COSMOS AND HYDRANGEA DOODLING

WHEN YOUR PLOW IS A PAINTBRUSH: ARTISTS LOOK AT THE FARM

ABOARD THE TALL SHIP "HAWAIIAN CHIEFTAIN"

SO excited to do this today. I wanted to add to my memories of sails on the Manitou and Madeline on Grand Traverse Bay, so I bought a ticket for an "adventure cruise" aboard the Gray's Harbor Historical Seaport Authority's Educational and Ambassador Tall Ship "Hawaiian Chieftain". What a grand day. The weather was gorgeous on Penn Cove - perfect for sailing a tall ship with snapping sails. 

http://historicalseaport.org/about-us/our-vessels/hawaiian-chieftain/
Photo by Ron Arel for Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Aurthority

The Chieftain is a gaff-rigged, topsail ketch, which means she is 64 tons of beautiful fun with 4200 sq feet of sails. She has a crew of 10. The Chieftain was built in Lahaina, HA, in 1988 and became part of the Grays Harbor fleet (joining the Lady Washington) in 2005. She plies the West Coast seas between San Diego and Vancouver, BC. 

I got to the wharf early so I did a (very) fast sketch of the Chieftain from the land-side of the boardwalk. 

In port at low tide.

The masthead is (if not Kamehameha) a bust of another member of Hawaiian royalty.

60 feet in the air on a 75 foot mast, the hearty crew members untie the topsail, get ready for hoisting. They are all well safety harnessed in place, but still . . . 60 feet in the air!

WELCOME ABOARD!!

Cannons? Cannons? There are 6 cannons on board! 4 like these on the deck, and two on the railings that swivel. Protection against pirates?

Our Captain welcomes passengers aboard the vessel. I don't know how many of us there were, but the ship can hold 43.

setting sail

 Do the cannons work? Why, yes. Yes they do!!

BOOM!!!

It was an amazing day aboard the ship! Thanks to all the fun, funny, informative, polite, friendly, accommodating, helpful and interesting, energetic crew! You all made my day. 

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Here are the sketches I did yesterday. The first one was from the top of the landing of the boardwalk of my first view of the ship.

On this sketchbook page I did a sort of portrait of the Captain of the Chieftain, whom the crew called Cap'n Tiny. He plays ukulele and has an outstanding singing voice. Another crew member, BD, plays the concertina and also has an amazing voice. They, and several other singing crewmen (and crewwomen) entertained us with great sea chanteys.

Thank you all. Now I can't wait for the next time I can hit the high seas on a tall ship (maybe next time on the Lady Washington!)

DOODLING ZEN

These are silly little exercises, but they appeal to me on so many levels. First, there's the clean graphic quality of interlocking the lines and repeating the patterns. They are so fun when they are like this, just starting out in black and white.

I love seeing "where they go", following along after them as they develop a life of their own, watching how they develop - figuring how far to take them. My favorite part is when I can start adding colors. Bright, saturated colors and tonals naturally "make" these designs sing. On this one, at first, I thought I'd only add the reds and the yellow, keeping the contrast of the black and white. But, in the end, I gave in to the siren song of all the juicy, brilliant, pure colors. 

This kind of pattern work was an assignment I used to give my Basic Design kids to acquaint them with line quality, patterning and repetition. Funny how "doodling" has been around FOREVER, but now it has a jazzy new name, followers and adherents. Weird how the world goes 'round. It's always just been doodling, to me.

 I am happy with the colors in this finished little sketchbook piece. I don't want to take it out of the book, so I'll have a gicleé print made and, I think, do a floating mount on black. I can see it like that. Maybe the title is "The Caws of Love is Crows". Or maybe not . . . . 

I really, really want to try this out as a quilting appliqué, using jewel toned batiks for the colors, and satin stitching in black where all the lines are. How cool would THAT be?

HANGIN' WIT DA BOIDS

The Sketchers had an opportunity to go out to Susan's Bird Sanctuary/Aviary again, a second chance to commune with the birdies. They were every bit as cool as they were the last time. In fact, I had so much fun with Sunday, Gleam, Frostbite, Brutus and the others that I didn't get much sketching done.

We walked in and, there they all were, waiting for us. The cages were mostly all open, so as soon as we sat down they were on our heads, on our arms, walking on our sketchbooks, chewing on our hats and trying to steal our glasses. Mostly, just vying for as much attention as we could give them!

This time we brought apples and bananas for their treats, which seemed to please them. It is amazing how strong they are. They can bite right through heavy sticks with a chomp. These guys had a great time chewing up a plastic scrub brush in just minutes. But they seem to try to be very gentle with their wicked looking beaks, and (so far) none of them has bitten me.

In order to have models who stayed in one place Susan and staff kept the two Hyacinth Macaws in their cage, which they were none to happy about. They wanted to be out like their buddies.

Hats are a pretty good idea in here, as someone is almost always perched on your head. Earplugs wouldn't hurt, either, as we found out when an eagle flew overhead. The screeching and screaming reached an incredible level 'til it flew away.

When Sue bent over one of the Macaws invited himself along for a ride on her bum, giving her a tail like a Vegas Showgirl. 

 

Gleam took a particular shine to my paintbrush and the top of my pen, chewing the one to shreds and flying off with the other.

Owner Susan's new Aviary Keeper, Sterling, recently transplanted here from Chicago, just to be with these birds. He is happy here with them, and I am delighted that they seem to be happy with him. 

Susan and the staff have welcomed us to come back again, whenever we like, to talk to the birds and be entertained by them. 

Oh, and to sketch and paint, too. If we can. I have so much fun with them I barely get any art done at all! This is the only sketch I got done in the three hours I was there, but I had the BEST TIME!