Urban Sketchers are Alive and Well!

How do you arrange a meeting that can accommodate people from all over the world? You do your best. And that's how I "attended" the second ever Urban Sketcher's admin meeting at 6:00 AM on Sunday May 24 on Zoom. I did my best.

Once I got into the meeting, I could see there were a lot of folks online. I scrolled through the five screens of participants—that’s five screens with 20 participants each screen—and saw many I knew. There were sketchers from Brazil, Spain, Indonesia, Hong Kong, England, New York, Florida, and everywhere in between. It felt like a family reunion!

The goal was to share ideas and challenges and to inspire chapters to stay active during the pandemic. Several admins shared activities and ideas they have done in their groups.

USk Singapore, for example organized a “Circuit Sketch Break” for 28 days from April 7 through May 4. They posted 28 prompts for sketching from home, had sketchers submit their work and had a drawing for a prize at the end. They have since extended the submission deadline so people can continue to be inspired to sketch.

USk Dubai launched a “sketch at home campaign” with weekly prompts and submission instructions. They plan to publish the sketches in a journal. Here is a sample of their prompts:

Week one: Food

Week two: Through the window

Week three: My partner in lockdown

Several others shared what their group has been doing or not doing. They shared their successes and frustrations, asked questions of others and basically just hung out sopping in the vibe of being among so many active sketchers again.

At the end we had the traditional throw-down, or in this case a hold-up, where sketchers held their work up to their camera so we could see. Many had sketched the meeting; some just held up a sketch they had done recently. It was all quite fun and made me realize how much I miss the USk family.  

I have felt pretty sluggish about sketching during this lockdown period. The USk Talks have been fun. (Thank you Stephanie Bower, for your talk and challenge last month). And the USkTalk challenges have been interesting, although I’ve only done a few of them. But this meeting was like a good cup of coffee. Time to wake up! In Thurston County where I live we will be able to gather in groups up to 5 people beginning in June. Hopefully King County will be able to do the same pretty soon. Until then, I hope you are all safe. And keep sketching!

Hold-up of our zoom call sketches. 

Ganges, Kanaka Bay on Salt Spring Island, B.C.

Indigenous people have been in the area for over 3000 years; the town’s name has a connection with the holy Ganges in India. The counter culture is alive and, as one writer said, spiritual healers have become an invasive species. Seaplanes roar in and out of the harbor. There are loads of contrasts on this, the biggest town on the biggest of British Columbian’s Gulf Islands. But I was curious about the name of the bay - Kanaka.

It’s Hawaiian; it means “person” or “man”. But why this Hawaiian name here, in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia? It turns out back in early days of white settlement Many Hawaiians came to work for Hudson’s Bay Company as immigrant laborers. Here in Salt Spring they were contracted for a term and then free to do what they pleased after the term was complete.  Some stayed right here in Salt Spring. I tried to find evidence of the Hawaiian culture beyond the name of the bay. A local told me down in the town of Fulsome, there are gravestones with shells on them. “And Oh yes,” she told me there are the Hawaiians themselves. “

So no Hawaiian artifacts, but the island lifestyle is definitely evident. Lots of tourists, lots of boats, lots of music in open air bars and restaurants. One of the more well known is Treehouse Café, with live music nightly, indoor and outdoor seating and a giant tree growing right through the roof.

Strolling through town I passed the Courtyard.  Bagels hung on string across the counter window. Who can resist hanging bagels? Not just any bagels, these were Montreal bagels.  They look more like bialies that I saw on the lower east side of Manhattan. I ordered one covered with lox and cream cheese. It came with a yellow and orange pansy sitting on a hand hewn wood cheese board. Absolutely delicous.

The bagel shop was a recent addition to the gallery, Hiro, the owner told me. “ We just opened it 2 weeks ago.” Hiro, is a Polish trader who commissions woodworked objects in Indonesia and brings them to sell in his gallery here on Salt Spring. His Japanese wife, Miro, manages the Montreal bagels. Hiro and Miro.

Just across from the Courtyard is a shiny new airstream mini, the home of Salt Spring Soft Serve. The owner Chris told me, “I mix cocktails for a living.”  He and his family moved to Salt Spring from Vancouver B.C. two years ago. “We didn’t want to raise our kids in downtown Vancouver.” For a while he commuted then just two months ago, after testing recipes for his dairy free, coconut and oat milk based soft serve, he opened his ice cream truck. “It wasn’t hard to go from mixing cocktails to mixing sundaes,” he said.

We really just tapped the surface of this interesting Canadian town and I hope to visit again.

