Better late than never.

I cannot believe it has been almost a month since we were at the Seattle Chinese Garden. Hope you enjoy these sketchers. New ones to come soon.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the Bothell Country Village this Sunday.

Sketch outing to the Burke Museum

I had a great time with the Seattle Urban Sketchers last Sunday at the Burke Museum. It had been a long time since I had visited the  museum. Amazingly, few things had changed since I was a kid, but there are plans to build a new museum in the next couple of years.

Hopefully, this museum will be able to display more of the museum's collection. The Burke serves as the repository for all unclaimed archeological and natural history discoveries in Washington state. This has created an extensive collection of geological and human based artifacts that are mostly stored away in the museum's many warehouses and unavailable to the public.

I mostly remember visiting the Burke Museum as a child to see the dinosaur bones. This includes a wide range of animals including a stegosaurus and a wooly mammoth. The museum also houses an extensive collection of human artifacts that I did not appreciate as a child. These artifacts focus on Pacific Rim cultures.

I was particularly taken with a Maori Meeting Ground Gate. The elaborate carving work was other worldly and created a sense of a portal to another world. I was also struck by the similarity between the gate's carvings and the work of the cartoonist Jim Woodring.

Of course, I could not pass up an opportunity to draw a dinosaur. In this case it was a sea based dinosaur called a Plesiosaur. The skeleton was a cast of an 80 million year old fossil.

If you have a chance to draw at the Burke Museum before it moves it is a great space. The extensive collections presents a wealth of sketching opportunities and a great lesson in Pacific Northwest history. 

Sketching in Columbia City

 The first place I remember drawing outside was Columbia City. I attended elementary school at the building between Rainier and MLK. As part of an art class, we went out to the historic section of Columbia City to sketch.

I wish I could find the drawing I did back then. The sketch above is of the same building though from a different perspective. I took shelter in the Starbucks on the corner of Rainier and Edmunds. The coffee shop offers great views up Columbia City's historic business district and over to the former Orca building.

It is amazing how much Columbia City has changed. When I was in elementary school, Columbia City was mostly filled with nail salons and little else. Since then, the business district has really come to life with a variety of restaurants, bars, cafes and boutique shops. I was also amazed to see the huge apartment building they are building next to the Columbia City Library.

Despite the big changes some things have remained the same. The funky 1960s bank building is still standing and the beautiful library retains its stately presence in Columbia Park. In addition, it is great to see the care taken to maintain the brick buildings on Rainier Avenue.

Sketching in Columbia City

The first place I remember drawing outside was Columbia City. I attended elementary school at the building between Rainier Avenue and MLK. As part of an art class, we went out to the historic section of Columbia City to sketch. 

I wish I could find the drawing I did back then. The sketch above is of the same building though from a different perspective. I took shelter in the Starbucks on the corner of Rainier and Edmunds. The coffee shop offers great views up Columbia City's historic business district and over to the former Orca building.

It is amazing how much Columbia City has changed. When I was in elementary school, Columbia City was mostly filled with nail salons and little else. Since then, the business district has really come to life with a variety of restaurants, bars, cafes and boutique shops. I was also amazed to see the huge apartment building they are building next to the Columbia City Library.

Despite the big changes some things have remained the same. The funky 1960s bank building is still standing and the beautiful library retains its stately presence in Columbia Park. In addition, it is great to see the care taken to maintain the brick buildings on Rainier Avenue.  

 

Sketching at Seacrest Park

On the last sunny day of winter, I decided to go for a walk through West Seattle. I stopped at Seacrest Park to eat at Marination, a fun restaurant that serves Hawaiian food.   

Besides their food, Marination also has a stunning view across Elliot Bay to downtown Seattle.

I have drawn this view of downtown Seattle several times and decided to draw a view focused on Marination instead. 

Marination is housed in the Seacrest boathouse, which was built in 1989. Besides Marination, the building also features a canoe and kayak rental shop, public restrooms and hosts the annual Tengu Club Fishing Derby.

The dock outside of the boathouse is the West Seattle stop for the Elliot Bay water taxi.

Seattle Central Library Reading Room

 

It had been a while since I sketched at the Seattle Central Library. On top of that the cold winter weather is making sketching outside increasingly unpleasant. So I packed up my notebook and headed downtown.

I could not find parking on the street and parked in the library parking garage off of Spring street. This meant I had a brief time to sketch before the parking fee shot through the roof.

I decided to head up to the reading room, which is my favorite area in the library. I always feel so light in this space cantilevered over the street below. The space is also visually striking with the massive cube that houses the library's offices hanging over head.

I hope to get out and do some more sketches soon.