A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR SKETCHING AT BAYVIEW FARM AND GARDEN

Our plan was just to sketch at Bayview Corner, but the day was so spectacular that we all naturally gravitated out back to the flowers and plants area outside the Farm and Garden Center.

Their Laburnum Arch was still pretty spectacular, even though it's blooming peaked last weekend. What a beautiful feature they have created there! So many people were coming through, just so see the golden blooms cascading down from the woven latticework overhead. It was fragrant and magical inside the tunnel of golden blossoms.

After I walked through the area several times, I chose as my sketching subject the little shed in the yard they use for storage. I loved it instantly, if for no other reason than the sign on the outside which reads "Bloom Where You Are Planted", one of my all time favorite mottos.

We had a nice turnout - I think we could thank the weather for co-operating for that! It was hard to resist trying to cram into the blossoms, for a "photo opportunity". We were only partially successful. 

Before I started sketching in the garden I met this old guy up on the porch at Star Store, just laying in the sun, waiting VERY patiently for his person to come out and pick him up so they could go home. He was a most obliging model.

This is my finished sketch of the shed.

IN A WHIDBEY VICTORIAN GARDEN

Longtime Whidbey residents Miriam and Phil extended the Whidbey Sketchers an invitation to visit their charming Victorian Painted Lady-style home outside Langley for an afternoon of sketching, lemonade, garden touring and conversation. What an astonishing place!

Welcoming you, the house is gracious and imposing.

But, it's not until you pass through the clematis laden arbor and enter the back garden that you get the full effect. Here you find the charming gazebo, and inside a table Marian has laid out for tea in front of one of Phil's charming pieces of rustic furniture filled with some of their collectibles. 

Beyond the Gazebo, through the rustic gate, the yard opens to a magnificent, sweeping view of the waters of Saratoga Passage, Hat Island, Everett, and the Cascade Mountains.

We felt welcomed to make ourselves at home and sketch to our hearts content.

Thank you Phil and Marian, for for being such gracious hosts and allowing us to share your remarkable accomplishments here on our island! 

 

See ALL of the work of the Whidbey Island Sketchers by visiting our site at

http://whidbeyislandsketchers.blogspot.com

A LOCK ON A CLOCK

EDM challenge #9 - draw a lock. A lock. A padlock? A bicycle lock? A lock of hair? One of the Soo Locks? None of the above appealed to me. But, this morning, as I crossed the living room I noticed that my grandfather clock needed winding. I went over to do it and BAM, there it was! THE LOCK. On my clock. And the key to the lock, with all the tassels I have collected and hung on it over the years. Perfect. Draw . . . . . . 

COFFEE POT? NO. T-E-A-P-O-T-S!

Our Every Day in May Challenge for today was to draw a coffee pot. Since I don't really drink brewed coffee, the only coffee pot I have is old and stone ugly. But my teapots are spectacular. I have a lovely collection of teapots. Here are just three - a Chinese Yxing clay pot, a hand-thrown, Japanese stoneware pot that was a gift from one of my ex-students, and a bright red pot-bellied pot from the Star Store in Langley. I didn't have any Camellia Sinensis (tea) leaves, but I did have Camellia leaves from the garden, so they had to stand in.
EDM #8 - Draw a Coffee Pot

DRAW SOMETHING YOU GOT FOR FREE

Free is a relative term, isn't it? Were they free - why, yes, yes they were. Have they cost me a fortune in food, litter, vet bills and airfare to get them from Michigan to Washington? Heck yes! Would I trade them in on something cheaper? No, probably not. I would, however, trade them for something that didn't wake me up for food at 5:30 or hog the bed. BYW, that would NOT be a man . . . . 

Every Day in May challenge #7

IRIDESCENT GLASS!

I have always called this "peacock glass" but I guess the real term for its lovely rainbow color is iridescent glass. Louis Comfort Tiffany called the iridescent, silver nitrate coated glass he used "Favrile" glass. Rene Lalique used it in his sculptural lamps and vases. This old perfume bottle is neither Tiffany nor Lalique, but it's beautiful and I love it.

This is for Every Day in May #6, "Draw a Perfume Bottle".

THE LOWRY-JAMES PINE TREE

Lowry-James Rare Books, at the corner of Anthes and First in Langley has, in its back yard, an interesting old long needled pine tree which sort of hangs out over the sidewalk. Its bark is very rough, scraggly and mossy. Right now it has these great bright, neon green/yellow upright cones that resemble long skinny pineapples. For day 5 of the Every Day in May Challenge we were to draw a pine tree or eucalyptus. The forest behind me is dense with fir, hemlock and cedar trees, but not a lot of pines. I chose to paint the Lowry-James tree instead. I love the way it looks, especially now with all the other spring colors around it. 

EDM #4 - "DRAW YOUR SOCKS"

I have become quite obsessed with doing sketchbook drawings to post into the Flickr groups I have joined. The "Every Day in May" group set up 31 prompts for getting something down on paper, well, Every Day in May. This is the drawing for day 4 - "Draw your Socks". I didn't find my socks to be of any great interest - they are usually just boring, all purpose black. But, any socks on my feet are of GREAT interest to Beezum (who uses them as snuggle toys). So, I turned them red and put him in there, too, and, well, you get the picture. 

SPECTACULAR DAY AT CLINTON BEACH!

What an amazing day! It was Sketcher's Friday and we met down at Clinton Beach Park, at the Ferry dock. The sun was shining brilliantly (my arms, face and lips are burnt.) There was a breeze off the water, the sky was brilliant blue (cobalt, I'd say) and Mt. Baker was gleaming off in the distance over Camano Island.

  There were all kinds of people out enjoying the sun --  lots of kids digging in the sand pile and down on the water's edge.

Some of the group joined the other hardy souls who climbed down among the tangle of driftwood logs on the beach.

I, however, staked out a nice, comfy table and bench on the Park's deck with a killer view of Camano Island and Mt. Baker, the ferry dock and the Cascade Mountains. 

This is where I did my drawing for the day. Notice, I am using my nifty little Mini Paint Kit, the one I made from an Altoid's tin - paint, pencil, brush, eraser, shop towel, extra mixing tray and clip. Too cool for school, m'frends. Tiny water bottle, tiny spritzer, two water pens, my Micron and my book and I am good to go!

 So many birds around today! That little speck with wings above the end of the beach is the bald eagle that circled around over my head all afternoon. There were flocks of crows, seagulls, cormorants, guillemots, and of course, pigeons (surprised to see them with the eagle overhead).

I walked down to see the ferry . . . .

. . . .  left half a sandwich in a box on the table and one of these guys

. . .  or the crows decided that I had left it for them. Dinner (for them, not for me tonight!)

Another great WISkers day!!