Final UK Sketching adventures

As promised, here is the last of my sketching adventures in the UK, mostly of things I brought back and a little bit of sketching on the way home.

This guy is currently hanging on my mini-Christmas tree in my living room and making me so happy! I love the crazy bangs on the cow and the fact that he is playing the bagpipe. ADORABLE.

I confess, I haven’t actually eaten this. I stashed it in my luggage in case I needed a snack at some point in our journey and then forgot to eat it or throw it away so it came all the way across the pond with me. I cam down with a cold as I was flying home so I didn’t want a candy bar for a couple weeks afterward as I recovered and now it is old. What does one do with an old, strange foreign candy bar?

My beloved blue luggage, sketched while waiting in Seatac for my flight home to Spokane to distract myself from the way my sinuses were pounding.

I drew various bills during the trip and drew the coins when I got home (coins and a couple of fivers were what was left at the end of the trip, no worries, I’m sure I’ll be back in the UK eventually!), adding paint all at the end. Money in the UK is interesting and shows how we’re a bit of an odd duck with our purely paper, one size, all green money. This stuff is plastic-y (goes the wash great, but apparently can get stuck together which is no good when paying bills!), has clear sections, is different sizes at different denominations and comes in all sorts of colors. I enjoyed seeing the difference between bank notes issued by the Bank of England and those by the Bank of Scotland. A theme among everyone though? So many drawings of Queen Elizabeth!

ARTIST'S EYE KICKSTARTER FUNDED!

WOO! It is so exciting to announce that my Artist’s Eye on Spokane Kickstarter has officially fully funded! I’m so happy to be able to make this book and get it into people’s hands. Thank you to everyone who has supported me thus far, whether that has been by pledging to the Kickstarter directly, sharing or telling someone about the campaign, or just sending me good vibes. It’s all appreciated!

And if you’d like to get a book or a print, its not too late! The campaign ends on the 30th! Books will be available after December 15th at Pottery Place Plus, but this is your last chance to get your name listed in the back of the book as a supporter AND to get a custom Artist’s Eye on Spokane design stamped inside your book!

Clicke HERE to grab a copy of the book.

The number has gone up even more since this photo was taken. As I’m writing this, we’re just above $5,600 dollars, which brings me to the next item!

A custom Artist’s Eye on Spokane stamp! We blew past that stretch goal ($5,500) in one day, so now everyone who buys a book through the Kickstarter will receive a stamp on the inside of their book!

Thanks again everyone. I couldn’t have done it without you!

Regularly schedule updates will resume soon. I have the very last part of my UK sketchbook to share!

Artist's Eye on Spokane Updates!

Lots of exciting news here in my studio!

The Artist’s Eye on Spokane Kickstarter is 71% funded as I write this and I have 12 days to go! Thank you to everyone who has supported the project whether that has been with money or sharing the campaign. I’m so excited, after a year and half of work, to put this book into people’s hands!

If you haven’t gotten a book yet and want one, CLICK HERE! I hope I can help out with the Christmas gift list for people this year. Know a friend or family member who loves Spokane? They’d love this book!

Here are some new spreads of Spokane neighborhoods that are going to be included in the book!

Perry Street Neighborhood!

Gonzaga!

Kendall Yards Night Market!

Holiday Shows

My work will be at the Urban Art Coop Holiday Bazaar November 30th-December 2. November 30th is an evening party with all the artists attending with delicious appetizers (I heard that there will be smoked salmon!) for a $5 donation and both Saturday and Sunday are free.

Artist's Eye in Edinburgh

Here is the second to last blog post about my sketching adventures in the U.K. this past August! If you’re getting this on my email newsletter, feel free to click through to the blog to see my previous sketches in Ireland! Updates about my Artist’s Eye on Spokane Book Kickstarter and the shows I’ll be at this holiday season.

Now: SCOTLAND!

We continued on from Dublin to York (didn’t manage to do much sketching there)and then up to Scotland. This is the York Train Station which when it was built in the late 19th century, was the largest train station in the world. I got this scene sketched in pen before Dad came careening around the corner to tell us that our train was here and we needed to MOVE. Mom and I grabbed our stuff and booked it down the very long platforms and caught out train to Edinburgh. I painted it later based on some quick photos and memories.

Fancy British train snacks. They really love their trolley carts here.

The moody view from our hotel at one of the various volcanic mounds surrounding the town of Edinburgh. It rained and was in the low 60’s which was very confusing coming from Spokane August weather.

