More from Summer Lake with Mari

Here are some more sketches from my Summer Lake, Oregon trip with Mari and our band of happy sketchers. We really had just too much fun though we all grew individually as people and artist. What a wonderful way to discover the world around us.

The texture of these tree trunks was too good to not sketch. The little bird houses are for the Tree Swallows. There were mom and dad swallows who would time it perfectly and one would leave just as the other would swoop in to watch over the little ones.





The museum at Fort Rock was actually a group of structures which included the doctor's house, church, school and three or four other houses. We could open cupboards and drawers and handle the items in the houses. Just leave them as you found them, how fun is that, you could touch things.






One day is was very cold and windy and Karen and I decided there was quite a lot we could sketch around the lodge. We could sketch outside and then go back inside to sketch and get warm. We were expecting weather in the 80's. The sun was out but the wind was soooo cold that day.




The next day we spent some time at the hot springs and camp grounds. We took a dip in the hot springs to warm our bones and then sketched around the camp before heading into Paisley and then up along the ridge. The hot springs are inside the old barn and the stalls have been made into changing rooms. A slight smell of sulfur but, oh so relaxing!




When our stay at Summer Lake was over I drove back to Covallis with Karen and Janet. We stopped in Silver Lake to sketch and get one more postal stamp.
We stopped in the Klamath Marsh Wildlife Refuge where the marshes and water lillies were amazing. Standing there on the side of the road I was surrounded by the beautiful mountains. Who could pass up one more time to sketch a memory.

Summer Lake with Mari

I spent a marvelous time in Summer Lake, OR on a five day sketching trip. Our leader was Mari Le Glatin Keis, who is just great! She takes care of the lodging, food and plans for the daily outings. I have linked her web site here on my blog. Check her out, she also does trips to Spain, France and Mexico and she has a book coming out in July.




The wildlife in the refuge was amazing. There are 254 species of birds in the area. Sometimes it was like they were posing for us and other times we were actually sketching on the fly.










Views of the trails, marshes and around the grounds of the lodge. I really like these little grids and the small memories they can give you.

These are all in my 5" x 7" Robert Bateman sketchbook and are ink and watercolor. Mari had us prep pages each morning before setting out for sketch walks. I had never done this before and was greatly suprised to find that when it came time to sketch, the pages were almost perfect. I did add some extra color on top of the prepped pages.

Little framed windows are also a great way to sketch a postcard of the moment. The plants and foliage were also very beautiful. There were wonderful, large irises around the lodge in great colors.

We stopped at the small local post offices each day and ask for a cancel stamp to date our pages. I also added the population of the area on the page. Fort Rock was a whopping 34! We walked part of the Medicine Man's trail, visited Fort Rock, went in the hot springs, sketched in the wildlife refuge and shared our books and many laughs over wine and snacks every afternoon.

I can't wait for Provence in October!