Arboretum drainage pond

This is a small (8x9) pastel I started as a plein air sketch one morning in June of last year and finally got around to finishing today.  The new drainage pond the UW Arboretum installed last year is good place for painting tall trees and reflections.  The paper is Pastelmat  which I really like; it can hold alot of layers.  I especially like the paper color "Maize" for summer landscapes and for the underpainting I used shades of hot pinks and purples which I thought worked out pretty well.

Marshall Park, June 9

Linda's Sketch of the Boat Launch

Done in Ink, Graphite, and Colored Pencil

Paoli, June 2

Linda's Sketch 

This is a small patch near the Sugar River.
Ink, markers, and colored pencil.

Brittingham Boathouse June 16th

Wendy's view across Monona Bay

This is a small pastel study I painted at Holy Wisdom Monastery last month when their apple trees were in bloom.

This is a picture of a pastel I painted last week during the Beloit Plein Air Event for Friends of the Riverfront. It needed a few

corrections  before I framed it but this was what I was able to paint in the riverfront park en plein air.  I painted on Pastelmat which is a French paper made especially for pastels; it has a smooth surface that has a surprising amount of tooth and allows underpainting with water or solvents or alcohol. I often do an underpainting with hard pastels and then use alcohol to wash it in because it dries quickly.

 It was a very well organized event with 40 participants; mostly regional artists but one came from as far as Ontario.  Each participant can enter 2 paintings and they will be on display and for sale from 5 -  8 pm Friday June 14 and 9 - noon on Saturday June 15 at the Hendricks Center for the Arts, 409 Pleasant St. in Beloit.. The event also offered 2 workshops and I took the one in watercolor with Gordon France a Chicago artist and it was excellent.  It was a pretty exhausting week but fun and certainly challenging artistically and physically.  Looking forward now to sketching Sunday at the new Brittingham Boat Rental & Concession stand at Brittingham Park.

Sunday May 26th: Lake Wingra Park & Boathouse

Here' s Linda's sketch on toned paper of one of the trees with very interesting bark.

It was a bit cool and eventually sprinkled on us but it was good to get out out and sketch there.

UW Arboretum May 19th

      The group went to the UW Arboretum with lots of blooming things to sketch and this is Linda's sketch.                                                                                                                  

First Unitarian May 5th

                                                                                  

                           Louise's watercolor sketch of First Unitarian on University Bay Drive

Sketching at Edgewood College May 12th

Louise's watercolor sketch of the Edgewood College campus.






 Wendy's pastel of Lake Wingra through the trees below.                                                                                    

Linda's sketch of local flora.

Sketching at Olbrich Gardens

A good size group (9 of us I think) showed up for sketching at Olbrich Gardens on Sunday April 21st.

Left is Wendy's pastel which looks great and announces Spring is finally here!

Janet's sketch (right) :  Love what she does with the Tuscan Red pencil.




"Here is my Olbrich Garden sketch of strange Botanica in the Green House."















Says Linda of her drawing:

"Attached is the sketch from yesterday.  It was really a rush job; when I came inside, I only realized then how chilly I'd gotten.  I wonder when warmer and sunnier weather will arrive.
Sketch is done with Prismacolor pens and watercolor in Moleskin notebook."

Louise's sketch: Monona Terrace

'This is my first sketch with Draw Madison.  It was most appropriate to sketch at Monona Terrace since I have been a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright my entire adult life. It was fun to follow the lines of the walls and windows and then soften the geometric shapes with a large potted plant.  I even started to daydream about something called spring..'     Louise   4/14/13

Linda's Sketches: Monona Terrace and Beyond

Linda says:  "Monona Terrace:  It is always a challenge sketching people on location, as they may or may not stay still for a few minutes.  This pair (father and son?) were up and down and all around, so this is a quick sketch.
Prismacolor fine liner pen and Pitt artist brush pens, Moleskin notebook

The other two sketches present a contrast that I've been thinking about during these rain-filled months.  The tree in rain and fog was done at the Arboretum, and is an experiment with Pitt artist brush pens;  the tropical flowers, on a recent trip to Mexico, were done in Prismacolor fine liner pen and watercolor, both in a Moleskin notebook."

Monona Terrace Covention Center

4 Sketchers made it to Monona Terrace Convention Center today and we were happy to welcome Louise for the first time!


I sketched Louise drawing and a view from the window looking across Lake Monona. (above)  And Janet's great sketch with Tuscan Red colored pencil.

Sunday April 7th - Chazen Art Museum - UW Madison Campus

The group had a nice time sketching at the Chazen this  Sunday.   These are Larry's sketches of views from the Chazen of which Larry says,  "Both are of the same building just north of the Chazen.  The little one dated 031812 was done in pencil and was the 3rd sketch I did from the bridge that day so it probably took 20 to 30 minutes.  The other one, of the same building dated 040713 is the only one I did today and it took 30 to 40 minutes.  I used a fine point black sharpie pen.  I like it better than the 031812 sketch."      











           

And I did the pencil drawing of one of
the Chazen's Buddha's.

And Janet did a great sketch of an intriguing hare; really captured the mysterious facial expression.

