RiverView Café, RiverBend Medical Center, Springfield, OR

Our original reason for going there was to see the display of Patti McNutt’s art (please click the photos to see a larger view):

    Here are Patti’s fabulous birds at the entry of the cafe, and here she is herself re-creating her photo in her artist’s statement!  (She has  a problem with being overly serious about herself, but we love her.)

      Here’s the beautiful rainy view, and the sketchy crowd: Heidi, Sandy, Penelope, Patti (& Jane behind the camera).

        Penelope brought work to share from a class she’s taking, where you go from nature drawings to abstracted designs. How cool is that!

      So Sandy and Patti got right down to drawing the nature scene.

      Jane started her sketch in pencil (she’s taking a class from Steven Reddy), while Sandy & Penelope went directly into watercolor (notice Penelope’s brush holding technique for branches).

       Heidi couldn’t resist the ginkgo leaves Patti brought, and got raves for the way she used shadows in the negative space to ground them.

     Confession time – Jane caved in & got a chocolate muffin, just for modeling purposes, of course, & did a quick contour drawing.  She claims the drawing will get a Reddy India ink wash – we’ll see…

And Penelope summed up our visit in her sketchbook.

Owen Rose Garden, Eugene, OR
   While there were lots of roses, there were also lots of other flowers blooming. Barb Shirk holds up Jane’s sketch of the rose arch behind.

    Barb Sommers took photos of the mystery spikes (cardamon behind her), while Barb Shirk focused on the poppies and love-in-a-mist, with Erik prowling around in the background. Tricia arrived about the time we had decided it was still too chilly to stay outside.

So Barb Sommers, Erik, Barb Shirk, and Jane went to 5th St. Market.
Note all but Erik referring to images captured on their phones. He said he’d check his later!

    The Barbs caught us up on what they’d been sketching – Barb Shirk added a toad lily to her toad page, and Barb Sommers added a favorite spoon to her cup page.

    Jane sent Sandy a text about where we were, so she came by to work on her calendar sketches while Jane did a California poppy.

    Erik in process – pencil, ink, colored wax crayons.  He overheard Jane & Sandy talking about mixing oil paint to make pink & having it end up kind of flat – his solution? Start with pink pigment to begin with! His sketch was of Barb Sommers touching the cardamon plant.

    Barb Shirk began with pencil & moved into watercolor pencil – we aren’t sure what this flower is…a mallow of some sort? Elegant.

Then Tricia showed up to give her sketch report – more than just roses at the garden, that’s for sure! Love the vignettes.

Mt. Angel Abbey, & Perugino’s in Eugene – thanks to technology!

    The idea was to go up to Mt. Angel Abbey to see the Valley Calligraphy Guild show – here we are in process, as seen by Penelope’s sketch from the back seat, and the three of us in a selfie in front of a piece of art – Barb A., Penelope, & Jane.

And then we got a text from the Eugene contingent at Perugino’s!

Heidi, Sandy, & Jan, loving the immediacy of sketching in town. (We also got a text from Erik, who was even more immediate, at home!)

    Here’s Jan, hard at work – completing the sketchbook page she started last week with a delightfully complex background design.

    Heidi is still enjoying exploring colored pencil – look at the depth!

     Sandy is using colored pencil, too – look at the color richness here!

    Meanwhile, back at the Abbey, Penelope & Barb A are entranced by the art work in the calligraphy show, & Penelope copied a quote.

    Jane did a quick sketch in the Abbey gift shop, and then in the church where they heard a sung service (she later explored using the Pitt white marker pen with water brush for light around the crucifix).

   Barb was entranced by the architecture and sculptures, but got in a quick sketch during the church service, too. Nice style contrast.

       It’s interesting to see how Penelope’s sketchbook page developed, with little vignettes which captured the whole experience.  Well, except for lunch, and the performance at the Glockenspiel:

We may have to come back here again! Or go to Perugino’s.

Friendly St. Market, Eugene, OR

     Here we are gathered together for another exchange of ideas and inspiration – Sandy, Jan, Erik, Barb Sh. & Heidi (with Penelope somewhere, and Jane behind the camera).  Barb Shirk showed us the last addition to her frog fountain page – a Frog with presence!

     Heidi had a question for Erik in working with wax crayons – how do you get the fine tree detail. Erik promptly loaned her his tiny bladed knife to scratch out where the trees will go.

    Meanwhile, Penelope (I told you she was here) was perusing the Maurice Sendak books Barb brought along to share his sketch style.

    Heidi has a lot of projects going – here, working on negative space to reveal the leaves, wondering about using watercolor later – Barb talks to her about getting fine watercolor pencil lines in the veins.

      Barb shows her how she did that on a leaf. Jan uses a different approach with marker & water brush. So Heidi gamely begins.

      Suddenly it’s quiet at the table. Here’s what Barb is up to – adding a quirky dog misbehavior to her earlier sketch of the little “oh-oh” girl.

     Sandy’s up to the usual – sketching the table inhabitants (including Erik), and Erik is doing the same in sketching Sandy, and Jan is sketching Barb Shirk (in the middle).

      Penelope takes a page she started while waiting in a line at the Post Office (a sketcher is never bored), and adds pieces of people and art tools from the table right now! (See Barb’s shirt at the table end?)

     Jane adds a value wash and watercolor to a sketch she did at home, and then does a sketch of what’s in front of her with a wash. (Can you tell she’s taking a class from Steven Reddy?)

Friendly St. Market, Eugene, OR

The prediction (which was wrong) was for rain, so we headed to a warm shelter in the Friendly St. Market – Penelope, Barb Shirk, Erik, Sandy, Barb A (& Jane behind the camera).

     Barb Shirk showed us her finished “dark” sketch from last week, then she and Penelope got down to new sketching business.

Penelope & Sandy had a laugh about the idea of “are you drawing me while I’m drawing you?”

     And sure enough, Penelope was drawing Sandy (& Erik, & a scone), but Sandy was sketching people at the table beyond us.

     Meanwhile, Barb Shirk captured the sweet moment she observed.

   Barb Aten liberated a model because of it’s interesting label.

    Erik quickly brought an old memory into a lovely colored sketch.

    And Jane spent the whole time exploring the effect of using different pens (& discovering back home that, yes,  paper matters!)