THE CLIENTS

“I'm sorry. I have to take this.”

Chelsea Simon-Darrow's perfectly manicured hand slipped towards me between the soy sauce and the fortune cookies to reach her vibrating cell phone. After glancing at the ID on the screen, she turned away from the child beside her and scowled directly into my face.

“It's Jason,” she said, barely disguising her displeasure. “I'll take it outside.”

I adjusted my tie.

“Go ahead, Mrs. S-D. You deal with that, and I'll just get acquainted with this beautiful princess here.”

As my client wafted out of the room on a cloud of Guerlain I beamed my best smile down at the tow-head pixy in pink now sitting next to me.

“Hey, pretty lady. What's your name?”

The little girl, who appeared to be about six, looked up through her lashes, her chin on her chest. Her button nose, with its dusting of freckles, barely cleared the edge of the table.

“My name's Amanda,” she whispered.

“So,” I asked, taking in the cheesy red paper lanterns on the ceiling. “You come here all the time? This is a pretty high class joint.” I gave her one of my best good-guy smiles.

“My Daddy used to bring me here. It's our favorite, his and mine.”

She raised her chin and hit me with the full force of her huge, round, sky-blue eyes. Her lashes were moist and sparkling and her voice was full of tears.

“When's Mama coming back?”

“She's, uh, just outside on the phone. See? Look out the window. There she is.”

“Okay.” Amanda's voice was barely audible and her eyes were on the tablecloth again. She lapsed back into silence.

“Well, what's your favorite dish, then. What did you and your Daddy used to order?” I was shooting blind here. “Egg rolls, maybe?”

She looked up at me again with a world of pain in those killer baby blues. In fifteen years that look would slay a linebacker.

“No,” she whispered. “We ate Egg Fooey.”

“Egg Fooey? Is that like Hong Kong Fooey?”

She wrinkled her brow into the cutest frown I've ever seen on a chick., then shook her head so hard she loosened her pink bunny barrettes.

“Not Hong Kong Fooey, silly. Egg Fooey!”

She pointed a chopstick at the remains of the Egg Foo Yong on her lunch plate.

“See?”

The corner of her mouth curved up as she peered into my face this time. Then that turned into a full smile as sparkling and bright as sunshine on water. A smile filled with hope and framed with two tiny dimples.

“Mister?” she whispered. “If I give you all my money would could you get my Daddy to come back home to live with me?”

I should never have looked down at her tiny curled up fist. But I did. Just as her mother stormed back in headed for the table, Amanda opened it and let the handful of coins trickle out onto the table.

“Could you, mister?”

She looked up at me with those hopeful eyes and, yup, slayed me. Right there.

And just like that, I had two clients.

The Tower on the Guest House at the Clay Estate, Greenbank

The Guest House on the Clay Estate in Greenbank (on Whidbey Island) sits high up on a bluff looking west over Saratoga Passage. I did not go up there but my guess is that the Tower room has a panoramic view of the water of Straits and of the main body of Whidbey Island beyond (and from that height probably Camano Island and the Cascades, too!)
We Sketchers met there today to enjoy the landscaping on the beautifully groomed grounds. It only took me moments when I arrived to decide that this view, from the circle drive approach to the building, was the perfect drawing site for me.  It was a "big bite", but I went ahead and dove in anyway. Many thanks to our hosts for the day.

WHIDBEY WINERY - GRAPES FOR THE BIRDS

Never Have I Ever had a bad day with the Whidbey Island Sketchers. Today was just absolutely wonderful. The weather was perfect under another popcorn sky, almost everyone turned out, we were at the Whidbey Winery so there were grapes bursting and ready to be picked, “fake birds of terror” (to another bird) were singing (electronically), the “groaning board” was heaped with good food and WINE, and we were sketching up a storm. It simply doesn’t get better than this. And we marveled yet again at how this large a group consistently gets along and supports each other so well!
When we asked what kind of grapes the ones on the fence were, the ones I was sketching, our hostess informed us they were just decorative grapes, not for wine, and they were there stricly as "sacrificial fruit", for the benefit of the birds - to keep them distracted from eating the grapes on the "money vines"! 

RED HAT BUBBLE BEARS AND A BUDDHA

At the beautiful log home in the deep woods of our hostess, artist and collector of eccentrics, Janet Ross, a kitchen window full of delightful etceteras - including a row of brightly colored bottles, empty now of their soap bubble solutions, but still possessed of jaunty red hats. And a Buddha with a red glass ball. And an orange glass pumpkin. And a flying red heart. JOY on a windowsill.

"End of the Season", Seif's Crab Pots and Floats at Cary's House

With the Sketchers today in Langley at Cary Jurian's WHIDBEY FINE ARTS STUDIO for an opportunity to draw and paint her magnificent dahlia garden, studio building and flowers. The minute I stepped out of the car, though, THIS jumped out at me - Seif's boat, his crab cages and boiling pot, his floats, yellow noodles and ropes, and the lobelia and geraniums in the flower boxes on the deck. Too much stuff, once again, and I only got it narrowed down this much, but I still had a great day focusing on "drawing what I saw"!

