Limbering Up for the Sketchcrawl Tomorrow

Here are two pieces I did today (I can't call them drawings since one's a painting! lol), both were done in my garden.

The rose comes with a survival story. This is an old, well-established rose and that's the only reason it survived the neglect it suffered for several years before I bought the house.

It was being strangled byCampanula (Bellflower) on one side and Bearded Iris on the other. I've been spoiling it for a few months and it's come back to strength and glory. I thought it deserved a victory lap. 

"Fourth of July Rose," watercolor & gouache in a Moleskin sketchbook

This page is a quick series of sketches, really just to limber up my hand. Although they're in reverse order here, the pen & ink was done first as a warm-up.

Plant studies, pen & ink

Centralia's Sketchcrawl is Thursday, August 18th from 6-8pm

If you’re a rank beginner at drawing this event might not be for you, so move along now…

You know how when you’re an artist you’re always trying to figure out what to draw?

You know how you’ve heard about this thing called URBAN SKETCHING and you think it’d be really cool to try?

You know how you’ve heard about something called a SKETCHCRAWL, where a bunch of artists hang out, draw outside together, then show off their stuff online, making other wannabe urban sketcher artists really really jealous?

The problem is that you don’t know where these SKETCHCRAWLS happen…and even IF YOU DID, you’d still be afraid to go to one because:

1. you don’t want to look like a dork in public
2. you’re afraid that some car will hit you while you’re drawing
3. you don’t want other people to think your drawings SUC

That’s why you should come to Centralia’s Third Thursday sketchcrawl:

• It has loads of historical buildings to draw
• It’s a small town, so cars will stop for you when you’re hauling your art crap across the street. (They also won’t run you down when you’re deep in the artistic groove drawing.)
• People are NICE! They’ll cluster around and admire your artwork…which you can then share confidently with all your online friends.
• There’s a KICK ASS art gallery in town, that’s totally worth the visit.

But probably the best part is that you can make friends with other sketch artists, who might become FRIENDS FOR LIFE.

You’ve got tons of art supplies that you bought because people told you they’d be great for urban sketching. Since you’ve spent all that money already, why not use them?

Not to mention the fact that you really LIKE TO DRAW, but don’t have an excuse to do it most of the time.

That’s why coming to Centralia’s Third Thursday sketchcrawl on August 18th from 6 to 8pm would make your life SO much happier, and even help you make new friends.

And the other artists at the sketchcrawl WON’T JUDGE you or your artwork, because they know how it feels TO BE JUDGED.

PLUS… you can TELL all your online friends that you’re now an URBAN SKETCHER and you can post your artwork to all those urban sketcher ONLY websites.

There’s only space for 15 sketchers at this sketchcrawl, so sign up right now or you’ll miss out.

Email me at sara@saralightwaller.com and I’ll get you on the list right away.

See you there!

Sara Light-Waller
Sketchcrawl Organizer

Sketching in Sarah's Garden

"Sarah's Garden," pen & ink and colored pencil
in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook

The other day I did some plein air drawing for the first time in quite a while. How immensely satisfying to sit in the warm Spring sunshine and lose myself to the sounds of nature and the feeling of pencil and pen on paper. Pure bliss!

Sara drawing in Sarah's garden.
(Thanks to Linda Brown for snapping the photo)

Plein Air Painting on Ebey Island

"View of the Trestle" 6"x 6" gouache in a Stilman and Birn Beta sketchbook

Today, we visited our dear friend Mac, who lives on Ebey Island which is just a few minutes away from Snohomish. Mac has a pear orchard and the trees were brimming with Asian pears, plums in two varieties, apples, and of course the bushes were filled wild blackberries. There is a family of osprey nesting on the property and their voices added a lovely accompaniment to the “little Woodstock” music festival next door. It was pretty idyllic and of course, I had so do a painting. 
 

Sara and Mac clowning around

Ebey is very flat and I wondered if I could capture it properly. I decided to give it a try. I still don’t have a complete set of gouache colors so this painting is done with two pairs of complementary colors and one other color that I don’t yet have the compliment for. I used lemon yellow, permanent green light, viridian, quin. violet, dioxinene purple and white gouache.

Painting in progress

P.S. Did I mention that we brought a big bag of fruit back with us? Yum!!

Plein Air painting in Carnation

"View from the Pasture" Gouache, 6" x 6" in a
Stillman and Birn Beta sketchbook.

