SAM And Starbucks

It was a large group of sketchers who met in the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) lobby today. We numbered at least 20.

Throw down and group photo:




I've sketched it twice before, but I settled on a different view of Middle Fork. It's by John Grade. The suspended tree was made from a plaster cast of a 140 y/o western hemlock found in the Middle Fork area of the Snoqualmie River (hence the name). The contour of the tree was reproduced using thousands of pieces of reclaimed, old growth, cedar. It was completed by hundreds of volunteers under the direction of the artist and his assistants. One volunteer was a member of USk Seattle and another was associated (husband of a sketcher). 



I noticed a new Starbucks Reserve store across the street. It's an even more upscale Starbucks and has an interesting interior. However, I chose to sit at the window with Pam.
I sketched the view of SAM across the street. It's a very loose sketch with little of my usual detail! I added the Reserve logo on the edge



A few more photos here.

Back End of a Camel (and a Wandering Sketchbook)

1/25/19 Marble camel sculpture, Seattle Art Museum

1/25/19 Hammering Man at SAM

When I was growing up, the marble camel sculptures that are inside the Seattle Art Museum used to be outside the original museum (now the Seattle Asian Art Museum at Volunteer Park, where replicas took their place in 1991). I’ve sketched the replicas a few times, but I couldn’t remember ever sketching the original camels at the downtown SAM, so I made one of them my objective at today’s USk Seattle outing. (See this post for a photo of why the camels are special to me.)

Now protected from the elements, the camels guard a long, windowed stairway. Instead of choosing the more common front view, I went around to the back end of a camel and found a handy seat in the museum’s classroom. About an hour into the sketch, I was informed by museum staff that a class of middle schoolers would be showing up within minutes, so I reluctantly gave up my seat. Fortunately, I was mostly done. Eavesdropping on their lesson in perspective, I finished up standing a short distance away.

Next I braved the cold to complete another objective: Filling a page in a wandering sketchbook! USk Boston co-admin and avid sketcher Andre Behrens has released several “wandering sketchbooks” into the wild by giving them to members of other Urban Sketchers groups. He doesn’t want the sketchbooks back; he asks only that we fill their pages and use the hashtag #wanderingsketchbooks when we post images of the sketches on Instagram. I love the idea of sketchbooks wandering around the world, collecting sketches!

1/25/19 Pike Brewing Co.

I thought that the iconic Hammering Man kinetic sculpture outside SAM would be an appropriate symbol of Seattle to put into the book. I’ve passed the book along, and I hope it keeps going far and wide on its travels.

To end the fun morning, some of us went to Pike Brewing Company for lunch. Amusing, eclectic décor surrounds the diningroom, and the hanging beer bottles were among my favorite. 

Throwdown with a floral centerpiece!

Say Hi to USk Albuquerque-Santa Fe

Some of you may know I have been traveling in New Mexico this month. I have done a lot of sketching, and I plan to get a post up with lots of sketches soon. But I wanted to put up these sketches I did with the USk Albuquerque-Santa Fe chapter on Saturday.

The first thing I do when I travel is check for a local USk group - and I lucked out here. I had to laugh when the organizer, Jay, said it wasn’t going to be a very exciting sketch outing and, because of the cold, they were meeting at a Starbucks! Just like home, except for the cowboy hats! But I had a great time with lots of chat about art supplies, sketching and I even found someone to reminisce about Porto with.

And it turned out to be perfectly warm if you found a sunny spot outside. So I sketched the lovely view of the parking lot with Domino’s Pizza in the background. Seriously though, if you are in NM, look these guys up ‘cause they are a ton of fun and they love to sketch!

Gothic Splendor

It was a large group with many first timers that came for Urban Sketchers Seattle's afternoon outing  to the UW Suzzallo library yesterday. The Gothic splendor of the quiet reading room attracted many.

Throw down and group photo.



 

Thanks to Sean for taking the photo.  At least three are missing. 


I chose a section of that Gothic splendor for my sketch subject.

 


--Kate Buike

Up for Grabs

Carol, Natalie, Peggy and Alice examine a sketchbook. I wonder who finally grabbed it? ;-) 

USk Seattle held its sixth annual Gab & Grab this morning. Held at a public library, it’s an opportunity for show-and-tell of our favorite sketch supplies and a place to swap books and materials we are no longer using.

I love sharing and reusing resources this way, and it’s always fun to hear about new tools and materials people have discovered. In fact, I had fully intended to document the event by sketching it like I did last year, but I got so involved in listening to the show & tell and taking photos that (gasp!) I forgot to sketch!

Thanks to everyone who brought in things to share and for participating!

Good grabbin'! This wasn't all of it -- some of the goods had already been snapped up by the time I took this photo!

Kate shows off her new Lamy pen that she got from
the Lamy flagship store during her recent trip to Germany.

Alice shows us how her DIY easel is assembled. She learned how to make it on YouTube videos.

Peggy, who participates in the USk postcard exchange program, showed some of the many cards she has received from international sketchers. 

Anne explains how she archives information from books that she wants to keep for reference -- and then gives away the books to lucky recipients like the rest of us.

Sue tells us about the proportional divider that she is finding very helpful in correctly scaling her sketches.

Carol shows us her erasing guide and explains how it is used.

Dry at Last!

