Cortesia Sanctuary, Eugene, OR

     Here’s the house, and here’s the garden gate…

And here are a lot of us, including Avery, Katie’s granddaughter!

      Marcia, Katie, and Tricia, all lined up. And here’s Tricia’s sketch of her garden, so lush and full of color (including color to come, she says).

      Katie had a pre-stamped image on her page, thought it would be a great background, and proceed to paint right over it. Yes!

   Avery has sketched with us (& her grandma) before, so she dove right in, sketching an arbor and the plants around it. Challenging!

      Marcia focused her attention on the little shelters in the garden, and got a lot of detail into her sketches, including color. Sweet.

      Bitty started by putting a sky wash down on her paper, then added the cabin & nearby plants, ending with the towering trees behind.

      Nobody does detail like Jim! He just kept adding details, refining them, and taking Ken’s advice “go darker!” Super job.

     Jane was trying toned (grey) paper, so different from her usual. She started with ink, added colored pencil, white gel pen, & brush pen.

       Lealan & Laura spent time chatting to catch up with one another, then Lealan disappeared into the tree – wow! Look at the light!

       Laura thoroughly enjoyed sketching the variety of flowers at the Sanctuary, especially the unusual foxglove. What a wonderful time.

Here’s the sum of our efforts – nice variety of subject and treatment.
Then we had a potluck lunch! Marcia, Tricia, Jim, Lealan, Jane, Bitty, Katie, Laura, with thanks to Avery on camera!

Owen Rose Garden, Eugene, OR

          OK, now that we’ve got that out of the way…there was also the

GAZEBO! What a sketching challenge, and some got right at it:

Marsha, Penny, Daisy

      Marsha found using a measuring straight edge to be helpful. Lovely!

     “Oh no! I’ve run out of paper!” Penny said. But we all encouraged her to just do part of it then, and she did.

      Jane actually resorted to using Satoko’s “thumb on a pencil” relative measurement system, and it worked pretty well.

          Daisy faked us out – she wasn’t drawing the gazebo at all, but rather the rose trellis arches – lovely capture of the day’s spirit.

Bitty, Lona, Bill & Jim found a place in the shade to draw. It was hot.

        Bitty loved being in the midst of the roses (lovely wet on wet sketch), but couldn’t resist a quick gazebo sketch as seen beyond them.

     Lona brought her own warmth to a watercolor sketch of the roses!

    Bill was adding color to his people sketches from a recent tour. He did some great gestural studies – just imagine what was going on.

    Jim has decided he wants to develop his people drawing skills. So who did he choose for his first victim…uh, model…? Bill!

      Who’s nearly hidden in the calla lilies? Laura! Here’s her finished sketch from last time in the garden, and today’s sketch.

       Speaking of calla lilies, here’s Ellen’s beginning outline sketch – nice.

     Turned around to discover Ken, also intrigued with the lilies. You can get a peek, too, of his sketch of Danita’s husband from another time.

Owen Rose Garden, Eugene, OR

We were all over the place – Jim & Bill together near the Tartarian cherry tree, with Liz nearby; Erik & Marsha confabbing about sketching; Daisy & Lona breathing in the roses; the rest everywhere!

            Bill, out of the house from recent illness, gloried in the sun while Jim refined his sketch and caught up on travel adventures.

           Barb Sh shared her design for a Goth wedding card, complete with gargoyles. Then a smaller version became part of her sketch today.

    Penny checked in with Liz, who was really intent on sketching that tree. What a fabulous day in the sunshine.

     Marsha, Erik & Ellen wander around looking for sketch sites, then Erik settles on the huge old cherry tree, too.

   Ellen found a fascinating enormous leaf to sketch, backed by a tree and accented by foxglove. How delightful.

      Marsha chose sketching in the shade, and had a poppy sketch from home to share before she tackled sketching a rose. Elegantly done!

      Daisy & Lona were surrounded by roses. Here’s Daisy’s loose watercolor sketch added to one she had done at home. Lovely.

      Lona started sketching a nearby bench set in the flowers, with a Van Gogh approach she said – love that yellow border, too!

      Tricia joined the gals, and did a splashy impression of the garden in front of her, then added text to fill out the experience. Nice.

      Meanwhile, Bev discovered poppies growing near the gazebo. What a lively sketch of them! Then she had to sketch roses, too, of course.

Laura started with one version for the poppies, then turned the page and did a new one for a different approach. Do it again, and again!

Penny got caught up in sketching the poppies, too, then took shade on the bench near Katie. Look at those roses beyond them!

      Katie is having fun playing fast & loose with her frames template – now let’s see, if I combine these spaces…and out of the frame…

       Jane tried playing with the frames, too, but rather than combine some, she had images breaking the frames, inside/outside.

    And here’s Lealan walking with Barb Sh. She may have come late after taking care of remodeling tasks, but there’s promise there!

Schreiner’s Iris Gardens, Salem, OR

  Erik (& Kate) & Marsha got there first.  Here’s today’s group: Danita, Lealan, Erik, Jane, Daisy, Marsha & Laura (with Kate at the camera).

          Kate captures a photo of Marsha & Erik. Erik excels at photos of the mind to draw from later, while Marsha grabbed some time to sketch.

       How do you choose what to draw here! Jane tried to capture a taste of the scene – what an abundance of color and shapes.

     First Lealan used wax crayons, then a brush pen to capture the essence of the iris – some wannabe sketchers even stopped to look!

      Laura got right into sketching, and here’s her final sketchy-sketch.

      Danita got in some sketching time there, too, but Daisy was too overwhelmed at the garden so she sketched on the way home!

OK – the rest of the photos here are of the flowers we saw, so if you’re not interested you can skip them. But we loved them!

Among the iris:

And some of the show-stopping iris:

5th St. Market, Eugene, OR

   From the head of the table: Ken, Sandy, Barb So, Serge, Bev, Hugh, Erik; Liz, Marsha, Daisy, Jim. (Jane behind the camera.)

      Sandy brought the iris, and didn’t she do a sweet job sketching it!

   Ken had a good time sketching the iris, too, using water soluble colored pencils and a water brush, rather than his usual brushpen.

     Barb So had already done some sketching of her iris at home, but she enjoyed adding this delicate sketch to her book, too.

       Serge has such an eye for detail, and knows just what to add to increase the dimensionality of his sketch – can you see the changes?

           Bev let her sketches of Ken and of Jane be part of the background context, while the flowers took center stage with color – sweet!

          Hugh sketched the iris, too from yet another viewpoint. Then he couldn’t resist using a brushpen to sketch a guy with a “man bun.”

      Jane thought Erik was sketching in two different frames. “No, it’s a tree trunk,” he said – then made it a tree trunk separated in frames!

    Liz was interested in the food mart sign with accompanying paper lanterns. This will be fun to bring color to it, with bright red lanterns.

     Daisy was into the signs, too. First a graphite pencil outline, then ink, then colored pencils. Nice work, Daisy!

         Jane’s version of sign capture used the little square frames. The last frame is taken from a photo from downstairs in black & white.

      Jim uses his sketchbook somewhat like Barb Sh does – it’s an ongoing story of where he’s been, what he sees, and the pages turn on & on.

          Meanwhile, Marsha was doing a visual record of Jim at work – great!