Django at The Commons

Friday turned out to be a most beautiful sunny late September sketching day at The Commons.  We had a handful of musicians gathering and playing Django music.  They didn't stay very long ... but I did get a chance to sketch Ron Thordarson and Ken Ritland.  They were delightful musicians and very fun to sketch.

Kang's Money Plants

Each time we visit the Kang's beautiful lavender fields, I am overwhelmed by the big view. I am not a landscape painter. Can't see the forest for the trees. I always find myself drawn to the circular flower bed with the birch tree surrounded by money plants and irises. This year the money plant's seed pods had turned the most gorgeous range of colors on the day of our visit.

In the Garden

Some flowers in my garden this summer . . .

Sunflower starting to open

Sunflower

Calendulas and Nigella

Dahlia and Kale

Sunflower

 

Pink Hydrangea

Above Holmes Harbor

Thank you, Laurie, for allowing us to play in your yard, and house! And thanks, Rindy, for taking care of the HH particulars. Incredible house, art and setting. This beautiful place has an abundance of subjects. I started with the view:

While my initial layers of the landscape sketch were drying, I thought I'd tackle the bell, which I was dying to ring:

Posted by Kris Wiltse

Great sketching opportunity arranged by Paula Pugh - Conductor's Workshop held at the Methodist Church in Langley. Graphite in a Moleskin sketchbook.

Visit to Lavender Wind Farm

Beautiful Flowers - beautiful weather!

My Happy Volunteers

My vegetable garden is always a happy place because it's chock full of self-seeded flowers. Poppies, calendula and borage in this sketch. But also nigella (love-in-a-mist), evening primrose, johnny jump ups and rose mallow in other parts of the garden.  It's a riot of happy colors. I meticulously weed, dead head, water and tend the volunteers, almost daily, while much of the rest of the yard goes to ruin. Hmmm. . . .

Also, I did a rare direct watercolor sketch! Always a challenge for me to get a good sketch without using ink. I'm happy with the results in this one.

Blue School, Westport, Hat Island

Friday and Sunday sketching!  Today while driving around enjoying our beautiful but chilly views, I came upon a view of Hat Island and decided it was worthy of stopping for a bit.  I was driving on Witter Rd and don't know the name of the street but it's on the other side of the road to Comforts Winery in case you want to try it.

Friday our group was at Blue School Arts in Clinton.  I meandered into the sunny room where Sara was working and made a sketch of a workspace and some weird thing that looks like a bunch of irons out the window.  It must be a Quonset hut??

Last week in Westport, I tried sketching boats from the car.  I decided it's not my forte!  Too many masts and hard to tell where they all come from and one of my boats looks like its falling into the water.  I like land!

Orcas Island Pottery

Yikes, I started this and realized I was on the sketchers blog instead of my own.  What the heck, maybe you'll like it anyway. Pat
A few of my favorite paintings in watercolor are gracing the walls of our Co-op.  I don't always paint larger than a quarter sheet, but the Orcas Island pottery displays were worth the challenge.
I loved the brown and blue mugs, they looked like they would be a pleasure to hold in your hand.  The giant plates on the side of the log building also attracted me.  The sun was shining making very defined shadows and the blue and transparent pinky pearl glaze on one of the plates made me want to paint.





Both of these paintings are professionally framed with conservation clear glass.  I took these photos while they were hanging on the wall at Whidbey Art Gallery so there is a slight glare because of so many lights.

Pitcher and Pear is a large 16x20 or 1/4 sheet with conservation clear glass.  All three of these paintings are available through me walarts@gmail.com or at Whidbey Art Gallery in Langley, WA.  www.whidbeyartists.com.

Blue School Arts

Well, I haven't posted in quite a while!  Also haven't been sketching much.  Yesterday, the sun came out and shone gloriously on us ... and almost as soon as we were done, the clouds came in with cold breezes and light sprinkles.  Big crowd 'o Sketchers!  A good number of us took advantage of the sun and sat out front ... we had lots of sketches of this very scene and it was fun to see each Sketcher's take on it.  What a cool art school!!  Thank you Blue School Arts for letting us invade!

The Taproom

The Taproom was sure hopping Friday afternoon and evening. The sketchers filled the place! Almost. There were seats available for "normal" people. I probably should have sketched something more Taproom-ish but am feeling the need to practice people and the sketchers are great models.

