Wednesday, December 31, 2014

New Year's Eve in Ruston

I was early to my shift at Fort Nisqually  so I drove around Ruston looking for something to sketch!  It was beautifully bright sun but cold!  I stayed in the car to sketch this.  This is at the end of a road that dead-ends into a walking path called "Waterwalk" next to a new development at Point Ruston. 



Moleskine pocket watercolor sketchbook;  Staedtler pigment liner pen
Daniel Smith Watercolors

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Workshops offered in Seattle

 Both of these teachers are active Urban Sketchers in Seattle.  These workshops are not officially sponsored by Urban Sketchers, but they are open to us. I wanted to alert you to them as you might find them helpful. 

This is from Stephanie Bower.  I took her workshop last year and she is a very good teacher!  Her focus is on Urban Sketching. 

This photo is from one of the Good Bones workshops held this past winter/spring at our own Pike Place Market.  I'm scheduling 2015 workshops now, including more Good Bones in Seattle (yes, even in our winter!), a 5-day workshop again in Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy for those who want full emersion, and a 2-day workshop in the beautiful pedestrian center of The Hague, Holland.  

Sign up for 2015 workshops is open now! For more info and photos, please go to www.stephaniebower.com and click on the new "workshops" page. 
And don't forget about the 2015 USk Symposium in Singapore--guaranteed to be an utterly amazing, superbly well-organized event where you'll meet incredible sketchers from around the world!  
Happy Sketching everyone!


And this is from Anita Lehmemm, whose workshops I've not taken (yet):




drawing, field sketching, expressive works and watercolor

more information @


 Posted by Kate Buike

Monday, December 29, 2014

Magical moments: the sketch.

"Drawing is basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic." -Keith Haring   

Nichols Center Fox Island.
print from etching cut directly from life.
Street lamp in Gig Harbor.
Watercolor  done on site.
There is nothing like the simplicity of becoming engaged with your environment! As artist's we have that opportunity/excuse to engage ourselves in the splendor of a common place that most people would pass by. Yet we are the lucky ones that are blessed with the sensitivity of discovering the "magic" that many people will thwart with oppressive "to do" lists or self inflicted purposeful priorities.
   Artists are the ones that take some time to celebrate the unbelievable  juxtapositions, the perfections of palette, the numerous nuances that life has to offer in the beauty of nature herself. We are so moved by these wonders that we feel compelled to make an effort of commemorating the memory through our drawings. Just a feeble attempt to celebrate that which we wish to share but through our hearts we record our experience... the sketch.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

January Outing

January's sketch outing will be at the Meeker Mansion in Puyallup on January 3, 2015.
312 Spring Street, Puyallup, WA 98372  
Meet at 10 am at the mansion.   They will still be fully decorated for Christmas, as they don't take all  of that down until Jan. 5th.

Details:
There is an entry fee of $5 per person. Please come prepared with cash as Kate or Frances will be collecting from sketchers to then pay for the whole group.

After we're done with sharing our sketches and the group photo at 12:30, they'll be serving us hot cider and cookies as part of that fee.

There is lots of free parking on the property or nearby.





More info:
Historic Meeker Mansion, on the National Register of Historic homes, is a 17 room Italianate Victorian Mansion. Eliza Jane Meeker, wife of Ezra Meeker (Hops king of the Puyallup Valley and a founder of Puyallup) was tired of more primitive living, and after a trip to Europe decided to have this house built. It took 3 years to build and was finished in 1890.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Looking forward to 2015! Happy holidays!

AS requested, forwarding a letter from members of the Board of our parent group,  international Urban Sketchers:


Dec. 14, 2014


Dear all,

2014 has been a great year for USk!

Because of your support, USk provided scholarships to 11 local sketchers who attended the Paraty Symposium at no charge. Paraty was the 5th International Urban Sketching Symposium we organized in just four years, following previous editions in Portland, Lisbon, Santo Domingo and Barcelona.  Our workshops program continues to grow with workshops held in Oxford, England;  Savannah (GA), Seattle (WA) and Tacoma (WA) in the USA, Cockatoo Island in Australia, and several cities in Italy.

As a new year begins, our all-volunteer organization is excited to expand our workshop program and to increase the number of scholarships we offer if possible, but we need your help!

If you believe in what USk stands for and support our mission, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We suggest a $20 donation, but pledge as much or as little as you'd like. Every little bit helps!

Let's work together to continue "Showing the World, One Drawing at a Time!"

You can donate via PayPal using the sidebar button at urbansketchers.org.

Or make your check payable to "Urban Sketchers" and mail it to:

Urban Sketchers
P.O. Box 12624
Mill Creek, WA 98082
United States

Very best wishes for a happy New Year!

USk Executive Board,
Elizabeth, Gabi, Omar, Jessie, Mario and Brenda

Saturday, December 6, 2014

December Outing to the Gage Drawing Jam

This is a joint blog post, pulled together from the content of 3 Tacoma Sketchers!  Frances Buckmaster wrote about Bob.  Bob Lane provided his sketches.  And I've (Kate Buike) posted it all.

Urban Sketchers Tacoma had an unusual sketch outing this month.  We went up to Seattle to attend the Drawing Jam at the Gage Academy of Art.  The jam is mostly posed models, which are not within the manifesto of Urban Sketchers.  Several of us wanted to go and it conflicted with the date for our usual outing.  So we just decided to make it the monthly outing. 

I'll not put my own drawings here because they are all of posed models (not urban sketches!).  But I have Bob's permission to post his sketches as they are a report on the event.

Bob got double the pleasure while enjoying the Jim Parfitt trio. They were playing outdoors, near the auditorium of Gage Academy, near one of the food trucks. The owner of the food truck let Bob
sit on his refrigerator, so he'd be comfortable while sketching and enjoying the music.  Bob said, "Their hamburgers were mighty good too!"



The highlight of this Gage Drawing Jam for Bob was sketching in the rooms set aside for the Children's Programs. Kids of all ages were making art, and each was accompanied by a parent or guardian. Bob said, " I loved sketching the kids...and just listening to them too. I became invisible to them, so I could enjoy listening to unfettered conversations between adults and kids, while the kids
made art."



And, of course, we had our group photo after sharing our sketchbooks around.  

 

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Our history

Now that we are finally official, I thought it might be a good time to review our history.  USk Tacoma has been meeting for a year and a half.  Our first sketch outing was June 2013. 

It all began with Frances Buckmaster.  It was her idea.  She'd already gotten Rom involved when I met her.

I met Frances at the sketch outing in Seattle associated with the attendees of the Line to Color workshop led by Gail Wong and Frank Ching.  That was May 19th, 2013. She talked with me about her plan to form a Tacoma chapter of Urban Sketchers. Frances is in the tan jacket on the far left.
Link to all the photos.




On June 7th, 2013 Frances, Rom and I met in Tacoma to scout sketch locations and talk about the group. 

Then the three of us met at Frances' home on June 12th for further planning. 

The first Tacoma Urban Sketchers outing was June 27, 2013 at the Thursday Tacoma Farmers' Market on Broadway downtown.  This is Frances' photo of the group.  I wasn't there!




The second Tacoma Urban Sketchers outing was July 14th, 2013 around Union Station.


 More photos in this set.