Swifts

It was warm and dry yesterday evening, so I walked up to Chapman School.

I started with the chimney itself, before the swifts even arrived, and did the lines, the color and the sky while they showed up and started milling about.  And then added just a few brush strokes to show just a few of them entering the chimney, omitting the thousands still circling overhead.

A few recents

 This is St. Honore Bakery from our rained out sketch crawl on Saturday.

 

This is the Portland Art Museum.

 

This is a lunch time view from Washingon Park, and as you can see I did it in June.

Lan Su Garden Sketches in Ink

I met some Urban Sketcher friends at Lan Su Garden on this overcast day and enjoyed tea, conversation, and the soft shadows.  I've been using water brushes with diluted ink to speed up my sketching...a little bit anyway! (Thanks for the idea, Deb!) In these two sketches I used my favorite, Noodler's Lexington Grey, and J. Herbin's Lie de The or "Dregs of Tea" which seemed appropriate somehow.

Our Indoor Sketchcrawl

I was in the part of the sketchcrawl group that chose to stay inside Meadow's studio space. Here are some of my fellow (happy and dry) sketchers.

It was a lovely place to spend a rainy morning. It was cozy and friendly and we even had a nice soundtrack of music to accompany our sketching and chatting. Each direction held views of exquisitely crafted pottery and the tools used to create it. There were colors and textures and patterns, galore--just perfect if you like to get lost in the details.

Unfortunately, I didn't sketch Meadow's wares, which are delightful. If you would like a mug with the Chapman School swifts diving into the chimney, or a little delicate porcelain vase, or any number of other little treasures, you should head back over to the Thurman Street Studios--rain or shine. 

Thank you, Meadow, for such a fun sketching opportunity.

October Sketch Crawl, October 15, 2016 - Ladd's Addition

Saturday, October 15, 2016.
Hopefully we will have some nice fall colors over in Ladd's Addition by the time we meet next month.

10:00am:  Meet at Palio Dessert and Espresso House, 1996 SE Ladd Ave Portland, OR 97214, for coffee, snacks, and introductions.

10:30am: Sketch Ladd's Addition trees, houses, roses (if there are any left).

12:00noon:  OPTIONAL - Meet at the food cart pod at 12th and Hawthorne for lunch & and sketchbook sharing.  If it's raining we may change the lunch location.

Rained out sketchcrawl

Andrea had planned a sketchcrawl heading up into MacLeay Park.  But a soaking rain started up in the morning, and Meadow kindly invited us all to hang out and sketch in her studio complex.

West Coast gathering in Tacoma, WA.

Finally getting around to posting some sketches from the West Coast Urban Sketchers gathering in Tacoma last August.  What a great event!   Met many wonderful and truly inspirational people, a nice city to sketch and the event went without flaw.

I am very much looking forward to the announcement of the dates for the International symposium in Chicago and the next West Coast gathering in Vancouver BC so I can start making plans to attend.

Finally getting around to posting some sketches from the West Coast Urban Sketchers gathering in Tacoma last August.  What a great event!   Met many wonderful and truly inspirational people, a nice city to sketch and the event went without flaw.

I am very much looking forward to the announcement of the dates for the International symposium in Chicago and the next West Coast gathering in Vancouver BC so I can start making plans to attend.

Sketch Crawl this Saturday in NW Portland

Saturday, September 17, 2016 - Sketching in NW

There are so many cool things happening this weekend!

• 10:00am - Meet at St. Honore Bakery, 2335 NW Thurman St, for coffee, snacks, and introductions.
• 10:30am - Walk up to the entry to Macleay Park, between NW 29th & NW 31Sst at Thurman, and sketch around there.
• 12:00noon - OPTIONAL:  Return to St. Honore Bakery for sketchbook sharing and lunch.

MORE OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES!

• 3:30pm - Time-Based Art Festival - Lecture by Maya Mikdashi - 415 SW 10th Ave, Suite 300.  Archival Refusal: War, Law, and Memory in Lebanon. http://pica.org/event/archival-refusal-war-law-memory-lebanon/
• 6:30pm -  Meet at Chapman Elementary to watch and sketch the swifts.  Bring a blanket to sit on and maybe some snacks.

I plan to go to all these things so I hope you will join me for some or all of them. -UPDATE- Weather calls for rain so I'd like to cancel going to sketch the swifts.

Sketching a string of Portland parks

The string of parks along NW 10th Ave. in the Pearl district each have something special to sketch.
Last Saturday several sketchers joined me in exploring what was interesting on a beautiful day in the city.

Jamison Park sculpture- Watercolor, Kuretake CE brush pen and Graphik 0.3 pen

Tanner Springs Park- same materials as in above sketch

The Fields - Watercolor, Kuretake CE brush pen and Graphik 0.3 pen

The Fields again

I'd planned to turn my back on the Centennial Mills site and work on my perspective by doing some of the newer apartment buildings.  But then I spied a reflection of the mill in the windows of one of the new buildings, and decided to do that.