Lenin in Fremont

4/17/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

If you look on the right side of my blog where tags are listed, you’ll see that I have one for memorials and monuments. Last summer when I visited Boston, I sketched several statues and other memorials, and those prompted me to start a list of all the memorials and monuments in my own hometown that I’ve hardly paid attention to, let alone sketched, and decided I would make a point of sketching them eventually.

 

Long on that list has been Vladimir Lenin, whose 16-foot bronze sculpture had been removed from its original installation in Czechoslovakia in 1989 after the revolution. Rescued from destruction by an Issaquah resident, the statue was installed in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood (not without controversy).

 

I mentioned my memorials and monuments tag because all the other statues I’ve sketched in that category have been erected to honor people or events. Given how often Lenin is “accessorized” in Fremont (in drag for the Pride Parade, with Christmas lights during the holidays, as John Lennon during the Solstice Parade, and the red paint on his hands), it’s hard to say whether the communist leader is being honored at the busy intersection of North 36^th Street and Fremont Place. But in Fremont, anything can – and does – happen.

 

In any case, still inspired by this week’s Urban Sketchers Flickr group theme, “Oddities in Your Town,” I knew it was time to cross this statue off my list. In addition to the one I used today, I spotted a number of other convenient benches and standing areas around this intersection that would make Lenin a good subject for multiple sketches from various angles. A Lenin-themed sketchcrawl, perhaps?

The Elephant on Aurora

4/15/13 Platinum Carbon Black ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

Growing up south of downtown Seattle, I rarely ventured as far north as North 88^th and Aurora Avenue North (OK, so I led a sheltered childhood). On those occasions when I did, Aurora seemed full of exotic sights, not the least of which was this elephant. As a child, I thought the elephant – part of an eye-catching sign for Aurora Flower Shop – looked fairly realistic.

 

Fast-forward a few decades, and the elephant doesn’t look quite as realistic to me now. But dating back to 1936 (on Aurora since 1946), it has a colorful past (which you can read about on RoadsideAmerica.com), including the urban legend that it was an actual taxidermied elephant killed on safari. The flower shop closed in 2004, and currently the retail location belongs to Aurora Rents.

 

When I saw that the Urban Sketchers Flickr group’s theme this week is “Oddities in Your Town,” I came up with a number of candidates (many of which are listed on that same Roadside America site), and this is the first I’ve sketched. You’ll see more as the weather improves during the next few months.

Green Lake United Methodist Church

4/10/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

Ever since last December when I went to hear a holiday concert there by the City Cantabile Choir, I’ve been meaning to go back to Green Lake United Methodist Church on a rainless day to sketch it. More than a hundred years old, it’s an amazing stone building that resembles a castle. Even the top of the tower has what looks like a battlement.

 

Although it had been pouring all morning, the sun came out for my noon walk around Green Lake. By the time I finished lunch, it looked like it was going to stay out for a while, so I headed out for the church. By the time I got there 10 minutes later, it was starting to sprinkle. I spotted a convenient overhang around the school directly across the street from the church, so I ducked under it. It took me a little more than an hour to finish the sketch, and during that short time, I saw a downpour of rain, hail, a little sunshine and more rain. But thanks to that overhang, my sketch and I stayed dry.

Light Rail Station Gearing Up

4/8/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

The Roosevelt neighborhood will be the site of the light rail station between Northgate and the University District in Sound Transit’s Northgate Link Extension, which is slated to be operational in 2021. According to Sound Transit’s website, “Northgate Link Extension will connect the Northgate, Roosevelt and U District neighborhoods to downtown Seattle and the airport. Fast, reliable service will provide relief to one of the region’s most congested traffic areas.”

The year 2021 seems like a long way away, but the heavy equipment and other construction paraphernalia have been moving into the area for a while now. I don’t know when work is scheduled to begin, but I figure any day now the area around Northeast 66^th Street and 12^th Avenue Northeast might be closed off, and my opportunities for a  good sketching view might be limited, so today seemed like a good day to sketch one of the Titan earth movers. I counted six of them on the property today, patiently waiting to come alive with noise and activity.

A Double Nemesis Kind of Day

4/6/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Zig markers, Stilman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

An obligation that had filled my whole calendar today got cancelled – a delightful gift of time – so I decided it was a good day to take on a couple of sketching nemeses.

