Ballard Locks (not the scenic view)

Well, I was a kind of embarrassed about posting this sketch. See, I was feeling a little grumpy the last time Seattle USk met at the Ballard Locks. Every time I go to this popular spot, it seems more crowded and more covered in caution signs and barrier fencing (trying to keep the tourists out of the ship canal). So, contrarily, I sat down on a bench with no particular view and drew what was in front of me. Too much realism?

Sunshine and Peacocks at Chateau Ste. Michelle

9/22/17 Chateau Ste. Michelle

It’s been at least a couple of decades since I last drove east to the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery in Woodinville. The state’s oldest winery, it’s on a lovely wooded property, resident peacocks roam the grounds, and wherever you sniff, wine is in the air! As if all that weren’t enough, Urban Sketchers Seattle had blue skies and sunshine on a day that could have gone just as easily towards clouds and rain.

9/22/17 Claude, the peacock

Along with several other sketchers, I walked toward the vineyard, and none of us could resist nibbling the fat, purple grapes we plucked from the vines. I was braced for tartness, but the one I popped into my mouth was fully ripe and amazingly sweet – sweeter than any grapes we buy at the store. With that sweetness still lingering, I plunked my stool down at the side of the entrance road to sketch the rows of trees welcoming visitors.

Next I walked around the winery grounds looking for the resident peacock pair. They were both sitting on the manor house porch, preening lazily for nearly the whole time I sketched Claude. He stopped preening long enough to stand for a moment and look around, and I saw that he was limping, apparently from a run-in with a visitor’s car.

As is often my habit, I had about 15 minutes to kill before the throwdown. The chateau (which houses one of the tasting rooms) is a large building, so I bit off a piece small enough to chew in those remaining minutes.

Although Woodinville is a little further than we typically go for Friday outings, we had an excellent turnout of sketchers on a gorgeous autumn day.

9/22/17 Chateau building

Winery sketching

The Friday group met further afield then usual today. We went out to the Chateau Ste Michelle winery northeast of Seattle. It is a beautiful grounds... from the vines in the fields to beautiful lawns, garden alcoves, waterfalls with pools. This is the winery's 50th Anniversary.

My carpool of 4 arrived early. I walked back out to the gate to meet sketchers and tell them to drive further in to park. So, of course, I sketched the gate in my tiny 4x6 in book while I waited.



My primary subject today was the Chateau.



After finishing, I still had a bit of time, so I walked back out to the fields to do a small sketch of the vines and grapes, again in the 4x6 book.



We shared our sketches and had our group phone in the usual tourist location. 




Feather is missing from the photo. 

And I didn't even try any wine!  

Bounty at the Ballard Locks

The meet up with Urban Sketchers Seattle at Ballard Locks on Sunday was a fast paced event.  There were so many sketchers to greet and so much to see and do I had to make quick sketching decisions.  Before venturing any further, I decided to draw where we first gathered at the Visitors Center.   With beautiful plantings of exotic botanicals as a background, the symbolic castle in front of the Visitors Center communicates vision. The castle is the logo of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.   Designed around 1840, the Corps Castle logo still looks grand and impressive in 2017.

Administration Building and lock waiting boats

Continuing the theme of grand and impressive, I next drew the administration building.  I liked the layers of shapely trees, historic architecture anchoring the locks, wayfaring boats and green water rising and falling.

Salmon Bay Bridge

Lastly, I sketched the parade of boats as they majestically moved beneath the Salmon Bay Bridge before entering the locks.

Hiram M. Chittenden Locks

I wanted to get an over view of the Ballard Locks yesterday, so I started at the south side of the property.  It allowed me to sketch the spill way, both the large and small locks, the control tower and the US Army Corps of Engineers office building.  

Later I captured some boats in the large lock and the office building.  It was a good perspective to get the energy of people gathering and then watching the lowering of boats.

 
After the meet up time I did a quick sketch of the wave sculpture over by the fish ladder before heading to get some halibut fish and chips at Totem House by the north entry to the property.  We just beat the rain as it started to fall as soon I headed to my car after getting my fish and chips!

Ballard Locks

After a summer hiatus it's good to be back sketching with USk Seattle! I came late and had to leave early but was able to get one sketch in. It's fun to look at familiar places with fresh (sketching) eyes and notice details you hadn't before. Hope to see and sketch more with you all in the coming months!

