The Georgetown Castle and Some Melancholy

7/9/17 water-soluble colored pencils, Tombow marker, ink

The most colorful house in the Georgetown neighborhood also has a colorful past – or maybe a dark one. Known as the Georgetown Castle, the mansion is apparently haunted (though ghostbusters of sorts have been employed to exorcise whatever ghosts are there). Regardless, it was part of the Georgetown Garden Walk yesterday, an annual event for USk Seattle the past few years.

Unlike last year and the year before, I resisted the giant hat and boots at Oxbow Park (though I was tempted) and instead sketched the mansion, or at least as much of it as I could see from the park. The conical turret of the Queen Anne-style house was especially challenging and fun to draw, since I don’t see many of them in Seattle.

7/9/17 ink, Tombow marker, colored pencil

The mansion apparently had a fantastic garden that I suppose I should have at least walked through, but I was too distracted by vehicles. One was the Mercedes convertible on the street nearby (you know I can’t resist convertibles), and the second was the BMW motorcycle at the park. Sketching both of those made me think of Florian Afflerbach, the young urban sketcher who died in a motorcycle accident a little over a year ago. Known online as Flaf, he was particularly fond of sketching cars and motorcycles. 

7/9/17 brush pen, colored pencil

Thinking of Flaf also made me think of Bruno Agnes, an urban sketcher who passed away very recently. A USk global blog correspondent, he sounded apologetic in his last post more than a year ago that he hadn’t been drawing much because his job required extensive travel. 

I didn’t know either Flaf or Bruno personally, but I knew their sketches well. Feeling a bit melancholy, I thought about the importance of making time for the activities we love. It always seems like we have plenty of time to get around to the next sketch. But maybe we have less time than we think.