Seattle

On my way home from Seattle, I got to King Street Station in plenty of time and tried to do a sketch of their pedestrian bridge, to book-end the one I'd done in Portland yesterday. But I couldn't find a spot that would give me a good view of it. I spiraled around and found a section of the Alaska Way Viaduct that hadn't been torn down yet. But was really taken with an old wedge of a building in front of it.

Seattle

I skipped church in Seattle to take a stroll through the U-District street fair before heading for the train station. I wandered up to the north end, and then started back down the Ave. And saw a sketcher. OK, it's a good place for it. And then another. Hmmm. And then I ran into Tina. Although I hadn't seen it on the calendar, I'd stumbled onto a Seattle USK sketchcrawl. So I joined in, briefly, doing one of the other sketchers.

I couldn't afford to stick around for the throw-down though.  I bought lunch at one of the many food stalls and then walked south, across the University Bridge and down along Lake Union, until I found a spot with a good view of the Aurora Bridge.  With Gas Works Park in the foreground.

Ginger's Locust

Now blooming, in the afternoon sun.

First Hill in Seattle

I was up for a concert on Thursday, and stuck around for a sketchcrawl on Friday morning.  It was raining lightly for most of the morning, so I wandered around looking for places that were out of the rain and had a view of something interesting.  I circled the area for a bit until I ended up at the top of First Hill, tucked into the entrance of the Polyclinic, and sketching First Baptist (where the concert had been).  It's actually even more baroque than this.  I left out about half of the twiddly bits.

Then I headed back down to Pike and found a spot where I could see the dome of First Covenant (the body was hidden behind a building with a parking lot on its roof) with the buildings of downtown rising behind it.

By this time the rain had finally stopped, so I walked down to do the Plymouth Columns, which were still dark with the morning's rain.  The trees in the park have grown significantly since I left town.

Cherry Blossoms in Seattle

I'd been through the quad on the UW campus exactly a week ago, and saw nothing.  But today....

...and just about everyone in town had come out to view them.

Headed down to Red Square on my way to the Link station.

There were people in the square as well, but I ran out of time and didn't add them in.

Concert

The Fairy Queen
Seattle Baroque Orchestra
The pre-concert tuning of the harpsichord.

Cal Anderson Park

A sketchcrawl in Seattle

Started out catching a bus to the U and then the new Link train one stop to Capitol Hill.  A short trip on the train, but long enough for a quick sketch.

Met up with the group of sketchers at Elliott Bay Books (where REI used to be) and then I shifted into Cal Anderson Park to enjoy the sunny day.  I started out doing a couple of fountains, both dry.

Then I did a little girl who was playing around the fountain, and Central Lutheran, with a clump of people sitting on the steps waiting for the soup kitchen to open.

And then, with a bit more time before we were supposed to meet up again, I crossed over to Seattle Central to do a quicky of on of their sculptures.

Yet More Reindeer

I was in Seattle for the weekend, and arranged to get into town early enough to meet up with some Seattle Urban sketchers for an outing to the Reindeer Festival at Swanson's nursery.

Two reindeer, Dasher and Blitzen, who were more restless than the ones that I'd stumbled upon earlier in the week.  But then Blitzen turned her butt my way and put her head down to eat.

One camel, named Curly.  Evidently, he was good friends with the festival's Santa.  He stopped by Curly's cage on his way to his shift, and as soon as Curly heard Santa's bells he craned his head around to look for him.  And gave a great harrumph when he hove into view.  Which was camel for "About time you got here!  How about coming over here and scratching my ear?"

I was pretty chilled by now and headed inside to check out the model railroad, sketching in the intervals between kids.

And then finally found the koi pond in the cafe.

Seattle

I was up in Seattle for a concert last night, and stopped for some sketching on the way back to the train station.

This is looking across Union Bay and Lake Washington, from the UW shellhouse.


Then I went to meet up with some Seattle urban sketchers, across the street from the Seattle Center.

Woman in coffee shop