We had dinner in the castle before the Edinburgh Tattoo (an event that has been on Dad’s bucket list since he studied abroad in York in college). I got a seat at the end of the table which I loved because the view was AMAZING! We had haggis (surprisingly good!) and I was delighted that they piped it into the room and back out again.

I wore all the clothes that I packed for the night show of the Edinburgh Tattoo. It was 50 degrees and rained at the beginning of the show enough that my pen wouldn’t write on my paper and I had to switch to pencil. Luckily, the rain cleared up and we were wowed by a Lebanese performance group riding horses and drumming, a Swiss troop that lit their drumsticks on fire, and SO MANY bagpipes.

Sketched while waiting for fish and chips at the Doric in Edinburgh. The Walter Scott monument peeked out from above this wall. It is the largest monument to a writer in the world. Edinburgh is a very literary city.

Next up: Adventures in trying to get home and what I brought back.

Artist's Eye on Spokane Book Kickstarter!

Exciting news everyone! After a year of paintings Spokane scenes, months of writing, emailing, and coordinating, I have finally launched my Kickstarter to fund the print run of my Artist’s Eye on Spokane book!

The cover!

More Garland Spreads

Garland Spreads

Mt. St. Michael’s Book Spreads

St. John’s Spreads

It is going to be 8” x 10” and over 120 pages of color illustrations designed by Thom Caraway, a local Whitworth professor and a former poet laureate of Spokane, so it will be a solid coffee table book. I’m printing it locally here in town with Russ at Gray Dog Press and if you are willing to pick it up at one of the book events I will host in December, you’ll be able to get the book in time for Christmas! For $28 you’ll get a copy of the book with your name in the back, which is a special Kickstarter deal.

Click here to check out the Kickstarter campaign and get yourself some books for yourself and friends for the holiday! There’s also a video where you can see me painting at Huntington Park, Riverfront Park, and the Garland neighborhood as I make my pitch about the Kickstarter. Keith at Pioneer Productions made me look pretty awesome, not going to lie, so take a look.

Please feel free to share the Kickstarter with anyone you think would enjoy it or anyone who needs help finding Christmas presents this year! (I’m just starting my Christmas shopping, oh god.) Thank you all for your support.

Ireland is Gorgeous!

We spent several days roaming about Ireland. I know that the UK experienced a severe drought this summer, but it rained several times while we were there and, as a Spokanite, I hadn’t seen rain in months. It was excellent but confusing.

This is a college that was a short walk from our hotel. The rest of the family decided to go to bed early (It was 8pm but we weren’t adjusted to the time zone yet!), but I decided to walk back despite the stormy skies and try to get in a quick sketch. I sat just inside the wrought iron gates in case they closed at a certain hour and I’d have to Indian Jones my way through before they locked me in (High stone walls are everywhere in Ireland!).

This drawing got made because we made a miscalculation about when our train back to Dublin left and I got a spare hour to sketch this Gothic beauty that was across the street from the station.

Painted later.

O’Neil’s is a sprawling pub in Dublin that had multiple bars on multiple floors. We sat near the Whiskey Bar, but there was also the Lounge Bar, the Wine bar, and more (SO many staircases!)! Food was downstairs and some of it was a deli/cafeteria style but it was also a to-order restaurant. In conclusion, we were so confused and ended up spending a ton of time there trying to figure out what we needed to do to get some food!. We were there so late, we decided to hang on just a little longer when we learned there was going to be live music. We were rewarded for our patience. I drew a million whiskey bottles.

Surprise live music at the bar! It was fabulous and there were two Irish dancers who performed mere feet from our table. One of those magical moments of travel where you luck into something amazing.

We took a little prop plane from Ireland over to England. I was going to give my brother my window seat just to be nice, but then I saw this view and told him, “Offer revoked!”

Megan Sketches in the U.K.

It is the summer of international travel for me! I jaunted off to the UK with my family-Ireland, the UK and Scotland this time!

Ireland seems to be filled with musical people and listening to this performance reminded me how much Irish music has spread all over the world.

Adorable dsesserts and amazing dancers!

A quick sketch before an ENORMOUS bowl of mussels for dinner in Dublin.

Small sketches of views from the train during which there was singing by passengers. In the US, if people sang on public transit people would kick you off the train!

Ireland seemed to have a lot of buildings with a strong divide between upper residential floors and commercial ground floor. I loved the bright green of this building and the amusing name of the bakery.

My Painting On the Inlander Cover!

