Cornucopia @ 17th St, Eugene, OR

    Oh, how the group grows as the morning goes on! Great gathering.

         Barb Sh adds whimsy to her sketch of the elephant sculpture.

         Barb So gets her tools ready for her signature delicate sketches.

      Bev sketched flowers in front of her, then on to bamboo – lovely!

     Bill gets into gestural drawing & takes on (gasp!) hands! Well done.

       Bitty is definitely into it. She added frog statues behind her pansies.

      Daisy started with a vine, then onto darker negative space – nice!

      Ellen took on the challenge of sketching a copper wind sculpture!

      Erik is on an “artist’s card” project using watercolor – well done!

      Hugh lays out an ink sketch before taking water brush to pigment.

          Jane’s having a blast playing with a frames format – keep on going!

          Jim goes back to a page done previously & adds todays scene.

      Katie is enjoying playing with frames, too – nice watercolors!

      Ken spied a bamboo plant across the room – “go darker” we said.

      Laura got a thumbs up on her daphne sketch with dark blue behind.

      Marsha went from doing a portrait to curves chairs & table – wow!

      Penny sketched the flowers in the glass in front of her – sweet!

      Sandy brought the flowers, and enjoyed sketching them, too.

Cornucopia @ 17th & Lincoln, Eugene, OR

  Under cover & under heat panels (!) but outside – sweet! Danita, Jim, Ellen, Barb So, Barb Sh, Penny, Daisy, Bev, Ken, Lona, Liz, Bitty, Katy, Marsha, Bill (& Jane behind the camera, with Satoko yet to come).

      Danita brought “artist’s cards” to share but people were too side tracked by the wonderful sculptures in the garden to even look.

      Here’s Danita’s sketch today – notice how she treated the fence, because you’ll see other fence versions by other artists today.

      Jim often divides his pages into thirds, which he did here. His focus was on the patio wall & door, which he left black & white – perfect!

   Ellen’s attention was caught by the large potted plant & how to get the dimpled texture in the pot – well done, I’d say!

   The Barbs discuss how to approach sketching the statue of St. Francis – here’s Barb So’s version, so sweetly done.

     Barb Sh uses a close up photo as detail reference. She includes the statue sketch in an ongoing page. Finished sketch from last week.

      Penny put an ink sketch of the little temple light into a colored stamp page, a perfect context; the fence is a simple line backdrop here.

      Daisy was into the variation in color, in the fence as well as in the bamboo. Both are very lively sketches.

      Ken started with brush pen marker in a loose left hand, added more detail, thought he lost it but followed “go darker!” and WOW!

      Bev kept to a mostly tone on tone approach, but look how the occasional color makes things pop – kind of a halo aura around them.

      Lona started with a light pencil sketch, then started with a watercolor line, then more color, and look at that vibrant fence!

      Liz brought her own pictorial challenge – an Asian woman under a hat. How to do the teeth without them predominating? Erase!

      This was Bitty’s first time with us. She sure had fun doing a collage of images around her, using water soluble ink and watercolor. Nice.

          Katie, just back from vacationing in the sun in Mexico, pondered what to do, then worked on a couple of pages using a frame format.

      Marcia decided to use Katie’s frame approach, too, but kept her approach flexible and light with the markers. Delightful!

      Bill gets a lot captured in his small travel sketchbook, this time people as well as commentary. What a special keepsake this will be.

       Satoko has to join us late, so she doesn’t waste time getting her sketch going – what a lovely line drawing of vines on the fence.

     And Jane? She was so busy with breakfast and taking photos, she finished her sketch home using ink, ink brush, & colored pencils.

5th Street Market, Eugene, OR

Jim, Daisy, Laura, Ellen, Satoko, Bev, Barb Sh, Barb So, Marsha, Lealan, Lona, & Jane behind the camera glad to be back from AZ.

        Now you can see what Jim is so intent on sketching – great job!

      Laura sketched the sketchers, as well as the ramen restaurant front.

        Ellen got started on one sketch – too many lines! – on on to the next.

         You might suspect that Satoko has done this kind of thing before!

     Bev did an impression sketch of men at a table, then a more detailed sketch capturing the ramen place as well as the window & booth.

      Barb Sh has a clever way of getting her models to hold still – take a photo, quick! She’s created the wonderful ambience of the place.

