Art Everywhere!

Many thanks to Bill and Amy Adams for opening your joyful home for us. We were in awe of the playful art in every corner and on every surface.

Captain Whidbey Inn

Some of the characters in the bar at the Captain Whidbey Inn last week.

First day of plein air sketching 2012

What a Good day for sketching the Inn. This is the first sketch in my new Pentalic field book. As Kris says, it does take the watercolor well. Nice size, 7x10.

Captain Whidbey Inn

Greenbank Store

It's back!! And are we glad!

Captain Whidbey Inn

What a gorgeous day at Captain Whidbey Inn. Everyone there was so great...and a complimentary bowl of yummy Penn Cove Mussels!

On the Deck at the Captain Whidbey Inn

Ok.  Could this afternoon have been more perfect?  Don't think so.  Sketching, sipping chardonnay, sun, million dollar view of Penn Cove & Mt. Baker from the lower deck at the Captain Whidbey Inn, great girlfriends, lots of stories, laughing, and gabbing.  Perfection in my book. 


Ali sketching w/ Penn Cove in the background.

Easter at the Community Thrift

A tea for three and me

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What's behind door number 3?

The NEW Greenbank Grille

Very excited that the Greenbank Store's restaurant is open again! From all indications, the new owners are going to make it a success. They're testing menu items, getting lots of customer feedback, great atmosphere, friendly service, good dinner music, open all day every day, very welcoming and accommodating to the sketchers.

Everyone wanted to sketch this beautiful still life bathed in light in front of the french doors. It's as if it were arranged with us in mind!

If you like James Taylor, you'll love Nathanial Talbot. He entertained us through the dinner hour. Still trying to figure out how to handle the Neo Color II crayons, but I got some good tips from Kris - for next time. Layer dry crayon, water, dry crayon, etc.

Girls at the Grille

Sketched this from the car, then painted all the detail at home.

The lighting in the Grille was interesting.

Greenbank Grille

A fun day with my sketching pals at the Greenbank Store and Grille. I'm delighted to see them open again. My Portobello Mushroom Burger was great! Here's my sketches in order of completion...

A still life

Facing the bar and a couple sketchers.

The rooftop. A summer deck?

A dinner serenade by Nathaniel Talbot.

Another sketch of Nathaniel.

Sheep Shearing Event!

Sheep shearing on Whidbey, Welsh style! Claudia and Chuck Pettis invited to watch Welshman Eifion Morgan shear at their farm yesterday. It was bright and sunny, and cold. Amazing to see this process done by such a professional! In a blink, almost....each sheep came out got a haircut, then trotted off into the sunny pasture.

The rest of us all just watched.

Claudia skillfully gave pedicures and shots when required.

Schoolchildren were among the watchers...

Electric clipper!

And finally....one white sheep.

En Visite en France

Next week we leave for a long-planned trip to Southern Burgundy, the lower Rhône Valley and Provence.  Getting my sketching gear together, I just couldn't resist sketching our itinerary and of course with a map!!  À Bientôt.

Greenbank Farm with Ducks

Tokek

gecko , small or medium-sized lizard of the family Gekkonidae. The more than 300 species are distributed throughout the warm regions of the world, mostly in the Old World. Despite folklore to the contrary, their bite is not poisonous. Many species are arboreal, while others inhabit human dwellings. Most lack movable eyelids and have characteristic pads on the undersides of their feet that enable them to cling to smooth surfaces and to run upside down on ceilings. The pads contain microscopic backward-projecting hairs covered by tiny pads that may generate an adhesive force through van der Waals attractions (see intermolecular forces ).
 Geckos are unique among lizards in that they possess voices, and different species make characteristic sounds. They feed on small animals, chiefly insects. Nearly all lay eggs. The largest species is the 14-in. (35.5-cm) tokay, Gekko gecko, of SE Asia. The wall gecko, Tarentola mauritanica, of the Mediterranean region is commonly seen basking by day on walls and rocks; it hunts by night. There are two native species in the United States, the leaf-fingered gecko ( Phyllodactylus tuberculatus ) of extreme S California and Baja California, and the banded, or ground, gecko ( Coleonyx variegatus ) of the deserts of the SW United States and N Mexico. The latter is a ground-dwelling form and lacks foot pads. In Florida there are several introduced West Indian species as well as the widely distributed Turkish gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus, originally from Africa. Geckos are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Reptilia, order Squamata, family Gekkonidae.