The Drive Home

 After the one week workshop it was time to drive home. Bayfield, WI to Topeka, KS. The route winds down the east shore of Lake Superior, but the lake stays hidden for most of the drive. An occasional pull-off does offer a view, though. Camera shots and sketches just don't capture the grandeur of this huge lake. The route drives by Superior, WI and Duluth, MN. I love the fresh water freighter culture in this area! I always stop at Duluth to watch freighters slowly exit Lake Superior southbound to either load or unload. That will be my next post.

For this post I sketched my overnight in Superior, WI, which is next to Duluth. I'm winging it for places to stay. Sometimes it doesn't go so well. The first three places had no room but the third one recommended the Androy Hotel. This is an old elegant hotel that has seen better days but refuses to die. Great ambiance and architecture! 

The on-line ship schedule says tomorrow morning we have two freighters coming through so I don't have time to eat in the restaurant in the hotel. I take time to sketch the bathroom (I was taking a shower and it spoke to me and demanded to be drawn). Still has the old fixtures but it was charming. Then the retired motel operator station was in the Lobby. If it could only speak.

I'm having allergy-type symptoms. To rule out COVID I bought a test kit at a gas stop from their discount bin. It will be negative. Oops. It was positive! Haven't had it yet. Luckily it will prove to be a light variety. Had to sketch the kit. I learned that no matter how long you stare at the test strip, the results don't change. Ever. 

MISA "The Lively Sketchbook" Workshop

 I pampered myself in August and attended a drawing class at Madeline Island School of the Arts (MISA). Koosje Koene presented a one week class focusing on adding people to our sketches to add life to them, thus "The Lively Sketchbook". August was three months ago from this post so this post is late. Guilty as charged. I had a new version of image edit software to learn and it intimidated me. That, and life just gets in the way. Whine, whine.

The workshop wasn't cheap but it was top notch. The "campus" is a re-made old dairy with housing available on-site. Madeline Island is up on Lake Superior and you need to catch a ferry to get there. The island is largely an art residential community. This was my second workshop there and I just love it up there. "We're not in Kansas". Students always develop their own dynamic. In this workshop we bonded well. 

My sketch of the campus was made from a quarter mile field access road that I bicycled to behind the campus (MISA has bicycles to use!). A staff person told me about it when I was shooting the breeze with him. A nice quiet spot. I found the feather there, which I had to include. The sketch of the ferry ride was on my return to the mainland. I was too hyped up when arriving to do any sketch time.

I'm not a water color artist. Watercolor skills were required for this workshop. However, I feel I can come close enough with my watercolor pencils so I bluffed my way through. In watching everyone else mix colors in a palette, I learned how to do that with watercolor pencils. Both sketches use a (primitive) wash for the background. Learning proper watercolor techniques is still on my bucket list. 

The sketches were made on site. Fountain pen, water color pencils with water brush, multimedia paper in my own sketchbook.