6/4/14 - Big Pasco Industrial Park

Tons and tons (literally) of rusty relics and treasures at the Lampson Crane lay down yard in Pasco, WA

Just one of the old warehouses (some still in use, some not) in the Big Pasco Industrial Park.  These old buildings are mostly wooden construction, most with big bay doors that rolled open to allow access for loading trains and trucks with freight that supplied the Northwest and beyond.

                                             

    

Bollards eye view of Lampson Crane

Other than a truckers point of view, this particular placement of bollards is rather comical.
Pencil, micron coloured pens and an eraser were my tools for this Port of Pasco sketch.
(…geesh…occasionally the others get struck from the backside, now found huddling behind the teetering and terrified front bollard.)   patti kirch

Catching up...

It seems that I have been very slow at posting my contributions to the USkTC web site.  The picture below is of the grain elevator East of Pasco near Burbank, WA.  The view is from my campsite at Hood Park which is across the highway from the fishing pond and grain elevator.

                                       

   

"Sketching Big Pasco"

The USkTC group met up along the east side of Pasco, Wa., along the Columbia River, in an industrialized area once known as Big Pasco, but now the Port of Pasco.  During World War II, Pasco hosted the second largest Naval Base in the country as a place to train Navy pilots.  We still have a road here called, "Bombing Range Road," which is populated with homes and at least one large city park. I am assuming much of the equipment was delivered via river traffic from Portland, and by rail from probably Chicago.  Remnants of the old warehouses still stand; many still in use.  Also located at this site is Lampson International Crane.  When the nuclear reactors were in full construction and production mode, Neil Lampson, a local man with an idea, developed the large cranes needed for their construction.  His company, now run by his son, Bill, produces the largest cranes in the world. Their yard is filled with thousands, if no millions, of pieces of equipment and opportunities for sketchers.
   

Sketchers Dave Pointer, Patty Gardner, Patti Kirch, Jim Bumgarner, Gail Roadhouse,
Nancy Thurston, and newcomers, Katharine Rice and Harry McVicker joined us.

These two sketches are mine.  The old Mack truck languishes amongst the Lampson Crane yard's detritus, rusting and withering away in the weather. The other is a composite of equipment that caught my eye in the yard.  Both the yellow piece and the brown hook were close to six feet high, the green tank with tubes and pipes was about four feet high.   

Dave Draws

Drawing with my Urban Sketcher friends in Pasco. We all broke up and went different directions and drew different subjects. I picked the Columbia Rail Bridge, The cable Bridge and the Grain elevator. Dave Poynter

RACECAR Sketch

The word RACECAR is a palindrome and Amy's ride is a dream.  Maybe she will ride my bike and I drive her car?….  patti kirch

Quail perch overlooking Amon Basin

My goal was to capture Patti G in her creative element.  The variegated bloom layers surrounding Cindy's yard were captivating to our Tri City sketching artists and to our Tri City squawking quail.  I mainly used a .05 micron pen and colored pencils for these sketches.  Amon Basin is an undisturbed nature corridor, which ultimately connects to the Yakima River and Columbia River confluence.

I have titled the lower sketch "The Bird's House". patti kirch

Fun Sketching

Dave Poynter
Great day and great setting. It is fun just to spend some time with people who make pictures out of almost nothing, just because they want too.

Urban Sketchers in a Garden?

 Not your typical outing for the gang but it was a great turn out.  Unfortunately Jim our fearless leader was under the weather. Hope you've rested Jim and are feeling better!

 Nancy, Gail & Patty G. honing in on some of the flowers.  I love how Nancy gets right on top of her subject ;)

Patty, Angie, & I went for some garden ambience with some structure.

The boys Jim B and Dave were drawing the house!

 While Jim M, Yichien and Patty went for peeps in the garden

We were also joined by Nancy Richter who photographed the garden (can't wait to see some of the pic's)  and Tina Gergly who I hope will pick up her sketch pad and join us again !

Richland Parkway

The Richland Parkway, Richland WA, lapoynte. I tried to put all the artzy stuff in one picture.

Skipping Work to Urban Sketch

Sunshine and the Richland Parkway were perfect reasons why it felt like I was skipping work to Urban Sketch.  Wednesday mornings are penciled in as "my" break away time.

As the book reads, the Tri-Citians are loyal customers to their farmer's markets, one of which is held in this Parkway on Friday mornings.  The shops are also fan favorites, including Frost Me Sweet, Bell Furniture, The Book Worm, Ariel's, Cheese Louise, Stone Soup... just to name a few

patti kirch

Sketching and Painting

I finally made the last two Tri City Urban Sketchers gathering last Wednesday and today. Last week I tried my hand at my 3rd ever plein air painting in oil.  Apparently it is a lot harder than it looks.  A friend of my suggested doing some watercolor sketches in the field to get the hang of plein air.  Well today I had much more fun doing my loose watercolor thing.  

Oil 12x16 Burbank ponds

Watercolor 5x7 Richland Parkade flower cart

 If your reading this blog and are in the Tri City area, you must come and join us.  Everybody but a few of the oldies are new and we are just giving this a go. Everyone that comes seems to enjoy themselves.  It was surprisingly peaceful at the Richland Parkade this morning and I think we all enjoyed some art therapy!

"Dave Sketches in Burbank" (titled for him by JB)

Weekly Urban Sketcher's Sketch Crawl. We had a great turn out and we sketched the Burbank Pond. I also sketch some people at the bar when I had lunch at the Beautiful Burbank Tavern, better know as the BBT by locals.

"Dave Sketches the Grain Elevator" (titled for him by JB)

My grain elevator for the weekly sketch crawl, 11 x 14 pen and colored pencil.

"Pushing Your Sketching Boundaries - Workshop" presented by USk

http://workshops.urbansketchers.org/2014/04/pushing-your-sketching-boundaries.html