46th Annual Quarterly Worldwide Sketch Crawl

I met up with Seattle Urban Sketchers for the 46th Quarterly Worldwide Sketch Crawl at the Frye Art Museum today.

The experience was a case of overlapping senses and time lines. It was multidimensional. 

Stillman and Birn Beta, graphite, Lamy pen, water soluble black ink and watercolor pencils.

I arrived early enough to sketch the domed tower from my car outside in the free parking lot. As far as I know, the dome is the only addition (1997) to the architecture of the building since the collection opened in 1952. At the same time, a cafe and reflecting pools were added on the north and west side of the building. Various interior remodeling projects have ensued. 

Haunting tones of the human voice echoed out into the entry way from Jessika Kenney's installation, "Anchor Zero". It's the last day of this show. I stood in the cube-like bamboo structure, called "Breathing Room" and read this poem:

I hadn't thought of breath as line before.

I wandered through rooms occupied by wall-sized videos of a figure walking through dreamlike forests, all in gray scale tones of black and white. The tonal scales of voice rose and fell, following me through to a side room of the next exhibit.

It was opening day of "Future Ruins" by Rodrigo Valenzuela. A "construction/destruction zone" of scaffolds and gritty papered floors is the environment, vague images of building shapes and bridges on the background walls. Large scale black and white images of "future ruins" hang from the scaffolds, dimly lit by spotlights. (See the artist's statement here.)

Already suffering from mid-winter grays, I found the color break I was craving in the gift shop. Giorgio Morandi himself (1890-1964) could have placed this collection of pots on one of the upper shelves. It warmed my cold winter palette and made me smile.

I felt present, past and future swirling around me at the museum today.

Pipefish, snake pricklebacks and eelgrass

A Snake Pipefish peeks around the eelgrass. 

I was drawn to the elegance of the Giant White Plumed Anemone, of course. And the flamboyant purple sea star and the delicate pink flowerlike sea urchin. They are all so dramatically beautiful. However, one of the most memorable moments of my visit to the aquariums inside the Breazeale Interpretive Center at Padilla Bay was when I discovered the elongated head of a seahorse on what looked like a strand of eelgrass. I learned that the pipefish isn't a type of seahorse but rather a sub family of small fish. They do belong to the same family though and the males carry their young much the same as seahorses do.  Can you see mine emerging at the left center of eelgrass, with his snout highlighted against the white anemone?

An enchanting little prickleback did his army crawl with his fins to investigate my mini palette.
I was with the Anacortes Sketchers on a sunny, 68 degree midwinter's day at Padilla Bay. 

Color Blooms in the Aquarium

Elegant beauty flowers in the aquariums at Padilla Bay

Ready for something colorful during the winter palette of blue and grey? These are but a few of my photos from my meeting with the Anacortes Sketchers today.

It seems a bit too cheerful (on a sunny, 68 degree day in the Pacific NW) when the east coast is bracing for a blizzard today. But maybe we all could use a splash of color while we wait for spring. 

I usually post my sketches of the day, but I will post them on Wednesday. You just can't compete with nature! Thanks to the Breazeale Interpretive Center for hosting us today at Bay View. 

Value vs Color

Think in black and white to succeed in color. 

For quite a while now, I have posted a feature on Sundays as a prompt for casual painters. It is intended to encourage and inspire. Sometimes that's all it takes to get you going, get you over to the kitchen table with your collection of art supplies. If you have been checking back on Sundays and thought that I forgot all about you, please be assured that I have not. I trust you came along on vacation with me to Hawaii for a few weeks. :) Aloha!

Ready to dig into your creative projects again? Here's something to consider:

"Value does all the work and Color gets all the credit"---That's a saying with which we artists are familiar. The two paintings on the easel here are shown in grayscale to illustrate that point. Scroll down to my two previous posts to see them in color.

If you have some previous projects of your own, try taking black and white photos of them. The ones that seemed most successful in color are likely to be the ones that read well in black and white.

Skagit Valley fallow fields

For me, painting is more than a way of seeing. It gives me an opportunity to use all my senses and to explore more than just a single aspect of a scene.

"Skagit Valley Fallow Fields" class demonstration by Michele Cooper

Previously I posted a watercolor depicting the serenity of winter in the Skagit Valley, featuring the quiet season in the farmland. But this painting gets us into the earthy part of the landscape; the mud, the weeds, the texture.

Both paintings came from the same time and place.

Skagit Farmland

Recently, our grandson and his new wife visited us from California. They came to pick me up at the airport in Bellingham as I returned home from Hawaii.

We wanted to show them the particular landscape of the Skagit Valley, so different from their home terrain. I posted a photo collage from the experience here. You might recognize the barn and tree as well as the lavender foothills.

