The Occidental Tourist

The Seattle Urban sketchers Ad Hoc meetup took place at Occidental Park this morning. If you've ever been to the Pioneer Square district in Seattle, you may have discovered this tree lined square on the back side (east) of the historic Pioneer Building. 

I found myself smiling throughout the morning, affected by the upbeat atmosphere created by the combination of fantastic summer weather, Jambalaya Brass Rock music played by Tubaluba (one of the free lunchtime concert bands), and the mix of people in the square.

I imagined how a tourist might experience this place:

One might look up through the trees and see the top of the Smith Tower, once the tallest building on the West coast.

The top of the Smith Tower from Occidental Park-7/17/15

The shop front of Arundel Books is a reminder that Seattle is "the most well read city in the U.S." according to Amazon. I finished my sketch just as they opened the shop.

Arundel Books opened for business as I finished my sketch.

With only  twenty minutes left before sharing our sketches, I hurried into position to speed sketch the tuba player. Nearby, a couple "of a certain age" got up and broke into "buck jumpin", a New Orleans style of dance with bouncy, intricate footwork. They were smiling, too.

Rough Sketch, Tuba Player

The word play in my title ironically alludes to the novel "Accidental Tourist" by Anne Tyler. It's about Macon Leary, a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary.  But you would know that as one of those "well read" Seattleites.

More late posts from EDiM-Day 23 and 24

Here are the sketches I'm posting late for EDiM, Days 23 and 24.
DAY 23--An interesting section of a building

Just a very small portion of the old barn on HWY 20

I drive by this place almost every week, whether on my way to meet the Anacortes sketchers during the summer or on my way to teach a class during the rest of the year.

DAY 24--KEYS

When you think of the option of sketching keys, so many things come to mind. See a short list of my other ideas on keys on my May 24, 2015 blogpost......besides house keys or car keys. 

Catching up with EDIM - 28 and 29

I am using part of my summer vacation to catch up on some projects that got set aside during the last month of teaching weekly classes this spring. So, although I sketched this today, I am belatedly posting the sketch for Day 28, May.

Is July 15 too late for EDM? Day 28-Yard Ornament or Statuary

And here's another one that finally got scanned after finishing the color.

EDIM 29 - A Faucet

I have drafts of all the EDIM daily sketches that I missed. Check the back posts in May for more of the story as I post them.

Tea-dious

Since I missed out on sketching with the Anacortes sketchers today, I thought I would finish up a sketch from a previous meet up with them. It's one of my longest procrastinations ever! May 18, to be exact!

The occasion was one of my favorites: we met at Aleli's house for sketching and a fabulous tea party. She made lovely tea sandwiches, with the crusts trimmed and everything. We had flower tea, wine, all sorts of treats, and then she said we could take home the cup that we sketched.

Which one would you have chosen?

While sipping, munching and listening to half a dozen conversations, I had been languishing with my pen, sketching the cover of a book about tea by Mary Engelbreit (of "Life is Just a Chair of Bowlies" fame). I dropped THAT project like a hot scone when I realized I didn't even have a sketch of my favorite teacup! I quickly got enough of a sketch done to qualify for the prize of taking my cup home. Whew! But I barely had any color on sketches of anything else except for the sandwiches and three grapes.

I finally finished the color on this one today!

So that's where the "tea-dious" bit comes in. Mary E., I love your work and respect your talent, but all those tiny details, dits, dots, cups, flowers and bees everywhere! That cover for your book about tea must have taken ages! It certainly did for me! And I fudged a bit.....no need to worry about copyright infringement here!

PS Sorry I missed today, sketchers. As you see, I was with you in spirit!

Friday at Westlake Plaza

What fabulous weather and location for urban sketching! The Seattle USk Ad Hoc meetup on Friday couldn't have been more perfect! Seattle urban sketchers met an hour early (9:00 am) at Starbucks on the Westlake Plaza downtown. Since the timing puts me through a grinding commute from where I live 45 miles north of Seattle, I opted to leave at 9:00 and get there a bit late. Then I had to find parking, which isn't cheap! Then walk around the block in the wrong direction getting my bearings.

