Trip to Seattle

I  recently spent 48 hours in Seattle.  The founder of my art school, and my mentor in art school, Gary Faigin, passed away and I flew out for his Remembrance.  There were 600 people there!  And you can watch it on YouTube.  He had a big impact on many people.  I got to the airport with time to kill.  So naturally I drew it.

The memorial was wonderful - people telling stories about different parts of him - from his teaching to his facial expression work.  His passion for birds was totally new to me.

The next morning I taught my classes via Zoom, then got together with a friend I haven't seen in ages and caught up for several hours.  Then it was time for the Drink & Draw at the new Gage, and I tried to remember how to draw figure.  Coffee show drawings only do so much for keeping your figure skills up to date!

The next morning I wandered around Seattle for a while - I don't even recognize the city it's grown so much.  I discovered there is a banana stand outside "Bezo's balls" (as the terrarium is called).  

Then I got a tour of the new Gage facility on SLU.  Gorgeous.  Half the school is now in a different location, but I was good to see this building since it has a number of the items from the old school, including the books, and some "bricks" which were made from the old tables.  I then ambled around Seattle some more, and finally found a good matcha.

Then it was back to the airport, via the train.  Nice that there is rail now, but some serious fails in terms of finding where to buy a ticket and which train goes to the airport, but it's a smooth. fast ride.  SEA is much bigger than MRY, so crowded, but they actually have live music and I got something to eat and a few more sketches then it was home, and my neighbor's cat waiting for me.

Sketches from Car Week, Lightbox, and a mulberry waffle

 Oh wow, it's been a while since I've posted my sketches here.  Ongoing knee issues have kept me from many things.  But two surgeries later, we're back on the mend.

Car week had some good drawing opportunities.  I'm not much into cars, but if the entire town is being overrun, you might as well take part in the spectacle.  

Then there's the usual around town and ocean drawings.

I went to Lightbox last October, and it's top of mind right now since it was in Pasadena.  Looks like most of old Pasadena is still there, but nearby was his hard by wildfires.

And then this year I finally made it to Alta Bakery and Cafe for my matcha and a very nice mulberry waffle, and drew some of the other cafe-goers.

And we'll close out with a random sunset.

Overdue sketch post

I'm pretty behind on scanning and posting my sketches.  Here a bunch from so far, starting with the big waves from earlier in the year - we always get good storms in January.

Some random tree sketches...

The amazing array of specialized vehicles for repaving the road.  The process was actually very smooth, but the smell was terrible.

A concert at my mom's retirement place - the guy was really quite good.

A waiting room....

Some cliff-side views.

Cafe on a crowded Saturday - I was waiting in the wings until a table opened up and I pounced on it.

 

Chicago sketches on black paper

Here's the sketches in the black paper sketchbook.  Colors really pop on this, although it doesn't always scan well.

The conservatory, which was nice and warm on a freezing cold day:

Then there was a meetup with urban sketchers at the mall, and I started by sketching dinner, then moved on to the view out the window:

And then there were other sketches around town:

An excellent sunset:

And then the flight home: