Arriving in Paraty a day before the 5th Urban Sketching Symposium started gave me a chance to walk around the town and do some drawing. This church attracted me because of its situation at the end of a street, where it commanded the intersection. To the left is the tourist information office and to the right is a self-serve gelato shop. Between the tourist information office and the church, you get a peek at the entrance to the Pousada do Sandi, where we were staying.
A view of Capela de N. Sra. das Dores in Paraty, Brazil, during the 2014 Urban Sketching Symposium. This will be one of the many sketches that will be sold tomorrow evening in a silent auction to benefit the Urban Aketchers organization. I’ve completed two workshops and have a third scheduled tomorrow morning. Great participants, enthusiastic and appreciative in a beautiful colonial village on the Bay of Paraty.
Here is a quick sketch of a statue of Lief Erickson at Shilshole Bay Marina, overlooking Puget Sound. The bronze sculpture was given by the Lief Erickson League to the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962 and installed at the marina when it opened that same year.
The words are from a plaque on the statue’s base and refers to Lief Erickson’s assumed birthplace of Iceland. The famous Norse explorer (ca. 970–1020) is believed to have been the first European to reach North America five centuries before Christopher Columbus. To commemorate the legacy of Scandinavian immigrants who settled in Ballard, surrounding the statue (but not drawn) are stones containing names of local immigrant families, the year they arrived, and their community of origin.
Off to Brazil tomorrow for the Urban Sketching Symposium in Paraty
A view of Shilshole Bay Marina, captured when the Seattle Urban Sketchers group met this past Sunday morning. It was challenging but fun to try to convey the number and density of watercraft, masts, and equipment, as well as their reflections in the water.
Owned and operated by the Port of Seattle, Shilshole Bay Marina is located in the northwest Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, next to Golden Gardens Park on Puget Sound. While the waterfront location was deeded to the Port in 1931, the marina itself was not operational until after its dedication during the Seattle’s World Fair in 1962. It has more than 1400 slips for boats ranging in size from skiffs and kayaks to ocean-going yachts, and the facility includes a public plaza, fishing piers, and public boat launch
It’s often said that the real power in an administrative office lies in the person who commands the front desk. This is a view from such a desk, drawn as a retirement gift for Emily Louise Williams back in 1994 when she retired after 25 years of devoted service to the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (now the College of Built Environments) at the University of Washington. I still remember sneaking into the college office to do the drawing while Emily was taking her lunch break.
Along with a few fellow architect-volunteers from the community service committee of the AIA Young Architects Forum, I met this morning with a group of middle schoolers attending the Northwest School Summer Camp. Our task was to introduce some basic drawing concepts to the young students. My topic was negative space, a concept that is somewhat difficult to grasp, especially when translating the in-between spaces that we see in real life into the two-dimensional shapes we draw on paper. After the session, I remembered an animation that I had created a while back when I was conceiving of a ebook on drawing. Here is an unedited version of Seeing Shapes.
Keep in mind that it is often easier to see shapes in a photograph and more difficult to see them when drawing on location from direct observation.
Gail Wong and I will be offering another Line to Color workshop, this time in Tacoma September 12–14. As in our two Seattle workshops last year, we’ll begin on Friday evening with an introductory sketching session followed by dinner and presentations at the historic Swiss Pub. On Saturday, we’ll work at the Tacoma Art Museum and in the Museum District. Then on Sunday, we’ll work in the Theater District and Antique Mall District. As always, it should be fun. And beginners are certainly welcome!
For more information and a complete schedule, visit <http://workshops.urbansketchers.org/2014/07/join-us-for-our-line-to-color-workshop.html>.
This is a view of the large, airy, and daylit space that connects the several structures that house the home and studios of Christine and Darsie Beck, who were wonderful hosts during our recent Vashon Island outing. Christine is a potter and photographer, and Darsie is an artist, author, and teacher. For more information about their work and Waterworks Studio, visit <http://www.waterworksonvashon.com>.
At an ad hoc outing this past Friday on Vashon Island, sponsored by the Tacoma Urban Sketchers group, we met first at Darsie and Christine Beck’s Waterworks Studio before departing to sketch at various locations on Vashon Island.
This view is of Burton Center, one of the several four-way stops on Vashon Island, which has no stop lights (yet). On the left edge is the Burton Store, in the middle stands The Inn on Vashon, and on the right is the old Mason’s Temple, now a store. As Vashon Highway disappears on the left, you can catch a glimpse of outer Quartermaster Harbor beyond.
This second view is of the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie, original home of the Stewart Bros. Coffee roasterie. I may be mistaken but I recall that a lawsuit brought by a similarly named company in Chicago caused a name change to Seattle’s Best Coffee, the brand that was bought out by Starbucks in 2003. Fortunately, this historic structure remains a coffee shop and museum, and still an attractive place for a cup of coffee at the junction of SW Cemetery Road and Vashon Highway SW. Right next door is Minglement, a neighborhood organic health food store, as well as a used book shop.
Biking from Fremont to Ballard last week, I passed by the Pono Ranch, nestled quietly on the west side of the north end of the Ballard Bridge. It’s a refreshing oasis in the middle of an industrial zone, offering fresh baked goods, expresso and juices, a full bar, and a menu featuring organic or naturally raised meats and produce. It’s somewhat difficult to describe the environment, which features a huge outdoor area and an eclectic mix of materials either repurposed from the original structure or salvaged from various sources. I hope this view helps you visualize what it feels like to be at the Pono Ranch on a warm, sumner evening in July.