Sketched in graphite, my DYI Altoids mini watercolor palette and waterbrush (iPhone photo)

It was all worth it, though. I made the most of my day, sketching the Seattle Ducks ticket van quickly with graphite. It's a mini version of the larger WWII vehicles known as DUCWs. Every so often, a new tour leaves the plaza, blasting upbeat party music. Crazy "captains" take the current ticket holders on a very entertaining ride. The Seattle DUCKs take up to 36 people on a 90 minute amphibious tour of Seattle landmarks. (Explore the link for more info on these amazing vehicles.)

Here's a clearer scan with parking ticket collage and notes. Zoom for details or view on Flickr

I saved the option of adding color later because there was so much else to do! After sharing our sketches, some of us went across the street to the main plaza area, where a bandstand was set up for the free lunchtime concerts. I enjoyed my British style fish and chips from NOSH, one of the high end (and delicious) food trucks parked there. (Zagats rated, by the way)

The music was pretty loud, so Tina and I walked over to see the Northwest Watercolor Society Exhibit at the Washington State Convention Center. This year marks their 75th Diamond Anniversary Celebration. Although I did not enter the competition this year, I am proud to say that I am a signature member of NWWS.

Purgatory, CO-The higher I go, the dumber I get

One thing I know: You need oxygen to provide enough brainpower for sketching! The resort at Purgatory, CO, is billed as "halfway to heaven", with street names like "Sheol" and condominiums named "Brimstone". Until you get used to the altitude, the lack of oxygen wreaks havoc with the sketchbook.

I could see this from my seat at the oxygen bar.

Even after a hit at the Altitude O2 Oxygen Bar, in the main plaza of Purgatory Mountain Resort, CO  this is all I could come up with for an ink sketch at 10,000 ft. The higher the altitude, the dumber I get!

Color added with my Van Gogh watercolor travel palette and waterbrush.

Purgatory Mountain Resort Zipline

Called "The Purgatory Plunge", your zipline ride starts at the tallest tower in the resort, just off the main plaza. Even though it's a relatively short ride, you can reach up to 35 mph because of the drop. Unlike a few of my family members, I'm not afraid of heights. If it wasn't for caution about the altitude, I would have loved to do this!

The kids enjoyed the elevated obstacle course.

Elevations we reached when visiting:

• Farmington, New Mexico:  5,395 ft./ 1,644 meters 1,791 meters
• Aztec Ruins, New Mexico: 5,877 ft./ 1,791 meters
• City of Durango: 6,512 ft./ 2000 meters
• Silverton: 9,318 ft./2,800 meters

• Purgatory Ski Area  (Durango Mountain Resort):

• Base Elevation: 8,793 ft./ 2,680 m
  Summit Elevation: 10,822 ft./ 3,298.5 meters

(I'm still catching up on scans of my sketches from this family trip in June)

Sea Breezes, Flowers, fresh Penn Cove Mussels and Sketching Coupeville with ASk

Aqua Gifts on Front Street, one of my favorite gift shops.

These are the individual closeups of my sketches after a full day on Front Street in Coupeville on Whidbey Island with the Anacortes Sketchers.To see how these closeups look in the full spread of my sketchbook, please visit Anacortes Sketchers blog here.

Empty wine bottle and mussel shells from dinner tonight.

Almost every shop has flowers out front

I can remain standing on the sidewalk while I sketch and paint.

Instead of taking the ferry, I drove around the long way (about 70 miles one way) to meet up with The Anacortes sketchers today. It was the Monday after the Fourth of July weekend and there was an unusually large amount of traffic all the way from Marysville to my destination.

You drive around Penn Cove, famous for the freshest mussels anywhere, and come to Coupeville, this great little village with flowers on every doorstep and cool sea breezes mixing with delicious aromas from the waterfront bars and bistros.

Once I got there, I had to spend a little more time looking for parking since the town was also unusually busy. I finally settled on this spot in the shade on a side street, with a view of "Aqua Gifts" on the east end of Front Street and started sketching with my Micron pen and my Pentalic Aqua Journal.