Sorry for dropping off the radar recently! I’ve been in the UK, came down with a cold, and working away like mad. My painting on the cover of the Inlander was part of all that work! I was surprised to find that they published the Fall Arts Issue two weeks before October (Fall Arts month in Spokane), but it was a delight to see my work on the cover of the magazine. I always look forward to the Fall Arts Issue and am super honored to have been asked!

YAY!

Here is the original painting on watercolor paper which shows how much color shifts when printing, especially when you’re going from white watercolor paper to grey newsprint!

This is the cover of the Fall Arts Pull Out inside the newspaper. Surrounded by wheat and with the way the past few summers have been, it isn’t surprising that this is what came to mind when I thought of fall around here.

Live sighting last week at Spokane Art Supply!

Other exciting news: If you are going to be out and about for October’s First Friday (which I highly recommend!), I have four paintings in Terrain at the Jenson-Byrd Building (It’ll be like a scavenger hunt to find them in the hundreds of pieces of art showing!) and my painting of the Gaiser Conservatory all lit up with holiday lights will be hanging at the Chase Gallery All-Media Show in City Hall. If you want to attend Terrain, I highly recommend going early before the crowds get too bad or buying tickets to the Preview Night on Thursday.

If you’d like to keep up with me more regularly and you do the social media thing you can follow me at Artist’s Eye on Spokane on Facebook (as well as Megan Perkins Art) and as @artistseyeonspokane and @perkins_megan on Instagram.

Garland Sketch Crawl

I've been out and about on many adventures that you will all hear about soon, so forgive me this little blast from the past as I talk about the sketchcrawl class I taught earlier this month:

August 12th on a 107 degree day, I had a sketch crawl class with the Spokane Art School. Luckily we were able to find some shade and eventually cooled off to around 97 degrees! Kali and Rowan didn't have watercolors so we all stuck with pen or pencil, though I loaned them my watercolor set to play with for the last sketch. We had a lovely evening!

I've painted and drawn the Milk Bottle many times, but it is always a delight!

Another go at the Garland theater sign. I love the light up starts in the middle!

Painting at Priest Lake

Priest Lake is one of my favorite places in all the world. I've been coming here, to a cabin my aunt has, for pretty much my whole life. It is beautiful and peaceful and driving up there, I always feel is a bit like coming home.

The view from my aunt's deck.

Yellow umbrellas on the deck while eating at Cavanaugh's.

We walked, kayaked, paddleboarded and ate a lot. A perfect long weekend. Do you have any favorite summer places?

Leavenworth Weekend

At the end of June, I went off to a weekend in Leavenworth with a group of my college friends to celebrate our 30th birthdays. We stayed in a house twenty minutes out of Leavenworth with a hot tub and a killer view of the mountains.

Since we were up on a ridge, it was both windy and COLD early in the morning. I did this on the deck wrapped in a blanket with a mug of hot water.

It was the Accordion Festival at Leavenworth so we got serenaded by a lot of polka. A concert was going on right behind me as I sketched the fancy facades of these buildings.

Sketched a friend sitting in the window at a restaurant as an accordion parade went by. Then I ate a giant soft pretzel and was very pleased with myself.

Sketching in Japan

This is the last of my blog posts about my trip to Japan. We spent the last part of our trip in Kyoto and then Osaka. I'd love to go back. Perhaps I can connect up with Spokane's sister city Nishinomiya!

At every hotel we stayed at, they had yukata or "lounge wear" for visitors to wear while staying in the hotel. This was one of my favorites-a classic white and indigo cotton robe decorated in simply "mon" shaped designs.

This pond was full of koi, several of whom leaped out of the water to catch the bugs hovering above the water in the evening air.

Waiting at the airport in Hong Kong for our 8 hour lay over. 

Watching TV in my seat nook on the flight home. Thanks to Dad's crazy mileage points, we flew First Class home to the US and it was AMAZING.

Back to my beloved Alaska Airlines and the commuter flight from Seattle to Spokane. I decided to make the 40 minute flight a good reason to be really minimalist with this sketch.

Artist Adventures in Japan pt 2

We were fortunate to see Mt. Fuji. Normally she is shrouded in mist. I grew up just south of Seattle and a common phrase there, usually uttered in celebratory tones, is, "The mountain is out!" Back there, "the mountain" is always Mt. Rainer. In Japan, "the mountain" is Mt. Fuji. I love the stamp I got at the post office half way up the mountain. It is SO CUTE. 

Stone lanterns were everywhere. I was also thrilled to discover that many locations have stamps as a continuation of Japanese pilgrimage culture and I made a dedicated effort to find the stamps everywhere we went and put them in my sketchbook.

