Urban Sketching in Georgetown

Truman Lovers Alert:  He's at the bottom of this post!

On Sunday the Seattle Urban Sketchers met in the Georgetown neighborhood, which I've never been to -- and it was a fabulous, funky, fun little spot.  We (Nicole, Tina and I) knew things would be interesting when this was the first home we saw as we entered the neighborhood:

Most of the homes were older, circa 1920s/30s, and a few were older still, such as this Victorian home known as the Gessner Mansion:

Our sketch outing deliberately coincided with an annual neighborhood garden walk -- there were sixty gardens that homeowners opened to the public.  We saw only a handful, as we were always stopping to sketch.

After touring this home's lovely garden, I decided to sit across the street to sketch it:

The home owner strolled over just as I finished up, and asked, "Do you ever sell your sketches?"

Well, I do now!  She bought it, and plans to add it to a display wall of artistic renderings of her home (she already had two small oil paintings of it) for guests to admire when she opens it as a B & B.  Cool!

Next I wandered through a fine garden down the block, admiring this retainer wall made of blue bottles:

This place also boasted a small goldfish pond with turtle, and a tree strung with lanterns, among other lovely things.  I did a few sketches there:

After our 2-1/2 hours of wandering and drawing, the sketch group gathered at Oxbow Park, which features a giant sculpture called, appropriately enough, "Hat and Boots":

There were other artists peddling their wares there:

While waiting for the group to gather, I did a few quick sketches at the park:

We spread out our sketchbooks and had a fine time sharing and chatting (I'm getting to know a few of the regular members now).  After the sketch group meeting broke up, Tina and Nicole and I decided to stick around to have lunch and then explore more gardens.

The garden I was most enchanted by had a summer house which I wanted to magically transport into my back yard:

It gave me grandiose ideas for my own yard.

We also popped in briefly to an art gallery, and a wine cellar tasting room.  We definitely needed more time just to see everything there.  The only downside to this great neighborhood is its proximity to Boeing Field -- the planes flew in regularly, LOW and LOUD -- many times we had to stop talking and wait until the planes were gone in order to hear each other.  One of the garden hosts told us this was known as "the Georgetown Pause."   We sure did experience it a lot!

And now, for the ever patient Truman admirers out there, here are two photos of the "you're saying something interesting" Head Tilt.  When you ask Truman questions in a perky, high-pitched voice about things he really likes, such as, "Do you want to go to daycare?" he does this head tilt.

He is super excited today because he DOES get to go to daycare!

He hasn't seen his best friend Winston for a whole week, so I'm sure they'll have a grand time together at daycare today.