Portland Pirates at Dr. Sketchy (10-28-12)

I met with some fellow local Urban Sketchers and British artist Pete Scully who was visiting from California at this month's Dr. Sketchy event at Crush. This is a wonderful opportunity to be around other artists and work on life drawings of people in various settings and/or costumes.

A fitting theme for this month centered around pirates; Portland pirates, that is...

Timed poses ranged from 5 to 20 minutes and were pretty challenging: elaborate scenes with several people, odd perspective due to proximity to the stage, colors...

I didn't feel confident enough to whip out my watercolors and start painting away, so I relied on soft oil pastels to add some color to my sketches. I also made the effort to use a brush pen; this was a big stretch for me, since I feel most comfortable with my trusted V-Ball Pilot pens...

Final Presidential Debate (10-22-12)

With the election a couple of weeks away, we're finally almost at the end of a long ordeal. And I can't even really complain: I don't watch television, so I missed all the ads. It's just been a long year, with constant reports about "the campaign this...the campaign that..."

So, while we were watching the last half hour of the last debate, I worked on a quick sketch of each candidate.

Alanna R. Wedding (10-06-12)

Alanna, a friend of mine and fellow local urban sketcher, got married at a Eagle Fern Camp, a lovely rural camp near Estacada.

 How wonderful to see that so many relatives and friends were present to offer their support on such a special day! Franky, I was stunned, since this is not anything I've experienced in my life in the United States, as people have been reluctant to even drive a mere 45 minutes out of their way for some of our important family events, so this was absolutely the best thing to see...

Alanna is great. She is the one who most often comes up with suggestions for places to meet and sketch, and the PDX Urban Sketchers group wouldn't be the same without her.

The dinner was fun, with guests treated to a delicious home-style meal, and I took the opportunity to draw faces in the crowd.

Anti-Walmart Protest (07-14-12)

Stunning news at a recent meeting of the Oak Grove Community Council: Walmart plans to open a grocery store in the vacant G.I Joe store on McLoughlin Blvd.

With A Fred Meyer, a Safeway, and a Grocery Outlet within less than a mile from the targeted location, a competing grocery store is the last thing Oak Grove needs (and why can't we have a specialty store like Trader Joe's instead? The nearest one is seven miles away).

So a protest was organized to give voice to the community's opposition to this project. It isn't that such action is going to suddenly make a company notorious for its rogue practices suddenly have a change of mind, but if we just let is pass without even doing anything, it's like they won already.

And why don't I shop at Walmart, you may ask? I hate it that the minute one walks in is that one feels as in a place full of desperation. i can't explain it; it's pervasive to the Walmart ambiance: cavernous interiors, cheap-looking merchandise, indifferent, tired-looking clerks, and the customers... Well, that may be the worst of it. I don't want to sound like I am being critical of people down on their luck, but really... Call me a snob, and I am sure it is a matter of taste, but it's a place for vulgar uneducated masses, as far as I am concerned.

Finally, I understand that Walmart is perceived by some as a more affordable place to shop, but so is Goodwill, and so is Dollar Tree. At least the latter stores offer a shopping environment on a more human scale, with consistent personnel.

So, there we were, signing pledges to not shop at the store when it opens, and waving our signs to passing cars.

Not in our community!

Meeting at RACC (07-12-12)

I attended a meeting at the Regional Arts and Culture Council today regarding the guidelines for project grants.

As I understand it, this type of grant seems best suited for established artists who already have contacts within the theater or gallery circuits. Let's say I want to propose a poetry reading; to be able to be considered for a RACC project grant, I must already have a venue booked up for this event.. This is also cool if I am, let's say, a painter, and a gallery is applying with the intent of booking me in the future... Otherwise, it doesn't look like there would be a way to make it work.
I may have misunderstood, and I will have to read all eleven pages of the grants guidelines paperwork, but the application process seems very complicated and restrictive...

Anyway, I gave myself the fun challenge of drawing people in the room...

Rapt audience listening to Helen Daltoso's presentation

And here are the panels in their original form, as drawn on four two-page spreads of my sketchbook, all connected later as the large panel above.

Don Colley at Muse Art and Design (07-12-12)

Artists all have other artists they admire.

My unmitigated admiration goes to Don Colley, a master at using Pitt Brush Artist pens to create gorgeous color spreads in his sketchbooks.

So when I heard that he was coming to Muse Art and Design in SE Portland, I made sure to attend his presentation.

Yet, even though I was fortunate to watch him work in person, I still can't figure it out how he does the shading, or the highlights...

Oh... the colors!

Skype Sketch (07-12-12)

Without going into any details, I did an interpretation project over Skype and had a couple of minutes to work on this quick sketch of two of the parties involved.
I tried to draw what I saw, but it was a challenge: very poor lighting and the computer screen image was blurred.

Self-Portrait in Watercolors (07-10-12)

I struggle every time I use my watercolors, but I like the results this time...

New Sketchbook (07-08-12)

I started a new sketchbook, and decided to introduce some other colors than the usual black pen, and work on patterns for the signatures.

Tutankhamen Exhibit in Seattle (07-07-12)

Akhenaten

Hatshepsut

At the end of our cruise to Alaska, Gary and I went to see the Tutankhamun exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle.

It was an amazing experience, to walk among precious Egyptian art treasures. I saw a sketch of a duck done in graphite, and admired its precise and smooth lines. Such beauty, so fragile, all that is left of someone who walked the earth many centuries ago.

I could have spent all afternoon lost among the haunting beauty of the dark exhibit hall, but was told that sketching was forbidden (!); so I only have this sketch of a small statue of Queen Hatshepsut.

A work in progress

  I find it difficult to explain the awe one feels, to be so close to artifacts tied to Tutankhamun one has heard about for years, to get a view of some of the contents of Tutankhamun's tomb... such as, -most worthy of mention-, gold sandals that were found on Tutankhamun's mummy, modeled on reed woven sandals with extravagant bows on top of the foot, so beautiful...

Gloriously beautiful sandals of a dead king

Cruise to Alaska: Craigdarroch Castle and Blue Fox Cafe (07-05-12)

A splendid day in Victoria, British Columbia! 

Gary and I walked from the cruise ship terminal into downtown Victoria, and from there on to Craigdarroch Castle, altogether about a 45 minute walk. Nice weather, many people. We took a self-guided tour of Craigdarrogh Castle, the most amazing and grandest house I have ever been in (Stained glass! Woodwork! Moldings! Marble!..). It put our local, usually impressive Pittock Mansion to shame. 

A Victorian dream house, found at last!

Afterward, on our way back to the cruise ship, we stopped by a very cool restaurant called the Blue Fox Cafe. From the sidewalk, we could see that there were many people inside, none of them obvious tourists, so we took this as an indication that the locals liked the place. And we were right about that: the food was delicious. I can't remember what Gary had, but the Moroccan Chicken Benny I ordered was delicious! What a pleasant meal we had...

Blue Fox Cafe

Random Designs (07-03-12)

I was trying to work on some forms and shapes that would suggest fabric patterns; I used a black brush pen and a silver and a gold gel pen.

Cruise to Alaska: Tracy Arm Fjord (07-03-12)

The Inside Passage and Tracy Arm Fjord were the most beautiful part of the cruise... At the risk of sounding cliché, -and I am not one to start posting vacation photos-, but really... WHALES! We saw whales!

 The water was an exquisite opaque green, and looked like Jade-ite.

So I spent the day inside one of the ship's restaurants, trying to paint what I saw.

Tracy Arm Fjord in early afternoon

Cruise to Alaska: Skagway (07-02-12)

The cruise ship's second stop was in Skagway, a spectacularly beautiful natural area.

Cruise to Alaska: Juneau (07-01-12)

I used my old watercolor pencils to record my first impressions of Juneau as the cruise ship entered the city...(there isn't much).

Cruise to Alaska (06-30-12)

Various sketches done on the cruise ship.

 Cute sister-in-law.

 

My husband's family.

Casino scene late at night.

Cruise to Alaska (06-29-12)

Sketchbook notes taken in the cruise restaurant.

Finishing my sketchbook (06-27-12)

When I complete a sketchbook, I sometimes add some finishing touches, such as color, collages, whatever strikes me as interesting. Since we are leaving on a cruise very shortly (this, despite my absolute fears of ending at the bottom of the ocean), I decided to do something that would indicate a them of voyage, without tipping over into scrapbooking.

This is the title page of the sketchbook.

A house, in the style of Flemish architecture (06-26-12)

During the first session of the Cartooning class I teach at the Milwaukie Center, I gave the kids the assignment to draw something without letting the pen leave the page. While they were busy, I decided to work along on the whiteboard.
It's funny, but as I started drawing a house, the style that immediately came to mind was that of Flemish architecture, tall houses with crenellated gables and small windows, as one commonly sees in Belgium in such cities as Brussels, Bruges, or Ghent...

Left: As drawn from memory           Right: A random example of the real thing

Fête de la Musique (06-21-12)

The Alliance française de Portland (French Alliance in Portland) organized their annual "Fête de la Musique" at the Versailles Gardens nursery. It was a warm, beautiful evening...

A handsome display of large ceramic planters.

A Lovely Portrait (06-17-12?)

I really like this portrait of a young woman. There was something very graceful about her.

World Naked Bike Ride (06-16-12)

A quick sketch of the World Naked Bike Ride :)

OSU Commencement (06-16-12)

What a long and exciting day!

Valérie just graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with options in Choral Music Education and Piano Performance. And so, she participated in that necessary rite of passage, the Commencement ceremony...along with 3,500 to 4,000 other graduates from Oregon State University. 

What made the day a unique and especially challenging one was that Michelle Obama gave a speech at Commencement. Consequently, in addition to long wait times, access to OSU's Reser Stadium was subject to all the expected extra security measures, such as airport metal detector gates, unsmiling people rummaging through bags and purses, even sharpshooters on the stadium roof! 

The speeches were good, the graduates were happy, and the 30,000-strong audience consisting proud parents, relatives and friends was supportive. All in all, it was a nice day.

We sat on a sunny side of the side of the stadium closest to the College of Liberal Arts (and could see Valérie from afar), but as the afternoon wore on, shade came on our side while the other side of the stadium was still sunny, and there was a nasty little breeze that made everyone wish they'd brought a warm jacket...

Watching the ceremony

 To distract myself from the chilly weather, I pulled out my color pencils and worked on painstakingly trying to match the colors I saw; but I didn't quite finish my drawing...

End of the School Year at Da Vinci (06-11-12)

I stopped by Da Vinci Arts Middle School to say hello to Connie C., and things looked pretty busy a couple of days before the end of the school year... So, I decided to draw office space around her ( it looked like a bazillion projects still need attention...)

Recital and Graduation (06-09-12)

Valérie's recital and graduation ceremony from Music studies at Oregon State University.

 Valérie's recital.

 Valérie's graduation from the Department of Music.

Various choir and faculty members.

A self-portrait (06-09-12)

What I like about self-portrait is that not one looks like the other! There are commonalities, of course, but the mood of the moment affects how we perceive ourselves, and this is reflected in the finished product.