Utah ROCKS!

Whether field sketching, trip sketching or urban sketching, the sketcher is always grappling with these four issues:

                                                      1.  Is this a sketch moment?    

                                            

                                                 2. How can I convey a sense of place?

                                               

                                                   3.  What tools do I choose to use?

                                                       



                                              4.  And finally, how much time do I have?

If sketching during sunrise or sunset, colors change quickly.  If sketching from the passenger seat of a moving car, scenery changes quickly. "GISS" sketching line and color is often sufficient to portray the image of the object or habitat.  I usually use Uniball or Micron pens, and if I mis-sketch something, I draw over it and turn it into something else.  I rarely use pencil because I will want to erase my mistakes.  I always label the place, date and time as well as birds seen or heard.  I always sketch live from the field, never from memory or photos. I do not create art in the field, but use art and language to record my observations.

Washington "staycation" fieldsketches

My sketchbooks are full of our adventures this summer from Friday Harbor to Winthrop to Omak and Wenatchee to Washougal and the Columbia Gorge to Ocean Shores and to Salt Creek.  Sketching vacation memories is priceless, but finding ideal conditions to sketch outdoors can be a challenge.

The sketch at the picnic area at Sunrise on Mt. Rainier was a very windy challenge, but fortunately no equipment blew away!

We hiked on the Bluff Trail from Salt Creek campground to Crescent Beach where I met a half dozen painters whose easels were set up on the beach every 20 feet.  They were part of a two-day acrylic painting workshop out of Port Angeles.  I continued past them and walked around the rocky headland to sketch this scene.  I quickly completed the sketch in ink and watercolor before the incoming tide cut me off!

Finally, our trip took us to Fort Flagler where we hiked more than a mile on the beach from the lower campground towards the east around the point where the lighthouse is.  There we met patient salmon fisherman as well as a juvenile gull hoping for bait.  Skies were gray and spitting rain, but I was able to finish the ink sketch before the squall forced us to hike back along the beach.  We looked up in time to see a Trident nuclear submarine being escorted by several coast guard vessels including HOS Arrowhead and HOS Eagleview, the two marine supply vessels we saw daily over the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Salt Creek Recreation Area.  Unfortunately, the rain and wind prevented me from sketching the submarine escort.

Japanese Gardens in the Arboretum and lunch at Ivar's

 

Not every day is rainy in Seattle. This sketch was done in the Seattle Japanese Gardens in the Washington Park Arboretum. I sat on a bench by the phenomenal wisteria trellis.  The pungent smell of spent azaleas reminded me of cannabis recently available at retail stores in our state.

We enjoyed lunch on the deck at Ivar's on Lake Union. Lunch arrived faster than I had time to paint. I was struck by the brilliant orange of the umbrellas against the clear blue skies and finished the sketch after lunch.

Vacation with a twist

Our vacation started at the annual state Audubon campout at Wenas "up canyon" from Selah where it was hot and dusty on mixed use DNR land with campers, horse campers and ATV riders.

Then we drove the International Selkirk Loop from NE Washington, through the Idaho Panhandle and up into BC.  All my trip sketches are done real time in the field recording what I see and hear.

Vacation ended abruptly with a medical emergency.  Thanks to my son, I used my sketchbook to find the silver lining in this crisis. I sketched what I saw and felt and found some humor and a happy ending (no pun intended).

Wedgwood house

If houses could talk... this house built in 1939 has had two owners. My parents purchased this in 1952 when the Seattle city limits were at 85th street. My dad paid $9100. There were empty lots for us kids to play in and plenty of neighborhood parties. We could walk down to Matthews Beach through the woods and cross the railroad tracks before it became Burke-Gilman trail. We had bicycle parades with playing cards clothespinned to our spokes. We dragged wooden hydroplanes behind our bikes and could even hear the hydroplanes roar during the Gold Cup.  Our house heard music sung by my dad (tenor) in the shower or accompanied by mom on the piano. Every first day of school my brother, and sister and I stood outside in the yard for mom to snap a photo. My dad taught all he neighborhood kids how to play "kick the can". It was a phenomenal neighborhood to grow up in with window painting contests at McVicar Hardware and rollerskating down the next block on the "smooth street". The Easter bunny, tooth fairy and Santa always found us.

As urban sketchers, we often paint the structures in the communities where we live. But it is the memories that connect us to tradition in these communities which remain close to the heart.

(Sketched today before rain squall and plumber's truck caused a delay. Dad just signed papers to put the house on the market and at age 88 is happy to have moved on. May the next family create as many memories as we all have!)

