Pickles from the park

 We met at Coulon park today in Renton. It's a beautiful, huge, park on the shore of the southern end of Lake Washington. Lots of sketchers drew "Interface", the group of three statues that are dressed up by some volunteers! I've drawn them for years so I looked elsewhere.

It always amuses me that the Museum of Flight docents refer to Boeing aircraft under production as "pickles". They are just the fuselages without wings and are covered in a protective green film. I drew them from a distance. They are parked outside one of the Boeing factory areas in Renton.

Then I tackled the perspective nightmare that is the big structure on the plaza covering dozens of tables. Draw in ink with a fude pen for line variation.

Sharing sketches during throw down. Then some of us had lunch together.

On the way home I saw one of my favorite Renton sights: "planes on a train"! More pickles. So I stopped to sketch, them, too.

Blog-versary

Today is my 9th blog-versary, when I was invited to be a blog correspondent.  Fortunately it was perfect sketching weather so I went out looking for fall color.   Gene Coulon Park, along Lake Washington in Renton, is one of my usual places to find brilliantly colored trees. It's still a bit early for the best color but I did find some.

I sat at the side of the street to sketch the view across.  Bicyclists and the occasional police officer waved at me. 

I found a spot looking back across the beach toward the Interface statue, with some Canada geese. 

Color at Coulon

After a slow start to the day, I had some errands to do about noon.  Once home, I decided to go out again, this time with my sketch kit.  It was a beautiful day:  not a cloud in the sky and 65 degrees.  It was a Pperfect NW autumn day.

Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park is well known locally for the vibrant maple trees that line the street.  That was my destination as I wanted to sketch the trees again.There were so many people there, taking photos of the trees and also making family portraits with the trees as glorious background.

Keep Clam!

Clam Lights is a holiday tradition in Renton.  It is a display of Christmas lights along a path in Coulon Park, next to Lake Washington.  My favorite display is the dancing Clams, made famous by Ivar's, a local seafood restaurant.  This video shows them in action!  It was sunny and 58 degrees so I sat on my stool in the park to sketch the Clams during the day.  It's fitting that there is an Ivar's fish & chips shop within view.




They are a version of  "Clem the dancing clam", who first appeared in 1985.  "Keep Clam!"

I got an early start to the day.  I thought it would be safe to make a trip to the mall just as it opened and before it got too crazy.  The Santa stage was facing the opposite direction from previous years, making it easy to sketch from the floor above.  Santa didn't have any children visiting yet.

Apple Cup

Ever since I learned about the group of women who dress up the Interface sculpture in Coulon park, I've gone down at each holiday to check.  There was nothing at Halloween.

Today, however, I was pleased to see them dressed as I drove past.  I'd expected to see some variation of Thanksgiving Pilgrim garb.  But they were in ordinary  sweat pants and shirts.  Huh?  As I got closer, I realized the center figure was dressed as a referee and the two others each wore a university sweatshirt.

Then the light dawned!  Apple Cup!!  Rivals University of Washington (UW Huskies in Seattle) play Washington State (WSU Cougars in Pullman) on Saturday!



Hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.