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.

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!

Paula Pugh's Daffodils

We braved the icy chill of an Arctic cold spell and gathered in Paula's warm home with fire, food, and baby.  She'd put a touch 'o spring on her table... beautiful daffodils.  Couldn't resist.

Mary and Big Joe's New Home

A wonderful gathering at Mary Cahoy's beautiful new home.  Thank you for opening your hearth & kitchen to us! 
2/16/18

Langley Whale Center

If you haven't visited the new Langley Whale Center, I highly recommend it.  A group of very dedicated Salish Sea and whale loving people await to converse with you, allow you to enjoy their extensive exhibits, as well as to check out their delightful gifts.  I was very touched by their crusade to bring Tokitae home again... the last surviving Orca who was kidnapped out of Penn Cove back in the '70s and who continues to live in terrible confinement at an amusement park.  Bring her home!  They have a plan for her re-introduction to her native waters.  She has family here; she still speaks their dialect.  This watercolor sketch is from a sculpture by Richard Brown of resident Pod J6.

WICA Costume Loft

This is going to date me, but today I sketched these black and white wing tips at the WICA Costume Loft, the whole time with Joe Jackson, "Gotta Look Sharp!" in my head.

Oh what fun it is to sketch with the Whidbey Island Sketchers!!!!

The Clay House

I totally agree with Judi ... the Clay house was a wonder of visions.  The tough part was figuring out what to sketch.   Well, I focused on this art piece ... first, I sketched the pooch to start a buddy art for Emily.  Then, I did the whole thing.  We had a wonderful time, a great group showed up, we heard reports of Mary & the gang's visit to Emily ...

Santa at Debra's

Ho!  Ho!  Ho!  We're almost at the Winter Solstice, and it seemed that today got very dark very early. We're nearing the shortest day of the year! Thank you, Debra, for welcoming us into your gorgeous home.  Your sparkly lights and Christmas decorations were magical!  I loved sketching with everybody and appreciated gathering "trade secrets."  Felt like gifts all around.  The spirit of Christmas was everywhere!  I was an excited kid brimming over with the Christmas spirit.  Thank you for turning that on in me... inspired me to twinkle up my home.

Whidbey Doughnuts

On November 24th, we (ummm... actually I was the only Sketcher to show up on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving!!!) had a table reserved at Whidbey Doughnuts, the new food place at Bayview.  I sketched a Christmas sprinkled blueberry doughnut and then ate it.  The place was quite busy - a social gathering place - with folks eating in and also carrying out.  It's a doughnut shop but with an extensive menu of all sorts of breakfast and lunch delights, even a salad which I'll try next time being the veggie nut that I am.  For me, an extra delightful bonus was meeting the owners, Scott and Sean (and their sweet nephew who's name escapes me ... sorry!).  They were lovely, gracious & great conversationalists (we talked mostly about films).  I highly recommend everyone plan a Whidbey Doughnuts breakfast, brunch or lunch!  Sorry about the quality of this image ... this paper is too thin for my purposes.  Next week I'll use better paper and you'll see what I mean.

Freeland Library

We met at the Freeland Library today ... they graciously gave us a wonderful conference room with lots of tables, a sink, and natural light.  Works for us!  I chose a book from the library ... animal lover that I am ... by Traer Scott, Finding Home - Shelter Dogs & Their Stories.  The book was a series of photos of shelter dogs, all shot with black backgrounds.  ALL of the animals had soulful eyes.  So, I took on the challenge of doing a water color sketch with a black background.  Fell in love with Gabriel.

Self Portraits

Today, we gathered at my place to do Selfies ... to honor our beloved late Sherryl.  We raised our glass to her, and engaged in making our own self-portraits, honoring the self portrait she had done and had at her Memorial.  It was the first day of the year warm enough to sit outside (briefly!) ... Liesel and I braved the outdoors while the house was filled with Sketchers.  While we painted our portraits the bird life was amazing!  I felt inspired to include them in my selfie.  I also used Lupo, a sorta plastic paper that Sherryl introduced us to, and used in her own selfie!

We miss you, Sherryl.... gone two months as of tomorrow.  We love you and still feel your presence. A goldfinch isn't a Goldfinger, but its as close as I could get today!!!

with much love,  Barb

Tuscan Rose Garden ... eh I should say, "The Dog at the Tuscan Rose Garden"?

