A Media Moment on Beacon Hill

 

8/21/25 Beacon Hill neighborhood

In addition to a beautiful morning, USk Seattle had some special guests at our Beacon Hill outing last Thursday. Seattle Times writer Erik Lacitis and photographer Akash Pamarthy were with us to do a story about Gabi Campanario and how he founded Urban Sketchers! Putting on my investigative journalist’s hat, I surreptitiously followed Gabi and Akash from a half-block away so that I could sketch them. (Watch for the article in an upcoming Pacific NW magazine section!)

Akash Pamarthy photographs Gabi for the Seattle Times

For the rest of the outing, I caught other snippets around the area of the light rail station. Gabi had pointed out one of Seattle’s Last 6000 “majestic” trees (a designation of documented trees with a trunk diameter of 30 inches or greater), so I wanted to capture at least part of its trunk. It was completely dark underneath (thank you, majestic tree, for providing much-needed shade), so it wasn’t easy to see, but I squinted to get as much as I could.

The very modern Beacon Hill Branch Library has a distinctive aircraft sculpture on top of it. I sketched it years ago, so I already knew that the plane rotates, but of course, I forgot until I started sketching it. Then I walked across the street to get the whole front of the library. Its asymmetrical architectural design is fun and challenging to sketch.

As always, I like to capture ordinary street and sidewalk scenes, too, in whatever neighborhood I’m sketching. From the last time I sketched on Beacon Hill, I remembered seeing a huge of flock of pigeons hanging out in one area, but I didn’t know why. This time I saw a guy come out and scatter feed all over the sidewalk for them. I missed sketching that action, but I do like the patterns the birds form on the wire (the mess they make on the sidewalk below, not so much).

Our final exciting moment was when Akash took our group photo! How often do we get a professional throwdown photo?!

Another special guest was Dan (tall guy in back wearing yellow hat), a member of USk Detroit, who was visiting Seattle with his family. At his left in tinted glasses is Seattle Times writer Erik Lacitis, who also sketched. (Photo by Akash Pamarthy)

Whenever I snap throwdown photos, they don't turn out great because everyone is facing the sketchbooks, and sometimes it's hard to get around to the other side. This is how a professional does it!