Looking Back on May

Iris bed at PSU, Walk of Heroines

Ladd's Addition with a messy sky.

I think most of the above sketches are self-explanatory. This next one, the grid, is my attempt at sketching a very large and extremely colorful set of paintings by David Hockney on display at the Portland Art Museum. Matching up the lines from rectangle to rectangle was something like doing a jigsaw puzzle. My brain got a workout.

May 2018

Kearney Plaza Apartments...

Laurelhurst Park

On a sketchcrawl with the Portland Urban Sketchers

A succulent garden...

                                                       cleaning at the Portland Art Museum...

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden where the flowers were lovely, but one of the visitors was not.

William Temple House is being sold.

March 2018

When the view on the counter is more interesting than the view out the window...

A new book and lilies...

One out of a row of three Episcopal doors....

A row of pots of cyclamen from the opening of the shop...

Quince from the garden....

Sitting at a wobbly picnic table, making crooked lines and a crooked tree...

What I saw from the front steps....

St. Honore and a birthday, and mouse that K knit for P.

Little lambs and ivy (and other vegetation)...

Hither and Yon, Sketching Outdoors in Portland

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens are gorgeous now, with the rhodies in full bloom. I sketched there last week on an 86 degree day. There's an abundance of trees and bushes in all their spring glory and plenty of birds and other waterfowl. Although I only sketched a duck and a couple of geese,  I heard bird calls from a number of different birds--even one that sounded like a Whippoorwill!



The Japanese Gardens are serene and beautiful, but it's always a disappointment not to be able to use watercolor there. Colored pencils are just so slow to me now and pen and ink doesn't show all the saturated greens against the blue sky.

On a new building across from Tanner Springs, I tried to capture the reflections of the buildings and sky. This is far trickier than I expected!

The shadows are what caught my eye on the YWCA. This was sketched from Behind the Museum Cafe on a chilly day before the leaves were out.

I sketched the top of the First Congregations Church from the sculpture court at the Portland Art Museum.

Closer to home, the Urban Sketchers of Portland had a sketchcrawl near my neighborhood. I took the opportunity to try to draw a car outside the Hollywood Vintage store. I don't like to draw cars, but thought I might like drawing an old design. I still don't like to draw cars.

This was sketched from my porch when the lilacs were just in bud and the camellias were still loading the branches nextdoor.

A Week of Sketches

I got these great cups and saucers at the Oregon Potter's Show and Sale. I think they're going to be perfect for sharing a cup of tea and a cookie with a friend. I wish I could remember who made them. They look like they were made in a studio in the woods.

Technically, this next one wasn't painted this week, but it's another Oregon potter's creation from a previous year. I really enjoy having morning tea in this cup. Someday, maybe I'll get the teapot that goes with this.

We've had a few days of absolutely beautiful weather, so I went to Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens to draw some enormous flowers.  Many people passed these tangly trees until I started drawing them. Then people started to pause to look at them, examining them closely, taking pictures of them, and in one case, posing the whole family in the branches. Another sketcher pointed out that drawing sometimes helps other people to notice things around them, too. Good point.

The rest are my attempts to draw things from the PDX Urban Sketchers Scavenger Hunt list.

This is a drawing from inside Elephant's deli, two attempts at the Portland sign on the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, and the Umbrella Man at Pioneer Square.

(Did I improve?)

(The only guy expecting rain.)

It looks like we're going to have more beautiful weather, so that means more sketching outside! Hurray!

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

Memorial Day at the Garden
Usually, the rhododendrons reach their peak around Mother's Day, but this year everything is late. The rain has been hard on flowers and some were already fading, but there still were many spectacular displays.  I hadn't been to the gardens in years--or maybe decades. I remember keeping our (then) toddler from falling into the water after the ducks and I remember being there with my mother. Now, there are more trails, more bridges and walkways and more accessible gardens. It's still a very popular place for small children and grandparents... and there are still lots of geese and ducks.

                              The pink ones always seem to be my favorites. These were giants.

                                       I liked the explosive look of this bud and leaf cluster.

There are several species of ducks and geese at the garden, but these are the common ones. Love the fluffy little goslings.