Everyday Sketches

Port Plaza views

fine liner pen and watercolor in hand.book sketch journal

You really get the small town feeling in Olympia at the Farmer’s Market. Everyone is there! and definitely was there on Saturday. The usual parking lot was full and overflow parking was filling up by 1pm when I got there. The plan was to sketch in the morning, but a totally unexpected gullywasher at 9am sent me running inside from the garden where I was weeding. Then the thunder rumbled and all the vegetable starts turned up their heads and drank while the downspouts turned into waterfalls. By afternoon the sun brought everyone out of their homes. You’ve got to live in the northwest to realize how elated one is with the spring sunshine. It makes you a little goony.

Right next to the Farmer’s Market where everyone was buying (expensive) but perfect veggies is a lumber yard and cranes and more at the Port of Olympia. I’ve had my eye on all those colorful story shapes for a long time, so I sketched some of the scene through the chain link fence at Port Plaza on Budd Bay.

Next I wanted to capture the Port Plaza lookout on the boardwalk and the Capitol building in the background because, after all, though a small city/town of 56,000, Olympia is also the state capitol. But I always look for ways to put things together into a possible story. The couple on the bench seemed pretty amorous, and I liked the cement anchor sculpture, so the title popped into mind, “Meet me at the anchor at Port Plaza”. Can’t you just picture that as a title for a RomCom?!

Easel painting

I’m off to Samish Island on the north Puget Sound today for five days of Paint Camp! Knowing that I would be in the company of plein air painters and might desire an easel, I bought a backpack size one on a light weight tripod to bring along. First time it took me about 30 minutes to get it put up! But I persevered and I think I have it down to five minutes max. Here’s the trial run in the back garden at home.

I like having my paper at arm’s distance and vertical, rather than so close to my body, though there’s a bit of insecurity in not holding onto it, as if it might get away from me. With a gust of wind I’m sure it would. But getting my whole arm into the action of drawing and painting is a decided advantage.

The small easel opens on a hinge and the “table” part has magnets to keep the palette and water secure. My 5.5X8″ sketchbook fits easily on the back board. The easel attaches to an inexpensive tripod and weighs almost nothing because it’s made from bamboo. I purchased it in the Etsy store from Taylor Seamount.

In this picture you get a sense of how small it is. I have to say the jury’s out on whether I can make it work for what I do. Likely I will be sitting on my stool. When there’s a lot of walking involved, I might leave the tripod behind. And I can use the wooden easel flat on my lap without the tripod!

There’s so much going on in the garden right now that I’m anxious to get back to journaling in my nature journal. For instance, these two bugs, stuck together and moving as one.

some variation of Boxelder bug? on my vegetable garden gate

How do they decide and agree on which direction to move? It didn’t seem like they were having difficulty with the “engaged” situation. And they both seemed to have equal capacity at movement forward and backward. Oh, where was my natural journal when I needed it?!

Steilacoom

Steilacoom is a small town on the Puget Sound between Tacoma and Olympia with a ferry to the islands, a train, historic buildings, and jaw dropping views. Muriel was visiting from California and together we joined the Tacoma Urban Sketchers for the day.

Parked on our stools on the sidewalk across the street from this building, we met several friendly town dwellers. The last was a 95 year old woman (yes, I had to ask) who conveyed such vibrant beauty, keen intellect and warmth of spirit. She had lived her whole life in the town and probably would be the one to tell the intimate history of its residents! In the few minutes we conversed she mentioned her friend who had just celebrated her 107th birthday and still lives alone. Hmmm. Longevity in small town life. Surely a reason to make every effort to move there!

Sun alternated with a bit of rain that day. The sprinkling helped with the aged texture of this building, previously a church and now a tribal center, with its pealing paint and weathered facade.

Tacoma Urban Sketchers in front of Bair Drug and Bistro

The meet up ended in Steilacoom-family style around a large table in the historic Bair Drug, now a Bistro and community hang out, whose mission to feed people is stated on their website: “This is for the purpose of health, live-ability and caretaking of our friends and family. This labor is done of love, not job and service, not charity.” And so it was received with much gratitude! and we will be back.

May Day

Do you celebrate May 1st. and what is your association with the day? Dancing around the May Pole with ribbons or protesting unfair labor practices? There was a version of both at Heritage Park on Capitol Lake last Monday, and some of us sketchers were out to do some pictorial reporting (reportage).