El Diablo #3

This was my third time drawing at El Diablo Coffee, on Queen Anne. The first time, several years ago, I went alone and drew the students studying (below).


The second time was with Urban Sketchers Seattle and was the first time I met Tom Ettel. We sat together and chatted as I drew the cluttered counter (center). We have since become good friends and frequent sketching buddies.

This time, Tom, is brother Peter, and I headed to El Diablo again to find it had relocated a couple of buildings north. We sat upstairs and, after disturbing a couple of newly accredited therapists having an intense discussion about their new practice, we got to work. After all the walking around and chatting, I didn't have to finish on site (above).

I'll increase the contrast and add some hatching later.

Greenwood's Spiritual Side

One thing I like about Urban Sketchers outings is that they take you to new places. This past weekend, I got a chance to experience the 'spiritual' side of Greenwood.

First stop in the itinerary is the Sakya Monestary, a Tibetan Buddhist temple set in the middle of residential area. Several things caught my attention right away: the bright colored exterior, the bell-shaped stupa (chorten) with the prayer wheels, and the snow lion statues, among other things. I whipped out my iPad with procreate app for this one. The lion statue was drawn using a continuous line drawing method. The stupa is such a prominent feature that I drew it twice. I sketch all linework on site then add the colors later on.

The Stupa (Chorten) with Prayer Wheels, and Snow Lion Statue

Sakya Monastery building and Chorten

I walked a couple of blocks to the next stop, St. John The Evangelist Catholic Church. This time, it's analog time with my trusted papermate marker and moleskine sketchbook. I applied the same method that I use to sketch interior spaces – I reduced the scene into basic shapes without worrying too much about the correct perspective. It turned out to be more challenging than I thought; I miscalculated the height of the tower, and got caught up in detailing the brick texture. In the end, I decided to go back to the basic and not stressing out about the little mistakes. After all, urban sketching is all about 'capturing the essence of space'. In the end, it turned out to be a pretty productive sketch outing.

St. John The Evangelist Catholic Church

Potpourri

Café Javasti, Wedgwood Neighborhood

Suzzallo Library, with Location Drawing Class

Café Racer "Dune Night"

I recently moved to Wedgwood and have begun sketching my new local coffee shops in the mornings.












An in-class demo drawn for my Gage students during class.



















Drawn at the bar of Café Racer during the monthly drawing jam, held the third Tuesday of the month, from 7-11pm. All the drawings are then collected into a zine called Dune.

I have a show of a dozen large watercolors at Phinney's Herkimer, where I sat and drew the view from the corner window.

I'll be giving a book talk and signing at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park on the 7th at 7pm. I went to scope out the space and drew this found still-life in the same room where I'll be chatting. I hope you'll come out for it so I'm not left talking only to this clay frog.

New book cover

Rainier Tower

One of the neat things about working in the heart of downtown Seattle is that you are experiencing the growth of the city firsthand. One of the larger developments currently underway is the Rainier Square on Union St. between 4th and 5th Avenue. Demolition of the old Rainier Square building revealed the base of adjacent Rainier Tower in all its glory. Designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki (also the architect of IBM Building and Pacific Science Building in Seattle, and of course the original World Trade Center), this building has fascinated me since the first time I saw it due to its unusual inverted tapered curving base. Since I work only a block away, I've been witnessing the 'unveiling' process of the tower base as the adjacent building went down brick by brick.

I figured that this view will not last, since a new tower will soon be built right next to it. I decided to do a couple of quick sketches from two different angles. The first one was taken from 5th Avenue between Union and Pike st. looking south.

Rainier Tower, sketched from 5th Avenue between Union and Pike looking south

Rainier Tower, sketched from 5th Ave looking south

 A couple of days later, I stood at a corner of Union st. and 4th Ave and sketched the tower from a slightly different angle.

Rainier Tower, sketched from 4th Ave between Union and Pike looking south

Rainier Tower, sketched from 4th Ave looking south

Tinseltown

Hollywood is the kind of place you love to hate, unless you're a sketcher. When all you Seattle sketchers were down at King Street station on the 24 Hour Global Sketch Crawl earlier in November, I was braving the sunshine and 70 degree weather with the Los Angeles sketchers in the middle of Hollywood.

Here are a few of my sketches from that visit:

For more  of the story about my visit to Hollywood see my blog. 

Weird Stone Pillar-Things

My first time at the garden, and there were many options for fun subjects and it took me a bit of wandering around to finally land somewhere. I'd originally thought to do several smaller, vignette-style drawings, but once I got seated old habits set in and I just kept drawing until I ran out of page. I sunburnt my legs as I got lost in the maze of stone contours and twisted trees.