Damp Fun on the Lynnwood Light Rail

9/25/24 First ride on the Lynnwood Link Extension

With all the new light rail stations opening this year, I’m having a hard time keeping up, but I’m trying my darndest! The latest to open are the four stations north of Northgate that comprise the Lynnwood Link Extension.

Undeterred by the rainy forecast, Roy, Mary Jean and I met up in the Roosevelt neighborhood for an early lunch, then caught the train northward. Hopping off at each new station, we looked around to see what each offered (ultimately, not much in terms of amenities) and sketched. We continued all the way to Lynnwood City Center, the current northernmost station on the 1 Line.

The first couple of stations were just drizzly, but later we had full-on rain with some strong wind gusts. Fortunately, the stations offered enough shelter that our sketches stayed (mostly) dry. By the time we got to the final station, we were all ready for a coffee warm-up, but sadly, no such venue was within a 15-minute walking distance. When we asked, a security officer mentioned a “coffee stand” a few minutes away – but with no sheltered seating.

9/25/24 At upper left was a strange structure visible from the South Shoreline Station platform . . . art? 

While restrooms are available at all Lynnwood Extension stations (unusual for the light rail system; in Seattle, almost none of the stations have one), they are locked. To gain access, you push a button to call an off-site attendant, who enables access remotely. The hummingbird art at far right was hastily sketched at the last station, when we all wished we could go somewhere for coffee.

Ruefully laughing that we would need to return to “civilization” for coffee, we got back on the train southward and ended up where we began – in the Roosevelt neighborhood – for coffee and treats at Caffe Ladro.

No matter the weather or lack of amenities, nothing is more fun than a new sketching adventure with good friends!

Intrepid sketchers!

Straight to Red

9/24/24 Green Lake neighborhood

Since I always have trees on my mind during the fall color season, I thought it would be fun to combine that theme with my ongoing street trees project. Conveniently, Taha Ebrahimi’s book, Street Trees of Seattle, has a good index, so I looked up some types of trees I knew to have good fall color. I thought it might be too early for most maples except Japanese, but a bigleaf was just on the south end of Green Lake – an easy drive to see how it was doing.

As I suspected, its color was disappointing. However, just a block or so away, I found a different type of maple. I don’t know its variety, but I’m familiar with the way that it skips yellow and orange and goes straight to red with a silvery underside to the leaves. Right next to it was another tree that was going from lime to lemon.

Crepe myrtle

Meanwhile, a bunch of crepe myrtle shrubs growing nearby were stealing the color show with their brilliant magenta flowers and berries. When most flowers are long past, they are just getting started. I noted their location so I can go back soon to sketch them, too. I love this time of year!

Wedgwood and Greenwood Street Trees

 

9/2/24 Wedgwood neighborhood (I've enjoyed sketching a variety of oaks in Wedgwood. I always had a certain shape of leaf in mind when I thought of "oak trees," but I've discovered that the shapes can vary widely.)

My street trees project is winding down for the season (until the weather forces me to sketch from my car, which I’m not sure will always be possible with street trees, but I’ll try). Here are a few more from the Wedgwood and Greenwood neighborhoods.

9/10/24 Wedgwood neighborhood

9/13/24 Greenwood neighborhood

My Walking Sketch Journal

8/15/24 Maple Leaf

My walk-sketch fitness program has become such an integral part of my life (for five years now) that it comes almost naturally. The cold/wet weather days ahead, though, are always a challenge. An additional motivator since I began trying to get back into a sketch journal habit is that whatever I sketch on my walks becomes an easy journal entry for the day. I usually add a written observation (or sometimes thoughts I don’t share that are easy to crop out somewhere on the page), and it’s done. That’s so much easier than sitting down with my sketchbook at the end of the day, trying to think of something to sketch retroactively.

8/24/24 Maple Leaf

Once the rain sets in, I have to think of new ways to maintain the habit. There’s always the waterproof Field Notes Expedition and my rainy-day sketch kit. But another thing I might try is to continue thinking as I always do when I walk/sketch during good weather, looking for things that catch my eye, but instead of sketching on the spot, I’ll snap a photo to sketch from later. Knowing I have that photo to work from would make that end-of-day sketch journaling so much easier. (I know that’s probably a no-brainer work-around for most people, but my auto-mode is so strongly tuned to urban sketching that I have to constantly remind myself that using photo references is another option.)

These walk-sketches from August and September were all done on location.

9/4/24 Ravenna and Green Lake

9/5/24 Maple Leaf

9/12/24 Maple Leaf

9/21/24 Maple Leaf (This was only my second sketch with my new fall palette, but I already didn't like the green I chose for the sunny side of trees... it's too cool. I've switched back to my favorite warm green Caran d'Ache for the next one.)

9/22/24 Maple Leaf

Urban Cookies

Sketches digitally printed with edible ink onto cookies made by Joan Matsukawa.

My sketches have appeared on a T-shirt, on a poster, and in a cookbook. I’m always flattered and honored to see my work published in any form, but with my pastry tooth, you can imagine how thrilled I was to have my sketches reproduced on cookies.

Joan Matsukawa contacted me recently after she had spotted my sketches of Obon dancers and taiko drummers that I had made at Seattle Betsuin’s Obon festival several years back. She asked permission to digitally print them onto cookies she would bake to sell at Aloha Stadium’s Megabon event in Honolulu. Happy to support any Obon celebration, of course I said yes! After the event, she sent these to me all the way from Honolulu. Thank you, Joan!

I'm not sure I've ever turned down a cookie, but alas, I can't have my cookie and eat it, too!

Hendrix Park on a Lovely Fall Day

 

9/21/24 Jimi Hendrix Park

The first time USk Seattle met at Jimi Hendrix Park, it was brand new in 2017. We hadn’t been back since. My memory hazy of everything except what I’d sketched previously, it all seemed fresh last Saturday. For my first sketch (at the top of the first panel above), I chose the part of the curving sculpture where Jimi’s silhouette is cut out. I walked back and forth and sideways until I found the perfect spot to frame downtown Seattle through the hole.

Making a loop around the park, I was surprised to discover Judkins Park Light Rail Station still under construction. Although I know that more northend stations are scheduled for the future, I didn’t know about this southend station, which is opening next year.

To fill the page spread, I made two small sketches showing a distant view of the same curving sculpture honoring Jimi (and Mark and David in the foreground) and the abstract vermilion-colored sculpture prominently featured in the park. I never learned its name the first time I sketched it in 2017, and I still couldn’t find its name this time, either.

The partly cloudy morning gave way to full sun by noon, and it was the kind of fall afternoon that I always hope for in September (but often don’t get).

All morning I had pondered which kind of poke I would get for lunch at Seattle Fish Guys, which is only a few minutes away from the park. It’s a good thing I fortified myself there for the grueling drive home, which took nearly an hour (compared to the drive down to the park in the morning, which took only 15 minutes). Fortunately, I had the top down (and it was the Miata’s 28^th birthday that day, to boot), which makes even a bad commute a bit more bearable.

9/21/24 Seattle Fish Guys

Seward Park Poplars

 

8/18/24 Seward Park

After an errand nearby last week, I made a quick stop at Seward Park on the south end of Lake Washington. I thought it might be too early for color, and I didn’t see much. I love this stand of poplars, though, on the lakeshore. I remembered well the last time I had sketched them years ago, also in September. It was during Kathleen Moore’s nature drawing class.

Back in 2018, I had taken most of the whole class to draw with leisurely graphite. Last Wednesday I was short on time, so I took only a few minutes, but the rhythm of these trees still makes a naturally pleasing composition.