Ballard Locks - 9/17/2017

Although have been Ballard Lock several times, yet this is first sketched here. Observation defer sketching from sightsee, that including sound, color, air, atmosphere of surrounding. I like to capture this first image of Bay Bridge with fall color framed. I following Tina's suggestion of walked few steps higher on southend. Last stop, at Visitor Ctr asked a Centennial celebration stamp. - 100 Years !

While waiting for group throw-down, in front of wave sculptures, two images caught my eyes...a aged lady in the wheelchair was enjoying around...and a young boy was exciting to watch boats and fishes.
Interesting contrast..."Memory vs looking forward(future)"
A very quick sketch to depict the moment!

Ballard Locks

It was lovely at the Locks with people from all over the world touring the facilities.
A tour guide leader saw my sketch of the Salmon Waves and mentioned that Australians see fiddlehead ferns when they see the sculpture.  I didn't hear what other folk see but I think it looks like a sea monster reaching up to snag a passing ship.

Chittenden - aka Ballard - Locks

Though rain was finally predicted, it held off until our sketch outing was finished. A larger group than usual attended the Ballard Locks sketch outing today.  There were some first time sketchers and even a couple new sketchers moving here... one from Boston and one from NYC! And there was a visitor from Spokane.  Welcome all! 


I did quite a bit of wandering around before I sat down to do my only sketch of the day. I decided to go big... or at least larger than usual. My sketchbook today was 9x12 inches. This is the second time I've sketched the railway bridge open.

"The Salmon Bay Bridge, also known as Bridge No. 4, is a single-leaf bascule bridge spanning across Salmon Bay and connecting Magnolia/Interbay to Ballard in Seattle, Washington. ... Built in 1914 by the Great Northern Railway, it has an opening span of 61 meters (200 feet) and has two tracks."




I asked for the stamps at the Corps of Engineers visitor center. 

There are several sketchers not in the group photo as they had to leave early!  I think we were at least 30 today. 


Thanks to Dan's son, Colin, for taking the group photo!

A Change in Weather at Ballard Locks

9/17/17 Salmon Bay Bridge at the Ballard Locks

The first real rain in weeks was predicted for today – just in time for USk Seattle’s outing at the Ballard Locks. If and when the rain did come, I was planning to duck inside the fish ladder area. By 10:30 a.m., though, the sun was still darting in and out of clouds, so I went to the parking lot on the south side of the Ship Canal. Although I’ve sketched the Salmon Bay Bridge several times, I’d never been able to catch it in the open position. My luck stayed with me – the sun came out just long enough to put in those shadows on the bridge. 

9/17/17 Ballard Locks

Crossing the canal again, I stopped at the Locks at a busy spot – not just busy with pedestrians, but also visually busy. I have no idea what this yellow thing is in the foreground, but it apparently has a nautical purpose. In any case, it was just the right time to initiate my new Stillman & Birn Nova gray-toned sketchbook.  

We got an excellent USk turnout on this iffy-weather morning! And fortunately for us, the rain waited until my drive home to finally start falling. 

United Way Day of Caring

On a walk during my lunch break I happened upon 60+ volunteers for the United Way Day of Caring. They were people from the Port of Seattle who have donated property for a homeless village on which the volunteers were creating.
Low Income Housing Institute and Microsoft corporation were on site working hard. I stopped by and showed them my sketches of our neighborhood efforts on building a tiny home possibly for this very location. United Way of King County
Sketched on location on Tan paper, ball point pens, gouache, watercolor and white gel pen

PARK(ing) Day in Maple Leaf

9/15/17 Pop-up park in the Maple Leaf neighborhood

Who knew that international PARK(ing) Day has been going on for a decade? It’s an annual event to “raise awareness about the importance of walkable, livable and healthy communities.” I first heard about it last year when Urban Sketchers Tacoma took part in it. Then earlier this week I was reading our neighborhood blog, Maple Leaf Life, and learned that a “pop-up park” would be installed today just a few blocks north of our house.

Greg and I walked up to Northeast 85th Street this afternoon and found that a few parking spaces on Fifth Avenue Northeast had been cordoned off, and chairs and benches had been hospitably provided. A coffee urn, a cooler of beverages and snacks were offered to neighbors walking and biking by to see what was going on. The idea is to use a space normally reserved for cars as a place for people to gather. Aimee (in the green T-shirt), a leader of the Maple Leaf Greenways organization, spearheaded the pop-up park at that busy intersection.

