Virtual Sketch Crawl #6 - Favorite Green Space

It's hard to pick a favorite because it's easy to love a lot of Portland's green spaces.  It's also easy for me to walk to this tree, lie down underneath it, and be transported by the pleasure of the warm sun on my skin and the complex pattern of leaves and light.  I call this tree the Symphony Director - it reminds me of Mickey Mouse as the wizard in Fantasia.

Virtual Sketch Craw #6 Green space.

I enjoyed spending time by my friend's grave, Rose City Cemetery. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather and shade under a gnarly cherry tree.  I brought a variety of tools, but used pen and ink...Oops, i got my dates mixed up.... I really sketched this today 7/18, not 7/17.

Virtual sketcrawl #6 - your favorite green space.

At first, I'd read this as 'your favorite park'.  And I spent some time in trying to figure out which park was my favorite.  Well, no, there's no debate at all, it's Forest Park.  But I'm not heading up the narrow trails anymore, and don't feel safe lingering in one spot, even on Leif Erickson.  Then I re-read the post, and realized that it said 'your favorite green space'.  And my favorite is, hands down, my own yard, where I often hang out with a cat or a dog.  And lately, my favorite activity has been the daily berry hunt. 

So I sat down in my backyard and sketched some of my cane raspberries (almost done), strawberries (only the ever-bearing ones are left, coming ripe in ones and twos) and blueberries (about a week into the season)

There are others that I didn't get to.  Thimbleberries are tiny and hardly worth picking, but they're pretty.  My creeping raspberries were planted as a ground cover.  But I found that I liked the fruit.  My huckleberries are likewise small and hardly worth picking.  Moreover, I don't think they're ready yet.  The salal is full of seeds and not very sweet, so I usually leave it for the birds.  And, finally, my oregon grape got wiped out by the oak tree.  It's coming back up from the roots though, so I'll have it again.  I found one stalk that somehow survived the desolation, and produced a half a dozen berries.

Challenge #6- your favorite park or green space

Couch Park is near my apartment.  It is a park that I have walked by and through while doing errands etc. (more so in pre Covid times)

I like the new play area just recently completed and the rolling grassy hills with many big trees. People hang out there...resting, watching their kids, picnicking and walking or playing with their dogs.

Virtual Sketchcrawl #6- July 18, 2020

Virtual Sketchcrawl #6- Sketching in your favorite green space - Saturday, July 18, 2020

For the time being we are back to our regular sketchcrawls of once a month.

Please join us for our sixth virtual sketchcrawl on Saturday,July 18th!

Since we are still limited to sketching in safe places and with the weather being more conducive to outdoor sketching, why not do some sketching in your favorite green space. It could be a park, or parking strip, or your own yard. You choose whatever space feels comfortable to you.

This could work nicely with Rita's 10x10 workshop on July 11th- drawing trees. Details at http://www.portlandsketcher.com/p/workshops.html

this is a sketch I did at Laurelhurst Park, but since it is not in my neighborhood, I will probably choose someplace closer to home for sketching this time- deb

As always, this challenge is optional, and you can be as strict to the subject or as loose as you like. Your participation is welcome whether you choose this challenge or not-- just make sure to work from life and to include contextual information (You could even say a bit about why you like this green space on your sketch), so it stays in the realm of "urban sketching"!

We will start at 10am.  At noon, which is when we would normally be meeting up for lunch to share sketchbooks, we'd love to see your sketches online in whichever forum feels comfortable for you:

(1) posting to this blog
(2) emailing to our mailing list
(3) posting in our Facebook group

See you there!