We arrived at the tail end of the speeches by union representatives from our nearby Washington counties. The speeches were protesting labor practices and the crowd was supportive, if sparse. I’m guessing that the audience that would have come out for this were busy working at jobs that didn’t allow it as a worker holiday!

drawn and painted with w/c on a previously painted and textured sketchbook spread

We gravitated over to the local version of the May Pole, where the colorfully clad troupe of Clown Town performers were stilt walking, doing clown tricks, juggling, and blowing bubbles larger than children for children to chase. After a while the sketchers became the only audience, so we learned the clown’s names and a bit about their troupe, that also performs for our summer street fairs downtown called Love Oly.

And then it was clown lunch time! Definitely easier to sketch when they’re not juggling and carrying on! Turns out I had sketched Luz last month at the Farmer’s Market, busking on the accordian. She’s a veteran clown/musician of 20 years. Hanging out with these folks reminded me of my times at Camp Winnarainbow with Wavy Gravy where I practiced juggling, but ended up being better at sketching and wearing my red clown nose!

Not wanting to overlook the labor protest part of the event, I sketched this later at home.

Tenino Depot Museum

Walk in the door of the Tenino Depot Museum and you’ll feel like you’re in a time capsule. Sure, there’s a share of railroad lore and the shiny red caboose out front, and in the authentic bathroom there’s a sign reading “Please DO NOT Flush toilet while train in in station”. Hmmm. But after a few minutes you realize that in typical small town Tenino style, you are made to feel at home and ask any question and get a historically researched answer. Like: what is the real story of how the town/depot was named Tenino? or Can you really use the wooden money they print to buy things in this town today? Answer: yes, dollar for dollar.

While some of our sketch group went outside to sketch the adorable caboose, the rest of us settled into the folding chairs immediately provided by the docent Jessica, finding scenes and artifacts like the above picture. While drawing I could almost feel the presence of my two grandmothers sitting just out of sight and whispering about how they used the wash board and stoked the oven with wood.

Meanwhile the rooms filled with the local master stone mason Keith and friends, and a mother with a group of small children whose tiny voices chirped with questions as they learned about the olden days, which seemed quite close to my own prehistoric memories! Walk in the door of the Tenino Depot Museum and you’ll feel like you’re in a time capsule. Sure, there’s a share of railroad lore and the shiny red caboose out front, and in the authentic bathroom there’s a sign reading “Please DO NOT Flush toilet while train in in station”. Hmmm. But after a few minutes you realize that in typical small town Tenino style, you are made to feel at home and ask any question and get a historically researched answer. Like: what is the real story of how the town/depot was named Tenino? or Can you really use the wooden money they print to buy things in this town today? Answer: yes, dollar for dollar.

We were given a tour of the inside of the caboose and the one room schoolhouse on the grounds which border a park and the sandstone quarry and pool. This was not my first time in Tenino. I keep coming back for that small town feeling and the way the inhabitants love to share the history and make visitors feel like special guests.

We all marveled at the tiny feet of the person whose shoes these were, and I felt compelled to include them in my book. They made modern day four inch heels look comfortable by comparison!

Thanks to the historians and carpenters and masons and other builders and installers and the city that funded the efforts and the docents who share the stories and everyone who helps to make this experience possible.

Downtown Tacoma

It usually takes at least a week for me to catch up after a trip. Today I’ll share a sketch from a Tacoma, WA visit last month. It was one of those sunny, spur of the moment, let’s get out of town and sketch Tacoma days. Jane Wingfield used to live there years ago and knows her favorite spots downtown. After wandering around looking for a good subject we “landed” on a street corner across from some colorful three story building storefronts. Our chosen spot was bookended by two men on separate blocks. One was singing loudly, the other sitting quietly and then jumping up every five minutes or so to rant loudly in protest to unseen forces. Neither was threatening, though mildly unsettling.

fountain pen and watercolor in 9 X 12″ Canson Mixed Media sketchbook

The story here was the juxtaposition of cycling and psychic-ing on different floors. One could only wonder what it would be like to get your palm read while listening to the hum/drone of cyclists overhead? But then judging by the chorus on the opposite side of the street which we witnessed, I suppose one’s expectation of silence would not be great.

See one of Jane’s sketches on Instagram.

Normandy Village in Berkeley

The storm that drenched Sonoma County last week wreaked havoc on the Bay Area with high winds that blew down trees whose roots were already too saturated. Power lines were down and much of the east bay where I was headed next was without electricity. On Friday though, much of the power was restored and I was able to join my Bay Area sketch buddies, Cathy McAuliffe and Laurie Wigham in a “surprise” location by the University in Berkeley selected by Cathy. And what a treat!

When you turn onto Spruce St from Hearst, north of the University you come without warning to a fairy tale replica of a 17th century Normandy village, built in the 1920’s by an enterprising young architect Jack Thornburg. Now it’s home to university students among others. One can only imagine what it would be like to live there! You can read a bit of the history here.

