We left home on the 20th to drive to Portland, Oregon to visit our son, daughter in law, and grandkids. We also were looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new friends!
It was beautiful to behold Mt. Shasta covered in her winter dress of snow! She looks like a huge ice cream cone to me. That's our grey Honda CRV behind the big Werner truck. My husband has an infinity for those trucks and counts them along the way!
Note the signs of spring with pink flowering bushes growing by the side of the road!
Our first stop was Ashland, Oregon, where we had a fun meet up with our friends, Elizabeth and Michael Flanagan. I met Elizabeth through Sketchbook Skool. This is I think our third (or is it our forth?) getting together? Oh we met once in California recently too, when she was in Napa near where we live!
Elizabeth and I enjoyed drawing each other and things around their beautiful home. Our husbands are never without what to talk about. And they sing and play music together too. We couldn't believe how late it had gotten.
This is a rather unflattering pose of Michael. You will either hate it or love it. My 21 year old grand daughter, who saw it later thought it was a kick! She loved it.
Fred needed protein so stopped at this Mc Donald's in the morning. I never eat at Mc Donald's, but I am not adverse to drawing it.
We eventually arrive in Portland at my son's house. Allie is getting older and wiser, and cleverer and calculating, and knows how to manipulate to her hearts content! I held up for most of it most of the week, but by the end of the week I was ready to take my old weary grandma's body home.
We love this little girl for all we are worth!
I just love this big old tree in their back yard and had such fun drawing and coloring it.
While we were in Portland we had pre arranged to meet up with another Sketchbook Skool friend, Carmel Campbell and her husband, Dwight. They were great fun as well. We had lunch on their sail boat in the afternoon.
Dwight is a keen sailor and Fred is a want-a-be sailor so they had lots to talk about too.
the guys chatting over lunch on the boat
I drew Carmel (above) while she drew me! (below)
I drew her both times!
This was the first day the sun shone in Portland since we arrived! We were really tired of cold and damp. But the afternoon on the sailboat was warm and sunny and pleasant. We sat on their "Margaritaville" while I painted their other boat next over, or is it the other way round?
I was trying out a new for me Pilot Parallel pen that is used for calligraphy, but did well with thick and thin lines for this drawing!
I will stop this post here (you can see more drawings from this trip in the post just before this one) and I will continue the trip next week, as I did so many drawings, probably enough for three posts!
We ended the evening in a Japanese restaurant where we sat outdoors in the still warm air over fresh fish dinners by the harbor. After dinner we brought them back to my son's house for tea and more talk. I just was NOT ready to let them go.
I know I talk up Sketchbook Skool a lot here. I really cannot say enough about it. But besides the wonderful teachers and klassmates art that so inspires, meeting actual people you can make real friends with just cannot be beat!
Enjoy a creative week doing whatever you are doing. Remember you can draw ANYTHING around you. It's all fodder for an art journal!
More next week. Till then, happy creating, enjoy Paint Party Friday, Sunday Sketchers, and our other blog, Paper, Paint, Pencils & Pens.
And take a look at www.Sketchbookskool.com too, you might just change your life in the most wondrous of ways~!
Yesterday was my and my husband's 30th wedding anniversary. I gave it it's own blog post yesterday, if you missed it scroll back one post to join in the celebration!
