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.