There were sketchers all along the waterfront and even up the hill a block or two. Everyone enjoyed their own way of exploring the town, sketching, visiting, shopping, etc. At the end of the day, some of us went into Toby's for a cold drink and fresh Penn Cove Mussels. I got a pound of fresh mussels to take home and steam for dinner tonight. They turned out great!

Silverton sketches, closeups

Family Trip to Silverton, Colorado

As fireworks are zooming up into the air tonight, I imagine they aren't at any altitude near as high as we went on our recent trip to visit family in New Mexico. Here are some sketches from another high altitude (9,308 ft) excursion during that trip.....Silverton, Colorado.

A day in Silverton, CO. Zoom to see details or read my notes.

So on June 21, we drove from Farmington, NM, (already high altitude) through Durango and on up to Silverton, CO., for a rather late lunch. Grumpy's Restaurant and Saloon is part of the Grand Imperial Hotel on the other end of the main road (Greene Street) coming into town. The honky tonk piano played by Dale Elliott rang out the front door and into the street where we all had to admire the rare 4 wheel drive Checker Cab. The owner of the cab told us that the exterior is authentic but the whole inside has been redone, including the engine, etc.

Next we went into Grumpy's Saloon to listen to the piano and check out the menu. We got good service, since most of the tourists from the train* were just finishing their meal. Very good food, too. After we ate, it was time for a walk up and down the main street. While my husband and I often joined the rest of the gang in the tourist shops, sometimes we just took advantage of the many benches situated considerately along the sidewalk for sea level people like us. Again, verrrrry hot weather this June 21.

One of those benches was right outside the door of an ice cream shop with cool, air-conditioned breezes coming right across my shady seat. The view across the street is the back alley in my sketch above. It's not often that you can follow an alley all the way to a mountain.

Silverton as seen from switchbacks on HWY 550

*On a previous trip, we took the bus to Silverton and the train back to Durango. Silverton is linked to Durango by the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a National Historic Landmark

Meanwhile, the air is smoky and filled with the smell of gunpowder tonight. The neighbors are going wild with their family displays of fireworks!

More photos from the Aztec, NM, trip

On the last day of a family trip to New Mexico, my granddaughter and I sketched at the ruins in Aztec, designated a World Heritage site in 1987, where the elevation is high (5877 ft) and the heat (98-100ºF) is "dry".   

Right now, with our current heat wave in the Seattle area, the daily temperatures are surprisingly similar to northwestern New Mexico but the breathable oxygen is definitely not. The terrain and vegetation are completely different from where we live in the Seattle area.

My granddaughter, daughter-in-law (#3) and I sat in the sweltering hot sun while sketching at the ruins in Aztec. I sketched the skyline in watercolor (#1) while my granddaughter did a pencil sketch (#4) of the restored Kiva.

We explored this restored 900-year old ancestral Pueblo Great House (Kiva). It's the only one in the nation which allows visitors inside. You could look up and see original timbers holding up the roof. There is a superb video tour of the Great Kiva on the Aztec Monument site. More information about the ruins can be found there as well.

All the overlooks, viewpoints and benches were in full sun and high on sweltering hot hilltops. So my granddaughter and I sketched as fast as we could and then escaped into the shade between sketches. We finally had to cool off indoors to add color later.

A Few Details:
The shade inside the ruins was comparatively cooler, perhaps right down to the low 90's. You can see the thick walls, where we posed our sketchbooks in a doorway recess. The original centuries-old timber preserved in the wall made it possible to see ancient thumbprints in the nearby mortar. I saw what looked like a bird and snake carved into another one of the stones outside. (zoom adjacent image lower right.)

The Aztec National Monument was established in 1923 along with Chaco Culture National Historical Park to the south. It has an area of about 320 acres (130 hectares). Built of sandstone, mud, and stones by ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians, these multilevel communal dwellings have over 400 rooms.  If you search, you can find the fingerprints of ancient workers in the mortar.


PS. Back home now and I finally have access to my own internet, laptop and camera card. I trust that you enjoyed these extra photos from a trip that is indelibly memorable to me. We plan to return, since this visit to the ruins was only for under two hours. (See previous post.)  By the way, did I say it was hot?