A few minutes stolen from work:

I spotted the West Linn Paper mill framed in leafy branches, and tried to capture that view. It turns out there is a lot of shrubbery around the mill itself, and I had to choose how to distinguish foreground greens from background ones.

Bike & Sketch

Here's my offering - bridges, goats, and a weeping willow at the Pioneer Cemetery.  Good times!  What an ideal kind of a day.  2 favorite activities together.

Hawthorne Bridge

Goats in a field

Sorrowful tree

Yesterday at the Carnegie Library event in Oregon City. The weather was lovely and the fountain was running. So were the kids. I was trying to capture their physical attitudes, which was not always successful.

Tanner Springs Park

It was nice to meet up with Deb Linda, Vicky, and Emily on Thursday evening to sketch at Tanner Springs Park. The one tricky thing about this scheme was that my brain was pretty fried after work, so it was hard to focus on drawing...but whatever, they are just sketches after all.

We batted around some fun ideas about upcoming places to sketch. I'll sift through the list and circulate those ideas via the email list, and then we'll see what sounds fun!

Away in Pennsylvania.

Thought to send some of the images that I have done while visiting with my 

Some street scenes in Ardmore.

Dad's exercise class...a challenge for me!

Just a few minutes at the Farmer's Market in Oregon City. And then it started to rain so I folded up.

Thurs, June 20: Impromptu Sketchcrawl and Brainstorming!

Join us this Thursday, June 20 for an informal gathering to brainstorm about where to go sketching this coming summer and fall, followed by some early evening sketching in the Pearl District.

• 5:30 to 6 pm: Brainstorming session at Sisters Coffee Company, 1235 NW Marshall St. (near 12th Ave). We'll bat around ideas on where to sketch over the next few months. If you know of any neat events or scenic spots in the area, be prepared to share! And it's always great to strategically move around through different sections of the city, so be thinking in terms of NW, NE, SW, SE, North Portland, Downtown, as well as local suburbs...
  
• 6 pm: We'll mosey over to Tanner Springs Park, on NW Marshall between 10th and 11th Ave. This fascinating public park re-creates a historic wetland in the middle of the city, and has creatively re-used all sorts of materials that allude to the complex history of the area in the design of the park. (Giant wall made of rail-road tracks, anyone?) Stay as long as you like--sun should set around 9 pm, but you might get hungry before that...

Tanner Springs Park

Successful Bike and Sketch ride for Pedalpalooza!

Katura made a fantastic map for the route we planned out.

We gathered first in Ladd's circle and 23 people introduced themselves.

The bike part was quite pleasant.

Next stop, eastbank esplanade (for safety, wear helmet while sketching)

Next stop, goats in the city! We were so lucky to get to go in and meet the goats...who loved checking out our supplies.

This is cooper.

Next step, Lone Fir cemetery.

Ad then, back to palio's where we met up with the non biking sketchers and shared our work.

I'm hoping to show off my sketching attempts soon, as I have been out of practice lately.

Festival of Flowers

Last Monday,inspired by Vicky's sketch and the gorgeous weather,I decided to sketch the Festival of Flowers before it ended.

I sat outside at Starbucks and enjoyed sketching the tattoo flower display. 

At noon a loud trumpet sound went off and was followed by a wonderful steel drum band who played

For an hour. Lots of folks were dancing and enjoying the sun and gentle zephyrs.

I grabbed some lunch from a cart and felt as if I was on vacation in my own city!

Esplanade biking and sketching

 
 Being a 'country mouse' I don't normally ride my bike down in Portland, but I did so Saturday so I could meet the others on the Esplanade for some sketching. I decided to stay along the river and out of the traffic, and had some fun biking. It was great to see so many sketchers turn out on their bikes for this event!( and I love all the great sketches I've seen...especially the goats!) So much was going on near the riverfront it was hard to know what to sketch, so I would up staying! The bridges won out but I took a bunch of photos for some future sketching.

 
Also experimented with some new toned paper and white gel pen. To try and sketch faster I used a Pitt grey, drawing in the main lines and shadows and then following up with a micron and the white pen for details. Added watercolor to the one sketch at home using my photos for a guide....and am thinking I may add color just a bit to the others as well. Plan on another sketching trip downtown soon!