I have never experienced so many fancy toilets as I did in Japan and that is thanks to the Toto Toilet company! These toilets play music, have warmed seats, bidets, and more. They have control panels! Crazy!

This Sarubobo Doll is a folkcraft supposed to represent a monkey. They were frequently made by Japanese Grandmothers and given to their grandchildren for good luck/good fortune. Depending on the color they can be for good wishes in school, work, love, and more. The red was the most common and I think it is for a sort of general good fortune.

This was a simple temple not far from our hotel. In a quiet moment I ran out to sketch it. 

Kenrokeun Garden is a beautiful walking-style garden that reminded me of a Japanese Versaille. In thirty minutes I did this speed sketch of a bridge of a river of purple irises. I wish I had had more time to do them justice.

One more post to go about Japan!

Shows & Sketch Outs with Megan!

July First Friday in the City Hall Lobby 5-8 pm

I'll be in the newly remodeled lobby at City Hall with a selection of paintings from my Artist's Eye on Spokane series Friday 6th 5-8 pm. Stop in and take a look. I'd love to chat with you.  

Sketch Out July 13th at Huntington Park 5-8 pm

I will be hosting a sketch out at Huntington Park on July 13th 5-8pm. FREE! Bring your own supplies. I recommend a sketchbook or paper with a board to back it, watercolors, brushes, pens, water brushes. I'll be at the water feature on the steps at the top of the park at 5, but drop in at any time to come paint. This is your chance to sketch and paint Spokane too!

Note: This is not an instructional class, but if you get stuck and want to ask a question, I'd be happy to help you!

Perry Street Fair July 21st 10 am-6 pm

Come see me at the Perry Street Fair! The Festival goes from 10 am - 10 pm, but vendors will start closing down after 6. Last year was a ton of fun. I'll have prints, cards, and originals! See you there!

Sketch Out July 24th at Riverfront Park 9 am-12 pm

I will be hosting a sketch out at Riverfront Park 9 am-12 pm. FREE! Bring your own supplies. I recommend a sketchbook or paper with a board to back it, watercolors, brushes, pens, water brushes. I'll be at the Rotary Fountain at 9, but drop in at any time to come paint. I'd love to see you!

Note: This is not an instructional class. But if you get stuck and want to ask a question, I'm happy to help.

Japan Adventures

So to add to the excitement of finishing my 52 week painting project, at the end of May I took off for Japan with my parents and brother for a little family adventure. We went to Tokyo, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Takayama, and Osaka. I had a great time and I'd love to go back to Japan just for a painting excursion, though I'm feeling very lucky that we just missed the earthquake in Osaka.

Kando Myojin, a shinto shrine in Tokyo. We watched a BMW get blessed by a Shinto priest in traidtional garb.

At most shrines there is a stand or two for people to tie on their wishes and prayers, often on small wooden boards. This one was absolutely packed!

Collaged paper with kanji and hiragana on it (left), calligraphy done as a religious prayer/act by temple staff in exchange for a donation to the temple (right).

We were in a tour group for the first part of the trip as we shuttled around to all the different cities.

On the bullet train, my brother looking out the window.

We left Tokyo and headed up into the mountains and some smaller towns. More to come!

52 Weeks of Artist's Eye on Spokane

YAY! I did it guys! The first week of May, I officially completed 52 weeks of painting all over Spokane! What a wild ride! I learned a lot, got to see a lot of cool things that I wouldn't have otherwise and had a delightful time. Thank you everyone for following along with my journey! I thought it would be fun to look back over some of the things I sketched over the past year.

Holiday Lights at the Gaiser Conservatory!

Beautiful fall foliage at the Japanese Gardens.

A ride made of giant bears at the Spokane County Fair!

A lovely October afternoon at Highbridge Park.

Pumpkin season is a way off and I'm ok with that. I need to earn some more sunburns before I'm ready for frost again.

A group of Buddhist monks came to Spokane Community College to make a sand mandala as a wish for world peace. This sketch shows them setting up the preliminary details of a seriously complicated mandala.

A building downtown where a skybridge meets a facade covered in classical designs.

A classic car moment on a sunny, but COLD spring morning on the newly renovated Sprague Ave.

Just over a year ago, this is what our shiny new carousel building looked like. I stopped by this week and the finished building is so shiny and fancy!

Lilacs are gone now. We are in the short moment of reprieve just before summer's heat hits us all like a hammer.

A vendor at a Spokane Indians baseball game.

Vintage signage on Monroe!

A burger and fries at Wolffy's Diner by Gonzaga. Get there early, there aren't a lot of seats!

