Immanuel Lutheran Church

7/22/16 Immanuel Lutheran Church

Two distinctive and strikingly different churches dominate the South Lake Union area’s historic Cascade neighborhood. The most eye-catching is St. Spiridon Russian Orthodox Cathedral, with its deep blue onion domes. Since I’d sketched St. Spiridon about a year ago (and since I should have been home packing my bag instead of sketching with Urban Sketchers Seattle this morning and was short on time), I decided to focus on the second church: Immanuel Lutheran.

Completed in 1912, the church has been on the historic register since 1982. Although it doesn’t look like anything I’ve sketched in Europe, the round and arched windows evoke the same architectural details I saw on Gothic buildings in Spain and Germany. It’s exactly the kind of building that makes me freeze with the deer-in-the-headlights look if I try to go at it with a fine point pen. But with only an hour to sketch, I immediately pulled out my brush pen to hit it as hard and fast as possible. It’s probably a good strategy even when I can be more leisurely.

The rain earlier in the morning may have kept some sketchers away, but the seven of us who showed up shared sketches afterwards at Espresso Vivace. Those blue onion domes captured a lot of attention!

In back, from left: Marvin, Ching, Kathleen and Sue. In front: Tina, Anne and Natalie
(Thanks to John Pound for taking the photo.)

Summer Sketches

A couple weeks ago, several of us were sketching at Olympic Sculpture Park at Seattle's waterfront.  Most of us included the iconic Calder Eagle in our sketches.  In my first sketch, from a distance, I couldn't imagine what a house was doing in the middle of the park, but when I went down for a closer view, I learned that the rooftop was a sculpture!! and folks were encourage to climb on the roof!  It was a great view, tho I must admit the weeds and dried grasses were what first attracted me.

Okay, so give me weeds or a garden or P-Patch and I will stop to do an "urban sketch!"  The Cascade P-Patch in South Lake Union area has lured me in several times this summer.  There's SO much character there, and an ever-changing array of plants.

Wisteria Fascination

The past two weeks of Spring flowering have been a feast for eyes.  I am particularly drawn to the way WISTERIA adorns various buildings, homes, gardens and businesses.  I have found a couple favorites, which I enjoy checking out each year.  The first one is located at the corner of NE 56th St. and !st Ave NE. I't's an old-fashioned corner store-front building, which now holds a small hair salon.  As if the wisteria wasn't enough, the parking strip is full of huge Oriental Poppies in classic orange.

Another "perfect" quaint scene is located in the alley behind Immanuel Lutheran Church at 1215 Thomas St. in the South Lake Union (Cascade) neighborhood.  I attend that church, and I've often noted the cute little "house" on the alley, but when the wisteria came into bloom, and I saw it, I had to come back the very next day to sketch it!!