Seattle Arboretum

Taking a class on drawing trees from the GAGE. After drawing exclusively with pen for years, pencil is hard! Smeary, dull point, too faint. Still, a good challenge and nice to sit in the arboretum.

Saturday July 21st Northwest Regional Sketchcrawl!

Join us Saturday July 21st for a Pacific Northwest Regional sketchcrawl at the Museum District of Tacoma.  Meet fellow sketchers all the way from Portland to Vancouver B.C. and east to the Tri Cities and northwest to Whidbey Island and Anacortes.

We will be meeting all out of town sketchers at 11:30 a.m.  at the front entry of the Washington State History Museum. Early birds are welcome to come earlier to get in a sketch before that official meet and greet.  There are great opportunities for sketching some historic buildings in this district or walk across the bridge to the Tacoma Glass museum and sketch. 1:00 pm we will reconvene.... at the amphitheatre at the Washington State History Museum...Have lunch at the Swiss share sketches and then if you are game to sketch the afternoon...sketch for another couple of hours and meet for afternoon coffee or beer at 4:30 or 5:00 p.m.  We look forward to a big group!

Street parking is available for $1.50 all day.  Check out the google groups discussion if you want to carpool.


WASHINGTON STATE HISTORY MUSEUM
1911 Pacific Avenue
Tacoma, Washington

See http://seattle.urbansketchers.org/p/updated-info-july-21st-pnw-regional.html  for more information.

36th WW Sketchcrawl on Whidbey Island

I was still on Whidbey Island and so decided to participate by going to the local farmers market at Bayview.  It was a good chance to work on people moving in and out of my frame of view.  We were blessed with sunshine for a few hours on Saturday after experiencing severe rain and lightning storms the previous 24 hours.  The crowds was lively with local musicians playing in the background and all the wonderful vendors with their foods/ wares.

  

Before going back to our island house I did a quick sketch of the historic corner store and garden center at Bayview (that was next to the lot where the farmers market was).



The Center of the Universe

Biked from Bothell to Fremont in the thunder and lightning for lunch (chicken and broccoli salads from PCC)  and drew this view from the canal before heading back.

Waiting at Sunlight Cafe

Sketching in the car is one of the best rewards of compulsive earliness.  This little oil sketch (8" x 6") was my souvenir from a pleasant hour!  I go around and climb into the passenger seat to avoid the steering wheel.  Watch out for cars whizzing by!

36th WW Sketchcrawl

I missed the Jefferson Park Opening due to a summer cold, but felt well enough to hit our local market and downtown for a bit of sketching. Can't miss out on the international event!

And a couple of days before at Music in the Park: 

Jefferson Park Jubillee and 36th WW Sketchcrawl

What a gem for Beacon Hill and the City!  This was once the site of two reservoirs a small park with only one of those old merry go round play structures.  Mark Smedley said parents used to check the park for needles and such before letting their kids play.  The community has been working on building this park up since Mayer Norm Rice.  After 9-11 the city decided to lid our reservoirs.  With the activism, the support of the Beacon Hill community and the support of the City of Seattle this beautiful Park was realized.  It boasts of large Cricket Fields, skate board park, children's play area,  water park...the covered picnic shelters and the Mountain Outlook have solar panel roofs..the electricity generated from that powers the fountains of the waterpark,  there is a short zip line for kids, amphi-theatre....the community center and driving range.    What a gift for the community! 

About 9 Seattle Sketchers were on hand to document the opening ceremonies and the park.

Here are the sketches I did of that day.

Jubilee Celebrations Taiko Drummers

Jubilee Celebration With the Women's Samoan Cricket Team and Bon Odori Performers

View from the Mountain Outlook with Solar Panel roof.