I've been teaching an urban sketching class at the new St Helens Recreation building located on what used to be the old Boise paper plant. The weather this year has been really challenging because of the lingering winter but FINALLY warmer weather has come around and the cherry trees burst in to bloom. This is a quick painting in my small square sketchbook from the last day of class.
Some times I just plain run out of time working on site and have to add color after the sketch session. This was one of those times. Here is the jury room in the old Columbia County Courthouse. The county historian said the chairs are the original chairs from the original courthouse. These were made in the late 1800's and rather than the stamped version we see made today, these were obviously hand carved. They are all wired together and to sit in one elicits groans from the chair but they are still solid, a testament to their original construction. Sadly I placed the chair in the stitching of the sketchbook so I may end up redoing this one at some future time. In the distance is the tip of Sauvies Island and what's called Warrior Rock as seen from St Helens.
A quick sketch today:
People aren't my usual subjects because they constantly move so I usually edit them out. Today I decided to give them a shot for a change. I'm working in my pen and ink journal. I've learned from experience this paper doesn't take watercolor well so I have to stick with just line drawings. I'm running out of pages so soon I will move on to something that will allow me to work in color again.
We also enjoyed an interesting lunch while we were there. If you haven't been, the cartel is right across the street from the Beaverton City Hall.
It was an excellent warm, sunny and very windy day to sketch at Pittock Mansion. I drew with my mechanical pencil and decided to ink it in with a brown technical pen instead of the usual black ink to lend to it's vintage quality.
#urbansketching #pittockmansion #portland #bonnywagoner
I sketched my tools while I waited for my students to arrive for my urban sketching class at the new St Helens Parks and Recreation building.
Had to move urban sketching to Thursday to match when the museum was open for this opportunity. The jury room in the old courthouse. My usual quick draw, slow paint. It's not done yet but I forget to take a picture if I don't take it when I'm thinking about it.
I think our weather pattern is right on the verge of changing but it was still too cold to go out and sketch today for our urban sketching class so we sat indoors and drew the gals at the front desk. With a little bit of luck, maybe next weekend we will not only have warmer weather... but maybe the cherry blossoms will start doing their magic. I hope. Registration is still open.
I'm laughing at myself. I found a draft from 2014 that I've put off revisiting. Instagram has been on my "to-do" list and I'm just now learning the platform. I've discovered it works better on my phone so I rarely look at it on my computer. My posts are somewhat random but you can follow me now on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/bonnywagoner/
No promises but it's on my list to keep up at least once a week. Yeah, I know it's supposed to be at least once a day but habits take a while to form and since this has been on the back burner for a while already, once in a while is the best I can do for now.
I am teaching two classes through the St Helens Parks and Recreation:
For adults:
Beginning Urban Sketching
For the kids:
Italic Handwriting
To find out more information about the classes and how to sign up, click on this link:
Recreation Winter-Spring
Sketching in the museum. They don't allow wet media so color will be added later. The two pieces on the right are colored pencil pieces on loan from the Smithsonian. The artists name wasn't familiar but I noticed they both predate the formation of the Colored Pencil Society of America.
On my "to-do" list has always been drawing carousels so when the opportunity to draw the horses from the Jantzen Beach carousel (currently in storage and in the process of being restored), I jumped at the chance. First sketch session was today so I was just getting them figured out. This is a pelted black stargazer. I was working in a size and orientation I don't normally work in so I didn't get it sized the way I wanted it to be but here is my first stab at it. More to come as I plan to go back and draw more. There are 80 horses in all. Squeeeeee!
