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Seattle 2025: Sketcher Fest Edmonds - Part 1 - My Workshop.

It was my absolute pleasure to be one of the Guest Artists at the Sketcher Fest Edmonds this year!

The weekend spent with so many great sketchers was amazing and I will make several posts about it as there were too many wonderful meetings, overlaps, and connections. But officially for me as an Guest Artist the weekend contained one workshop on Saturday (mine was "Printmaking on the Go: Wild Textures Tamed with Stencils"), one Artist Talk - I gave a 45 minute presentation on the topic of "Extreme Travel Sketching: What to Bring and How to Survive" where I talked about how I sketch while scuba diving a lot. And there was a day at the sketchbook fair where all the guest artists had a table where they were sharing original sketchbooks with visitors. And they were available for answering questions, commenting, etc. In short, it was AMAZING and I would love to attend one of these events myself!! (Being a guest artist meant that between teaching, manning my table, and giving a talk, I could not do all the questioning, nosing, looking, and asking that was available for the attendees).

Now that you know a little bit about the event, here are some photos from my workshop. I was honored to have an amazing artist, Virginia Hein, as my class volunteer! She took all of these pictures and was a wonderful support on many levels - not to mention that she created an amazing poster for the Festival this year!

I had a fantastic group of students who enthusiastically dove with me into the world of making textures on location. We had an inspiring view, perfect weather, and shared the experience of learning a ton as we captured a view at a pier and across the Puget Sound in our sketchbooks. Would do this again in a heartbeat!

Chicago Trip, Part Four: Extra Time

Before my workshop I got to walk the city with a Mary Jo Ernst (finally meeting in person!) and see her do some magic with her blue pen at my location. And then we joined a USk Chicago Seminar Sketchwalk by the Water Tower and sketched a view down the Michigan ave.

And after the workshop I got to spend time time in the city - I already wrote about my museum visit and sketch of the bean - but after that I drew the lake and at the very end of the day as I passed through the tiny park by the Drake Hotel I witnessed a sparkle of fireflies (and some rabbits too) - being in a tiny dark park in the middle of huge city and watching fireflies dance in front of you was an experience that made this whole trip extra special! My huge thanks goes to my trop companion who talked me into "one more walk before calling it a night" and then noticed fireflies and pointed that in my attempt to make a firefly sketch and video at the same time I did not notice bunny sitting right in front of me. Thank you!

Chicago Trip, Part Three: My Workshop at the Urban Sketchers Seminar

It was an absolute honor to be one of the instructors at the 10th Chicago Urban Sketchers Seminar! I was supposed to arrive in time for the opening ceremony and sketchwalk. But between flight cancellations, tornado warnings, and weather events in connecting cities, I ended up spending a night in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was a whole day late to the Chicago event! However, I got to lead my workshop (Printmaking on the Go!) on the second day, and we had a blast learning about all sorts of ways of making texture on location, and then applied our newly learned techniques to a conglomerate of high rises on One Magnificent Mile. Here are some photos at the end of the workshop:

The Chicago Urban Sketchers team, led by Brian Wright, was an amazing support for me throughout my complicated traveling time and made me super welcome when I finally joined the seminar. Everything was well organized for me to start teaching right away, but they made sure that I got some rest and had a chance to catch up on all the seminar events, the location for my workshop, and group happenings. I've never met any of these people in real life (though I knew many online for a long time), and I felt like my sketching family was there for me. If you are ever sketching in Chicago, Urban Sketchers are a very friendly and supportive bunch of humans with lots of very interesting artistic talents!

Here is my first sketch upon arrival - at the dinner table where people were sketching as much as eating!

And here is Brian's drawing of me - drawing the sketch above :) I scanned the page with my badge and some after class notes too :)

I would also like to mention a team of people who helped organize sponsors for the seminar. All the participants of my workshop got to work on my favorite drawing pads from Strathmore - with a gently-toothed, slightly creamy drawing paper with a sturdy backing for cutting stencils - and I am very grateful. Strathmore "Pass The Journal" collaborative art project started some amazing friendships for me many years ago and my joy from using their paper continues to this day.

Chicago Trip, Part Two: Art Institute of Chicago / Gustave Caillebotte

Chicago has an amazing (and ginormous) art museum named the Art Institute of Chicago. I've visited it before, but not for quite some time, and I forgot how big it is and how one can find something from any time for any mood and interest! We spent around 5 hours there, and apart from a quick lunch all this time was packed!

But the highlight was the current exhibit of Gustave Caillebotte - one of my art heroes! To see so many works in one place, experience in person slight variations of color, be in the presence of expressive brushstrokes - this was a gift! I am fascinated with the way he worked with light, how he builds compositions. With conversations between bodies in his art, with integration of people into environments, and all of that with the simultaneously serious and playful feeling that comes from his works! He lived a short but very interesting life, left a large city to live in a suburb, and stopped trying to get into the Art Salon but continued painting. He was a gardener, worked on textile design, collected stamps, designed and built yachts, sailed them, and he supported other artists. What a life!

Chicago Trip, Part One: The Bean.

I found a perfect place to sketch near the Cloud Gate, aka the Bean, in the Millennium Park in Chicago. The Bean is a public art sculpture that I haven't had a chance to draw, and with only 24 hours of free time in the city, and the Chicago Art Institute opening at 11 am and located a few hundred feet from the Bean, it was an obvious plan :) I did 1/2 of the sketch while perched on a parapet, but then had to get down as a guard did not agree with my idea that sketching is a reason to break rules :)

I will be posting about my museum outing and class at the Chicago Urban Sketchers Seminar in separate posts.