The gorgeous light of a winter's afternoon.

The magical castle of paperwork-the Courthouse!

Our delightful local news anchors who are way more perky than I ever could be at 6 am.

Artist's Eye at Get Lit!

This year is Get Lit's 20th anniversary. Get Lit started back in 1998 as a one day event sponsored by Eastern Washington University Press and EWU's Creative writing program, according to their website. Get Lit is now a week long festival that has so many events that it is difficult to get to them all! There are readings, panel discussions, and workshops all over town. I managed to make it to three events, one not officially in the Get Lit program, but scheduled to take part in all the literary hubbub. Another I attended somewhat accidentally as there was a reading at Auntie's on a day when I was working the evening shift at Pottery Place Plus and since it was quiet in the shop, I hung out by the connecting door way to Auntie's and listened to David Axelrod, Christopher Howell, and several other Lost Horse Press authors read their poems.

The Anne Lamott talk at the Bing Crosby Theater on Saturday night was the head lining event of the festival this year (Well, at least in my opinion.). While I was driving around trying to find a parking spot, I noticed that the line to get in was around the block! A fully sold out show, it was so fun to spot people recognizing friends in the crowd that they hadn't realized were also coming. Anne Lamott dished out advice on writing "shitty first drafts," giving yourself short assignments, and the creative process. Wisdom and laughter, always an excellent combination.

Stephen PItters's released his latest poetry book, "Unrecorded" at the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture in a event featuring visual artists (me!), amazing jazz music by Jermaine Carlton, and a video of a dance choreographed by Gonzaga University dance students set to a song written inspired by one of his poems. A multi-media extravaganza!

I can't wait till next year!

Sketching at the KXLY Morning Show

I had a super early wake up call to be on the KXLY Morning Show-3:30, so I could down to the studio and be ready to go before they started filming at 5 am. Robyn, Derek, Mark, and the film crew all must go to bed really early! I found a spot that was out of the way of the action but still gave me a good view. It was really fun to see how the news casters moved in and out of the small sets around the studio for different clips. 

Ready, set, ACTION! (They don't actually say that. Instead they do a count down until "live.").

Derek and Robyn at their desk with their coffee!

Thanks to my lovely Aunt Judy for doing whatever it took to record these clips of me getting interviewed on the Morning show! It is a bit of an odd feeling to watch myself in video, but I think it is something I could get used to! 

Main Street Explorations

Boots Bakery is one of my favorite places in downtown Spokane. Not only do they have delicious food, but also beautiful murals inside and frequently host poetry slams and a bunch of other creative events. I can't wait for sunshine and warm weather so I can sit on the patio and watch people go by.

I love this shade of blue!

I painted this during Leadership Spokane's Art day. Thanks to Brooke Nicholson for inviting me. It was great to meet so many lovely people interested in doing exciting things in Spokane! If you'd like to invite me to come paint at your event, please email me at meganperkinsartstudio@gmail.com.

This wall of mirrors is inside of Boots. The way the light comes through the front windows is lovely and there is something about the repetition of a objects that makes a collection on the wall very compelling.

Boots is one of the restaurants inside the Longbotham Building. Zola is another one. There is so much going on at street level, I don't know how many people look up to admire the building's crown but with its signage, year, sculpture, crests, rusty bits, and a teal and lime green patina if they aren't, they are missing out! 

I think I need to do a bigger painting of this building-maybe something full scale from the crown to the sidewalk. Another one for the to-do list!

Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral

The white caps and crosses on the top of the towers of Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral peek above the buildings along the Spokane River when viewed from Kendall yards. Situated on Riverside Avenue in a block that holds the Philanthropy Center, the Spokane Club and the old Masonic Temple and just across the street from the Spokesman Review Building, the Cathedral is in good company. Open for short periods of time before and after Mass each day, you can duck in to admire the vaulted ceilings and art. If that doesn't work for your schedule, no worries, there is plenty of beauty to be found in the exterior.

I'd describe the brick that makes up the Cathedral as "salmon," though "pink" works just as well! I am constantly astounded by the range of colors in the brick buildings I find all over town. Brown, orange, burnt siena, umber, pink, salmon, cream, ochre and more!

The patina on the bronze cast doors was unreal, practically a rainbow! 

This is my favorite of the bronze sculptures above the three entrance doors. I loved how the bronze had a purple cast to it and how that looked next to the salmon pink brick. 

If you've never made a trip down to Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral, it and the surrounding area are definitely worth a visit, then walk down to the Monroe Street Bridge and along the Centennial Trail to admire the falls!