Yet More Reindeer

I was in Seattle for the weekend, and arranged to get into town early enough to meet up with some Seattle Urban sketchers for an outing to the Reindeer Festival at Swanson's nursery.

Two reindeer, Dasher and Blitzen, who were more restless than the ones that I'd stumbled upon earlier in the week.  But then Blitzen turned her butt my way and put her head down to eat.

One camel, named Curly.  Evidently, he was good friends with the festival's Santa.  He stopped by Curly's cage on his way to his shift, and as soon as Curly heard Santa's bells he craned his head around to look for him.  And gave a great harrumph when he hove into view.  Which was camel for "About time you got here!  How about coming over here and scratching my ear?"

I was pretty chilled by now and headed inside to check out the model railroad, sketching in the intervals between kids.

And then finally found the koi pond in the cafe.

MOHAI, Seattle, and Gabi's exhibit...Drawn to Seattle

This excellent excursion, organized by Kalina and the Seattle sketchers, didn't start well for me on Saturday. I neglected to read the small print about where to pick up the Bolt Bus and so Curtis and I missed our 6:30am departure. Finally got it straightened out but by then Kalina was by herself on her way to Seattle and Curtis and I were hoping to be able to squeeze onto the 8:30 Bolt Bus. We did do that but that meant I would miss the sketching session planned for the morning. Oh well....now I know better!
When I got to MOHAI they were just setting out their sketches so I got to see the mornings results. MOHAI is a great place to sketch at in inclement weather (did I mention that it was raining?) with great big windows on the ground floor looking out at the boats docked at Lake Union. Check out the Seattle Sketchers blog for their sketches...they have already posted! seattle.urbansketchers.org

Waiting in Starbucks across the street for the Bolt Bus at SW 6th and SW Salmon.

Several of us felt it necessary to sketch this icon...but as Frank Ching said "it was difficult to get the proportions right". And I followed suit there and made it too tall.... so as a remedy I just folded up the paper to correct! Easy.

All the above views are out the window on the second floor of the museum. After lunch several sketchers gathered here to hang out with Frank Ching (artist in residence this weekend) and sketch the sights and doings going on there (you will see more of this on the Seattle site).

Here are some random shots of the exhibit. A spectacular exhibit that showed Gabi's sketches through several different types of presentations. Some of my favorites were the big enlargements.....don't know the exact dates of the showing but if you can make it up there it is well worth the trip!

 A wonderful thank you to Kalina and Katie (our Seattle transit guide) for all of the arrangements for this treat!