There's a Tibetan Monastery in Seattle?

Who knew? Not me. I can't tell you how many things I have seen in Seattle because of Urban Sketchers.

I liked this glimpse of the bell shaped stupa through the trees. The monastery's website explains that the stupa is a memorial to one of it's founding lamas. The drawing shows a bit of the surrounding neighborhood, the traffic circle in front of the monastery and a couple of other urban sketchers who are appropriately bundled up for what turned out to be a really chilly day in August!

Greenlake Brick

We can thank the gods of autumn for staving off the rains this weekend. After postponing our Monthly outing due to last week's great storm that wasn't, today Greenlake was ablaze in gold as the autumn sunshine lent us it 's golden glow. The blue skies completed the color wheel making everything even more vivid. The summer umbrellas at Greenlake Grill were mostly folded, only one remained open to lend shade to adventurous diners. 

The Great Hall at Green lake sits on the corner of Maple Leaf and Woodlawn. I couldn't find much history but it now serves as a venue for meetings and weddings. I first spotted it last summer when my brother gave me a walking tour of the campus of Billings Middle School which is just across the street. These trees lost their leaves early, making it look more like the middle of winter.  

Greenlake PCC

I walk to this market almost every day for my breakfast, so I thought I should make a record of it. I drew leaning against the window on a wooden bench seat until my legs fell asleep. If someone stood or sat in front of the thing I was drawing, I just drew some other part of the scene until they moved. I had planned on adding color, but I think I'll leave it as is.

The Shelter, Greenlake neighborhood.

Met with the Sketch Pistols, the sketch group organized by Dave Adams, at the just-opened Shelter in my Greenlake neighborhood.

Loving that SNOW!!!

Sometimes I seem to have a lot of excuses for not getting outside to sketch, but SNOW is NOT one of them!  Growing up in Buffalo, NY, I saw my share of winter storms, so Seattle's paucity of the white stuff leaves me pining…Let there be flakes of snow, and I'm out there sketching.  Everything looks so interesting, so sketch-able!!

Yesterday I was up early, and yes! we had snow!!  Unfortunately, rain was predicted to erase all that magic by noon, so I hurried to get out there.  By 7:30 AM, I was parked at Greenlake, sketching the lake views.   The paper I used for my first sketch was not drying, so I set it aside, and drove across the street!,  parking next to the lovely wooded hillside at the NE end of Woodland Park, (sketch at left.)

I decided as long as the snow was holding, I would keep sketching, so I drove around the west side of Greenlake, and found this quaint  house begging to be sketched.  (see above)   In truth,  when snow is involved, you could practically drop me anywhere, and I would find something to paint.
All in all, it was a productive day - 3 sketches in about 4 hours!

Greenlake House in color, finally.

An eye-catching house on the edge of Greenlake, Seattle. I drew on-site
this a while ago but only now got around to coloring it for my upcoming book, NOW WHERE WAS I?

Cool House on Greenlake Ave. Seattle, 1-6-13