Sunday Sketching - Scottish Festival Part II

My favorite thing at the Scottish Games is always the music. After the Massing of the Pipes, I adore the Wicked Tinkers -

Known for their "Celtic Tribal" sound -

-they are some of my favorite live performers, ever!

They are heavy on the drum sound -

-and audience interaction -

-world-class piping!

-and the addition of tribal sounds of the Australian didgeridoo and the Bronze Age Irish horn...  

(I actually drew this Saturday - but here's attempts to sketch the band members in motion..)

I'll leave you with some taped Wicked Tinker performances (although they lose something by not being there in person. The energy of the live performances is difficult to replicate) -

You can kind of see how their shows look in this one - the spontaneous dancing, and their getting off-stage and playing in the audience... The guy with the fans was there yesterday as well - he was also pretty amazing to watch.


A promo sort of video giving you a taste of their performances (there is lots of twirling in their 'traditionally worn' kilts...)


And a performance on Craig Ferguson. Love them!

Succulent Saturday - The Scottish Games Part I

This weekend I made my annual pilgrimage to the Scottish Highland Games at the base of Mt. Rainier.....

We were greeted by the Massing of the Pipes (my favorite thing!)

Made a token visit to my Clan tent (one of several I am descended from..)

Got to watch big, burly kilted men toss the caber -

And then there is the fair food!

..the paraphernalia... 

The dogs in the Scottish Kennel show (the biggest wolf hound I think I've ever seen! Plus the sheepdog with his own fan since it was such a hot day :-).

The spontaneous dancers...

This gal was fun to watch - loved her use of  'wings' as she danced....

And the cute people!

(loved this kid - pulling the wagon with a couple of swords, a cooler and all their belongings..)

Fun day!

Fabulous Friday - The Bellevue Art Fair

Got to spend the day visiting the big, fancy
Bellevue Festival of the Arts -

The featured artist works with yarn (the banners above? yes, yarn) -

She even knitted lamp post covers - all down the street (the 'kid street' - full of chalk drawings...)

There were also interactive pieces - these metal frames that had been primed with some yarn. Anyone who wanted were given a ball of brightly colored yarn to add to the pieces. At the end of the day, these will be moved into the museum, and new ones will be put out for tomorrow (again - kids especially love it).

And then on to all the booths and vendors -

Love this guys' outdoor, kinetic sculptures.

There were a number of musicians selling, and performing on exotic instruments.

Loved this guys' wire sculptures. (I bought one of his wire beetles).

This gal's work was really neat. Photographic prints of actual insects, but cut and mounted dimensionally.

Chris Griffin had a delightfully crowded booth of repurposed vintageness turned into darling clocks.

And so on. There were paintings (look at the darling metal-circle painting label on the right) -

-glass and pottery galore.

And there were a number of booths selling funky hats :-) (filled with older women trying them on).

This gal's paintings were enormous and stunning.

Gardens of glass...

There were hundreds of other impressive artists. A couple of standouts that didn't allow photos (and that you should look up) are Diana Voohries Kinky Shoe sculptures (so cool) and Lorra Lee Rose's absolutely breath-taking life size feather sculptures. They were some of the most amazing things I've ever seen. 

But maybe the funnest part of the entire day were all the great artists that we got to talk to (momo here, with my POBL friend Michelle - from Jamaica, now from San Franscisco. She learned paper marbleing in Turkey. She has a great French-Jamaican  accent. She has traveled the world and has done many many interesting things).

Fun, arty day!

Music Monday - To Life, Love and Loot

I have an infatuation with the current Captain Morgan commercial campaign:

(and with the Captain himself... :-)

Additional Captain Morgan fun (which I hope they will continue to add to!) can be found here.

Sunday Sketching...

In the teensy purse Moleskine balanced upon my knee...

"Firebolt" - a Harry Potter fandom tribute;

I do love BYU's Divine Comedy's sense of humor.

Music Monday - Goodbye Harry Potter...

I saw the final Harry Potter film tonight. A good, if somewhat frantic end to this series that has been a part of our collective imaginations these past years... Happily, fans have made some very lovely tribute videos on youtube, a few of which I shall share with you:

I like how this one juxtaposes the main characters as they age:


And one last time... The trailer for the final film...

Sunday Sketching...

The teeny purse Moleskine upon my knee....

WIP Wednesday - Trolls

Yes, I know it's Thursday, and yes, I know this is really another IMC post, but let's just go with it, shall we?We had until midnight tonight to turn in a finished version of our IMC assignment - 

The was the sketch I submitted for our initial critique. (They suggested moving the dog up and the text down, but that was about it...)

After several days of heavy-duty drawing, here is the final drawing....

Ruth Sanderson paid us a surprise visit mid-week at IMC (wish I'd gotten a picture! But I spent too much time talking to her :-) - she talked to me about her process and suggested I try printing it out in sepia-tones rather than the color of grey-graphite, like she did her latest book. (so I did. It is a much nicer color I think).

This was how far I got at IMC...

And this is what I submitted tonight....

These ladies need to definitely have more adventures, I'm sure!

IMC Report - Part Last

Let's wrap this up, shall we? It's only been a month now....

As fabulous as all the artistic learning was (and it was fabulous), the best best part about IMC is the lovely, wonderful people and friendships that happen! Such as -

The so-great Sue Cornelison and Judy Riggenbach.

and the adorable Daniel Katz and Dylan Sara.
 But I won't tax you with endless people-photos. Except to document one of the annual end-activities-

We get note-taking sketchbooks at the beginning of the week, and spend the last bit signing and sketching in each others'. Just like high school! So goodbye to -

Donato, here signing...

Dan dos Santos signing Kim Kinkaid's...

Renae Taylor -

Adam Rex -

Scott Fischer -

and Greg Manchess....

(We signed until our signers were sore....)

So goodbye to an amazing week, wonderful people and so many memories....

(And if you *do* want to see more pictures of people - I have an album of people-standing-next-to-their-easels with their art if you'd like to peruse here).