Tacoma Maritime Fest - Foss Waterway Seaport

From Saturday's sketching of the waterfront on the Foss Waterway. Ink and watercolor in a Canson 140lb watercolor book.

Dash Point, WA

Took a break from the rental to spend lunch time at Dash Point on Puget Sound just south of Seattle. Pen and ink in a 4"x4" Handbook Sketchbook.

Weekend in Leavenworth, WA

We spent President's Weekend at a time share in Leavenworth, WA. It's a touristy place that has decked itself out as a Bavarian transplant since the 60's. Beautiful weather and scenery were dampened only by my coming down with the flu bug.

Am closing in on the end of the Marty Sketchbook - This was straight watercolor a rarity for me, looking out our back deck at the Leavenworth Golf Course and Cascade Mountains.

Hoop Series #3

Basketball hoops and courts come in all shapes and sizes, I've decided to combine my love of basketball and art by doing a series of interesting (to me) hoops that might have a story to go with them. This hoop is located in downtown Kent, WA and for years the ivy has grown over the backboard, the owners have always done a good job of trimming the growth so you can see the goal.

Dungeness Spit

The Heron was drawn on the same trip. He was originally sitting on a log outside our timeshare in Victoria Harbour. Since this sketch lacked a focal point I took license.

Seattle Urban Sketchers on Local NPR Station KPLU

This link is to the sound bite KPLU did on Gabi and the Urban Sketchers during the last SketchCrawl at Volunteer Park.

Saltwater State Park - Des Moines, WA

This was done on a warm June afternoon at Saltwater State Park near Des Moines, WA. A rare occasion that I had the will power not to embellish with ink.

Sims Cabin View

It was very cold and any sketching involved trips back to the cabin to get circulation back into the fingers.

Mt. Bonaparte - Sketchers on the Roof

The Sims Cabin

It's a five and a half hour drive to the Northeast part Washington where Scott's cabin sits on a ridge high above the valley floor that Highway 20 wanders through (connecting Republic to Tonasket). Our mission this weekend was to roof the new shed/restroom building, a task none of us has any experience doing.....The final product was acceptable (just don't look too close).

We found lots of tracks near the cabin - bear, deer, cow and SUV....but only came across a few deer using Scott's property as a refuge during hunting season. It was bitterly cold at night and mornings, snow is coming and soon this area will be completely snowbound for the winter.

What ever the hardships, the view and serenity is so completely relaxing.

McCoy's Firehouse Pub

This pub was a firehouse and is decorated with all sorts of fire equipment from the past, some antique, some recent. Tamra and I stopped here during the October Art Walk and enjoyed a libation and some nourishment before heading back out to the galleries and studios.

Puyallup Fair

Tamra and I spent the morning at the Fair. Not much changes and if you go every year and I think you run the risk of losing the excitement going to the fair should create. We were given exhibitor passes and were able to get in early in the morning without the public, a completely different world.....calm before the storm.

We walked into a livestock barn and discovered a whole pen of Sheep Superheros - masked and caped (body blanket) animals who seem intent on concealing their identity. I learned later that the owners who show these animals deck them out in these outfits to keep them clean.

Waiting for Coffee

Told my wife I was just running down to get us coffee, sat down to do this sketch and got back an hour and a half later. Told her it was a really long line....she knows better. If I do sketch at a strip mall near our housing development, am I just a suburban sketcher?

Our good friends Tom and Jackie live just off the Ferry dock on Anderson Island in the South Puget Sound. Through a gap in the trees, you look over the walkon parking lot and across the water lies McNeil Island Penitentiary, former home of Charles Manson ('61-'66) and Robert Stroud (The Bird Man of Alcatraz). The second sketch is from their balcony looking East over the Sound toward Dupont and Steilacoom.