Market of Choice, 29th & Willamette, Eugene, OR

We’d announced our meeting was a gelato tasting at MOC…and there it was, alright. But it’s too early to eat gelato at 9:30 a.m., we decided.

     So the “Barb-wires” (Barb Shirk & Barb Sommers) started us off artistically by showing work they’d done recently.

Ken, as usual, had a book he just had to share – this on letters from famous people. Jan, Barb Shirk, Penelope were fascinated. Tricia and Barb Sommers were otherwise occupied.

      Then Ken & Penelope joined in with work they’d been doing.

     Penelope also shared her page of people, which was also the current focus of sketching for Jan and Barb Shirk.

     Here’s the view of what they were doing – Barb building on a background sketch, and Jan trying to find the perfect shocking pink.

      Meanwhile, Barb Sommers was sketching the autumn decorations, as was Tricia (along with a hint of what goodies got consumed).

       Jane (wearing her Susan Detroy design t-shirt) dutifully sketched the decorations, too, as well as a woman across the room, eating…

You guessed it! GELATO!

Oddly enough, only Tricia (above) and Jane ate any gelato, caught up in reminiscing about being in Italy (where it was ever so good!).

New Day Bakery, Eugene, OR

We got so involved looking at each other’s sketchbooks the editor forgot to take pictures for awhile! So you’re missing Barb Stevens-Newcomb’s Rogue River sketchbook (done with hints from the OAS class from Penelope Youngfeather), and Jane’s & Tricia’s Italy sketchbooks. Sorry. And then Barb S-N had to leave early, too.

Here’s the stalwart crowd: Erik, Jan, Tricia, Penelope, & Jane behind the camera.

    Jan said she was in an Italy mood, and tried to apply that notion to her sketch of the nearby geraniums – love the red frame!

      Erik started with a simple contour line, then borrowed an black brush pen to add a dramatic negative space to his sketch – wow!

          First Penelope got out her water brush, but then quickly began sketching the people at the table – even got color on them.

     Meanwhile, Jane messed about with a sketch in her Italy sketches.

    And so did Tricia!Just can’t leave those olives alone!

And this just in by text from Sandy, who’s taking a sculpting class at LCC – this is her first class! Stay tuned for more.

New Day Bakery, Eugene, OR

Getting everybody from this group to be in town at the same time is improbable. But Ken & Jane are back from the sketchbook trip in the Umbrian hills of Italy!

Ken O’Connell, Barbara Sommers, Jane Harrison, & Erik Johnson – all happy to be back together again (Sandy Larkin at the camera).

   And speaking of Sandy, here she is smiling to have sketched her blueberry scone before she ate it!  Hooray! A tasty triumph!

       Erik sketched his tiramisu cupcake (!), and Barb sketched what was right in front of her – those rounded-square plates are a challenge.

Ken shared his sketchbook from Italy, and showed how a sketch isn’t finished until you decide you’ve added enough dark – more dark!

   Jane looks perfectly composed, but her sketch from out the window is a little…ah…tweaked in terms of being totally on the level.  Ah, well, it was a loooonnngggg trip home. Welcome back.

Jan and Barbara were off to a quick start; setting to their respective drawings immediately.Barbara showed us her drawing of a visit to a giant sculpture head.Jan started working on some trees and foliage around the Market sign in front of us.Sandy arrived on her bike Friday to take a picture of two TDs hard at work, and one of them relaxing!She started drawing the table lamp in front of us, and was frustrated by perspective.Erik did a couple of short sketches illustrating the basics of one and two point perspective, but we all pretty much decided that since Cezanne’s time, there wasn’t much to be gained from slavishly using rules of that sort.  Just draw what you see!

 It was an incredibly beautiful morning at the Hideaway bakery on Tuesday.  Sandy and I were the only Top Drawers to show up; we were speculating that it might have been the fault of the beautiful weather.  But the two of us had a very nice conversation on our own.Sandy worked on a nice little drawing of the jade plant on the our table.  She was talking about adding color later.  Erik was a little remiss as usual in getting decent pictures of our work.

Sandy took a nice picture of me!

And embarrassingly, my photo of my own work turned out pretty well.