It was fun to meet a few people, exchange thoughts on neighborhood issues and discuss possible solutions. Heck, it was just fun to stand in the warm sunshine sketching the event on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

Rain at last! Some like it, some don't.

Finally! After more than 50 days without rain and smoky, hazy air with ashes from forest fires falling on our heads, we had measurable rain for a few hours today. What a relief!

The fields still look dry after our new record for most consecutive days without measurable precipitation (55 straight), Seattle’s combined rainfall tally the past two months of just 0.02 inches ties 1914 for the driest July-August on record.

About 40 miles north of Seattle.

I hopped into the "mobile studio" and drove to a spot across the road from an old barn, shoulder deep in dry grass and right on the flight path to the local municipal airport. Here's my initial pencil line work, just one, in my Pentalic Aquajournal and my watercolor set up. I'm testing the new color dots watercolor sampler from QoR, a gift from one of our generous sponsors at the Chicago Urbansketchers Symposium. The colors are great!

Here's my mobile studio setup, trying out the little QoR sample palette.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, er, suburbs.

You tend to forget a few things about rainy weather after taking sunshine for granted:

1. No matter how diligently you water your plants, they don't appreciate it as much as even a few drops of rain. (That's "Knucklehead" the potted pumpkin. Look at those big leaves reaching for the raindrops!)
2. Not a good idea to  use water soluble ink, even if you're sketching under the eaves on a dry patch of the sidewalk. Instant specks!
3. A cat can forget that its secret nap lair leaks in the rain.

Our neighbor cat emerged from her secret nap lair, VERY disgruntled and soaking wet.

I was inspired. Rainy days always put me in the mood to draw and paint.

My two page spread from a rainy Saturday in September.

Urban Pond

Today was rather dark and hazy, with smoke still in the air.  The light was quite flat but we didn't have rain as predicted, though we felt a few drops.  The Friday group met at Meadowbrook Pond.  It was a very still and peaceful place.  Even though many people walked through, it remained quiet. 

I liked the roof line of this structure and it was a popular subject today. The crow landed, so I just had to "put a bird on it". 



I walked further into the park to find this sculpture.  I was unable to later find any information about it, though one of the locals indicated it is a depiction of the sun.







After the "throw down" and group photo, a few of us headed to the Wedgewood Ale House & Cafe, which was recommended by a local.  It was a good suggestion as we all enjoyed delicious fish and chips.  We sat on the patio so I sketched this portion of the sculptural fence. 


A few more photos here:  https://redharp.smugmug.com/SketchOutings/2017-0908-Meadowbrook-Pon/

A Few Memories of the First Day at USK Chicago Symposium

I'm relieved to see that there are a few other sketchers like me who need some time to put together their thoughts and reminisces of the 8th Annual Symposium in Chicago. It's quite a task to try to convey just how amazing the experience was. So, even though this is a bit late in posting, I trust that it will give an impression of what it was like on the first full day, July 26, 2017.

That's me in a black top next to the bench, taking a panoramic photo of our huge group on our way to the first Sketch Walk at the USK 8th Annual Symposium 2017. We walked up Michigan Avenue to the South Garden at the Art Institute of Chicago. Eventually the approximately 200 sketchers (my guess, I haven't seen the official count) strung out for three blocks and through several stoplights. Note: If you have a good eye, you might spot Jane and Gail from USKSeattle in the right side of this shot.

This was the sketch walk gathering point outside of the symposium venue on the first morning. Thanks to the volunteers who guided us to the best sketching spots in the city.  None of these photos can truly express the impact of  the entire crowd of around 200 sketchers walking together along the streets of  Chicago, stopping for a while to see the world one sketch at a time..

The reflecting pool and fountain at the south garden of the Chicago Art Institute was a tempting spot to try to stay cool while sketching an inspiring subject.

I decided to go on ahead of the group to the north garden of the Institute, our second stop on the sketchwalk. It's a smaller space and even without the fountain, provided a nice shady spot with benches, tables and chairs perfect for sketching. Outdoor sculpture, like Alexander Calder’s Flying Dragon, is carefully sited. I always enjoy viewing from different angles and chose this north facing profile because it seemed not at all like a dragon, but like some exotic tropical bloom, repeating the shapes of the surrounding foliage and other plantings.

Yesterday morning we went out on our own to see the Buckingham Fountain. Even at 8:00 am, it was hot enough out in the sun to appreciate the cooling windblown mist off the edge of the fountain.

Buckingham Fountain with Chicago skyline. 7/25/17