This is Mikey, the sweet and gorgeous yellow lab at the Sandri's Tuscan Rose Garden.  It was a very fun day. The Sandri's garden will be on the Whidbey Island Garden Tour this Saturday, and I hope to go and capture the roses and other plantings in their beautiful ornamental garden. But ... being the animal nut that I am, I just couldn't see past Mikey on Sketching Friday!  He was awfully sweet! That scrunched face drove me crazy. But ... the plants and the metal works make it a very artful and well choreographed garden! Totally worth visiting.  AND the Sandri's were uber sweet themselves.   Many thanks to them for opening their gardens to us! (Metal works  by Todd Eugene, Whidbey+Works ... and he'll have pieces for sale at the Tour!).  

Bayview Farm & Garden

 

Bayview Farm and Garden is doing a beautiful remodel and we got to go explore it today.  Wonderful weather ... lots of folks checking out the Spring plants and the new huge garden shop.  I began sketching and somehow got inspired to paint loose and wet.   This young lady was using her Mac, enjoying a cup of Jo and I captured her essence loosely.  Fun! 

Richard LaLonde's Glass Studio

inspired by Picasso's "The Bathers"      pre-fired

our six slumped bowls, after firing

Richard LaLonde's Studio

Indeed, the places we go!!!!  A whole Tuesday at Richard LaLonde's glass studio with 5 other sketchers.  We were in Heaven!  Poor Richard, tho.  He had no idea how hard it is to herd sketchers! He had a lovely project planned for us, carefully thought to appeal to our inner sketchers.  He'd gotten all the materials ready ... BUT each one of us said, "Nope!"  An excellent teacher, he was on his toes!  He pirouetted and pivoted and changed course and made sure each of us had the experience we wanted.  We all proceeded in our own unique way, first creating a flat piece of glasswork and then creating a second slumped piece.   Above is my flat piece, a riff off Picasso's "The Bathers" ... a painting I've always admired.  Also, the 6 slumped bowls post-firing.... mine is the Frida.  The slumped bowls were quick spontaneous and fun pieces ...  Thank you, Richard!!!  

Stilton Quartet

John Berg

Another privileged day with the Sketchers!  Paula Pugh and the Stilton Quartet changed their usual practice venue to play for us this Friday.  I LOVE sketching musicians ... a simple tip I've discovered and will share with you is that tho they move constantly, musicians repeatedly return to the same movement yielding many opportunities to "get" that arm, hand, bow, or whatever.  I plopped on the floor behind John and loved this perspective of his concentration.  Fun painting his shirt ... I learned a ton from this sketch ... capturing patterns, shadows, folds quickly.  

Zen Doodles

Thank you, Claudia!  I've never Zen Doodled before ... it's such an experimental noodling process ... fun to think about patterns, shapes, rhythm, filled in vs blank spaces.  One could get lost.

Barbara Barry - Hostess with the Mostest!

What a perfect place to sketch SPARKLE for my Every Day in December sketch prompt - the annual holiday gathering at Barbara Barry's house in the woods in Clinton! It was a twofer day!!! And, as usual, t

here was sparkle, glitter, shimmer and shine in every corner. And she taught us all how to fold beautiful origami cranes! Sublime. This sketch is proof positive, however, that I am a solitary sketcher. I COULD NOT finish this sketch, until I had removed myself from the conviviality of friends, the groaning tables of scrumptious food, the warmth of the fire, the laughter, the music and the fun. What a fine, fine sketching time!!

Dean's Birthday Tour

 Beautiful Savanah!  Delightful girl ... we had fun coaxing her to pose for us.  She agreed to sit should we give her a piece of paper and a chance to do her own painting, which she did!  I wish I'd taken a picture, I could post it here.  We delighted in walking your grounds, poking around your house, sketching whatever spoke to us.

Enjoyed myself thoroughly.  Thank you, Dean!

And then, I came across Sunny napping on your picnic table ... I couldn't resist!!!

We felt so welcomed.  Thank you.

The Stansberry's Garden

I had this luscious thick bumpy absorbent watercolor paper in a handmade book Phyllis gave me for Bali sketching.  I wanted to paint wet wild and loose today with that paper, and the Stansberry's garden offered poppies.  Oh, luscious poppies with crepe paper pedals ... your dark secret interior and your knobby buds.  Thank you Steve and Donna!

I was on a roll and when we got to Judith's for our after-sketching gathering she had luscious peonies from HER garden on the table.  I sat down and was mesmerized.  Thank you, Judith!

2ND STREET HAIR BOUTIQUE

Well ... I've been feeling shy about these sketches ... LOVED being there and sketching fellow sketchers while they got sprinkled up with new cuts, splendid colors and such... LOVED my new hair cut and am UBER THANKFUL to Bristol and her ladies at the shop for letting us have such a delightful experience.  I'm posting these as Sue (our fearless leader) requested more images & I'll email these to her to share with the Boutique.   Here goes!

CHAVA

2ND STREET HAIR BOUTIQUE