As we sat and sketched and wandered around the cobbled lanes we met student residents and a man in the current owner’s family who later took pictures of all our sketches outside his house.

fountain pen and watercolor in hand.book journal 8 X 11″ spread

There was so much texture everywhere, irregular vectors, gargoyles, weathered paint and the chanteclere! A rich diet for a sketcher.

When my pens ran dry (arggh!) Laurie loaned me her parallel pen for my next one. All subtlety of line quality was lost, which is not to blame the pen, but my handling!

Myself, Laurie and Cathy enjoying a sunny sketchy day. Check out their sketches on their Instagram links.

And have you heard about the first travel sketchbooks festival in the United States that is coming to beautiful Edmonds, Washington July 14-16, 2023? Registration just opened today, featuring outdoor sketching workshops with renowned teachers, a sketchbook fest and art market, and free sketchwalks led by members of the Seattle Urban Sketchers community.

I’ll be there! Let me know if you’re coming and I’ll look for you.

For more information and to register, visit Sketcher Fest.

Thanksgiving Moments

My thanksgiving holiday was pretty much like many people’s with lots of cooking and eating, visiting, getting out to see some sights around town. Ben flew in from North Carolina and Andrew and Holly joined us from Seattle. I snatched some pictures and decided to do so quick sketches from them after the holiday, using the same kind of technique I would use in on-the-lap-on-location sketching/storytelling.

I rarely take an inkpot out with me because of the chance of spilling it! But this was done in my studio and I didn’t spill it! That’s me at the end of the table. Can you tell?

The day after Thanksgiving Ben wanted some Pacific Northwest nature drama, so we drove out to the ocean at Westport and lucked out by arriving at high tide, a King Tide crashing against the sea wall in 15 foot vertacles, spraying onlookers and flooding the nearby streets. We stuffed ourselves on fish n chips watching the water creep down the road out front.

Afterward we took a walk above the dunes, not wanting to be ON the beach where the tide sometimes drags people out to sea! A very dapper looking pheasant was not to be deterred from his walk on the trail so we followed him for quite a way. And later stopped for coffee at a coffee shop with unique decor. The mannikin at the window seemed to be inviting visitors to come and sit a while with her!

Back home again, Drew (Andrew) took up his favorite spot in the living room. My boys are masters of comfortable poses!

Dazzled!

Dazzled by fall colors! And anxious about how quickly the fall rain and wind storms are denuding my favorites!

I keep thinking I’ll find the colors to mix, the techniques to employ, the tools to utilize. . .to capture. . .a touch of the outrageous autumn foliage displays. I keep working on it, but. . .

You probably think I’m exaggerating. But Nature is the biggest and most outrageous exaggerater, always. It was awful windy at the Capitol building this week, too much to try to put the color on the page on site. A more intrepid urban sketcher surely would have done so. I just wanted to memorize the look of that redderthanredred against that greenerthangreengreen with the gold thrown in . So at home I just kept putting paint on til I gave up. . .yet strangely still felt satisfied from the effort.

Autumn glory upstaging Washington’s state capitol building!

And meanwhile this artistry was going on in my neighborhood. What would you say. . .New Gamboge with a touch of Quin Gold? Quin Rose?

And then this morning this 4 inch glowing something in the middle of our lawn. A golf ball? A piece of paper trash (it is trash day) a wrapper? A fried egg for goodness sake? Would it glow in the dark to flavor up the spooky Halloween?

Did you guess? A mushroom of course! Time to get out the mushroom ID books!

Rock, Stone and a Time Machine

pen and watercolor in Etchr w/c sketchbook

As you may guess from the sketch, the Time Machine is a vintage/antique shop in a historic building on the main street in this small town of Tenino. While I sketched, Janet, a non-sketcher, took her time enjoying the Shiplap Quilt and Coffee Shop across the street.

I can’t help wondering if the Time Machine will change the sign in 10 years when the future is no longer future and the Time Machine brings us back to the present, which we have been trying to escape for many years. Food for thought.

But to back up. . .we were heading out to Tenino on a Sunday and discovered that the Stone Carver studio, a main attraction in this town known for its stone quarry, would be closed. I called the number and reached Keith, who was eating his breakfast at the cafe across the street. “I’ll meet you there!” he said. And there he was waiting to greet us, still munching his hurried breakfast.

Turns out that Keith Phillips is the Master Carver in town and has been a journeyman stone carver for many years, working on large projects on government buildings like the capitol in Olympia but also creative sculptures like a stack of books for Powell’s in Portland. After showing off The Shed (the barn above) he took us on a tour of sculptures he made for the town and invited us another time to see the action at the workshop where the big tools are used.