LUNCH IN CAMPDON, KY

Not wanting to stop at a chain-restaurant our choices were slim.  We found this little Mexican restaurant in the middle of Campdon.  This is a little semi-blind contour sketch I did while waiting for our food to arrive.  Darrell was having a hard time hearing whoever was on the phone.

SHAKER VILLAGE SKETCH

We had a great day at Shaker Village in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.  We had dinner at their restaurant.  You pick your entree, and then they bring around side dishes and serve you family style.  There were electric candles hanging on the 'pegs' all around the rooms. 

I did this semi-blind contour sketch while waiting for our food to arrive.  They brought our dinner out pretty quickly, I had to finish it after we ate.

LUNCH WITH THE LADIES

We stopped for lunch in Harrodsburg, Kentucky before heading to the Shaker's Village.  This was a little narrow cafe, Blue Moon Cafe, in a group of Victorian type buildings with very high ceilings and interesting facades.

The only other customers there was a small group, all dressed very nicely (did they just come from church?). There were five ladies and two gentlemen, they were all quite genteel.  Pearls and pink hair, even.  Great to sketch.

OUT SKETCHING

It's been a long time since I did any artwork....

My first time meeting up with the Seattle Urban Sketchers.  It always seems they meet on the weekend I have to work, or some other big event in my life is happening, and I can't make it to their gathering.

But this time, it was meant to be.  It was my off-week, the husband's out of town, and they are meeting in a park in West Seattle, not far from where I live!  I've been looking forward to it all week.

The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold.

Jack Block Park is an interesting place.  It's sort of industrial, being right on the edge of the working Port of Seattle.  But, it also has on of the best views of the Seattle Skyline/Waterfront.  I was a little overwhelmed by the enormity of the view.  The hardest part for me is always figuring out what to draw.  I sat with a few other people that were going to draw the skyline, so I thought, what the heck, I should give it a whirl, too.

Can't say mine is anywhere near accurate.  I wanted to get in a little of everything, and my paper was not long enough, so I jammed things together a little.

After I did the skyline, I walked around the park and enjoyed the fresh air  taking pictures of all the other sketchers.

Then I did a quick semi-blind contour drawing of some sketchers.  These are the type of quick sketches I really enjoy, because there can be some very interesting surprises.

After several hours of sketching, everyone meets back at the prearranged place and shares their drawings.  They are all  so good, it's very educational to see what they picked to draw and how they saw it.  

You can see some of the other sketchers work at:  http://seattle.urbansketchers.org/

GETTING READY

Busy, busy, busy.....Darrell and I are both getting ready for our Open House coming up in a few days.

My studio hasn't had a good cleaning in a long time.

Add to that, a recent bug infestation in the beam at the top of the building.  We bombed last week and now there are dead bugs everywhere along with the general debris created when he dug them out.  I had put white paper over everything I didn't want the bug poison on - like my fabrics and table tops.

Here are the before pictures:

south end before

north end before, see the bug stuff on the floor - yuck.

I ran out of steam after lunch so I only got the north half somewhat cleaned:

north end after

south end after - didn't get to it yet.

And then the next day (Wednesday):

Definitely looking better...

north end

south end - yes!

Thursday I have to paint the ceiling where we tore some of the sheetrock down, and then I'm going to start bringing out some artwork.

BELLEVUE ARTS FAIR & MORE

Darrell and I played hooky today and spent the morning in Bellevue at the Bellevue Arts Fair, the Bellevue Arts Fest and the 6th Street Fair.  They all are within a few blocks of each other.  We got there early Friday morning, wandered around for several hours, and I think we pretty much saw it all.  I saw a few paintings I'd have loved to buy, but alas, they were beyond my reach.

We found some metal-art for the gate he's been working on at one of the last booths on our way back to the car.  Oh, and he bought some pickled garlic.  Excellent.

The Fair is great fun there's always lots to see, the art runs the gamut from fine art to hobbyists and everything in between.

Here are some random shots I took: