9/22/17 Chateau Ste. Michelle |
It’s been at least a couple of decades since I last drove
east to the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery
in Woodinville. The state’s oldest winery, it’s on a lovely wooded property, resident
peacocks roam the grounds, and wherever you sniff, wine is in the air! As if all
that weren’t enough, Urban Sketchers Seattle had blue skies and sunshine on a day that could have gone just as
easily towards clouds and rain.
9/22/17 Claude, the peacock |
Along with several other sketchers, I walked toward the vineyard,
and none of us could resist nibbling the fat, purple grapes we plucked from the
vines. I was braced for tartness, but the one I popped into my mouth was fully
ripe and amazingly sweet – sweeter than any grapes we buy at the store. With
that sweetness still lingering, I plunked my stool down at the side of the entrance
road to sketch the rows of trees welcoming visitors.
Next I walked around the winery grounds looking for the resident
peacock pair. They were both sitting on the manor house porch, preening lazily
for nearly the whole time I sketched Claude. He stopped preening long enough to
stand for a moment and look around, and I saw that he was limping, apparently
from a run-in with a visitor’s car.
As is often my habit, I had about 15 minutes to kill
before the throwdown. The chateau (which houses one of the tasting rooms) is a
large building, so I bit off a piece small enough to chew in those remaining
minutes.
Although Woodinville is a little further than we
typically go for Friday outings, we had an excellent turnout of sketchers on a
gorgeous autumn day.
9/22/17 Chateau building |
Technical note: Looking out the window at the clear sky before
I left for the outing, I almost
grabbed my usual white paper signature; I just didn’t feel like using gray
toned paper in the sunshine! But I know I won’t get acquainted with toned paper
if I don’t stick it out for a while, so I resisted. It was challenging trying
to capture the light without default white paper. In addition, even though I just got through saying I was planning to use only dry colored pencils in my Stillman & Birn Nova book because
the paper isn’t intended for wet media, I couldn’t resist spraying those trees anyway. The
paper held up better than I expected, but it still buckled a bit.
I’ll have better luck with Nova paper when the weather
goes gray (all too soon, I’m sure). When that happens, I’ll probably stick to black
markers or graphite and white colored pencil or gel pen most of the time. I say
that now, but I don’t have much of a reputation for sticking with my plans! We’ll
see.
I like those trees and what you did with coloured pencils...Nadja
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nadja! I'm really enjoying colored pencils, though I'm not sure about toned paper yet.
DeleteLovely sketch of the entrance to the chateau...and the blending on the peacock is lovely. Sounds like a great place to sketch.
ReplyDelete