"Skagit Farmland" by Michele Cooper

A clear view of the mountains

A few peaks viewed down the road from my PNW studio

It was a beautifully clear day with a view of the Cascade Mountain peaks near where I live. I sat in the car and sketched this today.
They don't call this the Evergreen State for nothing! What other temperate zone landscape has emerald foothills and green grass in the yard at the end of January?

Sunday's Twelve Hour Cold Remedy

Last Sunday, we started out at the beach in Lanikai and ended up eating ice cream in Haleiwa. Monday I realized that I had caught a nasty cold from my little granddaughter. They say that a cold lasts about a week without treatment, with treatment about 7 days. I wasn't so sure about that at 3:30 this morning.

With the national flu map lit up in red from coast to coast, I called the nurse line at our doctor's office on Friday to see if my symptoms warranted going in to the clinic. I was assured that I didn't have the flu, but a bad cold with congestion and got some good advice on how to alleviate my symptoms. The results are good, but not enough to allow me to go out sketching with the USk Seattle group today. :(

12 hours at the end of a nasty cold.

So I sketched what I saw on the kitchen countertop from my vantage point on the couch in the family room. This helped distract me from the depressing first three quarters of the Seahawks game. By the final score at around 3:30 pm I was feeling a whole lot better! The home team won in overtime and they're going to the Super Bowl for the second year in a row!

I just had to celebrate with a giant cupcake decorated with the team colors and "twelfth man" frosted numbers. Suddenly I realized that my color scheme had subliminaly evolved into the team colors, too!

Vast improvement on many fronts in just twelve hours. What a great way to "cure" the common cold!

Near Edison

 

Near Edison

I took a red eye fly from Honolulu to Bellingham and arrived at 8:00 am. Just in time to spend the day with my husband and our grandson from California and his new wife. After a cozy, yummy breakfast at Skylark's in Fairhaven, we toured Chuckanut Drive to show them the winter landscape and our beautiful coastal views and villages.

Sandy Beach Gouache

A rare gouache painting en plein air by Michele Cooper

I always tell myself that this will simply be a sketch, no big deal. I know one thing, I will learn something.  So every attempt on location will be successful in some way. I liked the result of my on location gouache at Sandy Beach. In this case, I would call it a plein air painting, not a sketch. 

Before there were children to watch, my daughter-in-law and I would take a deluxe collection of plein air equipment, including lunch, and spend hours painting on location. You pull into parking right off Kalanianaole Highway, there's sometimes an ice cream or food truck, and facilities with a water fountain. This is Sandy Beach, off the southeastern shore of Oahu, sometimes called Obama's beach. If the swells are up you can see the blow hole from there. 

Set up to spend the day at Sandy Beach

Kawai Nui Marsh

Just before sunset

This is a beautiful natural marsh--the largest on Oahu at 800 acres.  As such, it is a protected Wildife Sanctuary, and that fact by itself deserves respect when visiting this site. There is a nice, somewhat lengthy, flat trail on the floodwater control levy. This levy, however, has no shade, so plan for an early morning walk, and bring water. There is no wheelchair access, no store or food access, no bathrooms, very limited parking. The marsh is a cultural and scientific historic treasure, and was considered a major sacred site by Hawaiians for centuries as a giver of Life--Was able to sustain thousands with fish, kalo-[taro]- and fowl during Hawaii's chiefdoms and later, monarchy period. WW11 marked an era of rapid change for the face of the windward area of Oahu, with the introduction of marine corp base Hawaii, and a change in economy. The marsh fell into disrepair, but in the last 20 years has seen several improvement programs that are helping return this natural area back to its healthy, productive state--fish, fowl and wildlife populations are slowly increasing in healthy numbers.-quote from tripadvisor

It took only a five minute drive down Oneawa and through a neighborhood to find this natural sanctuary. I saw people fishing, cycling, running and taking photos. There were quite a few bird varieties, including waterfowl. The moment the sun passed over the crest of the Koolau Mountains the still, glassy surface of the water became densely pocked with mosquiotos. 

Around the World Blog Hop-Three Creative People You Won't Want to Miss

Sailing our own seas-watercolor by Michele Cooper

It's already tomorrow in Australia, so I'm posting this verrrry early this morning. It's going to be such a pleasure for you when you hop on over to the blog posts of these three creative people:

Juliette Plisson, of http://julietteplisson.blogspot.com/,  is a correspondent for USk France. She lives in Paris, France and spends her vacations on an island called Noirmoutier. Juliette and I met on Instagram while we were both trying to keep up with friends who were attending the 5th International Urban Sketching Symposium in Paraty, Brazil, this past summer. We exchanged a few conversations online and have been viewing each other's blogs, Flickr feeds and IG accounts ever since. I am sure you will agree that Juliette has produced some beautiful sketches (see her Instagram here) with expressive line, beautiful watercolor and just the right amount of white space.

