A Sketch from CLOUDSTONE

Cloudstone Sculpture Park

The amazing, fabulous, awesome, jaw dropping surprise of Cloudstone Sculpture Park has already been described very well, so I'll try not to be redundant. It is huge. On all levels. Thanks to Hank for so graciously hosting us on his sacred land of art. Sketching the sculptures and the wonderful old rusty truck were feats of mental gymnastics, visually measuring scale, distance, size, and relationships. While sketching the sculptures I could not help but imagine how it was to design and build them. On the bottom sketch here I wish I had found a way to show the scale. Those bugs on those cylinders were probably the size of a 10 year old kid. If that helps. I loved sitting there with the sun, the breeze, the birds, my imagination, pen, watercolor and sketchpad. A perfect day. To make it more perfect for me Hank chose the bottom sketch for himself to keep. I feel deeply honored. To be fair....many sketchers had already left so he didn't see theirs... I'm still honored.

Cloudstone Sculpture Park

So little time, so much to see and paint.  We need to return, it's a spectacular experience.

These are gazillion gallon tanks suspended in the air at the entrance to Cloudstone Park.

Makes me think its a snake?

Cloudstone Sculpture Park

Cloudstone Sculpture Park
Hank Nelson, Sculptor

The Sketchers found another precious place on Whidbey Island .... Hank Nelson's Cloudstone Sculpture Park.  Acres of large granite sculptures, rusted metal sculptures, installation landscapes, unbelievable!
This piece sits on a mound of large stone chips, and is surrounded by beautiful old trees.  Golly ... how tall is it?  5'?  6'?  Wish I'd measured ..... maybe next time.  We definitely want to return ... perhaps for a whole day.  Couldn't possibly begin to do the place justice in a single afternoon.
Thank you, Hank, for allowing us to wander and sketch around your Sculpture Park.

Cloudstone Sculpture Park Whimsy

Mind. Blown. Another magical Whidbey sketching experience. This time at Cloudstone Sculpture Park, one of those special Whidbey places hidden in the woods that makes you say, "Who knew??"  This 80 wooded acres of delight and surprise is the brainchild and life's work of sculptor Hank Nelson. I can't begin to explain it all, so here is a video I found on YouTube narrated by Hank that will give you the tiniest inkling of what it's all about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JSP_BSS5kk

Bird's Nest in Snag

Junk car destined to be reincarnated as a rusty crushed metal sculpture

Sketching at Cloudstone

Another spectacular day in the sunshine. Another "target rich environment" - so MUCH to see and sketch that it was hard to choose just one thing. Here are the three I did - a beautiful red bronze against the brilliant blue sky, up on the top of the hill; the little stucco and log cabin back down at the main gate; and, just before I left, one of a trio of large "sculpture bugs" crawling along a pile of rusty oil barrels. A great day, and I didn't even stay for the happy hour after!

Old Truck - Cloudstone Sculpture Park

old truck "runs great"