GOOD FRIDAY PYSANKY EGGS

The Whidbey Island Sketchers Sketch-Out yesterday was at the home of member Rebecca Alden Rickabaugh in Freeland. It was a fine turnout of artists to sketch the labor and love intensive work Rebecca has done creating colorful and intricate Easter eggs, using the very old Ukrainian/Polish/Czechoslovakian art of Pysanky. She starts with a raw egg, uses a special tool to draw intricate designs on the egg with wax, then dipping them in dyes between each layer of design. In the end, when the wax is removed, the egg and all its magnificent colors of dye and line designs (where the wax was) is revealed. Thanks, Rebecca, for this peak into a fascinating old artform, and also for your hospitality in your art-filled home. 

St. Patrick's Day with Shamrocks and a Gnome

A St. Paddy's Day outing with the Whidbey Island Sketchers at Bayview Farm and Garden with the focused intention of SKETCHING SHAMROCKS. I found a little corner for me and my chair, pulled plants and "stuff" from all over the greenhouse, built a little still life, and had "foine toime of it" for the day. Erin Go Braugh
I wondered why I was the only person sketching, then finished up, went outside, and found them all in the garden of the Flowerhouse Cafe, having a party without me!

A Spring View out my Front Window

Thank you Winsor and Newton and Daniel

out my window
a joyous brush of blue
cobalt sky above rich green-gold 
thalo firs shadowed ultramarine
against a bursting unfurling wash
of gamboge and merlot
leaves tipped with dew diamonds
sparkling tints and hues of
spring morning

The ANNUAL CRAP SHOW!!!

I had an absolutely fabulous day of all ART yesterday with the Whidbey Island Sketchers at the Creative Recycled Art Projects show (the Annual CRAP show) at WICA! Art projects from Island artists who use recycled and repurposed materials in their creations. So MUCH to sketch that it was almost overwhelming. I chose by amount of color (of course) even though there were many things just as interesting less colorful. Anyway, here are projects done by Sara Saltee (a collage box), Janet C. Lewis (a costume mannequin), Sarah Dial Primrose (a collage of "dead" CRAP), Liesel Lund (a collage necklace), Natalie Olsen (a woven apron), Janet Phiefer (a recycled metal and button sculpture), and Deborah Eimers (a gourd and crow skull bowl). Many, many other equally exciting pieces, too! That show is just getting better and better (and bigger, too!)

THREE TEAPOTS OUTSIDE FREELAND, WA. . . .

. . . and INSIDE the Senior Thrift Store. Or Island Thrift. Or whatever it is called now. At any rate, the place is wonderfully restored since their fire in the attic, and the upstairs is full of new little cubby rooms and nooks and crannies filled with kitschy stuff. So, last Friday afternoon with the Whidbey Island Sketchers, found these colorful ceramic teapots on a shelf in the "tea room" and hauled them out to the furniture section where I set them up as a still life arrangement on a table, sat in a comfortable chair, and sketched the day away. And listened to the birds and water sounds coming from a nearby electronic "painting". And to a random guy who sat down at the old upright piano and proceeded to play jazz, and ragtime, and classical and rock, all from memory. It was a terrific visit to a favorite sketching venue.
Oh, and BTW, couldn't resist buying some neat old rectangular white plates donated by China City . . .