Fieldsketches from Florida

We spent two weeks birding in Florida south of Tampa to Sanibel, Naples, Bonita Springs, Marco Island and Flamingo in the Everglades. Challenges to field sketching were heat, humidity, crowds, lack of places to sit and bored vultures early morning who tear off blue tarps to chew off window trim and wiper blades. Fearing our $500 deductible, my sketch time was cut short to protect our rental car.

Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets slowly stalked fish in the murky pond. Woodstorks being tactile feeders swung their heads back and forth to feel fish in their bills. Alligators lurked next to them. Sweat burned my eyes and dripped off my nose onto my sketch paper.

Just outside of Florida City before we entered the Everglades National Park is the well known fruit stand, Robert Is Here. Traffic moved fast at the intersection of Hwy 9336 and W.Palm Drive.  Cars were constantly pulling in and backing out. I found a safe place to stand for 10 minutes between orange traffic cones and splashed some watercolor before I had to move. We picked up another bird species while I sketched, Purple Martins.

Trip total = 134 bird species. Trip highlight was meeting Thomas "Thor" Thorspecken and discussing urban sketching over lunch!

"COLD BONES", my perspective on the Seahawk Parade

This was BEAST MODE vs SKETCH MODE at the most extreme...frigid temps (record low high for Seattle!), crushing crowds and constant body jams (700,000 people!) and a sketcher's logistic nightmare. I stood for hours like a sardine with a mechanical pencil in my inside breast pocket which I could barely reach, and a 3.5x5.5 Moleskine in my other pocket which I could barely reach.

This sketch was a "SHOUT OUT" to the Seahawk  Super Bowl win as well as to Stephanie Bower for her Good Bones workshop I attended last weekend. (Stephanie, I truly was looking for my eye level horizon line, but I'm so short.)  I stood at least a dozen people back from the barricade at 4th and Pine.  If I jumped up repeatedly, I could glimpse a Duck boat and some of the team members riding by.  I was constantly jammed by elbows and bodies. 

I chose to sketch this exhilarated cheerleader who managed to climb up on the pedestrian crosswalk sign and shake her pompoms to the rocking music at Westlake Mall while waiting for the parade to start.

 

The bus commute to downtown provided some sketch opportunities. This was the start of Route 71 from Wedgwood to downtown done at 8:55am.  By 9am after driving ten blocks, the bus was full and no more riders were allowed to board.  All watercolor splash done later. Not my best artistic sketches, but definitely sketches that captured a memory I will always have!

 

MOHAI sketches and pre-game jitters

It is always a challenge at a crowded sketch crawl to find a comfortable quiet corner to center myself!  I found a place to sit at the window in the sketching room of the exhibit "Drawn to Seattle" (listening to a subtle sound track of croaking frogs somewhere).  I chose this view looking west over Lake Union but wanted to include the identifiable MOHAI banner in my sketch.

My first sketch started with an error (like the Seahawk fumble early first quarter)...I had placed the banner too low on my page...and I would only have the foggy hillside in my sketch..oops!

 

So I started over and took on the challenge of sketching the buildings on the hillside shrouded in fog.  I sketched in part of the sailboat with green sail covers at the bottom of my page.  I added the construction tower crane which was actually much further to the left of this view.  The crane added a necessary urban element to this setting, however all the other tower cranes in this South Lake Union vicinity were flying Seahawk 12th Man flags..(was this a bad omen?).  But I discovered too late that the detail of the sailboat was lost at the bottom of my sketch and would require some modifications in the "second half".

So after the crawl ended and well after the exciting win by the Seahawks, I tackled the sketch revision once more.  I darkened the water reflections by the pier pilings to highlight the foreground and painted out the sail covers  This contrasted better with the fading colors of the buildings as the hillside disappeared up into the fog.

Gage Academy Drawing Jam

The Drawing Jam at the Gage Academy was crazy wild! At first I could not decide if I wanted to sketch models or the venue. As it was a chilly 19 degrees outside, I was not going to sketch the exterior building!

I found a warm place to sit in the Skinner Auditorium and sketched the musicians playing at 10:00am, then decided to sketch the sketcher near the easel who was sketching the musician.

 

Then models climbed on the tables for gesture sketching. I tried to capture the hiker with the trekking poles, but as the models changed every five minutes, I decided to concentrate on the sketchers in the background and part of the balcony windows.

Challenges were using pencil rather than black pen, and having to move my chair repeatedly as the room got more crowded. 

