Japanese Tea Garden

Great Weekend! We are truly coming into the time of year where it is nice to take walks in the park, especially the Japanese Tea Garden.  Here is a sketch I did on Saturday.

Japanese Tea Garden, Washington Park Arboretum

Sketchcrawl At the Old Historic Sandpoint Naval Station

Sunday we had our monthly sketchcrawl at Magnuson Park (the old Naval Station at Sandpoint).  Now he buildings and grounds are owned by University of Washington and the Parks Department.  NOAA used to be located there.  Old hangars are converted to storage spaces and being leased by companies like Arena Sports or the Mountaineers Club. Most of the old Officer's housing units are abandoned or slated to be renovated to afforable housing in the future. 
Here is a sketch from this sketchcrawl. 

Officers's Housing at Sandpoint Naval Station

First United Methodist Church Interiors

Susan Miller and I had a chance to see the interiors of the First United Methodist Church in Seattle...currently known as the Daniel's Recital Hall.  It was one of our historic buildings in Seattle threatened to be demo'd.  Luckily it was saved.  There will be a highrise building  looming over it from the south.  We were taken up to the roof top via a series of tight winding  steps that would never meet code today..it felt as if you were walking up to a bell tower.  It was interesting to see the space between the exterior shell and interior dome.  Buildings a grounds people have to maneuver in those interstitial spaces to replace light bulbs and access speakers.

A Day in BC

Last Sunday I spent a day in BC with a global group of sketchers,  Don McNulty (Canada), Asnee Tasna (Bangkok) and Gabi Campanario (Spain).  Asnee is visiting Vancouver with his son for a couple of weeks.  So it was a great opportunity to meet him. Since Vancouver is just an 45 minutes from Bellingham, my husband and I went to have mother's day breakfast with our son at WWU then headed up to Vancouver.   It was a perfect spring (felt like summer) day.
Here are the sketches I did while I was there.

Burrard St. Bridge seen from Granville Island, Vancouver BC

Pacific Central Station, Vancouver BC

Opening Day at the Montlake Cut Panorama

I gave up on moving boats and started this sketch with stationary boats.  Added the moving boat while it was far enough away that I had a chance to capture it.

Opening Day Coast Guard boat and Fire boat

Much to our surprise we arrive at the Montlake Cut in time for the Opening Day Parade.  This was the first time I had been to it even though I live in Montlake.  It was great seeing all the vintage boats.  You have to be quick to capture moving boats.  I started drawing the coast guard boat and the view kept changing because it was moving.  Looks more like a small tug boat than the actual boat.

Sketches along My Saturday Walk

I get together with a friend to walk on Saturdays.  This time I decided to take my sketchbook since we were going to go down to the Montlake Cut to walk the crew races.  While waiting for my friend I killed time by sketching the Tot lot and a man talking on his cell phone and while walking his dog.
I was using my small watercolor moleskine book, lamy pen with noodlers ink and neocolor pencils and a watercolor brush.  Traveling light!