Sketching in Canada

Last weekend we returned from Nanoose Bay (Vancouver Island) in British Columbia, located between Nanaimo and Parksville.  Our week away was to honor my husband’s birthday…one of those  decade-ending  ‘big ones.’  Now, back home in the real world of our lives, we spent another week  ‘catching up.’

But forget reality, let me share the dream of 'island time': We had early morning coffees on the bluff behind our cottage, watching deer munching tender young greens for breakfast. We walked about cities, towns, villages, and shores. We had a lot of meals in area restaurants and we coffee shop ‘hopped’ as we drove the up the west and east coasts of the island.  It was a week of ‘total vegging’ and enjoying ourselves.

  

I always had my trusty little 4” x 6” Pentalic sketchbook,  a Micron pen, a pencil, a few colored pencils (regular and water soluble), a  waterbrush, and a Tombow Brush Pen  in my shoulder bag, so it was easy to find time, here and there, to sketch. Product Reviews: The sturdy little Pentalic sketchbook handled all the mediums extremely well. 

Here’s some important information for my sketcher and painter friends: 

There’s a great art supply store, independently owned, (a rare beast, in other words) in Nanaimo, BC called Iron Oxide Art Supplies at #5 Victoria Road....should you ever NEED it.  The supplies there are professional quality.  I didn’t really need anything…but, I bought a Tombow brush pen (black ink). I learned the shop owner ‘knew her stuff’ (and was probably an artist herself) when she first confessed to being an ‘art supply junkie’ (like all of us?) and suggested “another approach to brush drawing would be to put different values of india ink in waterbrushes.”  I’m going to try that one of these days…but meanwhile, my first Tombow sketch is below, along with second one done in the same location with Micron .01 pen and colored pencil. 

My other sketches from the week can be found on our Urban Sketchers-Tacoma Flickr site at:

www.flickr.com/groups/tacomasketchers/

Meet the Correspondents - Kate Buike

It was May 2013 that I met Frances Buckmaster at an Urban Sketching workshop in Seattle.  It was as a result of a discussion there that I joined her and Rom in working to get USk Tacoma going. 

I originally discovered Urban Sketchers on 21 February 2012 when Gabi Campanario appeared on a local show promoting his book, The Art of Urban Sketching.  Right then and there I said to myself, "That's what I want to do".  That Sunday, 26 February, I attended my first Sketch Outing with the Seattle group and I've missed few since.

I had  just retired in August 2011.  Though I have a couple volunteer activities and lots of interests and hobbies, there was room for more.  Urban Sketching has brought me back to the practice of art and sketching that I enjoyed when I was young(er).  I had a some training and showed my art a little but after getting my first SLR camera in 1974, all my artistic expression went into photography.  Until that February in 2012.   It had been decades since I drew or painted and I have enjoyed renewing my skills.  !

I was born and raised in Michigan.  I’ve also lived & worked in England, Germany, Southern California and now Washington. I have a Masters Degree in Social Work and I’m a medical Social Worker with a past specialty in Oncology.  I've been married for 35 years.  My husband is a computer professional. 

I live in south King County but have found it's easier most days to get to Tacoma or Puyallup than through Seattle! 

Here is a recent sketch, done at Fort Nisqually.  I've recently begun combining my sketching with being a volunteer interpreter there.  

My Blog: Red Harp Arts
My flickr page:  RedHarp

Yesterday at the Foss Maritime Museum was really a sketchers delight and especially if you like things maritime as I do. I like others in our urban sketcher group were looking forward to nice weather to take advantage of outdoor sketching. I'm not sure we would have fully experienced the Maritime Museum had the weather cooperated. The interior of the old waterfront warehouse by itself is an architectural delight to sketch and the displays of ship artifacts, skiffs, motor launches, all things historic and maritime just made for a really rich sketching experience for all.

Foss Waterway Wednesday

Urban Sketchers Tacoma held our regular montly Wednesday outing at the Foss Waterway Seaport.  I think I was not alone in hoping to have sketched outside.  But it was cloudy, foggy and chilly.  We all opted for inside, which was very interesting.

I was fascinated with this whale sculpture!  Half of us included it in our sketches.   I drew the "guts side" that shows how it was built.