Thanks to my friend, Clive Lissaman,  Arts Education Specialist at the Gage Academy, for providing me with tickets!

Urban Sketching at Pybus Public Market in Wenatchee

I spent a few days with a fellow artist in Wenatchee. We enjoyed sketching in the new public market. One of the vendors at Auvil's GEE WHIZ produce came over to see what we were doing. He was interested in sketching again. I explained what Urban Sketching was and suggested that perhaps he and my friend could convince many of their fellow artists to host a one day urban sketching event at the market! What a wonderful way to celebrate community and their new market venue!.

Discovery Park "Big Sit"

I spent 10 hours yesterday at Discovery Park participating in a "Big Sit". Our team was one of four in our state and among hundreds in the country to count bird species (our total = 52) from a designated spot (per Bird Watcher's Digest rules, a 17-foot diameter circle within a 24-hour period).  This is the fifth year our team has raised funds for the park's habitat restoration.

 I decided to use the time to do a series of landscapes using a variety of medium and techniques.  These sketches are done from the south bluff looking east towards the water tower near the old officer housing of the former Fort Lawton.

Next month I will be leading a workshop at "2013 Super Saturday" for young people participating in 4-H. I will teach them field sketching techniques for drawing plants, habitat and perhaps birds to raise environmental awareness.

It was an interesting process to sketch the same scene with watercolor, pen and pencil.

Minnesota vacation

fabulous breakfast at Douglas Lodge

I just returned from a week in Minnesota filling my pocket
sketchbook with watercolor vignettes of lake cabin memories and a return trip to Itasca State Park. We celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary on the day we celebrated our niece's wedding at the YMCA camp on Big Cormorant Lake. I sketched some scenes of the wedding venue as a gift for Catie and Chris.

Challenges were not having enough time to sketch, having hot and humid weather, not being able to sketch while jumping off the pontoon, and a few horse flies. Medium was a 3.5 x 5.5 watercolor Moleskin, a Uniball micro pen and a Koi watercolor pocket field sketch box, and, oh..a couple of Corona Lights!

Elk Lake in Itasca State Park, sketch interrupted by horse flies!

Zimmerman cabin on Big Cormorant Lake MN

Zimmerman cabin on Pike's Bay of Big Cormant Lake MN

4th of July in Friday Harbor, WA

                         

We spent a fabulous 4th of July weekend up on San Juan Island arriving on the 6:25am Elwah  from Anacortes. Sketch done after crossing Rosario Straits. We arrived in time for the annual 4th of July parade down Spring Street in Friday Harbor. I loved the red hat and shawl worn by this woman, but it was a challenge to sketch on the crowded parade route!

View of Mt.Baker, Orcas Island and Yellow Island from our friends' deck on the hill up from Roche Harbor Road.

Challenging sketch done in Friday Harbor waiting for the 3:45pm sailing to Anacortes on July 6. As two ferries left within minutes of each other, I was suddenly surrounded by a half dozen enthusiastic children wondering what I was painting and obstructing my view. They were so excited to tell me they knew primary colors and had learned some things in their art class. They forgot to turn around to see the view I was painting because they kept yelling out "What are you painting???"  The mothers who were were acrylic painters appreciated the tip about wearing old sock bands on my left wrist as painting rags.  This rewarding urban sketch moment was worth sacrificing perspective and sketching accuracy!!

Edmonds Sketch Crawl

urban sketcher sketching on the beach at Brackett's Landing in Edmonds

geraniums on the stairs on Main Street in Edmonds

Sometimes sketch moments are frustrating...like sitting in "spitting" rain for a couple of hours while trying to sketch with waterproof Uniball pen. Black splots of ink litter the sketch like bugs. I huddled under my raincoat as an awning but eventually gave up.

As I walked up Main Street, I saw these pots of geraniums with stunning blooms contrasting against the white siding of the barber shop.  I sat under a tree on the sidewalk to paint this scene, glad to be out of the rain sprinkles. However, the aphids were soon dropping out of the tree and crawling all over my paint palette.

A huge turn out of sketchers! Thanks to the organizers for this "crawl"!

Field Sketching at Padilla Bay

modified blind contour sketch with Uniball of Breazeale Interpretive Center at Padilla Bay

I spent a wonderful weekend sketching up at Padilla Bay at a workshop with Libby Mills through North Cascades Institute.

watercolor and Uniball sketch of Padilla Bay

value study sketched with Uniball pen

study of landscape composition using thumbnail sketches