from my sketchbook

A short walk away from my home is the beautiful Lewisville Park. It is one of the oldest parks in Clark County and dates back to 1936 and the Works Progress Administration. I can't say enough about this oasis. It has more than 150 acres of trails, trees, play structures and fields, plus the untamed east fork of the Lewis River.

Yesterday's sunshine drew me to the park with my sketchbook. It was a welcome break from the "busy" of life to spend time in one of my favorite places.

Chicago. "Saturday in the Park."

not Perry Mason

 Courtroom dramas are nothing at all like "Perry Mason" television shows. The action is much slower and doesn't tie up neatly at the end of an hour. There are no surprises. Hamilton Burger doesn't object or get befuddled.

Actual courtroom dramas are slow. Each bit of evidence is explored and layered in testimony and exhibits. The pace is like watching paint dry. Oil paint. The kind that takes months.

Court time provided me with several days of sketching opportunities.

Besides the sketches, I took notes of what the judge and attorneys said at various points. It is now an illustrated record of an unpleasant experience.

A record with my own commentary and observations.

After all is said and done, I think I might enjoy sketching from "Perry Mason" videos. It would be much cheaper!

"Perry Mason." Full episodes are available on YouTube!

life goes on

Life goes on. I've thought or said those words many times. After a disappointment, life goes on. After a failure, life goes on. And, a few weeks ago, after the death of my father in law ... life goes on for the rest of us.

He died at home, as he wanted. Peacefully. No agitation or crying out. One moment he was awake, and the next asleep, and then he stopped breathing. 

Grief is tricky. Thinking about his life brings up feelings of admiration and delight. Or frustration  and regret. Or a thick blanket of sadness. The thick blanket days are the hardest. Life goes on.

Jan Pieter van Schoonhoven, 1926 -- 2013

Years ago, I was playing the Schubert Impromptus (Opus 90, numbers 1-4). My father in law enjoyed hearing me play, and sometimes he would make comments on various pieces. When I played this one (number 3) he said, "Play that one at my funeral." Here it is. For you, Paps.

Vladimir Horowitz, Schubert Impromptu Opus 90, No 3.

It's alright ...

I've just got to get some rest ...

Gas Works Park

Bears!

Anan Bear Observatory. Accessible only by water and hike. We did it, even though I hoped to keep bears at a great distance on this trip. Not on this adventure. Bears up close and personal. Incredible. Frightening. Absolutely amazing.

Sketching at Port McNeill, BC, waiting for weather

At the top of the dock at Port McNeill, BC, sits this Steam Donkey (c. 1910). Signs posted all over it warn me not to climb on it, but I am more interested in sketching it than climbing it, as you can see. Logging is a big deal in Canada, particularly in the wet province of British Columbia. It is not uncommon for us to share the water with a tugboat hauling a log boom (a big raft of trimmed tree trunks). If you were to drive around here, you would see logging trucks with trees 4-5' in diameter as their loads.

With all of that tree-loss, is it any wonder that I take a special pleasure looking at the stands of trees near our anchorage? Their tops form a constant edge between sky and land, everywhere I look.

We are approaching the longest day of the year and up here, north of the 50th parallel, the twilight stretches longer and longer. Just last night, I took this photograph at 10:15 pm! Do you have special plans to celebrate the Summer Solstice? It is just days away, June 21, 2010.

Thinking of Emily Carr in Campbell River, BC

This totem welcomes mariners to Campbell River from the docks at Discovery Harbour. I had about 20 minutes between rain showers to sketch quickly, and then painted it when I got back to the boat.

I've been looking at artwork by Emily Carr in the books I browse whenever we walk into town. I'm sure I'll end up buying some books about her and Tom Thomson before long. But, in the meantime, I will think about Canadian artists as I sketch and paint their lovely landscapes.

Nanaimo: Sketch in the City

Nanaimo has a distinctive feel to it. As we walked the streets, I heard British, Scottish, and Irish accented English, plus Dutch, German, and Danish. Cosmopolitan, to say the least!

