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

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

      Penelope 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.

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

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

      Sandy 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!

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

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

Cortesia Sanctuary, in the woods outside Eugene, Oregon

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

       Barbara 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.

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

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

      Sharon 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.

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

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

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

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

      Sandy 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!

Marché Café, Jordan Schnitzer Art Museum, UO Campus

Even though the red umbrellas cast a ruddy color on our paper, we were grateful for the shade in the sunny courtyard, as well as for Henry the Pug, who cheerfully posed for us:

 Sandy and Erik look on as Henry’s owner enjoys his morning coffee.

    Sandy does several preliminary sketches of the dog, then gives herself a break by sketching Erik, and then Henry comes to life!

    Anne Teigen found another dog in the courtyard to draw, and Satoko Motouji started sketching people as well as the dog Henry.

     Anne said she was looking for painting inspiration in her sketch; Jane was just happy to get that curly tail and pug nose captured.

     Tricia starts with the dog owner, and then sketches Henry in several doggy poses – he is a cutie, for sure!

       Penelope shows Satoko her new sketchbook – but will the ink bleed? NO! Oh boy, another sketching tool to add to the collection!

       Penelope shows the sketch she did in a colorful garden, and Jane shows her “completed” sketch page from last week at Barry’s.

   Penelope shared information about the upcoming class she’s teaching at Oregon Art Supply – yay for encouraging sketching!

      Meanwhile, what are Erik & Jane’s grandson Alex up to? Erik is fascinated by the sculpture across the courtyard in the bamboo, and Alex is fascinated by doing Erik’s name in calligraphy!

Barry’s, Eugene, OR

Despite the unusual cloud cover (we’ve gotten spoiled by the sun!), eight of us gathered to sketch together in the courtyard at Barry’s – Barbara Sommers, Barbara Shirk, Jan, Penelope, Erik, Sandy, Tricia (& Jane behind the camera).

      Here are the early birds, fast at it: Jan, the two Barbs, & Erik – on the right you see how quickly Erik develops his sketch in layers.

       Jan had her eye on the Black-eyed Susans – check back to see more.

        Barb Sommers used a frame (left) to chose her images, and on the right you see how the sketch came to life.

      Barb Shirk had her eye on a couple across the courtyard, and here’s how that sketch took on additional depth & color.

      We love it when we’re somewhere that allows us to pull up another table to accommodate more sketchers – here’s Sandy, Tricia, and Penelope, with Sandy’s emerging sketch of the Black-eyed Susans.

       Tricia is working on adding value to a previous sketch, and Penelope added her morning quiche to a sketch of a prior jazz performance.

        Jane’s page became a series of vignettes – across the street way above people’s heads in the photo on the left is the wiring graphic, and on the right is Sandy’s fabulous Bike Friday bike.

Later that night, Jane made a presentation at the Emerald Art Center about her book “A Year of Daily Gratitude Sketches.” She’s holding her original sketch pages, with a PowerPoint on screen.

Barry’s, Eugene, OR

   Hanna Yoshimura is back with us from Japan, and Penelope got a kick out of showing her the bird & map she drew from her trip to HI.

Meanwhile, Sharon Heinz & Barb Shirk have a chat about tools.

   Hanna got right into the swing of things, sketching her breakfast treat, and then adding on to her sketch journal page.

    Penelope followed suite, adding today’s treat to one from last week.

        Barbara had us baffled, but slowly her mother’s fountain emerged.

      Sharon was working on sketches from her weekend trip to the coast, where Hanna will be next week for the annual Sandgren paint out.

       Erik was busy layering his colors – zow! It’s Barbara!

     So here’s how the table was laid out in the courtyard, missing… Hanna sitting on the wall’s edge to add more to her sketch, and…
    Jane, chuckling with Erik, while she adds strange designs and applies an even stranger sticker she liberated from the side of the building.