MMFXRofe, who describes himself as  Shabby wanderer, stumbling thinker... Founder of the #postcardartgroup. His recent watercolor studies of Britain's dusk, dawn and evening skies remind me of the musical compositions of Claude Debussy, Clair de Lune being particularly apropos. See them here on his Instagram.

MMFXRofe is in the process of making a new website and blog. I will update this post with a link as soon as it is launched. If for any reason his blog isn't ready yet, I will host a guest spot for him here on my blog on Monday, Jan. 12.

Update: The new blog is up!

http://mmfxrofe.blogspot.com

Suzi Poland of Vignettes de la Vie. Suzi is one of the most accomplished persons I have ever come to know. Again, we recently met on Suzi's Instagram, through her #coffeeosophy tag. Unknowingly, I plunked a sketch of a cow spotted coffee stand right in the middle of her beautiful black and white cappuccino sketches. I apologized for my error, was forgiven, and gained a new, gracious friend. If she ever comes to the Pacific NW, we are going to go out and sketch that coffee stand together. Swim on over to Suzi's blog for a peek and then make sure to see how she will answer the four questions on Jan 12. I say swim, because it's summer where Suzi is in Australia right now and she's got a few great swimming spots to share with you.

I was invited by Tina Koyama, a lovely and talented sketcher and writer. In turn, I invited the three listed above. See my hop stop in this global series if you haven't already, then follow back to Tina's and Joan's. 

A Day Late and a Latte' Short

Possibly you've heard the old saying, "A day late and a dollar short". I'd like to amend that to "A day late and a latte' short." It expressos my recent experience here in Kailua. (Ha! Pun intended!)

My fellow sketchers back in Seattle met at the new Starbucks Roastery on Capitol Hill yesterday for their usual Friday meet up. Sadly, I missed it, since I am "stuck" here in paradise for just a bit longer. :) In a show of solidarity, I decided that I would also sketch at a coffee roastery. I knew just the place right here in Kaiua! Morning Brew Coffee House and Bistro, or simply "the Brew" as locals call it, is 5 minutes from where I'm staying....3 minutes if you don't worry about make-up and your shoes are flip-flops. 

My morning at "Morning Brew" Coffee House and Bistro, Kailua

So I really was going to go on Friday morning, but the "fam" wanted pancakes and I do make the yummiest, fluffiest ones ever! We also slept in. Then laziness and island time took over and before  you know it, it was pizza night already! I'm a day late with my coffee roaster sketch. Sigh! It's just so busy here on vacation!

Anyway, here's my Saturday sketch of the Morning Brew roaster for their in-house coffee. There's a small curved rail in front of it and a sign asking you not to touch. It's nowhere near as elaborate as the one in Seattle, but quite a piece of machinery nonetheless.  I understand that their coffee blender uses locally sourced artisan coffee and that the beans are roasted on sight in this very same equipment.

Local artists are wholeheartedly supported at the Brew. They have live music from 6-7 p.m. on Fridays and hang the work of local artists on the walls. Currently, the work of Mark N. Brown is still up from his December show. I have painted on location with Mark before and hope you get to see his large plein air pieces before they come down. The shop also sells logo merchandise like shot glasses, T-shirts, mugs, etc. I love the tasteful designs they come up with each year and the Hawaiian style hieroglyph of the sun for their logo. 

The "latte' short" in my title for today refers to the fact that there is no such thing as a small cup at the Brew. That is, unless you want to count the shot glasses. Espressos start out as a double shot. Sizes start at 12 oz. then 16 oz. for medium and 20 oz. for large! Huge! And it's great tasting coffee, too!

Note: For technical reasons I only added color to a few of the brass fittings and tubes. Anything left white on the roaster is really brass.

Wind at Kailua Bay

Kailua Beach is consistently rated as one of the 10 best beaches in the world. If you have ever visited or better yet, live there, you know why.

Today was quite windy, with a bit of chop in the waves. More than the usual number of those using kites and surfboards were out on the beach; newbies and tourists were giving it their all while experienced surfers took the conservative approach. I spent a nice hour in the shade sitting on a log, watching the people come and go, as they alternate with the waves. There is just something so calming, listening to the sound of the surf, regular and as constant as breathing.

"He's gonna make it, he's gonna make it......Nah, he's going down!"

As usual, I make sure that movable objects are sketched in first, such as featured objects and figures. Not quite finished here, but already the ocean has changed color, the wind surfer has come in for a break and a whole new group populates the beach.

He' Eia Kea Pier Fishing Dock

View from the indoor lunch counter at the General Store on the dock.

The four Cooper girls went on a fishing expedition yesterday. Well, we went to He' Eia Kea Pier fishing dock looking to find something to sketch.

At the general store, we had Kuahiwi Ranch hamburgers, meatloaf style patties cooked like you would at home with toasted bread instead of buns. My granddaughter, Leila, wanted fish and chips. Bryan, the cook of the day, said he would make some for her even though it wasn't on the menu.....and piled on the fries, too.

We watched tour groups come in and go out on huge double catamarans while we ate outdoors on picnic tables under the shade of the patio roof. A grandfather and his two grandchildren took a table, too, parking their child size fishnets and bucket. He said they never catch anything, but it's fun for the children to try fishing anyway and gives them a day out together.

I would come sketching here multiple times of the year if I lived on Oahu. There are so many views from which to choose; mountains, shorelines with volcanic cliffs, a marina busy with all types and sizes of serious fishing boats, tropical forests across the bay dotted with homes and hotels, people fishing off the dock, kayakers launching from the beach, and the lunch trade, too.

My 5-year old granddaughter and I sat inside (remember this for rainy days) and shared the lunch counter with a massive pair of binoculars, a half full ketchup squirter and a cork board with two photos of proud anglers. One picture was of a fellow who had a crab the size of a truck hubcap and the other some sort of giant eel-like thing which displayed two prominently sharp teeth.

Note: You may have seen the store and kitchen on Guy Fieri's show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network.

Around the World Blog Hop: Michele Cooper, Artist

So, last week the lovely and talented Tina Koyama, of Fueled by Clouds and Coffee, invited me to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop. My thrill gene activated! I was curiously alarmed and intrigued, so I said yes. Go peek here to see Tina's blog hop stop. She managed to make a sketch every single day of 2014 and writes wonderfully informative articles about her thoroughly tested pens, inks and sketching kits! Enjoy more of Tina's on-the-spot sketches and blog posts on the Seattle Urban Sketchers site. You can track back to Joan Tavolott (she invited Tina) and so on and so on.  The blog hop is quite simple: answer a few questions and invite up to three more people to join in. Each publishes on their blog the following Monday after being nominated.

Well, if you look back at the other posts, they're all quite lovely and journalistic.  Unfortunately, my blog is primarily focused on the visual aspect (with occasional flashes of eloquence) so I'm just going to answer the questions and invite three more bloggers (who will surely do a much more poetic job than I have!)

1.  What am I working on? I have several things going simultaneously at the moment:

a. Sketching as often as possible with the urban sketchers at home and in my travels. This has proved a wonderful way of meeting local artists and keeping up with my regular sketch journals.

b. I have a panoramic format sketchbook that I want to fill. It's already halfway full.

I sketched in the car at the Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes, WA.

c. Planning lessons for the winter quarter of my watercolor classes. I teach watercolor in several locations around the greater Seattle area. 

2.  How does my work differ from others' of its genre?

Tea Party at Gasworks Park

Every artist's work is as unique and individual as the artist.

I'm sure there are certain facts about things that everyone sees pretty much the same way, like the freeway commute to work, a cup of tea or the dairy section at the grocery store. But I have seen truly unique paintings of these mundane subjects simply because they are viewed uniquely by the artist. I particularly enjoy it when ordinary things appear to me in an extraordinary way.

Sometimes the day takes a whimsical turn. I met with the Friday Group of Seattle Urban Sketchers at Gasworks Park on a drizzly August morning. What I expected was a selection of great industrial looking shapes from which to choose. I didn't expect that one of those shapes would remind me of a teapot and another of the stacked platters of cakes and sandwiches at a tea party. Once the "creative train" crested the hill, the rest of the day's sketches followed in a fantastical way.

3.  Why do I write/create what I do?

I create my sketches as a way of seeing. We move our eyes along the landscape from right to left to right and back again. That's why I feel the panoramic format is so appropriate for landscapes and marine subjects. 

If a sketch is a phrase, then perhaps the painting is a sonata. So the painting will be more carefully composed, but relies on the information gathered quickly in the sketch.

This sketch developed into more of my "completed watercolor" style as I lingered to savor the experience. 

I share my knowledge and experience with my readers and my students because I believe that it's such a fulfilling thing to be creative. I want everyone to know what that is like. I know my students have something to say with their work and all they need is a little bit of courage and the tools to make it happen. I think I can help with that.

