The Craven Pumpkin Farm, a Veritable Circus of Autumn Offerings

Fall Festival at Craven Farm--Sketches by Michele Cooper

Sunday, Oct. 18
The Seattle Urban Sketchers monthly meet up began at Craven's Pumpkin Farm at 10 am. For the first 45 minutes, it wasn't really cold at all and the rain held off. I took advantage by sketching the front gate post for my Inktober Day 18 drawing. See last sketch below. By the time I finished my first sketch, the parking lot had nearly filled up.

I wanted to catch the steam rising off the two large kettles out toward the back of the Snack Shack where they were boiling corn on the cob.

I toured as much of the property as I could before the rain started, then stepped inside the gift shop, Mouseville, under the arbor and the animal barn to keep my sketchbook dry. Every once in a while I would step out again to check on something that I may have missed in the sketch I was working on.

The man with the "Hair Style of the Day", was

Dutch Bihary, the face painter working at a barber chair inside the animal barn. His calm and smiling demeanor and fast yet effortless skill attracted an unending stream of children, ready to have him paint butterflies, tigers and more on their upturned faces.

After we shared our sketches, I could see that the rain was letting up, so I decided to stay and wait it out. There was a wagon load of fresh fall flowers, some pink pumpkins and a bin of apples that I had my eye on. I only had to wait for less than half an hour before I could go out to finish my two page spread.

Sketchers, families and people of all ages found something of interest despite the rain

I started the day with my Inktober 18 sketch of the entry gate post

To really and truly understand the multitude of offerings at Craven Pumpkin Farm, you must visit their website and Facebook pages. Their Autumn Festival is in full swing: Birthday parties, 3D black-light presentations, food, gifts, animals, Minions, hayrides, pirate ships, duck races, and people pushing wheelbarrows full of newly purchased pumpkins!

I actually started another panoramic sketch in my "Perfect Sketchbook" with a view of the distant hillside from underneath the arbor. I thought the arbor would protect me from the rain, but the grape vines started to drip onto my watercolor washes. My sketch is about 2/3 finished and won't take much to complete.