"Hedges Winery"

 

We drove back to Hedges Winery this morning a little after 8am.  It's a beautiful winery, the landscaping is breathtaking, and the wine is superb. 

 

 

This was supposed to be my warm-up.  It's 6x9.

Looking straight on from the lawn, the light hitting the edges of the fountain caught my eye. 

SKETCHING TOMORROW!!!

Come sketch with the Urban Sketchers tomorrow morning (Friday) at 8:00!  We'll meet in Richland near McDonalds in the Fred Meyer's parking lot and head towards the beautiful wineries in Benton City and Prosser.  See you there!

Home

Sunday I sat in my back yard and drew a few of my favorite views.  In the first one, I remembered how important it is to relate the vertical lines to the edges of the page - so many of my drawings are crooked on the page (tho easy to remedy with the computer).  I left out all the leafy shade on the patio choosing not to mess up the cleanness of the foreground.  The second one was tricky in not getting lost in all the zig zagging lines back to the horizon.  Darker in the front and moving back to light light in the back helps things in front move forward.  The last one is done on gray paper with a new white Sharpie pen that is pretty worthless.  It melts into the page!  That may be better than dominating the scene however...

The Pasco Mercantile

  

   

 

Jim and I met up at 8 Saturday morning and headed north on 395 to Preston Cellars but it's not the most interesting building and the front of it is in the shade that time of day so we headed further north to the Merchantile (not sure the whole name here...).  We started outside where I got the colors too bright on the corn field/windmill but enjoyed the loosey goosey lines of the wagon.  Drawing that way is a challenge to just let things run into the next then into the next and oops - you end up in the wrong spot, so you just change it!  That one is my favorite.

Then we moved inside, had a sandwich and sampled all kinds of chocolate (what a way to spend the day!) and then settled in to draw the interior of the place.  What a challenge!!!  Not only are there people MOVING everywhere there are boxes and boxes of fruit, salsa, chocolate, enchiladas PLUS a green and white checkered floor.  I started out sketching people as fast as I could and did a few thumbnails then settle in on the second floor eating area with a balcony overlooking the giant counter.  No checkered floor in sight...

"Old Pasco Air Field"

After a bit of a snafu on my part this morning regarding starting time (I was half an hour late), Nancy waited and must have left for home about 5 minutes before I come pulling into the parking lot.  I called and she was out walking FIVE dogs and off to another chapter of her day. 

 

So, with nothing better to do for a while, I drove over to what used to be called "old Pasco" looking for something to sketch.  I couldn't keep my eye off that old airport tower that was recently refurbished thanks to the efforts of the Bergsma Air, and the city's repsonse to those efforts.  Anyway, the old tower served in the '40's as the airport tower for the thousands of naval air pilots who trained here for the war.   

"California Adventure"

The "gang" I was hanging with at "California Adventure" last month was on the move to catch the tram back to our room, so I had only a minute, or less, to capture the essence of this view. Quick lines of the skyline, the outline of the building on the right and some semblance of the perpsective in the bottom lines of the far buildings as they face the boulvard.  All while they walk around a far corner and I can hear my wife asking, "Jim, are you coming?"   

 

Almost a month later, while waiting for my wife to do some shopping, I laid a few more lines down and it began to look like what I had in mind.  Then today, Aug. 22nd, I added a bit of watercolor and "wa-la" it nudges me closer yet to the idea that it is the line and the color of a sketch rather than the accurate depiction of the thing being sketched that lends it "life." 

 

Yeah, I like this one.



"California Adventure" is located in the old parking lot at Disnyland in Anaheim. 

"Lampson Crane Tracks and Base"

"Lampson Cranes," worldwide in distribution, are manufactured here in the Tri-Cities. This is the base of what appears would/will be a gigantic crane. To get the size, note the two men, one on each side of the drawing.

L'Ecole Winery, Lowden Wa, Lapoynte

A few sketches of the wonderful winery.

The Inaugural: "Third Saturday Sketchcrawl"

We have had lots of outings, sketchcrawls, if you will, most of them on Saturdays.  For each we have had everwhere from a dozen people to one person participate.  Today was a one person day so not a great inauguration for our first ever, "Third Saturday Sketchcrawl," but hey, it's

off the ground anyway.  

We decided to go with just one Saturday a month for those who can't join us on the "Casual Friday Sketchcrawls."  We still have hope that one day we will have droves of Tri-City folks interested in drawing, sketching, painting, art will join us because the sketchcrawls, whether Friday or Saturday, are fun; we all have new friends because of it; our skills continue to improve; and we belong to the world-wide phenomenon of Urban Sketchers. 

Here are two sketches done today by Jim Bumgarner.  

While waiting to see if anyone else would participate, I sketched
some of the cars in the parking lot at the 509 Artspace.

After leaving the Artspace, I drove over to the Starbucks near Gold's Gym and found
a couple of ladies having a nice lattee.  My plan here was to
capture them as my mentor, Jim Richards would. 

L'Ecole 41 Winery

These are my sketches of L'Ecole Winery near Walla Walla.  I started out with the blue ink in my new Lamy pen and did the 4 tiny thumbnails (the third picture above).  Not liking the blue so much, I switched out the ink and went to my larger watercolor journal and THEN switched to a pencil to come up with the third drawing shown here.  You can see some residual of the blue ink.  The pencil drawing was nice but there were so many details and angles on those roofs and windows, etc. - it was tough to capture.  I flipped the page and did the best one (I think) which is the first drawing shown here.  It seems to highlight the front door and the 3 level tiered entry.  The last drawing shown was back to my little sketchbook.

I am wondering if the extra fine tipped Lamy pen lends itself better to the smaller drawings - I tend to get lost in the details with that tiny tip on a big piece of paper!  (The third drawing was really crazy and free - sometimes, I just gotta do that...)

"L'Ecole Winery: near Walla Walla"

Dave Pointer, Jim Bumgarner, Nancy Thurston at L'Ecole Winery on Aug. 17, 2012

The Urban Sketchers: Tri-Cities, WA group traveled down the Walla Walla highway this morning to the L'Ecole Winery in Lowden, WA.  It was a beautiful morning with low, yet bright light and cool, crisp air.  We had another great time and just have the hardest time trying to understand why so many Tri City artists, who know we do this, stay home. 

Oh well...

Here are some of the sketches we created.  Enjoy. 

L to R, Top to Botton:  Jim, Dave, Nancy and Nancy

L to R, top to botton:  Jim, Dave, Nancy and Nancy

Unfortunately this is the only photo of the old school house turned into winery we came home with.



"The Blue Bridge on a Hot Day"

With the thermometer creeping toward 100 degrees today I stopped in the park to sketch the old Blue Bridge which spans the Columbia river between Kennewick and Pasco, WA. 

Standing almost 60 years now, it still looks good.  I'm amazed that for these three cities having a total of about 25 - 30,000 people in the early fifties, they had the foresight to make it a four-laner. 

CASUAL FRIDAY SKETCHCRAWL

What would everyone say about meeting in the Pasco Red Lion parking lot (in the NW corner by Roasters Coffee) at 7:00 am and driving to L'Ecole 41 on the way to WW this Friday?  It's about 20 minutes or so in the opposite direction of where we've been going...

6th Street Coffee, Prosser WA, Lapoynte

Stopped in here for an iced coffee on a very hot day!

DRAWING MARATHON

http://www.nyss.org/programs-courses/marathons/

Here is a link to the New York Studio Schools annual drawing marathon.  It is 2 grueling weeks of drawing for 8 hours a day!  Imagine your skill level at the end of this (I can't)!

This is the school I attended for the Fall quarter a couple years ago and highly recommend it.  I did not plan this year, but I plan to attend next year for sure.  Granted, it is not for the weak of heart or the semi-committed, but I wanted to share...