Leonard Cohen in Milwaukee

This is a quick sketch from my seat at the Milwaukee Theatre on March 15th as I waited for Leonard Cohen and co. to come out on stage for what was a wonderful concert.  At 78 years old he ran out on stage and literally skipped off with every exit.  It was a 3 and 1/2 hour concert and he sang almost non-stop with one intermission.  It was a really great night and the audience loved it.  He had not performed in Milwaukee in 38 years; he said he had not wanted "to make a nuisance of myself".  The image of the woman and the horse is a drawing of his projected on to a screen behind the stage.  Hopefully this little sketch will help me remember what a great time I had that night when I am 78!

At The Stream on Sunday March 24th

Here is Linda's sketch from our trip to The Stream, the Art Dept. building at Edgewood College which we all agreed was a cool place with lots of opportunities for drawing.  Welcome to Terry and Anne Marie!  Hope you enjoyed the sketching and to see you again.  Linda's notes about this drawing say it is an "Interpretative sketch of a  white sculpture of a rabbit by Rebecca Corcoran. Prismacolor fine liner pen, Pitt artist brush pen, and Higgens ink wash."

Great subject for this time of year when the Easter Rabbits are busy hiding eggs and making more bunnies.

Linda's Vilas Zoo Sketch from March 17th

I made the sketch with micron pen and Higgens brown ink wash highlighted with the white
jellyroll, all on the moleskin sketch book paper.   I thought the
Discovery Center was fun, and very interesting.

(Linda's comments posted by Pat)

Sunday at the Zoo March 17th

  I think at least 8 sketchers met up last Sunday March 17th.  We hope Ann will come back and join us for some sketching in the future. Our venue was the Discovery Building and Herpetarium at Vilas Zoo.  On display were various animal skulls ranging in size from a mouse to a whale.  Larry chose the human skull for his sketch and did a masterly job.  I really love the way Larry's lines have so much energy in them. He was cheering on the Badgers but unfortunately to no avail!
  As it was St. Patrick's day I wanted to draw at least one green creature and the iguana posed perfectly for me only occasionally moving his head.  I thought the desert turtle would make a cooperative model but he was pretty active dashing about his habitat.  The Common Leopard Gecko kept still very nicely for long enough to get most of the sketch done, then he got up walked around a bit and came back and got in the exact same position; just like a model taking a break.  A really beautiful little creature.  I was drawing in a Strathmore grey toned sketchbook with a Pentel Brush Pen and White Gelly Roll pen.  I added some color with watersoluble crayons.
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UW Arboretum Sunday March 10th

The Draw:Madison sketchers had a very nice time at the McKay Center on last foggy Sunday afternoon.  There was a nice display of stuffed owls which hold perfectly still unlike the live ones although they hold pretty still sometimes, too compared to many other birds.  The 2 top sketches are Elsie's and the 2 below are mine. Elsie was using Strathmore's grey sketching paper which is really beautiful and nice to sketch on esp with a white gel pen. I was drawing in a Stonehenge white paper sketchbook with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens in a couple shades of grey and used some Neocolor II watersoluble crayons for color.

Gretchen's Sketchbooks

Here are some of Gretchen's sketches (though not in the order I wanted them in - still learning how to post):  the sketch above was from our January Sketchcrawl on State St. which started at HusNus' restaurant for lunch.  Next is Napili Beach from Gretchen's recent trip to Hawaii. The next 3 sketches are from our trip to the Chocolatier Cafe (I esp like the way she captured Larry and Greg!), and last but not least, is another beautiful Hawaiian beach.  Great work Gretchen!!

 

 Draw:  Madison sketched at Victor Allen's on Monroe St. today.  Sun streaming in the windows and coffee and scones; very pleasant place on a Sunday afternoon.  Today's sketches at left:  Top is a sketch of patrons by Larry.  Next are two sketches by Linda: the first a couple patrons and the next  a sketch of a figurine from the trip to the Epic campus a couple weeks ago.  Last but not least are today's pages from Elsie's sketchbook.  Great work guys!!

We decided to give McKay Center at the UW Arboretum a try again next week.  And Wednesday evening we will have our goodbye pot luck for the founder of the group, Dana.  We are all so grateful that she started our blog and got the group off the ground last year.  We've had alot of fun and met some wonderful folks who have a love of art and sketching from life.  Hopefully Dana will post some sketches from her new home in Chicago and maybe check out the Urban Sketchers Chicago some time. 

Last week Elsie brought the great new book by Danny Gregory, "An Illustrated Journey" to the Chocolatier Cafe so the Draw: Madison sketchers could have a look.  And we all agreed it looks worth the $$ with lots of great sketching by many of the Urban Sketchers members.  There are some interesting video interviews by Danny to be seen on his blog or Urban Sketchers blog with artists included in his book. 

 Looking forward to sketching at Victor Allen's coffee shop on Monroe St. today.  Yesterday I painted the barn painting with gouache on a country road south of Paoli.  I painted it on rough 300 lb watercolor paper. It was nice and warm in the front seat of my car.  The page from my sketchbook below was also painted in the car while I was parked at a boat landing south of Sauk City the previous Saturday.  Saw Bald Eagles and various ducks on the river in Sauk City and Prairie du Sac.  Also stopped by the River Arts on Water Gallery in downtown Prairie du Sac and saw beautiful paintings by local artists such as Cynde Quinn and Linda Koenig.  It's a lovely gallery and well worth the drive to Sauk-Prairie.  A great place to see what our local artists are doing.

A great time was had by all sketching in Bolz Conservatory at Olbrich Gardens.  Great place to come in from the cold.  There was a display of local quilters work at Olbrich also; the quilt by Natalie Sewell was spectacular.  Her quilts are like paintings and so beautiful.