Double Fun in Queen Anne

7/23/22 Seattle skyline from Kerry Park, Queen Anne Hill

USk Seattle’s outing in upper Queen Anne was two events in one: A celebration of our 13^th anniversary and also participation in the 76^th quarterly World Wide SketchCrawl.

Prepared for the meetup at Kerry Park and its sweeping skyline view, I brought along my panorama-format Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook. I pack the book whenever I travel, expecting to see and sketch some new skylines, but I haven’t traveled much since 2019. It had been a long time since I’d sketched the Kerry Park skyline (I think 2017 was the last time), so I decided to pretend I was a tourist in Seattle and sketch the postcard view of the Space Needle (unfortunately, Her Majesty Rainier was hiding behind the thick overcast). Plenty of actual tourists stopped by to snap their selfies as I sketched (and some asked me for help taking their photos) – it was a popular spot.

Detail view of the panorama

After that, I took a walk around the Queen Anne neighborhood, which I dearly love for all its beautiful, old homes. (My first apartment was in Queen Anne, so it’s also nostalgic.) Along the way, I made a small sketch of Queen Anne United Methodist Church.

Circling back toward Kerry Park for the throwdown, I made a brief stop at Parsons Garden, which always feels cool and serene compared to the touristy skyline. I caught some girls picnicking just before a mom came by to break up the fun.

In the early years, USk Seattle used to try harder to make our outings coincide with the SketchCrawls, but truthfully, we admins don’t always remember to check the dates when planning. Lately it has fallen by the wayside. But after we sent out the announcement for the Queen Anne outing, Parker Gambino, enthusiastic urban sketcher and SketchCrawler, informed us that the date coincided with the 76^th SketchCrawl. Formerly an active member of USk New York City, Parker now lives in Seattle. I was grateful to him for reminding us of the SketchCrawls again.

What a great turnout – I counted more than two dozen at the throwdown! 

Toward the center in baseball cap is Parker.

No, this isn't the throwdown... this was Stephanie's impromptu Gab & Grab! She generously gave away several heavy bagfuls of sketchbooks.

New Park

 

This morning I went to the South Park neighborhood to scout out a new park, The Duwamish River People's Park.  It's partially under construction but there was still a large area to explore.  Most interesting to me was the active Osprey nest.  

I always like a good juxtaposition.  My subject was thus the large nest and the aircraft in the Boeing lot across the river. 

Lots of Umbrellas

 

7/13/22 U Village

University Village used to be one of my favorite places to sketch when I was first starting out. Easy to get to and with plentiful free parking, it was a convenient location to practice sketching people, trees, hanging floral baskets and especially tables with colorful umbrellas. USk Seattle has met there several times, too. In more recent years, though, parking got competitive, and then U Village underwent a huge, lengthy renovation that made going there difficult and messy. It fell off my list of go-to spots.

Part of that big re-do was adding lots of ramp parking, and now it’s easy to go there again. I don’t know if it was part of the renovation or a general pandemic response or both, but the retail center seems to have added even more umbrella’d tables! A sketcher’s paradise!

U Village is back on my list, and when USk Seattle met there yesterday, I think the other sketchers enjoyed it, too. In both of my color sketches, I took advantage of all those elements I mentioned enjoying there – people, trees, hanging floral baskets and especially all those umbrellas. (The woman at the table is sketcher Michiko and her 2 ½-year-old son standing on a chair. I was so impressed by how unbelievably patient he was the whole time his mom sketched!)

I made two quick thumbnails right before the throwdown to include more of the retail buildings and cars all around. Whatever you like to sketch, U Village seems to have it.

I even found a new-to-me shop that carries art supplies!

Mafia at the Museum

Every year for 19 years, Renny Doyle organizes an elite group of detailing professionals who volunteer their travel and time to come to the Museum of Flight to clean and polish the aircraft in the Aviation Pavilion. Their main focus is the Air Force One and then the B-29.  His group is called "The Detail Mafia". 

This was my fourth year sketching them as they work and I am so impressed and grateful with the service they provide the Museum. 

 I did two small, about A5 size, sketches of crew polishing the Air Force One engines

 

Then an 8x10 of three doing "sequential polishing" on the B-29

Back in Georgetown

 

7/10/22 Oxbow Park in Georgetown

Although it’s not too far, I rarely sketch in Georgetown except with USk Seattle. After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the (normally) annual Georgetown Garden Walk was back on this year – and we lucked out with a gorgeous day.

My blog shows me that I have sketched the historic Hat ‘n’ Boots at Oxbow Park at least three times – why not a fourth? My only regret is that the few people in the park didn’t seem to want to walk close enough to the boots to put them in for scale.

After that, I spent more time walking than sketching (the public restroom was quite a trek), so I had time for only a couple of quick ones: a clock tower covered with scaffolding and a busy view of the Interstate 5 bridge with lots of the horizontal and vertical lines I love. It was good to be back in Georgetown, especially with USk Seattle!