Fun on Jamie's Cowboy Deck/Patio

The Artists of South Whidbey held their annual summer party and "paint-out" at Jamie Huden's house tucked in the woods in Clinton. The most fun (other than great food, fun and conversation) was checking out all the great collectibles in and around the house. Their Party Patio is especially cool, with lots of fun cowboy "stuff" including saddle and milk can/tractor seat seating. And a squirrel who was determined to make himself at home inside Jamie's studio!

Sunflowers and Pole Beans at Bob Bowling's Rustics

I had two great opportunities for making some art this week. Both of them were great. Friday was Sketchers, and we met just down the road in Bayview at Bob Bowling's Rustics, the shop complex were Bob produces his terrific Garden and Out Building structures for shipment all over the near Northwest. They are made in house by Bob and his crew, and still feature as much old, "found" and recycled material as he can round up. And he sells them as fast as he can produce them. It would warm the cockles of my heart if I could afford to have one, I know that!!!

ASIATIC LILIES AND LAVENDER AT FINE GELFAND'S HOUSE

It may have been Friday the 13th, but we, the Whidbey Island Sketchers, were having very GOOD luck, because we got to visit Fine and Jerry Gelfand's home in Greenbank. Set on high bank with a majestic overlook of Puget Sound in the Salish Sea, textile artist Fine has crafted a fantasy, secret sunken garden reached only by a meandering brick path down, down through lush vegetation and colorful flowers. At the bottom it all surrounds a glade, in the center of which stands an ancient Island boulder of epic proportions. Fine discovered on the hill, dug down to its base, then had it pushed with dozers down to its present location. 
From an artist/gardener's visionary eye and a tremendous amount of hard work the Gelfands carved all of this magic from the tangle of blackberry bushes they inherited with the purchase of the land. 

Pats House and Gardens - then and now

in August of 2015, the sketchers met to draw member Pat's new house, with its promise of gardens to come. She invited us to image what her plantings might look like. Now here it is, three years later, just before the fourth of July holiday, and her garden area has gone from sparse but full of potential, to bursting with colorful fulfillment. 

An orchid at Grethe and Diane's House

We sketchers were invited on Friday to Grethe and Diane's magnificent art filled home overlooking the water in Langley. With so many wonderful things to see and appreciate, it was a real challenge to pick just one to sketch, but this orchid sitting in the middle of the table in their kitchen caught my eye immediately. I KNOW its sublime color is totally NOT natural, but I was so taken with it anyway. Such blues, violets and deep purple, all in one flower, all in one petal. Its name is "Black Sapphire" and it is a Phalaenopsis Orchid. 

"Wick's End" high above Holmes Harbor

Today we were invited to Whidbey Island Sketchers member Debbie's lovely summer home on the shore of Holmes Harbor in Freeland. We were greeted when we arrived by Dexter the doggie and his green tennis ball, which he wanted thrown real bad, a whole lot! It was such a beautiful view - sparkling water, the Olympic Mountains sharp and clear, deep blue sky, rhododendron trees, lilacs, green, green lawn, and a huge metal gong hung from two trees which, when struck with a mallet, produced a deep, sonorous note. And of course there was good food, good friends, and, oh, some wine. Great fun!

Sketching at the home of Patti and Jeff White

Another fabulous art filled Island home, of course! tucked into the woods, this one belonging to watercolor artist and instructor Patti White. So much to see and sketch inside Patti and Jeff's home (western art! Navajo style blankets! Birch bark and Tramp Art picture frames!), but I was caught before I even got inside, by the view of the house itself and of Maxwelton marsh glimpsed beyond from the tope of a winding brick path. I plunked myself down to catch the hues and textures of the shakes, the varieties and colors of plants, and the stones and brickwork. This is to say nothing of the collections of bright blown glass bubbles and forms in vessels, various rusted metal art pieces, trickle and drip water features, and a Georgia Gerber bronze madonna and child otter sculpture. It was a very pleasant day made more so by the great turnout we had from the Sketchers who were not off to Europe and Mexico!

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 . . .

EDiF2018 - PNW “F” #11 - FASHION

PNW Fashion - Flannel, Fleece and Ear Flaps

EDiF2018 - PNW “F” #10 - FARMING

Wheat harvest in the Palouse country of Eastern Washington.

EDiF2018 - PNW “F” #9 - FELIS CONCOLOR

The Pacific Northwest has a complicated relationship with wolves, coyotes and cougars. On the one hand, the wild “dogs” (coyotes and wolves) and “cats” (cougars), help to keep the deer, elk, and rabbit population under control. On the other hand, they tend to eat calves, sheep and pet cats and dogs. Tough call, no matter which side of the ecological fence you come down on.
Felis Concolor: common name, Cougar, Puma, Catamount
Fells catus Domesticus: common names - You Little Beezum; Sadie, Sadie Bearded Lady; and Maeow Thai See Nom Thon.