 

As happened on at least one previous occasion, I got frustrated looking for something to sketch inside Northgate Mall and ended up out in the parking lot. I drive a very small car that rides so low to the ground that I’m usually eye level to most vehicles’ license plates. About to turn on the ignition, I found myself face to face with a truck that I probably could have driven underneath – a nemesis if I’ve ever seen one. The young couple who belonged to it came back and drove away before I was done, but I’ve learned from previous car-sketching experiences to mark things like shadows and reflections right away so that I can still finish the sketch. With that notch on my belt, I went looking for the next one.

 

4/6/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

Driving home on Fifth Avenue Northeast, I decided to turn west on Northeast Elk Place, a block-long street that is more like an alley. The thick clouds looked like they could crack open with rain at any moment, so I stayed in the car. Despite all the trees that have already fully blossomed and lost their petals, plenty of totally bare trees still stand everywhere, including this one. Like me, they’re still waiting for the real spring (last weekend’s flirtation turned out to be just that). The sky changed colors at least five times while I sat there, and as I finished up, it started to pour.

Taking it for Granted

4/5/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

As a native and lifelong resident of Seattle, I sometimes take for granted how close we are to mountains and water (both fresh and sea). My spouse-man, who grew up in the Midwest, does not: He points out the beauty of the snowy Olympics every time we drive home toward Maple Leaf after grocery shopping in Wedgwood, or he compliments the Cascades as we approach Lake Washington from the International District.

After filling my gas tank on Fifth Northeast a few blocks from home, I turned west onto Northeast 85^th, a street that ends at the barrier wall between the neighborhood and I-5. Beyond the wall is a glimpse of Phinney Ridge and the deep blue Olympics still topped with snow. A humongous fir tree happened to dwarf the view, but it, too, is part of the scene that makes Seattle home. Sketching it once in a while keeps me from taking it all for granted.

One More

4/1/13 watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

The flowering cherry trees didn’t get their reputation for being fleeting for nothing. Less than a week after they first started blossoming, they are now at their peak, and today’s stiff breeze was already prompting snowfalls of petals.

 

On my walk around Green Lake this morning, I spotted an enormous cherry bursting with puffy blossoms, and I knew it might be my last opportunity this year. This afternoon I took my large sketchbook and my trail stool down to the edge of the walking path.

 

With my typical 8 ½ by 5 ½ inch sketchbook, I prefer to sketch standing up with my paint box clipped onto the book’s cover, but with an 11 by 8 ½ inch sketchbook, I can’t do that. Clearly not one of the en plein air painters who occasionally set up their easels on shore, I attracted more attention than I usually do when I sketch. It was probably the awkward stance: Hunched over my tiny stool, holding the book on my lap, leaning over constantly to dip into my paints on the ground. Everyone who stopped by commented on the tree’s beauty and how its blossoms seemed to appear overnight.

 

In another few days, they’ll be gone just as quickly: transient as life.

The Early Bird Catches Barcelona

3/25/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

Fully tanked with coffee and my finger twitching on the mouse button, I impatiently waited for my laptop clock to read 6:00 a.m. PDT, when registration for the Fourth International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Barcelona would open worldwide. I knew that at previous symposia, registration filled within hours of opening, and hundreds of disappointed sketchers weren’t able to nab the 150 available seats, so I was ready.

 

After an initial “browser cookie issue” nearly caused panic at the virtual door, I shoved my way in. A few mouse clicks later, I was one of 150 happy symposium registrants who made it in – I’m going to Barcelona! I even got all my first-choice workshops! (Sure enough, about two hours later, the symposium was full.)

 

3/25/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

As if that weren’t enough to make my day, the sun came out, and this time it wasn’t preceded by snow flurries. With afternoon temperatures in the 60s, it actually felt like spring! With so many things to celebrate, MiataGrrl took the top down and headed for the zoo.

 

I wasn’t the only one eager to get out in the sunshine. The African Savannah was crowded with zebras, water fowl and two giraffes grazing at a large tree. Wanting to stay in the sun, I almost bypassed the Komodo dragon, but the big guy is hard to resist – he hardly moves. In fact, it had been nearly a year since I last sketched him, so he was worth a quick pen sketch. He was in particularly fine form today, drooling profusely, which caused no end of delight among the kids watching him.

