Ksitigarbha Temple

 

4/29/23 Ksitigarbha Temple, Lynnwood

 Urban Sketchers Seattle was treated to a unique experience yesterday: an afternoon sketching at Ksitigarbha Buddhist Temple. Lynnwood is a bit farther north than we typically venture for sketch outings, but the experience was certainly worth the extra miles. Open to the public on Saturdays, the Vietnamese temple grounds are a wondrous display of statuary and ornament. The location would have been a fabulous experience any day, but we were also treated to spectacular weather: Clear blue sky and temps in the high 70s!

Built on a steep, wooded hillside, the grounds gave us a good workout as we climbed many staircases to eventually reach the top. All along the way were colorful, intricately decorated religious icons. Most of the ornamentation was related to nature – artificial flowers, birds, other animals – but I spotted a few mythical creatures, too. I wish I understood the symbiology and significance of the amazing sights. Stairway landings often led to small, secluded nooks, most with benches or chairs, which made sketching serene and comfortable.

I had to wander for quite a while to take it all in and decide what to sketch, which was a staggering decision! Overwhelmed by all the color and detail, I started with an icon at the very top of the grounds, which I chose because it was one of the “plainest” displays (above)!

After chatting with other sketchers and wandering some more, I eventually ended up in a studio area where congregation members were having a work party. The large space was filled with more of the colorful ornamentation I saw throughout the temple grounds. Workers were painting items that would be used for more displays.

Congregation members paint items that will be used in future displays. The space was filled with colorful florals and other ormanments.

Filling the few minutes before the throwdown, I made a small tonal study of a beautifully lighted Buddha’s face, which was a relief after trying to capture all the details in the first icon I sketched.

Many thanks to Ksitigarbha Temple for welcoming USk Seattle onto their sacred grounds as we all wandered about with our jaws hanging open in awe!

Lynnwood Heritage Park

 

8/20/22 Historic water tower at Lynnwood
Heritage Park

I received an invitation a few days ago that I couldn’t refuse: Gabi Campanario offered the local subset of his mailing list a new type of event. Part history, part sketching demo and part sketch outing, the inaugural session of Gabi’s Greater Seattle Sketching Tours took place at Lynnwood Heritage Park. Only 15 minutes away, the park was entirely new to me.

Gabi began by giving us a brief history of the small park and its historic buildings. He chose the old water tower for his demo. Although he typically makes his personal sketches in a pocket-size book, for the demo, he used a large sheet of watercolor paper. (It was closer to the format of the work he used to do for the Seattle Sketcher column he wrote for many years.) As he demo’d, he offered tips on choosing a composition, scaling a subject to fit appropriately in a selected space, perspective, drawing accurate angles and establishing values.

At the beginning of the demo, he had said that at any time, if we preferred to do our own sketching, we were free to wander and do that. I stayed for about half his demo and was especially delighted by his intriguing invention (see photo below). Eventually, I started doing my own sketches. Unlike Gabi, however, I stayed with my comfy sketchbook instead of going large. In fact, I’ve lately become so comfy with thumbnail-size sketches that I decided to make a series of vignettes instead of one large sketch. I couldn’t resist including a fantastic old tree in a couple of sketches as a framing device.

The view of the water tower that Gabi sketched for his demo.

A huge old tree framing the water tower and fellow participants.

Gabi says he plans to offer more of these events throughout the Puget Sound region, and I’m looking forward to them! To find out about them, join his mailing list.

Gabi began by giving us a tour and history of the park.

The device attached to his glasses shows the importance of maintaining a consistent picture plane.

Gabi's completed demo sketch and the subject behind him.

Inaugural participants of the Greater Seattle Sketching Tours!