Vero — week 1

Top Drawers met at Vero cafe Tuesday, for the first time in quite a while.  Jane arrived early and left a couple items after a pleasant conversation, on her way to a necessary massage in preparation for her long long journey to Europe.  So, after we had all been working and talking for a while, the newly appointed photographer remembered he was supposed to get some pictures, so here are Barbara Summers, Barbara Shirk, Jan Brown, Penelope Youngfeather, and Sandy Larkin proudly displaying their pictures, of which Erik totally spaced getting photos.

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Jane did return from a short absence to say goodbye to everyone, and Erik did manage to snap a parting shot.

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After which, Jane took the camera and added another picture of the happy group, and the delinquent photographer, who promises to do a better job next week at Vero again.

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A Bevy of Barbs

Inn at the 5th, Eugene, OR

Sandy-1     BarbSN-1 Barb Sommer sketches at the table with Sandy while Barb Shirk shows photos of her daughter’s painting, then Barb Stevens-Newcomb tells the story of her sketch which came from a dream.

Sandy-2    Inn-Jane“They’re all BARBS!” Sandy chortled; except her and Jane, of course.

BarbSo-1   BarbSo-2   BarbSo-3Barb So shared her sketch from last week (which included Jane’s sandal), then started an Inn sketch across from the sketch of her dog.

BarbSh-1   BarbSh-2   BarbSh-3Barb Sh had a faint dragonfly outline already, then added a pot of flowers, and finally some juicy blackberries. Next week: dragonfly!

BarbSN-2   BarbSN-3Barb SN is trying the effects of water brush on her watercolor pencils, then broke down to go for it with watercolor wet on wet.

Seeing Red

5th St. Market, Eugene, OR

We weren’t seeing red because of the wildfires all about us this summer (although that continues to be a concern), but rather were colored by the plethora of red umbrellas protecting us from the sun!

Sandy-2,Erik,Jan     Pene,BarbSN, Jan,Sandy, Erik, Jan (& Jane behind the camera) were the first to arrive. Later Barb Stevens-Newcomb and Penelope Youngfeather joined us.

BarbSN-2      BarbSN-3Barb showed us the progress she’s making on her colored pencil rendition of a turtle…now with a rider! What’s the story???

Pene-class      JanePenelope couldn’t stay – she was off to teach her class on “Art and the Travel Journal,” inspired by Ken O’Connell (pictured on her teaching notebook), while Jane sketched the couple across the way.

BarbSo-Erik   BarbSo-son_edited-1Barb Sommers brought a sketch of Erik in his signature hat, as well as the skyline surrounding her son’s place in Seattle – very clever!

Erik-1       Erik-2Erik (in the aforementioned hat) sketched his favorite patio tree, this time with the pole behind it, & pot of flowers in front.

Jan-1   Jan-2   Jan-3Jan was mesmerized by the graphic patterning in the patio chairs and table; adding the pot of flowers behind made them pop!

Sandy-3   Sandy-4   Sandy-5Sandy started out with Jan’s chair challenge, sketched Erik’s 2nd cinnamon roll, Jane’s sandal, the showed us her sketches from the bridge bike ride in Portland she & her husband Hugh did – exciting!

Sandy,Tricia,Erik Then Tricia sneaked into the conversation with Sandy (nothing disturbs Erik from his focus!).

Tricia-1   Tricia-3Here are Tricia’s latest sketches from her travels about Oregon.

Coolin’ It at Cortesia

Cortesia Sanctuary, in the woods outside Eugene, Oregon

1-CortesiaWelcome to Tricia Clark-McDowell’s world – Cortesia. We were all so pleased to be here in the cool green forest.

Share-BarbNS       share-Pene-1Barbara Stevens-Newcomb started the sharing with a colored pencil sketch she’d done in a class, and Penelope showed us leaf rubbings she’d done on tissue paper then glued to her sketchbook.

share-Pene-2   share-TriciaShe also shared a scene from her garden with Sharon Heinz, Barb Aten, and Tricia; then she looked more closely at Tricia’s sketchbook.

Tricia-1    Tricia-2Tricia and Sharon got busy sketching – here’s Tricia’s final sketch.

Sharon-1      Sharon-2Sharon was fascinated with the colorful coleus – she liked her outline sketch but what to do to capture the vivid colors? She got lots of suggestions from the group about how to add intensity & values.

BarbA-1      BarbA-2Barb Aten listens intently to Satoko’s comments, then gets her watercolors out to try her hand at the coleus leaf, too.

Satoko-1     Satoko-2Satoko scolded Jane – “You moved!” But despite the models refusing to hold still, she finished her sketch of three artists at the table.

Jane-1      Jane-2And Jane really was sketching, too – here’s her page about Cortesia.

Pene-1   Pene-2   Pene-3Penelope started with Tricia (across the table from her) and quickly added more people from around the table to her sketchbook.

Sandy-1   Sandy-2   Sandy-3Sandy had the perfect challenge – a blank sketchbook page! So she started by doing the replication challenge, and then to taking a photo of Tricia’s monk statue which may be replicated in clay soon!