 

3/25/13 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Zig markers

Taking a break outside the Rain Forest Food Pavilion, I sketched a family and yet another Chinese windmill palm tree – my third in two months. My last sketch at the zoo was of a man who was happy to catch a few Z’s while waiting for his grandkids to find him.

 

3/25/13 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi ink

 

Today my sister would have turned 67 years old if she had survived the heart failure that took her life a few weeks after her 65^th birthday. All day, I thought of her and everything I’m grateful for, every day, with every sketch I make. I don’t take any of them for granted.

Daffodils

3/22/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Hand Book journal

I was planning to meet a few friends to sketch at Sky Nursery this morning, but the snow flurries kept me out of the hockey puck I drive. Instead, I got a cup of tea and stayed warm at home. By afternoon, the sun came out and said that this morning’s snowstorm was just a joke.

 

I can take a joke! I jumped into my car and drove in the direction of the Wedgwood neighborhood, where I spotted this house surrounded by a rockery and lots of cheerful daffodils leaning toward the street.

 

(Technical note: I’m getting more and more disgruntled with the paper in Hand Book journals, which I have been using happily as writing and collage journals for years. Even fountain pen ink with a wash isn’t bad, but it can’t take watercolor the way I want it to. I have only a couple of pages left in this volume. When it’s full, I’m going to stick with Stillman & Birn sketchbooks exclusively, regardless of media.)

A Tangle of Trees

3/21/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Zig markers, opaque white pen, Hand Book journal

Most of the trees haven’t gotten the memo that spring is officially here. If you squint very closely at their branches, you can see the tiny lighter-colored tips of their buds, but not many leaves are out. Of course, a few plums have been blossoming for weeks, but they’re just showing off.

 

Parked on a side street facing Green Lake, I could see clouds and small bright spots of blue through the tangle of bare branches. One day soon I won’t be able to see much of the lake or sky from this point because the trees will be dense with foliage. One day soon I might not have to sit in my car to sketch this view.

 

Unfortunately, not soon enough.

Nonindigenous

3/19/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolors, Zig marker, Hand Book journal

Palm trees are about as indigenous to the Pacific Northwest as pineapples, tiki huts and toucans. Yet I’ve sketched two palms in as many months – one in February at the Wedgwood Top Pot, and another this morning at a small Northgate strip mall. Given that it was 40 degrees, I stayed in my car to sketch the palm, which I think is leftover from the tropical-themed restaurant that used to be where Green Lake Jewelry Works now stands. On the back side of the building facing the parking lot is another remnant: a sign that reads “Thank Y’all for Coming.”

 

I do my share of complaining about the long, dark winters here, but imagine how those palm trees must feel. Thank y’all for tolerating the cold.

Edited 3/20/13: I was told by a landscape gardener friend, after he saw the sketch, that this is a Chinese windmill palm, which actually does well in Seattle.

Calvary Christian Assembly



3/15/13 Platinum Sepia, watercolor, Hand Book journal

They say three’s a charm.

 

I’m not sure this sketch is exactly charmed, but I’ve said before that I can be stubborn even as I’m intimidated, so I decided to tackle the Calvary Christian Assembly yet a third time (at right).

 

It helps that it was a balmy 55 degrees today, so I could get out of the car and view it from a different angle. The first time I tried sketching the tower was last November on a cold day (below left), and no matter where I parked, the cross looked like a straight line, and the tower was overpowered by a tall fir tree. The second time, from a better parking spot, I could at least see the cross (below right), but let’s just say I was having a bad sketching day. I gave up quickly.

 

Note that today's sketch includes all three of my current and previous sketching nemeses: architecture, cars and trees.

 

Can I go home now?

11/10/12 Omas Sepia, Zig markers, Stillman & Birn Gamma

2/19/13 Platinum Carbon ink, S&B Gamma

Metropolitan Market Produce Section

3/15/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Zig markers, Hand Book

Eager to try out my latest watercolor mixing palette, I went to a place where I knew I could get a big dose of color. The mezzanine level of the Sand Point Metropolitan Market looks down over the produce section. Color, indeed! And the new mixing palette works perfectly as I had hoped.