This is a Gray Whale. The project demonstrates the amount of plastic trash in the ocean.  The skin of the whale is made of 9,000 plastic bags, braided together by students at 15 schools.  The Whale's skin shows a map of the Pacific Ocean and the Great Pacific Gyre in which ocean currents pull trash from American and Asia into the center of the Pacific Ocean.  The skeleton is made by high school art students.  It is made of disposable plastic forks (stuffed into 2 Liter soda bottles).  The vertebrae are milk jugs.  The ribs are small cups used in many school cafeterias.


In April 2010 a gray whale washed up on shore in West Seattle.  Scientists found approximately 30 plastic bags and other plastic trash in it's stomach.

Before I saw the whale, I decided I'd draw a montage of diving equipment from different eras.  After sketching the whale, I returned that that plan.  I don't know the date of the yellow equipment as there was no info card.  It looks current and modern to me, though.



Sharing sketches.  The staff were excited to see them, too.



We were a relatively small group today:  Ken, Pat, Betsy, Darsie, Kate, Charlie.



More photos are here.

Light and dark

Poulsbo Main Street- 7x11 watercolor  & pen

   I absolutely love this place but it was one extreme or the other on main street in this little town of Poulsbo. There was the sunny side, where I was feeling a sun burn in less than 15 minutes or the shady side where a jacket, (hood up) was not enough to keep the fingers from going numb. Being fair skinned, working in the sunny side was a short attempt hence only one study from this destination. I did find Hot Shots Java and survived the chilly effort with a warm beverage...before visiting the bakery across the street.

June 6 Saturday outing

The June Saturday outing will be on the 6th at the Point Defiance Marina.  Entry is free and there is parking.  Use the Pearl St. entrance to Pt. Defiance park but instead of driving into the park, veer right as though going to the Vashon ferry dock.  Drive past the dock, and through a narrow street, following signs for the Marina Boathouse.

Meet outside the Boathouse at 10 am.  We'll return there at 12:30 to share sketches and have lunch together. 

There are many views to sketch and some shelter, both in the boathouse and in or under the viewing platform.

Bring a sack lunch or buy a snack at the boathouse.  

During the summer months (June-August), Frances Buckmaster will be hosting additional afternoon sketch-outs at our monthly Saturday locations. Beginning Time:'After lunch'--Ending Time: 4 pm, when we will share our afternoon sketches at a location to be arranged at our 12:30 gatherings. If sketching from 10 am to 4 pm proves popular and there are regular attendees, we may continue with an afternoon schedule after August.

Meet the Correspondents - Frances Buckmaster

 FRANCES BUCKMASTER

I drew a lot as a kid.   I was asked to create costumes for my friends' cut-out dolls.  My teachers asked me to do bulletin boards. My junior high art teacher said, "You should major in art."

I entered college as an art student, and, quickly decided on a more ‘practical’ profession. I earned my teaching degree and taught junior high English, Social Studies, and Communications. I married, had kids, was a single parent, and eventually decided to change careers.  In graduate school  I earned a Master of Divinity degree and was ordained a Unitarian Universalist minister. I served congregations in British Columbia and across the United States.  Art had disappeared from my horizon.

In Tacoma, I retired from ministry, remarried, and my husband encouraged me to explore my art options.  I studied drawing, painting, and printmaking at Pacific Lutheran University.  I showed and sold some of my art. We moved to Puyallup, I rented a downtown studio, and I joined the Puyallup Main Street Association as a ‘business member.’ They commissioned a drawing to celebrate the downtown re-development program: As a result:  My first 'sketch' of an urban setting was of the old Liberty Theater which I illustrated using calligraphy:

For several years, I taught art classes and hosted workshops. I held a weekly long-pose figure studio program which attracted artist members who enjoyed drawing and painting in community.

Then, I attended Seattle’s first Urban Sketchers outing at the Fisherman’s Terminal in July 2009.

 

 

 Because I thought it would be great to have urban sketching closer to home, I started Urban Sketchers-Tacoma in 2013, with a lot of help: First from Gabi Campanario (founder of the global Urban Sketchers movement) and Jane Dillon Wingfield-Olympia. Then, co-administrators Kate Buike-Renton, Rom LaVerdiere-Bonney Lake, Mark Ryan-Kent, and Darsie Beck-Vashon Island and I began to build Urban Sketchers-Tacoma, along with our Blog Correspondents Feather Hilger and Beverly Choltco-Devlin.  Urban Sketchers-Tacoma has become inextricably woven into my current life. I thoroughly enjoy sketching in community and alone. I’ve lost count of how many urban sketches I’ve drawn since 2009. It is a new fact in my life: I rarely go anywhere without my sketchbook.