4.  How does my writing/creative process work?

I started blogging as a means of sharing my paintings in a more spontaneous way than I was getting with the somewhat static, business card style of my website. In the beginning, I posted small images and very little text. First the visual, then the verbal. That's because, to me, seeing and painting/drawing/sketching is a language in and of itself. And for me, that is my first language, my heart language.

When I am out on a "sketch hunt" I try to keep an open mind about subject matter. Sooner or later the atmosphere or an arresting pattern of shadows or unusual contrasting shapes and colors will "speak" to me. Sometimes the connection is immediate. Other times, it may take two or three or more successive visits to a location, but eventually the subject evolves as I deepen my experience. Out comes my sketchbook and I try to get the important part of the message down before it all changes. I often start with ink line (Micron pen) followed by watercolor washes.

The weather was changing moment by moment, so I quickly sketched the unique shapes of foreground, middle ground, background very simply. I relied on my brush to add contrasting values, colors and shapes. From a recent trip to Hawaii.

Every little minute detail is not essential. I want just enough description to get the point across with room for the viewer to add their visual contribution to the conversation. As the viewer, your memories and experiences activate as you view my work and it becomes partly yours, too. 

I visited Jennings Park in my town for three days in a row to make this 15" wide by 7" tall spread. It includes a sketch of my own DYI palette of 6 colors which I made in an Altoids Mini tin. I made the accordion fold sketchbook, too.

I do love the written and spoken word. If it enhances the sketch, I will write my thoughts, impressions or facts about the subject right there on the sketchbook page. I often write haiku in my other sketchbook next to thumbnail sketches to eliminate unnecessary details and get at the essential core of my subject. Sometimes I read poetry or particularly fine literature to inform and develop the concept of my painting. After all, reading is a visual experience, too.

I wish that I could be as eloquent as Robert Henri, author of  "The Art Spirit" and one of my favorite authors for encouragement and inspiration. When I thought about inviting three people to join me in this blog hop, I knew whom I would choose. They live continents away, but we met this past year by admiring each others' art on Instagram. Our acquaintance reminds me of a quote from Henri, "Through art mysterious bonds of understanding and of knowledge are established among men. They are the bonds of a great Brotherhood. Those who are of the Brotherhood know each other, and time and space cannot separate them."

The next part of the hop:

In the spirit of our global (and I mean global) blog hop, please hop on over (to France, Britain and Australia) on Monday, January 12, 2015 to visit my three new friends:

Juliette Plisson, of http://julietteplisson.blogspot.com/,  is a correspondent for USk France. She lives in Paris, France and spends her vacations on an island called Noirmoutier. Juliette and I met on Instagram while we were both trying to keep up with friends who were attending the 5th International Urban Sketching Symposium in Paraty, Brazil, this past summer. We exchanged a few conversations online and have been viewing each other's blogs, Flickr feeds and IG accounts ever since. I am sure you will agree that Juliette has produced some beautiful sketches (see her Instagram here) with expressive line, beautiful watercolor and just the right amount of white space.

MMFXRofe, who describes himself as  Shabby wanderer, stumbling thinker... Founder of the #postcardartgroup. His recent watercolor studies of Britain's dusk, dawn and evening skies remind me of the musical compositions of Claude Debussy, Clair de Lune being particularly apropos. See them here on his Instagram.

MMFXRofe is in the process of making a new website and blog. I will update this post with a link as soon as it is launched. If for any reason his blog isn't ready yet, I will host a guest spot for him here on my blog on Monday, Jan. 12. Update: The new blog is up! http://mmfxrofe.blogspot.com

Suzi Poland of Vignettes de la Vie. Suzi is one of the most accomplished persons I have ever come to know. Again, we recently met on Suzi's Instagram, through her #coffeeosophy tag. Unknowingly, I plunked a sketch of a cow spotted coffee stand right in the middle of her beautiful black and white cappuccino sketches. I apologized for my error, was forgiven, and gained a new, gracious friend. If she ever comes to the Pacific NW, we are going to go out and sketch that coffee stand together. Swim on over to Suzi's blog for a peek and then make sure to see how she will answer the four questions on Jan 12. I say swim, because it's summer where Suzi is in Australia right now and she's got a few great swimming spots to share with you.

I eagerly await hearing more about all their creative processes next Monday!

You can certainly peek ahead and enjoy what they already have on Instagram, Flickr and their blogs. 

Into the New Year

I've already posted the other sketches I did in the late evening on New Year's Eve. These two pages are the daytime transition from 2014-2015. 

After being up all night with fireworks, everyone in our household slept in, stayed in pajamas all morning, lazed around and spent the afternoon of the first at a movie.