 

All is right with the sketching world.

 

Coming Full Circle

Sketch kit with Koi watercolor box lid as mixing tray.

Not too long after I began sketching, I acquired a Sakura Koi portable watercolor set with 12 colors (and eventually the 24-color set as well), which I knew would be my key to urban sketching. Indeed, it did open up the world of portable paints, and I used that trusty little set all the way through last spring. I liked it so much that I researched the pocket sizes of a number of travel vests to find one with a pocket large enough to comfortably accommodate the box.

 

Once summertime rolled around and I was spending most of my free time sketching outdoors, the Koi kit was no longer cutting it. For one thing, the paints weren’t as concentrated as I wanted. For another, the kit required having a place to set it down as I sketched, which usually meant I had to find a seat. This crimped my style because many of the places in which I like to sketch (such as the zoo) didn’t accommodate chairs or stools well.

 

Thus began my quest for a portable sketch kit that I could attach directly to my sketchbook so that I wouldn’t have to support both the kit and the sketchbook while standing. I eventually developed such a kit with a mint tin and the miracle of Velcro.

 

Akashiya Sai mixing palette

The attachable watercolor kit met my needs almost perfectly. But the rub was always with the mixing palette. Up until last month, I used a small, plastic Akashiya Sai palette of petal-shaped wells (shown at right) that was ideal in size and weight, but the absence of an actual mixing surface was a severe shortcoming. I managed to muddle by, but it partially explains why so many of my sketches have washed-out, wimpy colors (lack of painting skills accounts for the rest).

 

Finally fed up with that limitation, last month I began a fresh quest for the ideal mixing surface. I decided to try the switch plate cover idea (shown below) that I had heard mentioned in various art forums and blogs. Although the indentations and marks on the back side of the switch plate cover kept catching my brush hairs, only one mixing area was large enough to work well, and its cream color gave me slightly inaccurate hues, it was a serviceable (but not ideal) solution.

 

Switch plate cover mixing palette

Fast-forward to last night: I hadn’t used either of my Koi kits in nearly a year, so I decided to clean them up and possibly offer them to someone who might use them. As I scrubbed the inside of the lid of the 12-color set, which serves as a mixing area with divided sections, I had a light bulb moment. The lid is less than a half-inch wider than the switch plate cover and about the same weight. If I could detach it from the box – voila!

 

The Japanese-made Koi box has a fairly high-quality hinged lid that wouldn’t simply snap apart. But spouse-man Greg likes to take things apart and is good at it, and I knew he’d have the right tools. In a few minutes, he had the lid off – and I think I now have the ideal mixing palette for my portable sketch kit: lightweight, the right dimensions, and with smooth, white, divided wells (shown at top). So I’ve come full circle with the Koi kit – but in a redesigned form.

 

Finding the ideal solution gives me goose bumps!

Edited 8/31/13: The evolution continues! Take a look at the Van Gogh mixing tray I'm using now.

Saved by Plum Blossoms

3/11/13 Platinum Sepia and Carbon inks, watercolor, gouache, Zig marker, S & B Epsilon sketchbook

My plan was to take another crack at sketching the steeple that I had failed at so miserably a few weeks ago, so I pulled into the Calvary Christian Assembly’s parking lot at Northeast 68^th and Roosevelt Way Northeast. As I drove around looking for a strategic parking space, I suddenly spotted a huge plum tree just beginning to blossom. Even with the ugly van parked in front of it and an equally unattractive utility pole next to it, the tree was a magnificent harbinger of spring.

 

Two reasons to rejoice: its cheerful pink color against the drab overcast sky and its presence that distracted me from an annoying perspective study.

Volunteer Park Kodak Moment

3/11/13 Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Guri ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook

Among Volunteer Park’s many treasures (which include the Conservatory, the historic water tower and the Seattle Asian Art Museum) is a quintessential Seattle viewpoint: the Space Needle framed by the Isamu Noguchi sculpture Black Sun.

 

During the 30 minutes or so that I took to sketch the view of the Needle, which was dwarfed by the park’s many types of trees at the edge of the reservoir, at least four parties of tourists came by for a Kodak moment. Typically one person in a party would pose in the donut hole of the Noguchi sculpture while a companion snapped the photo (surely destined for Facebook). Another popular pose is holding one’s hand up, as if supporting the Needle. What amused me was how quickly these tourists snapped their photos and then left, all within the course of a minute or less, hardly even viewing the view.