Today was a swirly, lumpy day on the water. Swells 2 to 4 feet. Wind waves just 1 foot. Not unusual for the Strait of Georgia, but seven hours of it was a lot to handle. Maybe that explains the wavy horizontal line of this sketch!

Another cloudy day. I long for sunshine! In the meantime, I think I'll consider acting like Whistler and try some studies in gray!

At the dock in Anacortes

Still on my mind ... life is good!

Out of Reach

Underwater View

Long Vistas of Water

Gig Harbor

My cuts and bruises are healing, but I am still upset by my fall into the water the other day. Seems to be on my mind a lot. No surprise, right? I did the top two sketches this morning.

Thank you for your support and emails! I'm sure I'll perk up again soon and be back to my cheerful self. I feel pretty sober these days.

Angie wrote about the incident on her blog, which you can read here: http://mvdesertventure.com/

Finding Andrew

Opening day at the Seattle Art Museum of their exhibit "Andrew Wyeth: Remembrance." I was there with friends, Celeste Bergin and Carolyn Rondthaler. Seven paintings. Each one stunning. Mostly Helga but one of Betsy sleeping in a field with her hat covering her face and their dog nearby. Another of a building and a winter tree, reflections in a cold pond.

The Seattle Times has a review of the exhibit here.

No photography allowed in the museum, but I sat on a bench and watched people looking at the paintings. Some would hover near the descriptive label and spend a lot of time reading about the art and hardly any time looking at the art. Some just walked through the exhibit in a daze, not looking or reading, but watching their partner.

But others got as close to the painting as possible (without setting off alarms or bringing guards to warn and point). How did Wyeth do it? How did he make the hair look real and slightly dirty? How did he paint the smooth skin, the shapely muscle beneath and the sturdy bone all at once?

Beautiful. Light filled. Subtle. Lonely. Quiet.

I will think more about Andrew Wyeth and his work. I am so glad I went to Seattle see these seven paintings with my own eyes. It was water to my artist soul.

Drawing groups of figures

One of our assignments this month in drawing class is to draw groups of people. I carry a Moleskin sketchbook with me wherever I go, and while I was downtown this week, I made these two sketches of groups of people.

The first is the audience seated in front of me to hear Amy Dickinson (writer of the "Ask Amy" column) speak at the Voices Lecture series. I like how I captured each back and head as an individual. Different hair, clothes, perspective. I like it.

The second drawing was from a coffee house on Taylor. I watched the construction workers as they worked in the road. Hard to draw a bunch of ever-moving subjects, but the sketch has a nice feel to it.

Have sketchbook, will travel!

Graphite to watercolor

On the top are some of the sketches I did of my mother at shuffleboard when I visited her in January.

From graphite to watercolor.

She wore white pants, a white vest, and a dark shirt underneath. Her hair is white. Little wonder that I added the red line, right?

Random art from my trip

It seemed like my trip was mostly about soaking in the experiences, but as I look back through my sketches and watercolor paintings, I can see that I did more than soak. Hope you enjoy taking a peek at these!

Photography Exhibit at PAM

January 11 is the last day of the exhibit "Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge" at the Portland Art Museum. I enjoyed the show so much, I went again yesterday with friends.

While waiting for my group, I picked a spot on a bench and did this quick sketch of some of the people enjoying the show. I love little sketches like this. They remind me of my experiences in a vivid way!

I carry a Moleskin pad in my purse and a ready supply of pens and pencils. Like a good Girl Scout, er, I mean artist, I am always prepared! I love it!

Watercolor sketches

Here are just a few more of my watercolor sketches from the boat. These two guys were waiting to get through Customs and I loved how the light was on them. Man, I do love doing figures. I've got to get back to that when I get home.

At 5:00 am, the light was perfect on Johnstone Strait. Not too long after this painting we saw orcas near Telegraph Cove. Wow. I think I stopped breathing while I watched them. A mother and baby, coming up to the surface frequently for gulps of air. And another on the other side of our boat. Unforgettable.

You can see that I attempted the rock face of Burly Cove, too. I think that I have enough information in these sketches to paint them bigger in the studio.

Life is good. Particularly sweet some days.