       Barb So had time for a quick pencil sketch, and Lona got out her big palette – she said she got frustrated traveling with a small one!

      Marsha is getting bolder in her use of the brush pen – nicely done.

      Jane boldly went directly to ink on paper – she says it was fun after she forgot to hyperventilate.

   Lealan did a black on white sketch using her Tombow marker – what a wonderful impression, brick wall and all!

5th St. Market, Eugene, OR

      We took over a whole corner of the market – ended up with 17 people showing up to sketch! Here are Bev, Jim, Daisy, Danita, Barb So, Laura; Marsha, Erik, Penny M, Liz, Lealan, & Ellen.

       Bev’s snow scene sketches, and the sketches done today. Charming!

     Jim took on the sketchers scene in the window – what a nice scene.

    Daisy did a wonderful sketch of  her coffee. Then Bev said, “What are you sketching!” Oh, the ATM machine behind Bev’s back!

    Danita chose just three of the sketchers to sketch – her water color rendition definitely caught the essence of the people.

   Barb So had a slightly different angle for sketching people, and incorporated the table in front of her as part of the perspective.

    Laura was looking the opposite way – her stamped page lent a whimsical attitude which she carried on with the lights. What fun!

     Erik had just uncovered his small watercolor palettes along with a pack of “artist’s cards” – speaking of having fun, isn’t this great?

      Franzi slipped into the back corner, taking on the challenge of replicating a photo using colored pencils – she’ll add more layers, too.

      Penny M. said she’d just painted that same scene in oils, but here she is inspired by a picture of crocus, doing a watercolor interpretation.

      Marsha, sitting across from Penny, is continuing to develop her portrait skills, using Pitt pens with a light hand to bring the color out.

    Liz, joining us for the first time, came prepared with a beautiful flower photo she wanted to draw, and did some nice shading, too.

      Jane decided to try vignettes in interlocking frames – at first kind of a maze of lines, but she cleaned up the page for a delightful finish.

       The view of the round lights and sphere in the window caught Lealan’s attention, too; a  very different approach using markers.

    Ken never stops teaching and encouraging eager artists. Lucky us!

      Bill came late from an appointment, but he was ready to draw his subject – Jim – in preparation for a birthday card for his buddy.

    Zoe said she was just glad to be with us. She added onto a collage she was doing, then started sketching Ken across the room – nice!

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, UO Campus, Eugene, OR

Because we are students of Ken O’Connell, we got a special tour of the Oregon Invitational – forty-five 21st Century artists. Here he’s discussing Robert Gamblin’s Amersterdam series.

Ken knows many of the artists, which enhanced our appreciation.

          Discussing works by Robert Bibler, Margaret Coe, & Carol Hausser,

      Works by Paula Overbay, Susan Applegate & Jim Shull (Jim’s work on masonite being hand held); John Jay Cruson; & Leland John.

        Then we viewed samples of Ken’s sketchbooks, from 2006 – 2018.

What to sketch, what to study – we went every which way.

        Penny J & Lealan study one of the paintings, while Jim starts sketching the guys doing an installation in the next room!

      Penny J, Lealan, & Barb Sh focus on Edwin Koch’s Nectarines in a White Bowl, which Penny J then sketches. Nice crisp line work.

        Jane was mesmerized by Karen Carson’s Big Red – so much energy!

     Hugh & Sandy start their sketches with Barb Sh looking on – Sandy did a version of Big Red, too, with Hugh inspired by Ken’s sketch.

       Daisy was one of the first to start sketching – here looking at a painting, Split Screen, by Jay Backstrand.

         Franzi was new to our group, but not new to making art – nice to have her here. Marsha is sketching sketchers thanks to her photo!

        We followed up our visit by going to the Marché Museum Café – perfect for treats and chatting, and of course more sketching!

      Bev found the café to be a great spot to do quick portraits and gestural studies, which she always does so well.

        Daisy dutifully sketched her sandwich, and was elated to be achieving DARK in her sketch. Job well done, Daisy!

        Jim had a good view of the serving area, and in his 2nd sketch here he began to add people in the café. What a delightful sketch.

        Penny got into doing the serving area sketch, too, while Danita at the far table did Erik’s drink & hat & what was next on the table!