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.

Architecture and some Chairs

With a sketching trip in England coming up, I've been preparing by drawing some architecture.

On the Bishop's Close sketch, I practiced grays (ultramarine blue and Quinacridone Sienna) and discovered that I love Arches Watercolor Paper (several grades above my usual paper).

The Firehouse Restaurant is the first of a series of firehouses that some other sketchers and I are beginning.

These are some quick pen sketches made after going to the Farmers Market by PSU.

Parts of the Winchester Inn in Ashland were under construction when we stayed there last week.

It was wonderful to sit under an umbrella or on the porch sketching, until the heat got to be too intense. Then we headed for the plays, movies, or the air-conditioned shops.

Here's a final sketch with no architecture, but some yummy cherries and bright snapdragons.

A Hodge Podge of Summer Sketches

Portland State

Winchester Inn Gazebo, Ashland

Ashland 

Jamison Square

Outdoor table

Portland State University, Smith Center

Ashland, Oregon

Earlier this summer, I went to Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We stayed at the lovely Winchester Inn, where I sketched the courtyard...

and a quick view from the bar and outside in the gardens...

I made this sketch during the intermission of Streetcar Named Desire, (adding the thick lines and watercolor later). I really liked the ironwork and the lighting in this set.