Flags at Sunset Hills

5/29/21 Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Bellevue

The cemetery where I pay my respects on Memorial Day weekend is undergoing construction at its main entrance. The display of flags at Sunset Hills Memorial Park’s secondary entrance wasn’t nearly as grand as usual, but it has become my personal tradition to sketch the flags every year, so I did it anyway. It’s always an interesting challenge to capture the motion of flags. It’s also a good opportunity to remember family members I’ve lost as well as people I never knew but who gave their lives for my benefit. This year I feel more fortunate and grateful than ever.

No Flags

 

5/22/24 Sunset Hills Memorial Park

Although my family members were not in military service, my personal tradition has always been to use Memorial Day as an opportunity to pay respects to those I’ve lost. Since I was already on the Eastside Wednesday to ride the light rail (and I avoid driving across the lake unnecessarily), I made a quick stop at Sunset Hills Memorial Park.

I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of sketching the display of flags along the main entryway, so I was disappointed to find that they hadn’t yet been put out for Memorial Day observances this weekend. The lawn maintenance staff, however, were busily mowing the grass and removing old flowers for all the expected visitors.

Flying Colors

5/28/18 Sunset Hills Memorial Park

My family’s tradition has always been to use Memorial Day weekend as a time to remember all of our lost loved ones as well as to express gratitude to those lost in service to our country. I did both yesterday at Sunset Hills Memorial Park, where several family members are interred.

The long, sloping driveway leading up to the cemetery was flanked by hundreds of flags. They’re beautiful to see; confounding to sketch. (I attempted this same composition a few years ago, and it was no easier this time than it was then.)

Flying Abstract Colors

 

5/27/23 Flags at Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Bellevue

We use Memorial Day weekend each year both to pay respects at family gravesites and to express gratitude to all who gave their lives in service to our country. Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Bellevue always puts out a glorious display of flags. They are among the most frustrating of subject matter to sketch – constantly moving, even in a slight breeze, their amorphous, fluid shapes a blur of red, white and blue. Usually I try to capture them fairly literally, but this time I took a more abstract, symbolic approach. After all, the flag itself is an abstract symbol of the freedom we take for granted most of the time and of the enormous price that has been paid for that freedom.

Process notes: Ever since I became enamored with the CYMK-based primary triad, I haven’t carried Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle Scarlet Red (070) and Dark Ultramarine (640), which had always been my standby “flag colors” (I’ve never been completely happy with Scarlet, but it’s the closest I could find in the Museum line). As I just got through saying, the flag is an abstract symbol, so it might have been interesting to see how the stars and stripes would have looked represented by magenta + yellow and cyan. But on my way out the door to the cemetery, I grabbed Scarlet and Dark Ultramarine anyway. Colors are also abstract symbols, but some are more important than others. Even if my marks expressing flags are less than literal, it seemed important to me that the colors be “right.”

But you know me. When I got home, I became curious: How would the flag look using my basic Museum CYM (Phthalocyanine Blue 162, Lemon Yellow 240, Purplish Red 350) hues? Shown at right are the CYM flying colors.

Stars and Stripes

5/26/19 Sunset Hills Memorial Park

According to my personal and family tradition, we use the opportunity of Memorial Day weekend to both pay our respects to family members who have passed away as well as honor those who have given their lives for our country.

Sunset Hills Memorial Park, where my parents and sister are interred, puts up a stunning river of flags for the weekend on the inclined drive into the cemetery. I have sketched this same view numerous times (as examples, here’s 2018, 2016 and 2014), and it never gets easier. Despite the formidable challenge of capturing the constantly changing shapes of all those flags, I keep making the attempt, thinking about my own loved ones and the loved ones of others who are gone.

I think I like the small Field Notes practice page (below) better than the larger composition.

Not Much Breeze

 

5/24/25 Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Bellevue

Every Memorial Day weekend, I visit family members’ grave sites at Sunset Hills Memorial Park. My personal tradition is to sketch the rows of dynamic flags – always a fun challenge. This time there wasn’t much wind, so the flags hung limply. It should have been easier somehow, but I still found the patterns of stripes difficult to capture.

If you’d like to see the various ways I’ve attempted this challenge over the years, check out the posts with this link.

Opportunities to be Grateful

5/30/16 inks, brush pen, colored pencils

When I was growing up, my family’s tradition was to use Memorial Day as an opportunity to remember not only those who died serving our country but also family members we’ve lost. I’ve continued that tradition each year on this weekend by visiting Sunset Hills Memorial Park, where my parents and sister are interred.

5/30/16 brush pen, white Gelly Roll pen

It’s been wet and blustery most of the holiday weekend (yesterday I had to stay in and paint the flowers I would bring to the cemetery), but today the sun came out. We happened to arrive just as the memorial service was beginning. Hundreds of flags (I sketched more of them a few years ago) waved against the achingly bright blue sky as each branch of the armed services was called out to be recognized. Later as I walked back to the car, I spotted a fountain, and I could still hear bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace” as I sketched it.

Knowing that “the mountain” would be out on this cloudless day, I walked up to Maple Leaf Park this afternoon (and met a plein air painter there who was painting – surprise! – the same thing). Just as I felt at the cemetery, sketching the view of Mt. Rainier made me grateful and joyful to be alive.

5/29/16 watercolor

5/30/16 watercolor

Giving Thanks

5/27/17 ink, water-soluble colored pencils

Although I don’t have family members who died in the service, I always use Memorial Day weekend as an opportunity to remember all my loved ones now gone. We visited some of them at Sunset Hills Memorial Park, where hundreds of small flags were in place, and I said a quiet thanks to those who have given so much.

A Weekend of Remembrance



5/27/12, Tombow, Akashiya Sai markers, Hand Book sketchbook

I do not have family members who were in the service, but my family uses Memorial Day weekend as an opportunity to remember everyone we have lost, including those who have served our country. This was sketched at Sunset Hills Memorial Park, where my parents and sister are interred, as well as other relatives.

A River of Flags

5/24/14 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Zig markers,
Canson XL 140 lb. paper

This sketch, made today at Sunset Hills Memorial Park, is in remembrance and honor of everyone we have lost.

Sunset Hills Memorial Park

No sun, no shadows, not much breeze. No sound except the silence of thousands of flags.

 



5/25/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook