Earth Sanctuary

If you have never been to the Earth Sanctuary in Freeland, leave yourself a couple of hours to meander through this sacred and beautiful garden.  Enjoy the sounds of the Bullfrog, Eagle, Osprey, Owl and many other creatures.  Visit the the many seating areas that overlook the Fens and Ponds and just listen.  Somehow listening to the animals allows you to listen to yourself.

"The Cottonwood Stone Circle, built in 2006,  measures 40 feet in diameter,  was originally made with 12 standing stones 11' high.  More inner stones have been added since and are arranged to artistically complement the symmetry and formal geometry of the 12 stones.   Inspired by the Callanish Stone Circle in Scotland, a line of standing stones was added  on the West and the East and two outlier stones were placed to dramatize the North-South orientation of the stone circle."

Friday was beautiful and warm, despite the rain (of caterpillars).  I wore a big brimmed hat to deter the creatures, but they loved my paint palette and water dish.  I could imagine them swinging off the trees to the small watering hole I use to moisten my paints.  Ugh!  They were even hard to pick off my pants because of all their little feet holding on and saying NOoooo, don't dump me!
One can't help the feeling of sacredness while standing within the stones.  Prayers come naturally for peace and friendship.

A Sunny day in Pt. Townsend

Bicycle Antenna

Don't I love it when the Weather man is wrong!  We were all prepared for rain or sun today and the Sun won!  Sounds like a pun.

I think this boat is a Pt Townsend icon because so many people were taking pictures of it.  The funky bikes might serve as an antenna.  Maybe no one lives there, but it give that impression.

However, sketching the last picture
of the red wall, man in green with sun on one side slashing down the wall was a wonderful challenge.  Could I get the likeness before they finished eating.  Fortunately, there was only one waitress today, so I did finish capturing the light and likeness. Sort of!  The light was prime!

Inside/Outside

Jim Short at Sirens in the sun?

Sirens Restaurant always seems to be sunny to me, but if you look out this window at the water and clouds you can tell the weather wants to change

Freeland Cat Cottage

I met the king of cats this last week at the Freeland Cat Cottage.  He truly was king of the jungle with a great personality but also an automatic self defense response.  I discovered you could approach him from the back and give him a back massage, but please don't try petting this "little kitty" from the front if you value your skin.  He is not mean, just automatically defensive, a response to being cooped up day after day.
Robby is a Norwegian Forest Cat (the Maine coon cat has tufts in his ears).  This guy would be a wonderful, interesting companion, once he settled into your home.  Don't you need a King in your house?  I'll come visit him as he is very cool!

On the other hand we had a tuxedo cat named Rocky.  I think their names should be reversed.  Rocky is a little? chubby from his confinement, but beautiful, curious and mellow all at the same time.

Sherryl found a lovely gray tabby that spent the afternoon warming her up and Sue was all over the place testing all the cats, except Robby, for placement in her home and on her lap.  Just purr baby!  She will take you home.

Robby resting on the floor

Robby in his tree house acting like the King with beautiful eyes

Rocky, the chubby tuxedo cat.

Ebey bowl

This is a quaint old bowling alley on the prairie in Coupeville.  It has recently been taken over by a couple of women that worked for the former owner, therefore saving it from going downhill.  When we were there, a birthday party was in session and after school kids were bowling.  It is such a funky colorful, personal space with lots of fun old posters and you can't beat the checkerboard floor.

Cynthia sketching something in the corner and a rack of balls.

I sketched this across the fold.  Need a bowling bag or ball?

All day sketching

Yesterday we celebrated our Whidbey Island Sketchers, fearless leader Sue Van Etten's birthday, with an all day sketching marathon.  We started at Mukilteo Coffee House's Cabuni Cafe with breakfast and moved on to Natalie Olsens, fine establishment, where she provided more food & wine while we sketched and discussed the upcoming trip to Winthrop (I can't wait to see the fall colors from this trip).  The final stop was the Holmes Harbor Rod and Gun Club to sketch the beautiful heads on the wall.  It was a long, but fun day!  Why is it so tiring sitting around all day painting?

Cabuni Cafe colorful food bar!

The best part of my day was acting like a traffic cop at Mukilteo Coffee, shooing drivers away from parking in front of the pumpkins, so I could finish painting them.  Gary came out and said "Oh its Pat", no problem!  Nice to see you again old pal!

Bambi's Dad & friend

View of the valley from Natalies

Part of the wonderful food & wine

The beautiful fall pumpkins at Mukilteo Coffee

Sketching with Kaila

Follow the flag path to the Castle...

Kaila's flag hanging high in the forest!

Grammie's flag in your face! :-0

While my family was visiting recently, my oldest granddaughter Kaila and I went out to experience Whidbey by sketching.  We thought we might catch some of the players in costume at the Shakespeare Festival, but they were practicing and we weren't allowed to see them.  So, we sketched the flags welcoming you to the festival.
It was Kaila's first time using watercolor and I really like what she did!  She is used to oils and used a more controlled approach, but you can feel the flag hanging high in the trees.

Capt. Whidbey Inn, Coupeville, WA

View outside from the bar window.

The last time I sketched with our group was at the Capt Whidbey Inn.  Since then, we have had family visiting for a reunion and a number of celebrations. My granddaughter and I did get away for part of a day to sketch, but I will show those sketches next time.

The old stove in the bar.

Door dartboard!

June 21 Summer!

Whoo hoo!  Summer arrived just when I was giving up.  We ate OUTSIDE last night and today I walked Double Bluff with Laci and did a couple of small watercolors.  I would have stayed longer and painted more, but forgot some drinking water and snack.  I could even see Rainer in the distance!

Sunlight Beach

Super low tide.  Jody and dogs wading, WADING! can you believe.  Hyundai ship going thru Admiralty passage.

Sculpture

Driving down Bush point road, the other day, I saw the sign for Cloudstone way.  At the end of a long driveway, was Hank Nelson's Cloudstone Sculpture Park.  As soon as I saw several giant metal tanks connected and mounted in the air, I knew I had arrived.

Touring the property in my car, I saw mounds of gravel about 15 feet around that looked like small volcanoes ringed with granite rocks; there are also rock slabs of balanced sculptures all around the property.  These are some of his site specific Earth works sculptures.  Hank graciously gave me a quick tour of his current work of giant black monoliths (black granite?) that weigh 24000 lbs.  He then took me to see his beautiful bronze gallery. Hank, sorry to be ignorant about which rock but my mind was spinning, I  was overwhelmed by the scope of your work.I'm looking forward to returning with friends to explore the earthworks and even have a picnic at the marble tables and benches!
Here are some comments from Sculpture.org

Cloudstone Sculpture Park
Cloudstone Sculpture Park, on beautiful Whidbey Island in Washington State, is a visually intriguing feast of primal totemic art that anyone will want to visit. The vision of one man, Henry D. Nelson, to create site specific earth sculptures that address today's environmental issues, is far reaching. The successful integration into the park of over fifty of his carved granite, cast iron and bronze sculptures serves for a very inspiring experience. Open daily before Monday October 15, 2007 and by appointment after Wednesday, October 17. For directions contact the artist at sculptor@cloudstonesculpture.com, or call 360-331-3913 evenings.

Fashion sketches

This has been a busy week with a variety of sketching opportunities.  Our little town, " Langley by the Sea" pulled out all the stops on Saturday with a Fashion Show on First Street and in the Clyde Theater.  It was a mind opening look at the wonderful clothing available to purchase without traveling "to America".  This is the term we say when we are traveling by ferry to "the other side", AMERICA!

The styles of clothing ranged from sophisticated country to Uzbek tribal clothing.  Our own Mayor of Langley was a model wearing Uzbek clothing and a Bear fur hat.   Brett and Chad, the jewelers from the Celtic Viking stood in their doorway and posed wearing their kilts.

The Star Store had models with plastic wigs, roller skates, crisp aprons, trays of food, features of all the store has to offer, including their more suave dress up clothing.  Men, women and children participated as models and seemed to be having lots of fun.  I will post a few pictures, but you need to remember most of the images were sketched in the darkened movie theater.  This show was so successful that it will be repeated in October.

Brett with his jewelers goggles

Chad wearing a plaid for the Ministry

Roller skate model on the stage

After the show the sketchers wandered around town

looking for more opportunities for sketching.  I went to Music for the Eyes and did a small painting of this Uzbek, 1900's Chapan (Robe).  

It is so pretty that I have turned it and many other sketches into cards in time for the Grand Opening of Whidbey Art Gallery.  A set of these cards will be part of a drawing each day over the Memorial Day weekend.

Our Gallery is 114 Second Street, Langley.  We have 22 artists work for you to enjoy.  Come in and you might win something!

Uzbek Chapan

Living Green

Who knew that this little Health Food gem that seems so far away from downtown Langley was such a busy place.  The store carries supplements, and makes Vegetarian meals. Everyone I spoke to said the food was delicious!   I enjoyed an apple carrot lemon juice drink and plan to have lunch there next week.  The atmosphere is comfortable and quiet and you can chat without a lot of interruption. Cherie, the original owner is back with a partner helping to manage the store.

 Cherie Erwin, the owner of Living Green Natural Food and Vegetarian Cafe,says we're open for brunch, lunch, beer and wine, juices and smoothies, from 11-3PM Sat, Sun, Mon, Wed, Thurs Hope to see you soon! The address is 630 2nd Street ste A, Langley, Wa.  


On to the sketches.  The view through the front window is of the Old original Langley Telephone building.  It sits on a lot waiting for its next reincarnation.   In the back, nearer to the kitchen I sketched the help yourself counter with the bright red tea kettle and tea selections.

Tea with view to Kitchen

Whidbey Telephone original building

Easter Bonnet

Spring!  The trees are blooming, so is the ground with moss!  This is the wettest winter ever and the cold persists.  We get moments of hope with sunshine, run around without the proper clothes and then back comes the Chest cold.

My husband asked why is the model blue?  I was drawing with a Lamy pen that has blue ink.  When you add water it bleeds slightly.  The goal is to get it to bleed into the dark areas so the form is defined.  Lamy pens are the latest with our sketchers group.  You can find them on Amazon.com.  I have friends that have several Lamys with different color ink in each pen. They cost about $25 each.

Blue model  

This lovely Bonnet brought hopes of sunshine and spring flowers.  We were inside hiding from sheets of rain at Studio 106 in Langley, where all things Spring were displayed for us to paint.  Sharen Heath was a colorful model who sat in a chair and knitted while she was being sketched.  There were plenty of pretty hats to sketch and Easter eggs in baskets and on the table, not to mention Phyllis' beautiful paintings on the wall.

Bonnet painting at Studio 106

Tell your brain to shut up!

Original 

Aargh!  Last week I was sketching at the Bayview Farm and Garden and very happy to be there, because it poured, then it sparkled with sun, poured again.  Get the picture, one minute my subject matter had light, the next it didn't.  That doesn't matter, because the sketch was good TILL I decided to add some background.  Never, listen to that gremlin that says "just a little bit of this or that".  Needless to say, then it needed more contrast, more whatever.  I just want to shoot myself and tear up the original, but decided to share the pain and hope to prevent you from doing the same.
So, yesterday I looked at the original sketch and sketched it all over again.  Yes, it needs more, but, I like the cheery colors and at this rainy time of the year in the Northwest, anything that makes me think Tropical is very welcome.

Yes, it needs more, but not today!

Cozy drinks

Successes of the week included filing taxes for the state of WA; improving the coverage of our home insurance and ignoring the rain as much as possible.  The latter was helped by a visit from a couple of sketchers from Anacortes, who came to see our Sketchers show at Unitarian Universalist Church in Freeland.  We then all drove down to Langley to sketch at the Useless Bay Coffee shop.  This place is getting to be a hang-out, mainly because it is large enough to accomodate all of us and their regular customers.  

Latte drips

Red tray

Framed sketches

The sun, the sun!

Innovative Sketchbooks & matted art

Senior Thrift & Christmas Nativity

We have a number of highly successful thrift stores on Whidbey Island.  One of the largest is the Senior Thrift located just off the highway in Freeland.  This building houses 2 very large floors of everything you can name, even a Totem pole.  We spent last Wednesday sketching inside the store.

On Saturday, we went to the Unitarian Universalist Church for the preview of their Christmas Pageant.  This was good practice for me, as I don't sketch people very well.

Nativity 

Waiting to perform Nativity scene

Ebey Bowl

The Ebey Bowling alley has reopened and is having a new and exciting life on the prairie.  I have never been to this fun spot and was surprised by the vibrant atmosphere and all the people dropping by to chat, eat and of course bowl.  The lanes were refinished and the alley opened on October 10th, 2010.  This old building used to be a squash barn.  I guess all that squashy stuff has moved to Shermans Farm, where squash is the bomb!  Literally and figuratively the use the last of the squash to bomb into the fields, with some kind of a throwing machine.

There were several sketchers enjoying bowling and several more of us being more studious and examining the potential sketching subjects.  I have fond memories, from long ago, of coke in bottles and chose to sketch the coke and popcorn machine.  The colors even say fun!

Coca Cola in bottles and a bowling ball ladybug with antennas!

Artists in action

Coupeville, WA in 90 degree weather under a tent. The once a year Coupeville Arts and Crafts Fair.  It was bright and beautiful but the heat....killer.  Nevertheless, we demonstrated art.  I hid in the shadiest part of the tent, rolling up the sides for a bit of a breeze and sketched other tents and artist working.  Not my best work.  I started a painting of a Lily from a picture that is a bit more colorful and to my liking.

Island Views

This week I've featured a view from a garden overlooking Holmes Harbor and the Old Pietala garden at the Whidbey Institute.

The Whidbey Institute, also known as the Chinook Center, is on a 70 acre farm that was  established in the early 1900's.  The Institute is now a conference and retreat center, with overnight  facilities for about 30 people and day use for about 150.

Having lived in Finland, I admire the Finns' work ethic, and practicality in building. Every time I visit the Pietala Farm I am transported to a little Island where we rented a cottage year round. The owner had built the beds on the wall bunk style.  We walked through the woods to the sauna at the waterside. We got our water from a well, bucket by bucket and near the well were several rocks that Hannes, the island owner said the Vikings had roundtable discussions.  In the winter we would drive or ski over the ice to the island.

On the Pietala farm, the trees are huge, and speak to the history of the early settlement of this farm.  There is a typical outdoor sauna, many work buildings and gardens.  The home itself is available for groups to stay.  Inside there is a large meeting room and a practical kitchen with screened pantry; upstairs the beds are built on the wall and a sleeping loft for the more nimble.  Be sure to visit this wonderful place for its beauty and meditative qualities.
 

Trail to the beach-Holmes Harbor