1/11/19 Amazon Sphere and Space Needle in South Lake Union

Café Suisse is a cute venue in the South Lake Union neighborhood. Filled with lots of fun, colorful décor in a Swiss theme, it also offers a wide variety of pastries, including many that are gluten-free. Greg would have loved all the GF goodies, but I was there without him (he didn’t miss out; I got him some muffins to go) to meet Natalie and Kathleen.

1/11/19 Cafe Suisse

Right outside the café, I spotted a peek-a-boo view of the Needle near the Amazon Spheres. It was chilly but dry! After being rained in for what seemed a long, long time, it was wonderful to sketch outdoors again.

After that, I needed a warm-up. I dashed into the café, where Kathleen and Natalie were already settled in. I had planned to sketch other patrons, but in the direction I was facing, the chairs remained unoccupied. Although many decorative items filled the space, I simplified the composition significantly to focus on the challenging perspective of the tall chairs. Sketchers often bemoan the perspective difficulties of architecture, but personally, I find interior perspective to be just as difficult.

A new group selfie technique!

Germany in winter

My husband and I took a 3 week trip to Germany to see the Christmas Markets.  We were gone 27 November to 18 December.  This is a summary of the trip.  For the full account, see multiple recent posts on my personal blog, which include links to the photo albums, too. 

We lived and worked in Germany from 1981 to 1986 and we've been back a couple times since, though not for many years now.  One of the experiences we missed were the Christmas Markets so that was the motivation to travel at this time of year.

Departure day was 27 December.  The trip was not as bad as what some have experienced, but I believe this was our worst trip ever due to delays. I managed only one sketch at SeaTac.  I certainly could have done a lot of people sketching.  But I do not like flying and all this delay and anticipated missed connection gave me low level anxiety that just didn't have me in the mood to draw.

 

One of recurring themes was the prevalence of Lamy stores and displays!  I encountered a rather large display at the Frankfurt Airport.  They were also in every Karstadt (a department store chain).  Our first stop was Heidelberg and my first outing the morning after we arrived was the Lamy Flagship store.  Lamy HQ and factory are on the outskirts of the city but not open to the public.  

I got to pose with the big pen.  Lamy also sent one to The Goulet Pen Company and Brian Goulet posted about it on Instagram. It's taller than I am! 



My first sketch was earlier that morning out the window of our hotel.   The sky was clear and there were subtle colors of the sunrise.



We moved on from Heidelberg to Dinkelsbühl, which is a walled city that survived the 30 Years War.  It is described as the German's Rothenburg as it is less touristy.  

This is our street and hotel.



After wandering around town, lunch at Weib's Brauhaus, which was close by. I did a sketch of the decorated window within view of our table.



The next day I sketched one of the city gates. And then sheltered under the porch of a shop as it started raining. That was looking down the street to the markt platz and the Christmas tree.





On the way from Dinkelsbühl to Nuremberg, we stopped in Stein, the location of the Faber Castell HQ and factory.  There was no tour available for either the Castle or the factory.  But I did shop in the store.  If you want to read more about that, see this blog post. 

It was raining Tuesday morning, 4 December, so we waited until about 1300 to go out. I did a sketch of the view out our window while we waited for the rain to pass.



Walking through the shopping district, we passed a Staedtler Welt (World) store. In the window was a man in period dress making pencils in the old fashioned way. "The roots of the name can be traced back to 1662, the year in which references to Friedrich Staedtler as a pencil-making craftsman were made in the city annuals of Nuremberg."



 Later in the afternoon, I went to the Durer house.  



Our next move was on to Trier. Himself doesn't normally take selfies, but he relented during this trip and we took several.  But I'll only share one here: at the Trier Christmas Market!




The next day was predicted to be a rainy day, so spent a few hours at the archeological museum. I did a sketch of a famous 3rd century sculpture: The Wine Ship. As usual for museums, only pencil was allowed.  So I left the sketch as is.



We next moved on to the medieval Mosel village of Bernkastel-Kues.  Actually, it's two villages, separated by the Mosel.  We stayed in the less interesting Kues.  But it was a short walk over the bridge to the old town of Bernkastel.  

Monday, 10 December, was perhaps the best weather day yet.  Though it was only about 45 degrees, it was sunny.  I walked over the bridge from Kues to Bernkastel.  I sketched one of the most photographed buildings there:  the Spizhaeuschen from 1416.  I sat at a table outside a closed cafe.  This was my view most of the time:



With patience, though, I got it done.



On my way back across the bridge, I stopped half way to sketch the view back to town with the castle ruin above.  There was a convenient bench right there.



Next on our itinerary was Cochem, also a medieval town on the Mosel. It's most famous feature is the castle.  I've been in it before but now it was closed for the season.   I sat on a step that is probably part of a small dock or tie up location for boat(s). It was so cold, I only got part of it done before my fingers were frozen.



Back to the hotel to warm up and then went out again in the afternoon to finish. This is one of my favorite sketches of the trip.



The next day I made a sketch of a city gate from 1352.

 

The final stop was our former home area and we stayed just outside our town of Kusel in a hotel that was a favorite even then, 30+ years ago.  Part of that stay were two visits to our former "home" castle, Burg Lichtenberg.  It's one of the largest castle ruins in Germany by size of area.  There are two boundary walls.  This is standing on the inner one.  



Fortunately, our trip home was uneventful.  I look forward to seeing everyone at a sketch outing soon.