Day of the Dead at the Market

 Nov 1 is All Saints Day in many Christian traditions. It's also Day of the Dead or “Día de Muertos” in Spanish.   We sketched at the Waterfront Market in Ruston. 

The Taco Street restaurant in the market had an elaborate Ofrenda with small photos of the owner's parents (or maybe grandparents). It also included multiple Catrina's. I sketched only part of the display.

Many shops are gone. In a vacant space there is now a Free Library. I sketched one of the corners with a table, lamp made of books, and an artificial tree in a pot.

There were several new sketchers and some who haven't been in a while.

Thursday, November 13: Gig Harbor Met Market

Metropolitan Market 

5010 Point Fosdick Drive, Gig Harbor, WA  98335

Meet at 10:00 am inside the market at the mezzanine level seating area.  Food and beverage are available for purchase.  Artists can sketch from this vantage, at the store level, outdoors, or nearby shops.

Please be respectful of customers.

5010 Point Fosdick Drive, Gig Harbor

Pumpkins everywhere

As we do every October, we gathered at Watson's Greenhouse and Nursery to sketch all their pumpkin and Halloween goodness. The display designs were especially well done this year.

My first sketch was a pile of pumpkins with a crow or raven sculpture.

 Next I went out to the back patio to warm up in the sun and sketch the skeleton on a bench, also surrounded by pumpkins. Fortunately I'd already sketched it when an employee walked by and sat him up straight, commenting, "This is Watson's oldest employee".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sketching at Java & Clay in Gig Harbor

We had a fun morning to sketch and enjoy a warm beverage and pastry at Java & Clay.  There were plenty of subjects to sketch, indoors and through the windows on this chilly fall day.

The throwdown

 

Urban Sketchers at Java & Clay

Titlow Park outing

We gathered at Tacoma's Titlow Park on a chilly, cloud covered morning. Most of us walked across the railroad tracks to the beach side of the park and sketched from a platform there.

The chill, damp, air was not conducive to watercolor drying so I had two sketches going at once. First is a view of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Next was one of a group of cormorants on the pier.

 

 

I wandered back to the park but first stopped to sketch the display of very large skeletons in a traffic circle.

Thursday, October 9: Gig Harbor Java & Clay Cafe

Java & Clay Cafe 

3210 Harborview Drive, Gig Harbor, WA  98335

Meet at 10:00 am in the Cafe.  Street parking is available along Harborview Drive.  This venue offers seating in the cafe lounge; food and beverage are available for purchase.  For anyone interested in sketching on unfinished pottery, the Pottery Studio is available for a fee.

Please be respectful of customers.

3210 Harborview Drive, Gig Harbor

Old Town

We met in Old Town, at the replica of the Job Carr Cabin museum. Museum staff, Holly, was so helpful and came to open the cabin for us.

We branched out from there.

My first sketch was of the fish sculpture at Gateway Park. After I got home I went looking for information and discovered a mystery about the disappearance of this sculpture and others like it. They are called Soul Salmon and a number of them have been stolen. "In 2016, a Soul Salmon from Old Town returned — in the middle of the night — to its rightful perch in Gateway Park, where it had disappeared from a decade prior."

I have custody of an Urban Sketchers traveling sketchbook. Prior to arriving in my mailbox, it had been to several other USk branches around the country. Ikuyo did the first sketch, the Soul Salmon, and I added the Carr cabin on our USk Tacoma page in the sketchbook. It goes to Seattle next and then onward.

The original Job Carr cabin dates from 1865.

Just before it was time to meet again, I did a quick ink sketch of the cooking fireplace in the cabin.