Meet the correspondent: Antonella Pavese

Hello Seattle sketchers! I'm Antonella, and I'm excited to publish my first post as correspondent for the Urban Sketchers Seattle blog. This group has been my sketching community in the past two years and I've been in awe of its talented sketchers and supportive environment.

Antonella sketching at Viva Farms in Mount Vernon, WA (Photo by Rebecca Murray)

The John Deere tractor posing for me in all its majesty (Photo by Rebecca Murray)

Here is me sketching at Viva Farms, a non-profit "farm incubator" near Mount Vernon, WA. Viva Farms provides land, tools, and training in sustainable and organic farming practices to new farmers in Skagit Valley. My husband Scott was there with videographer Rebecca Murray to do some filming for a new training video, and I took the opportunity to visit the Farm and to do some sketching. I loved the place, and especially this green and yellow John Deere tractor, but also the amazing produce, the flowers that grow on the farm, and the mission of this organization.

A bit more about me. I was born in Rome, Italy. While working on my PhD in Cognitive Psychology, I took a plane (and an umbrella) to Eugene, Oregon—just like Andika!—as a one-year exchange student to the University of Oregon Psychology graduate program. There I met Scott, my future husband, and I never went back.

Throughout my life, I've been geographically restless. In Italy, I lived in Rome, in Pisa, Tuscany, in Padova, a 30-minutes train ride from Venice, and a few other places you wouldn't recognize. In the US, after Eugene, OR, I moved to Philadelphia, PA and suburbs, and then to NYC. I finally landed in Seattle in December of 2015.

I loved drawing as a kid, and I've been working on some kind of artistic project on and off all my life, but only in the past few years I started to be serious about sketching and painting. I took classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and at the Gage Academy in Seattle, and I started hanging out with urban sketchers, the best training of all. I got hooked with urban sketching even more after attending the two most recent Urban Sketchers' Symposiums in Chicago and Porto. In May of this year, I quit my job in high-tech as User Experience researcher, which left me more time to sketch and draw.

Sketching to me is, above all, a meditative activity. Drawing and painting an object or a scene make me learn about them more intimately than just looking at them or taking a picture. I see sketching as an act of "bearing witness" to the reality around us, an opportunity to open up to the uniqueness of what is in front of us and "to meet it just as it is."

A few of my recent sketches:

The Amgen Helix Pedestrian bridge on August 24, at the latest USK Seattle event

After the Symposium in Porto, I spent a few more day in Portugal, traveling to Évora

Sketching at the demonstration Families Belong Together at the ICE Detention center in Tacoma in June

Learning from the best: sketching at Gabi Campanario's workshop in Seattle last May

I'm looking forward to contribute to this blog. In the meanwhile, you can keep up with my sketches on my Instagram account, @antonellasketches. and on my blog AntonellaSketches.com.

Amgen Helix Bridge

8/24/18 Amgen Helix Pedestrian Bridge facing west 

Although USk Seattle has sketched the Amgen Helix Pedestrian Bridge at least a couple of times prior to today’s meetup, I’d never sketched it myself (or even seen it up close). If you’re driving by on Elliott Avenue West, it’s easy to miss behind the clutter of industrial buildings. Yet once you approach it, its unique and striking shape becomes clear: It’s inspired by the double-helix strand of DNA.

I crossed the bridge over the Burlington Northern railway tracks a couple of times before I settled on this view (above) at the top of the stairway facing west (you can see me sketching in Kate's sketch from the ground level). In tones of black and gray, it was a prime opportunity for more practice in value study using Eduardo Bajzek’s graphite technique. What I cared most about, though, was not the lights and darks but those tiny spots of blue sky showing through the white – not brownish-yellow – clouds. Hallelujah for being able to breathe clean air again!

8/24/18 Facing west from the middle of the bridge

That took a while, and after crossing and recrossing a couple more times to take photos and see what the others were sketching, I found myself with only about 15 minutes before the throwdown. I used them to sketch the westward view again, this time from the center of the bridge, where I spotted two maples blazing in the distance. With my recent travel and being distracted by all the smoky air, I had failed to notice that fall was suddenly on its way.

See the DNA?

Eastward

Amgen Helix Pedestrian Bridge

This was my second time to the Amgen Helix Pedestrian Bridge, the first being a few years ago when urban sketchers had an outing there. I didn't fully appreciate the significance of the structure till Kate's post prodded me to do a bit of research. I love that it's designed to call to mind DNA's double helix. The whole complex, bridge included is a powerful site that is much overlooked because of it's location. 

I love the view of the bridge when you get to the top of the stairs coming up from Elliot, so I just plopped myself near Kate and Susan and dove in. 

See the red, orange and pink blotches? They were a happy accident. The sketchbook I used has ready-to-use paint swatches on the inside cover. Unwittingly I folded the palate inside to keep the wet paint from bleeding on the previous page. When I open it up, voila! Color spots! 

This small piece I squeezed in right before we met up . I liked the shape of the tower  next to the bridge and deck.










I've gotten into doing more thumbnails since going to a great workshop in Chicago, so I included thumbs of the bridge. Very fast. Very little detail. 

Bridge to the Bay

An invitation to draw the Amgen Helix Pedestrian Bridge with Seattle Urban Sketchers was a perfect excuse to figure out how to get access to the bridge.  I’ve driven past the entryway on Elliot Ave W many times. From the side of the road, I was always intrigued by the unusual shape I could see. Sunday morning was a perfect day to finally stop and look at a bridge designed after the double helix structure of DNA.

The weather was beautiful, cool enough to sit in the sun and warm enough to sit in the shade.  From Elliot Ave W, the bridge crosses over a network of railroad tracks to Myrtle Edwards Park, a mile long bike and pedestrian pathway skimming the edge of Elliot Bay.

In the time allotted, I completed two sketches of the bridge.  Queen Anne Hill with its stacked apartment complexes rises to the east of the bridge.  The railroad yard below is a thoroughfare of constant movement and sound.

After sharing sketches with the group, I moved on to the Myrtle Edwards Park side of the bridge and continued to sketch.  The fresh sea air and water views were revitalizing.

NOAA ships and a container ship line up on Elliot Bay near Pier 91 where cruise ships dock before departing for Alaska.

A public pier extends over the water.   Excellent views of blue islands and sea going vessels are even better when you’re surrounded by water.