I guess that’s why it’s called a Kodak moment.

Pioneer Square, International District and the Wrong Station



3/8/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Stillman & Birn

Our sketching destination this morning was King Street Station, which has been undergoing renovation for years, but we didn’t know that the main station interior we were hoping to sketch was recently closed (and should be spectacular when it reopens). Disappointed but not daunted, Kate, Lynne, Peggy, Nilda and I set out to explore other sketching possibilities in Pioneer Square and the International District. 

 

3/8/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn

An atrium at 401 Second Avenue South between two brick buildings proved to be an interesting perspective challenge. After lunch, the group split up, and Nilda and I stopped at a small courtyard at Fifth and Weller, where I sketched a ring-billed gull bathing in a water feature.

 

3/8/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

We ended up at Union Station. No longer an operating train station, it’s now a beautiful, wide open plaza with a scattering of chairs and tables and not much else. This is where we should have been sketching this morning! Of course, it proved an insurmountable architectural challenge for me, so I focused on one of the many ornate details.

 

3/8/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

 

My favorite sketch of the day was of a man playing a Chinese stringed instrument at the International District/Chinatown Station. After I finished the sketch, I asked him what the instrument is called, and he said something that sounded like “chi-na” (but I doubt that was correct). After asking him to repeat it, I still couldn’t catch what he was saying, so I handed him my sketchbook and asked him to write the name of it on the page. He seemed delighted with the sketch.

Alki Avenue Southwest

3/5/13 Platinum Carbon Black ink, watercolor, Zig marker, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

I was meeting a friend for lunch at Cactus on Alki Avenue Southwest in West Seattle, so I arrived a little early to sketch more bare trees.

 

Unlike cars, my previous sketching nemesis, trees and their intricate network of branches fascinate me, so my current self-inflicted sketching exercise doesn’t feel quite as onerous. In fact, I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying this challenge, as difficult as it is.

 

Unfortunately, my arboreal knowledge is even narrower than my automotive knowledge, so I can’t tell you what kind of trees these are. But if you look at yesterday’s sketch at Green Lake, you’ll have a sense of déjà vu.

(Nearly) Bare Nekkid Maples

3/4/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Zig marker, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

Sunshine!

 

The temperature was only 49, but rain is predicted again for tomorrow, so I took the top down and headed for Green Lake.

 

This stand of maples is one of my favorites there – bright green in summer, a blaze of orange and red in the autumn. I sketched them twice last year – once in October and then again in November – because they seemed to be dressed in their fall finery long past their usual deadline. The tallest tree in the center of this sketch was in denial even longer than I was; it held onto red leaves at its very top all the way into December. Today I was surprised to see that that same tree and a couple of others still had a few brown leaves. I like their attitude – going into winter kickin’ and screamin’. My hunch is that they’ll be the first to get their green on come spring.

As for me – I was chilled to the bone by the time I finished this sketch. It ain’t here yet.

Edmonds Fire Station Memorial

3/3/13 Platinum Sepia, watercolor, Zig markers, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

Seattle sketchers Kate Buike and Peggy Gloth were among the artists whose works are included in an exhibition of miniature paintings at Gallery North in Edmonds. I went to the artist’s reception this afternoon and saw lots of beautiful, tiny works of art.

 

Since I don’t get up to charming Edmonds as often as I’d like, and since the day turned out to be as sunny and pleasant as any we’ve had the past several months, I looked around for something to sketch. Driving slowly (it’s the kind of town where people don’t honk or give you the finger if you’re driving slower than the speed limit) up and down residential streets, I stumbled upon the Edmonds Fire Station.

 

In a tiny spot of green across from the station was a memorial called “Somewhere Every Day” in honor of Captain Bill Angel, who died in the line of duty at the age of 48, and other lost firefighters. The nearby sign said that it was the site of the future Edmonds 9/11 memorial.

 

My sketch makes the memorial look larger than the station behind it, but I was actually standing very close to the small memorial. Still, it seemed appropriate to sketch a memorial for firefighters lost in the line of duty as larger than life.