Light and Dark at the Chapel of St. Ignatius

 

12/10/25 Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle University

With another atmospheric river promising record-breaking flooding in the region, it was hard to push myself out into the torrents this morning. As if that weren’t bad enough, to arrive at the 9 a.m. sketch outing, I had to leave the house at 8 – the sun was barely up! When I retired, I swore I’d never leave the house in morning darkness again!

Beautiful interior lighting with subtle tints

Despite my grumbling, drippy coat and all, as soon as I stepped inside Seattle University’s Chapel of St. Ignatius, I was happy that I had come. The chapel has the most architecturally intriguing interior that I’ve sketched in a long time. I wish I’d thought to take more photos to show the fascinating lighting, but I was too engrossed in trying to capture it in my sketchbook.

Although I hadn’t been inside before, I find most churches to be dark inside, so on that hunch I brought along the black Uglybook that I’ve been making nocturnes in. It was a super-fun challenge to try to convey all the different values emanating from hidden windows. Sketchers who used color also tried to capture the varying colored window glass that tinted the walls subtly.

For my second sketch, I chose the wood crucifix. Very dimly lit from one side, it was a fascinating tonal study, too.

Finally, in the time remaining before the throwdown, I walked out to the vestibule to sketch through a large, wet window with a view of the chapel’s reflecting pool and trees wearing holiday lights.

Reflecting pool outside the chapel. The USk Seattle stamp wouldn't show up on black paper, so I used a tiny sticker instead.

After the outing, Mary Jean and I walked to nearby Piedmont Café for coffee (below). During the Big Dark, I have fun sketching nocturnes even in the daytime!

12/10/25 Piedmont Cafe, Capitol Hill neighborhood

Epiphany at Seattle U

It seems fitting I came to this epiphany while sketching at Seattle University, which is a Jesuit Catholic school. See below.

While the early morning rain kept some away, it was an intrepid group of 8 sketchers who met outside St. Ignatius chapel at Seattle University yesterday. While there were indoor or sheltered places to sketch, the rain stopped just as we gathered at 10 am.
Outside surfaces were still damp at 12:30 so our throw down was inside.






Now to my epiphany. Compare these three sketches. The first I did in my usual way... drawn first in pencil and then inked. The next two were bold and direct drawing in ink. So many experienced sketchers say to draw without pencil first and I've finally seen the difference in my drawing.  With that, the painting is also looser.  And I'm also using a larger sketch book: 9x9 inch Bee Super Deluxe. I think the 10x10 workshop I took last year from David Chamness has finally sunk in!

I found a bit of shelter under the structure of the bell tower to sketch this view of St. Ignatius chapel. The Architect was Steven Holl Architects of NYC with Olson Sundberg Architects as the associates here in Seattle. The contractor was Baugh Construction.



Even though it had stopped raining, I went inside to sketch this quite unusual Blessed Sacrament Chapel.



I found a small, hidden park with a picnic table just outside another building. It held this memorial to those "martyred in El Salvador on November 16,1989".