Yesterday, I spent a lovely few hours sharing a pasture with my horse Percy, with me painting and him grazing. I’ve always loved painting like this, it’s both the companionable and peaceful.

I’m currently experimenting with different ways of capturing massed green shapes in a landscape. With this little painting I feel like I’m finally making some good headway.

Plein Air Painting in Seattle

"Lower Fields, Woodland Park" Gouache, Stillman & Birn Beta journal

Another gouache painting today. This one done in the lower fields at Woodland Park in Seattle. I’m very happy with this one, it captured the feeling I wanted perfectly.

Plein Air Painting in Sedona – sunset on Tuesday

"Prickly Pear." Watercolor, 9"x 12"

Tuesday was our last day in Sedona. I had painted Bell Rock in the morning and I wanted to do one last painting in the early evening, after the temperature dropped somewhat.

Painting in the low light

For this last painting location we drove up to the lookout point on top of Schnebly Hill Road. What a beautiful spot from which to watch the sun set! As the light was fading fast, I decided to paint a smaller subject, some local prickly pear.

I painted until the light was almost completely gone. In fact, I didn’t even get a good look at the finished painting until we got back to our hotel room. By then, although I probably could have taken the painting further, I decided I liked it and left it alone.

Sunset in Sedona

What a fantastic trip! I am so looking forward to continuing my plein air painting adventures in the Northwest.

Painting at Bell Rock

"Bell Rock on a hot May morning," watercolor, 9" x 12"

Following our road trip to Prescott, I returned to painting in Sedona. The ambient smoke was the heavier that next morning than it had been since our arrival, and I had to scout for awhile to find a morning painting location that was relatively smoke-free. Added to this were the rapidly rising temperatures, making finding a spot early in the morning, imperative.

I settled on Bell Rock, in one of the hiking areas, as my first location of the day. I painted in a parking lot and although I was alone with the serious hikers and bikers when I started, but the time I was done I had plenty of company — several tour buses full of visitors.

Painting and landscape

If you’re shy, never do art in public. People like to visit and most times are wonderful to talk to. I spoke with many folks that morning while painting, including a few who made me, and my painting, part of their tourist photos.

By this third painting I was really beginning to relax and find my rhythm.

Bell Rock, Sedona, AZ

En Plein Air Painting in Arizona: The Sedona Airport

"View from the Sedona Airport" watercolor, 9" x 12"

I’ve already mentioned that the smoke from the Slide Fire was really present in Sedona in the mornings. But sometimes you could see smoke in the early evenings too. On Sunday night we went up to the local airport to get a good view of the mesas. In one direction the smoke was very obvious, but in the other, the sky was clear.

We had an early dinner at the Mesa Grill and afterwards I asked them if I could do a painting from their back patio. They cheerfully agreed, and out I went, to paint a far mesa behind the airport. This proved to be a good vantage point for painting, except for one thing — the occasional jet exhaust! But you need to be flexible to paint en plein air. And for me, it is well worth the inconveniences.

Showing my painting setup

Painting and original scene

Plein Air Painting in Arizona

I recently returned from a plein air painting vacation in Arizona. Our original intention was to stay in Oak Creek Canyon, which I’ve always considered one of the most beautiful places in all of northern Arizona. Unfortunately, disaster struck a few days before we left home in the form of the Slide Fire. This large wildfire broke out in Oak Creek Canyon and is not yet fully contained.

Changing our plans quickly, we elected to stay in Sedona which is slightly further to the south. Sedona is a very magical place with huge red rock mesas and incredible views. Though I hadn’t been there in many years, it remains one of the most stunning places I’ve ever seen. Evidence of the fire was seen in the form of firefighters and service vehicles in town and obscuring smoke all through Sedona in the mornings, some days heavy enough to obscure the mesas. On those days we drove south until we found a non-smoky (or less smoky) spot for painting. Later in the day the smoke tended to dissipate, at least at ground level, so there were many more options for painting. I painted two paintings a day for several days. It was a fantastic trip— beautiful, hot, adventurous, and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Smoke from the Slide Fire rises in the distance

This is the first painting I did early Sunday morning, showing the Chapel of the Holy Cross. The smoke was not too bad when I started painting, but by the time I was done, the smoke had dropped enough to make breathing a bit uncomfortable. The chapel is an impressive structure nestled amongst the red rocks. You can read more about it here.

"Chapel of the Holy Cross" watercolor 9" x 12"

Pretty happy with the painting

My plein air setup