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.

Urban Sketching in Tacoma

On Saturday there was a regional urban sketch outing hosted by the Tacoma group.  We met up at the amphitheater of the Washington history museum and spread out from there.  

Most folks seemed keen to draw the old Union Station building (which is now a courthouse) but I found its architecture daunting, and wandered across the street to the UW Tacoma site looking for something simpler.  I found this small garden plot:

Which was fine, though a lot like what I typically sketch, so I decided to go ahead and try the Union Station building after all from an angle where I at least wouldn't have to deal with the lettering.  It was going okay until I started adding the watercolor -- partway through it started to sprinkle and the raindrops turned things messy.  At least, that's my excuse!

I gave up on painting and went across the sky bridge to the Museum of Glass, the weirdly-shaped white structure in the pic below.  The arrow points to where I was sitting, and from there I drew the view back across the way -- just a small section of the glass museum showing.

Most of my efforts were directed at the sky bridge, which I drew in three shades of brown colored pencils.  The Union Station cupola juts up behind.

I felt it was slightly more successful than my earlier sketches, but overall I was not that pleased with my artistic efforts that day.

We all met back at the amphitheater to share our work.  It was a good crowd though not overwhelming, maybe 30 people, some from as far away as Vancouver BC.

When I got back home around 2pm, I felt a need to rectify my dissatisfaction with sketching that day, so I took Truman for a walk in Hamlin Park in Shoreline, and paused near a fallen tree to draw.  I'm glad I did, as I liked how this sketch turned out and it made me feel much happier:

Back at the house, I decided that Truman needed to be in every post, if possible.  So I snapped a pic of him begging for treats -- he looks a little concerned, as if I'm taunting him with the treat and maybe won't give it to him after all.  Silly dog -- of course he got the treat!

Coming tomorrow:  Another sketch day, this time in Georgetown.

The Truman Show

I've had a request for more Truman in this blog, and since I'm all out of new bird pics and haven't painted anything new since the tiny lighthouses, today is a day dedicated to His Adorableness.  I snapped these candid shots yesterday evening -- enjoy!

Tru declares his ownership of the lawn chair.

"Can I drink this?"
"No, that's a fake stream, silly."

"I knew that, of course...."

"Watch me traverse the hazardous stream bed!"

Back in the house, I tempt His Adorableness with his favorite chewy toy.

Truman declares it is time for bed.

How can I possibly resist His Adorableness?

Well, at the moment, he is busy barking up a storm at the front window -- there's a dog daycare one block away, and some of the dogs get walked regularly -- and they always go past our house.  Tru does NOT approve of this activity one little bit, and is very vocal in his displeasure.  A dog walker just went past the house and my ears are still ringing from the howling maddened barking -- not quite so adorable now!

I think I'll go take him for a walk so he can annoy other dogs in other houses instead.

Mini Lights Continued

You may recall that I recently painted a really small lighthouse -- the one up in Mukilteo, on a 3" x 3" canvas in acrylic.  I found it quite difficult.  I had issues with the paint thickness, and finding the right brush to get tiny details.  It was so frustrating that I pondered the wisdom of painting tiny pictures in acrylics, and went on to do pen and watercolor ones instead.

However, I still wanted a trio of little lighthouse paintings, so this past weekend I decided to tackle the next one -- the Alki Point light.  I experimented more with an acrylic medium that extends the drying time and makes the paint a bit looser to work with, and I tried out different brushes.  And what do you know -- the whole process was much less frustrating.  It was even downright enjoyable at times.

Someday I  may drink a cup of tea, but in the meantime, that bag will continue to be used to show the size of my miniature paintings.

Here it is again, showing the two paintings together:

For the third painting, I did the West Point lighthouse at Discovery Park.  This worked out well, since the first paining had the tower on the righthand side of the building, the second had the tower on the left, with both in close-up views, while the photo I used of West Point light showed the building farther away with the tower more in the middle.  It would make for a nice contrast.

Here is the final painting, not only with tea bag, but showing the tiniest paintbrush in the world, which works well for doing itty-bitty windows:

Then I had fun lining up my lighthouse trio in different ways:

I think this arrangement would work well:

The edges of the canvas are also painted, so they don't even need frames.  I just need to put tiny screws and hanging wire on the backs somehow...that will be fun!

I think for my next project, I'll paint something really big.

Animal Life

The heat here is not conducive to lengthy outdoor expeditions, which is quite frustrating.  On one day I was reduced to observing nature in my own back yard instead, where I rescued this mud dauber wasp from Truman's wading pool:

There have been several of these hanging around the yard of late, which I don't mind, as they are not aggressive.  Much better behaved than the yellow jackets I had one year.

On Saturday I got in a little birding at the Fill -- turns out it's not too hot if you arrive by 6:00am, which I did.  I met up with Connie there, and we had a splendid walk-and-talk.  The birds were somewhat sparse, as they typically are this time of year -- mostly sparrows, a few swallows, molting Mallards, blackbirds, and quite a few Common Yellowthroats who could be heard but rarely seen.

The highlight was a Red-tailed Hawk with something under its talons -- I couldn't get a sharp photo due to the lighting, but through her bins, Connie thought it was a rat.  Or rather, an ex-rat.

Yum!

On Sunday I took Tru for a walk at the Magnuson Park ponds, mainly to check out dragonflies.  I soon discovered there were juvenile Pied-billed Grebes about, very vocal and active.  I haven't seen any juveniles at the Fill this year, so it was quite a treat.

STRETCH........................................!

And there were also plenty of dragonflies, both at Magnuson and at the Fill.  This shot of an Eight-Spotted Skimmer is actually from the Fill:

Last but hardly least, I spent a lot of time this past weekend just hanging out with the animal life inside my home:

Coming Wednesday:  Tiny Lighthouses, part 2!

More small art

Having reduced one of my Kubota Gardens pen and watercolor sketches down from 8x10 or so to 3x5, and having decided that was fun, this weekend I did the other two Kubota sketches as well. Making things smaller was quite easy with pen and watercolor, much more so than painting with acrylics.  The only real problem was trying to work under the heat of my art table lamp during our streak of 90 degree days.  Not pleasant!

Here's the second of the three Kubota views -- in large size and reduced version, along with bits of my messy art table.

And here is the small version in a cheap frame.

And here is the third and final Kubota Gardens view reduction:

I didn't have a frame for it, cheap or otherwise, but I had a nice mat.  This one is also 3 x 5 inches:

And here are all three views together.  I like the not-so-cheap frame on the left, which is made from bamboo.  If I get these accepted into a juried show, I'll get that same frame for the other two to match:

Tomorrow I shall post about birds -- I did manage to get out twice this past weekend, at six a.m. when it was cool enough to walk around.  By 8am, I was done!  

Tiny Update

First, I hadn't heard from the gallery owner in quite some time re: sales, so I popped in yesterday and she said, "Oh, good, I just sold one of your prints and have a check for you!"  So that was good timing.

Second, in my continued adventures in miniature painting, I decided that doing mini-urban sketches in pen and watercolor might be fun.  But it's been way too hot to go outside, so I opted to practice indoors by taking some of my favorite large sketches and reducing them down.  I have three lovely sketches from Kubota Gardens which I thought would work well for this project.

Here is the first view of the gardens, re-done down to 3" x 5" size:

I found a ready-made frame for it -- I think a series of garden views would look nice together.

It's going to stay hot through the weekend at least, so I should have plenty of indoor time to do the other two garden views.  Stay tuned!