RED HAT BUBBLE BEARS AND A BUDDHA

At the beautiful log home in the deep woods of our hostess, artist and collector of eccentrics, Janet Ross, a kitchen window full of delightful etceteras - including a row of brightly colored bottles, empty now of their soap bubble solutions, but still possessed of jaunty red hats. And a Buddha with a red glass ball. And an orange glass pumpkin. And a flying red heart. JOY on a windowsill.

Sunday sketching & Cloudstone

It was a warm day at Cloudstone, but it was so relaxing to wander through the trees and visit the many earthworks and sculptures set in the Trees.  My sketch was done in the shade of a bulldozer.

This Sunday was another one of those special days where you want to "just be out there enjoying the day".  I started to drive somewhere and got around the corner from my home and decided heck, the Dahlia house looked like a good subject.  Crazy perspective on the back of the bench but ....eh!

Sue and Case

I did this one from a photo after I got back home. This is our warm-hearted Sue walking with one of the little ladies that she checks in on regularly. Her visits clearly mean so much to so many. Thank you Sue for being who you are.

Sketching Weekend

It's kinda cool when I look at my sketchbooks and think of all of you.....who I was sitting with, the wonderful sharing and connection. I miss you all! It was GREAT weekend visiting Whidbey Island!

Madrona colors

Thanks to Missy for a shared blop of Transparent Pyrol Orange and to Sandra for a shared blop of Lapis Lazuli. We also found some new pencils with 3 colors in the lead, but they weren't water soluble. 

But the cold day made my Anacortes madrona grove story more haphazard than Sue's -  fresh wet colors in my paint box and no testing before it touched the page. I was balancing all my gear and dancing around on a hill to stay warm, then oops, touched the wrong blue and I had "midnight in the grove."

Madronas on a Cloudy Day

A few of us sketched with the Anacortes Sketchers at the Madrona Grove in Anacortes last Monday. It was an overcast day, chilly, breezy, no shadows, no sunny back lighting.

Very different than last year's sketch at the same location:

Poetry (and Hula Hoops) in Motion

She was hula hoop dancing for tips on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Port Townsend, right next to the tarot card reader in the gypsy wagon. Drawing her was impossible, but what the hell. Her name is Alex Eisenberg.

ASIATIC LILIES AND LAVENDER AT FINE GELFAND'S HOUSE

It may have been Friday the 13th, but we, the Whidbey Island Sketchers, were having very GOOD luck, because we got to visit Fine and Jerry Gelfand's home in Greenbank. Set on high bank with a majestic overlook of Puget Sound in the Salish Sea, textile artist Fine has crafted a fantasy, secret sunken garden reached only by a meandering brick path down, down through lush vegetation and colorful flowers. At the bottom it all surrounds a glade, in the center of which stands an ancient Island boulder of epic proportions. Fine discovered on the hill, dug down to its base, then had it pushed with dozers down to its present location. 
From an artist/gardener's visionary eye and a tremendous amount of hard work the Gelfands carved all of this magic from the tangle of blackberry bushes they inherited with the purchase of the land.

Pat's Garden, Then and Now

in August of 2015, the sketchers met to draw member Pat's new house, with its promise of gardens to come. She invited us to image what her plantings might look like. Now here it is, three years later, just before the fourth of July holiday, and her garden area has gone from sparse but full of potential, to bursting with colorful fulfillment. 

An orchid at Grethe and Diane's house

We sketchers were invited on Friday to Grethe and Diane's magnificent art filled home overlooking the water in Langley. With so many wonderful things to see and appreciate, it was a real challenge to pick just one to sketch, but this orchid sitting in the middle of the table in their kitchen caught my eye immediately. I KNOW its sublime color is totally NOT natural, but I was so taken with it anyway. Such blues, violets and deep purple, all in one flower, all in one petal. Its name is "Black Sapphire" and it is a Phalaenopsis Orchid. 

Shoes & Boats

Hello blogger,
Long time no post.  Here are a couple of recent sketches from WISketchers meets.

At Melissa Lebo's lovely, art-filled home today, the group painted, talked, laughed and enjoyed the camaraderie of fellow artists. It's so inspiring to see what everyone creates!

Sketching at the home of Patti and Jeff White in Clinton

Another fabulous art filled Island home, (of course!) tucked into the woods, this one belonging to watercolor artist and instructor Patti White. So much to see and sketch inside Patti and Jeff's home (western art! Navajo style blankets! Birch bark and Tramp Art picture frames!), but I was caught before I even got inside, by the view of the house itself and of Maxwelton marsh glimpsed beyond from the top of a winding brick path. I plunked myself down to catch the hues and textures of the shakes, the varieties and colors of plants, and the stones and brickwork. This is to say nothing of the collections of bright blown glass bubbles and forms in vessels, various rusted metal art pieces, trickle and drip water features, and a Georgia Gerber bronze madonna and child otter sculpture. It was a very pleasant day made more so by the great turnout we had from the Sketchers who were not off to Europe and Mexico!
Sketched onsite outside, then added color at home after throw-down, and checking out Paula's awesome cards!!

One is Silver and the other Gold

Being a sketcher has another advantage, the ability to connect with other like souls. I've been to a few outings with the downtown Austin group and a north suburbs group called Hill Country sketchers. Fun thing is that all feel like they know you/us just a little bit from the places and things we did together. I love the shared language!

Unchain My Heart: 60's Night at Bloom's

I probably did a dozen sketches at Bloom's Friday night, but this one of David Gregor is my favorite. I find sketching on cheap paper very liberating. Fountain pen and brush pen on recycled rough brown butcher paper.

 

David Gregor

 I'm including this one below just to share process. Just look at all those crazy lines searching for the shapes in the folds of his clothes, fingers and the guitar! I like the way his left hand seems to be in motion. Nearly blind contour.