5th St. Market, Eugene, OR

Barb Sommers, Jan, Heidi, & Sandy ponder art materials – here the book Ken brought along regarding classic Roman lettering, and the pot of bright red ranunculi Jane brought to share.

     Ken interrupted Erik’s wax crayon sketch with a chuckle over the sketch his granddaughter Fiona did in his sketchbook.  Jan shows Heidi the difficulty she had with smudging with white wax crayon.

Then Erik made it even more complicated by talking about techniques for using Caran d’Ache water soluble wax crayons, which got Ken trying them immediately (while Barb Shirk pours over the book on lettering, and Barb Sommers & Jan get busy sketching).

     
Ken admires the layers of dark color Erik got on a previous sketch, & Erik launches into a new one (come back to see the finish of it!).

      Ken looks at his initial sketch, then tries a wax pencil that Sandy shared, with the results at the right – nice definition & depth!

     Sandy starts out with an ink line drawing, then begins adding color with the Caran d’Ache wax pencils (different from the crayons).

    She adds layers of color shade until she’s satisfied – well, yeah!

     Heidi uses the wax crayons creating a memory – a Bavarian meadow!

      Barbara Shirk gets a critique from Ken on one of her sketchbook pages, then (ignoring the wax crayons!) starts a new one, featuring one of her daughter’s dogs (a long-haired dachshund).

     Looking out the window we see Jan’s view, then back on her page is her sketch using Tombo brush pens. That yellow sings!

     Barb Sommers couldn’t resist sketching the flowers, using ink along with her usual deftness with a soft watercolor.

      Jane’s always complaining about being too tight & detailed – here’s her initial ink sketch, and the watercolor treatment she gave it when she got home.  Is that loosening up??? Uh….

Hideaway Bakery, Eugene, OR

It was a chilly overcast day, so we opted to be sketching inside across from the fireplace (the warmth was welcome!).

Here’s Jane’s sketch of the gal totally immersed in her laptop computer, sitting in front of the fire.

   Tricia said she was trying sketching directly with color, not using an ink pen (which is her usual go-to sketch tool), then  going back in to add detail and contrast.  Looks successful to me!

    It’s St. Patrick’s Day!  Even though Ken’s granddaughter Fiona reportedly thought it was an opportunity to pinch everybody willy-nilly, we gladly took one of the stick-on shamrocks Jane brought. Here’s Barbara Sommers sketching cups and shamrocks.

     Erik was working on two small vignettes – how does he get such sharp thin lines? A fortuitous break of a crayon!

Sandy interrupts her sketch of a cookie to respond to a query on her phone from the guy building her pottery table. What you can’t see here is that when she got back to her sketch, the model was gone! Now who could be the culprit…..

Hideaway Bakery, Eugene, OR

     
Heidi and Sandy enjoy sketching in the sun – here’s Sandy’s sketch of Erik, who was sitting across from her.

     As always, Erik is sketching from images saved in his memory bank.

   
Heidi begins her sketch of a hanging basket – lovely details emerge.

     Jan’s fierce attention to detail really pays off!  Ta dah!

It’s always a special treat when our teacher-mentor-friend, Ken O’Connell, is able to join us.

New Day Bakery/World Cafe, Eugene, OR

The number of sketchers who are able to meet together varies widely with our group, but never the amount of interesting things that happen!

Here are two of the “Barbs” – Barb Sommers and Barb Shirk – hard at work.  Barb Shirk was using her Lamy pen for drawing (which comes with water soluble ink), and said that when she sprayed it with water it turned out to be TOO much water! You don’t learn without trying.

A woman named Eunice showed us drawings that she has created from numbers: 1 becomes a cross, 2 a duck, 3 a snowman, 4 an old woman, 5 a boat. She said she sometimes does her drawings for children who come to the bakery for their artistic amusement.

         Jan demonstrates her facility in using the Tombo water soluble ink markers (her secret, she licks the ends of them!)

Wichita Art Museum, Mar. 12 at 6:00 pm

Our own Joby Patterson is giving a Curator’s Talk: Remembering Kansas of the 1930s: Norma Bassett Hall’s Color Block Prints

American artist Norma Bassett Hall (1888-1957) found inspiration in the diverse landscapes that she and her husband, artist Arthur William Hall (American, 1889-1981), encountered in their travels and in the places they lived. Bassett Hall resided for nearly two decades in Kansas, and she was the only female artist among the founders of the Prairie Print Makers, a Wichita-based artists’ association founded in 1930. Between 1923 and 1944, she created more than a dozen captivating Kansas images. In the 1940s, Bassett Hall was part of a wave of artists experimenting in serigraph, or silkscreen, for fine art rather than advertisement.

Dr. Joby Patterson is the guest curator of Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk: The Color Prints of Norma Bassett Hall on view through July 12. She will share her adventures in uncovering the life and work of Bassett Hall and discuss the artist’s techniques and creative vision. A book-signing of Patterson’s 2013 publication, Norma Bassett Hall: Catalogue Raisonné of the Block Prints and Serigraphs will follow. Patterson is an art historian specializing in early 20th century American printmaking and the author of Bertha E. Jaques and the Chicago Society of Etchers, which she began on a Smithsonian Fellowship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1990. She taught the history of printmaking at the Universit of Oregon and lives in Eugene.

Galleries open until 6 pm. Free admission. Held in conjunction with “Chipping the Block, Painting the Silk: The Prints of Norma Bassett Hall,” on view from February 21 through July 12, 2015.