Sumac, Crocosmia, The Works

A dear artist friend and I have a difficult time getting together often enough to having a sketching date. Sometimes we meet in Port Townsend, which is roughly halfway between her and myself. It's about an hour and a half, give or take a ferry ride, for each of us to get there. Today, she suggested we have a sketch date simultaneously at 10 AM, where she was hiking near her end, and I decided I would go out on my deck and capture some of our garden before the approaching Fall season rewrites the garden's story altogether.  We each pulled our gear out and went to work.

 I have to admit, she had the advantage as far as scenery and solitude. I also had intermittent mist. I struggled with color and paint over the pre-textured background I chose to paint this over, and ended up with half my studio out on the deck. Mine was not as serene and gentle. It was starting to feel like a major project, and indeed it was by the time I took refuge inside to finish it. But I'm happy with it, and do feel like she and I were together on a sketching date! Next time I will leave the house so I'm not so tempted to drag the whole artillery caboodle out from my studio.

Galatea's Gaze

Recently an inspired group of Urban Sketchers descended on downtown Port Townsend, Washington, and spread out to capture their unique view of the town. I marched a couple blocks over to sit just above and behind the Haller fountain, otherwise known as Galatea. Not only was her little bronze tush worthy of rendering on my sketchpad, but I needed to utilize a page with a prior blocked-in square I had pre-textured with diluted acrylic inks and Cling Wrap, a week earlier. This method has been really fun to do, with sketching over the "texture" later.  (See April 28th's "Papaya Woman")

It turned out the way I'd randomly placed the texture was a perfect mystical framework for the view Galatea watched, eternally. As though she could maybe leap into that window and make her way back to the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the edge of town.