Washington "staycation" fieldsketches

My sketchbooks are full of our adventures this summer from Friday Harbor to Winthrop to Omak and Wenatchee to Washougal and the Columbia Gorge to Ocean Shores and to Salt Creek.  Sketching vacation memories is priceless, but finding ideal conditions to sketch outdoors can be a challenge.

The sketch at the picnic area at Sunrise on Mt. Rainier was a very windy challenge, but fortunately no equipment blew away!

We hiked on the Bluff Trail from Salt Creek campground to Crescent Beach where I met a half dozen painters whose easels were set up on the beach every 20 feet.  They were part of a two-day acrylic painting workshop out of Port Angeles.  I continued past them and walked around the rocky headland to sketch this scene.  I quickly completed the sketch in ink and watercolor before the incoming tide cut me off!

Finally, our trip took us to Fort Flagler where we hiked more than a mile on the beach from the lower campground towards the east around the point where the lighthouse is.  There we met patient salmon fisherman as well as a juvenile gull hoping for bait.  Skies were gray and spitting rain, but I was able to finish the ink sketch before the squall forced us to hike back along the beach.  We looked up in time to see a Trident nuclear submarine being escorted by several coast guard vessels including HOS Arrowhead and HOS Eagleview, the two marine supply vessels we saw daily over the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Salt Creek Recreation Area.  Unfortunately, the rain and wind prevented me from sketching the submarine escort.