Sketching the Maiden at the Island County Historical Society

I knew before I went to sketch at the museum that the Maiden of Deception Pass would probably be my subject. She's a carved figure in the style of a totem painted in beautiful turquoise, green, pale pinks, white and black. The myth captured me when I had read it a few years back. Probably because it’s a kind-of mermaid story and I’ve always been attracted to mermaids. They live in the sea and who wouldn’t want to breath under water and see the wonders? She accidentally slips into the water and a merman takes her hand. She eventually marries him to provide food for her people. I included a link to the story at the end if you’re interested in reading it.

My first sketch is a quick study of the maiden. Too pretty. She’s crude and I love that about the carving. Even though I'm not happy with her prettiness I like the sketch for how the watercolor went down. This is done in a small Stillman and Birn Beta hardbound sketchbook. Fairly thirsty stuff, but takes watercolors nicely.

My second sketch I bit off too much size wise. It became unwieldy and was taking too long to dry. This was done in an A4 moleskin wc book. Had a lot of fun playing with the paint, making marks and blobs.

While waiting for paint to dry, I turned around for a quick sketch of this ceremonial robe. Didn’t get a chance to read about it cuz happy hour. I got priorities.

Here's the link to the myth:

http://www.bladegallery.com/graphics/Maiden_of_Deception_Pass_Legend.pdf

Lopez Island trip to de Medici Ming Papers and more....

Well, I'm not the long-winded type but this past Friday, Saturday was special.  There is something about dropping time on a small Island with a bunch of friends that are meandering, sharing and enjoying the slower pace that happens when you leave to your got to's at home.
Our got to's were to meet at an early enough hour that we could meander up Whidbey to Anacortes to catch a ferry to Lopez.  We had two cars almost full and were meeting a couple of walk-ons sketchers at the ferry.  It was raining!!!  Didn't matter!!  Paula said it would stop by the time we got to Lopez!  She was right!!
 Rain

No Rain!

We did the usual stuff checking in to the hotel, wandering around town, getting food from the Taco truck, Bakery, and coffee shop; then off to our appointment which was about 5 miles out of town.
Destination, a BIG yellow container full of art papers, stationary, calendars, cards, trinkets, and INSPIRATION!


We had to take turns poking around to find all the hidden treasures so, the rest of us hung out in the barn.  A barn full of treasures of a different sort; a large pachyderm, a minstrel, found lamps; saved scissors, saws, a collection of jam jars, lots more plus a wood stove to keep us cozy.   We opened the Happy hour supplies, sketchbooks and got to work.  Meanwhile, Terry, Caps husband, serenaded us with his original songs and guitar.  Time stopped!


Outside, the weather went from a drying mist to beautiful sunset and full dark with incredible color in the sky.  I forgot to mention we were surrounded by farms, fields and the goat farm which we visited the next day.  See Billy above.  He is golden in the sunshine, but very unkempt. I forgot to sketch his feet. 8-0!

The Tower on the Guest House at the Clay Estate, Greenbank

The Guest House on the Clay Estate in Greenbank (on Whidbey Island) sits high up on a bluff looking west over Saratoga Passage. I did not go up there but my guess is that the Tower room has a panoramic view of the water of Straits and of the main body of Whidbey Island beyond (and from that height probably Camano Island and the Cascades, too!)
We Sketchers met there today to enjoy the landscaping on the beautifully groomed grounds. It only took me moments when I arrived to decide that this view, from the circle drive approach to the building, was the perfect drawing site for me.  It was a "big bite", but I went ahead and dove in anyway. Many thanks to our hosts for the day.

Grapes for the Birds

Never Have I Ever had a bad day with the Whidbey Island Sketchers. Today was just absolutely wonderful. The weather was perfect under another popcorn sky, almost everyone turned out, we were at the Whidbey Winery so there were grapes bursting and ready to be picked, “fake birds of terror” (to another bird) were singing (electronically), the “groaning board” was heaped with good food and WINE, and we were sketching up a storm. It simply doesn’t get better than this. And we marveled yet again at how this large a group consistently gets along and supports each other so well!
When we asked what kind of grapes the ones on the fence were, the ones I was sketching, our hostess informed us they were just decorative grapes, not for wine, and they were there stricly as "sacrificial fruit", for the benefit of the birds - to keep them distracted from eating the grapes on the "money vines"!