The serene Lake Union

When I first visited Seattle, I was not impressed by the city. It did not have the subtle delicate beauty of Boston. There are skyscrapers everywhere which do not create a sense of aesthetics. I was slighted underwhelmed. But I feel as if the soul of Seattle took it as a challenge and did everything to prove me wrong, and slowly made me fall in love with it. My journey in Seattle has been positive and enriching in many many ways for which I can never be thankful enough. As I was looking for a subject to write my next blog post on, I noticed that I have done many sketches around Lake Union, one of the many water bodies of the Washington state. So I am going to take you in a tour to Lake Union in Seattle!

Here is the Google map of the Lake Union. Seattle seems to have developed around the lake. Every time I look at the map of the lake, I can not dismiss the thought that it kind of looks like a female reproductive system. :-| But, the lake is beautiful from all directions and invites you into a different aspect of the city. I have highlighted the point of views from which I did each sketch over time. Let's get, set, and go!

Lake Union, Seattle

1. Lake Union from Westlake on a summer afternoon.

 

In summer, everybody is outside trying to get the best out of the pleasant and short-lived sunny weather. The lake is filled with sail boats through out the day. It was a very pleasant watch from my Westlake apartment. One could sit and watch the boats floating around, racing all day. There are parks (South Lake Union Park, and Gas Works Park) to sit close to the waters and enjoy the view as well.

2. Downtown from GasWorks Park

 

 

Soon, I joined UrbanSketchers Seattle, the first Urbansketchers group. Urbansketchers started as a small idea of Gabriel(Gabi) Campanario in Seattle, and slowly had become a worldwide phenomenon. People all over the world were flocking in groups in different city corners and sketching away. 2017 was the 10th year since the phenomenon started.  In order to commemorate the 10th anniversary, 10x10 workshops were organized in Seattle and in other locations. I went to Gas Works Work to attend one of the many workshops about perspectives organized by Gail Wong. She was an amazing teacher and I learned a great deal about doing perspective sketches. You can have a clear view of the downtown seattle from the Gas Works Work. I bet it looks great at night, although I am yet to go there during night.

3. Aurora Bridge

 

In one of the meetups in Fremont I met an urbansketcher who was sitting next to me and sketching the same subject as I.  It was nice to see different approaches to sketch the same thing. After the meetup, I went to a grocery store nearby, and met her again. We ended up hanging out, and she took me to one of the Seattle's famous place, the Theo Chocolate Factory. A few weeks later, she was leaving Seattle, and wanted to hang out with me before she left. We had nice breakfast in one cool breakfast restaurant in Fremont, and we decided to go to Gas Works Park. Both of us wanted to find a spot close to water. I started hunting for a spot close to water. I was sure there must be some spot where you can reach the water, even though I had not seen it. Luckily, we did find a spot close to water. It was a small abandoned corner next to a very popular viewing point, and I was surprised that not many people were on it. It was a sunny summer morning, water was at the right temperature to dangle the feet inside. So we sat there and I sketched this view of Aurora Bridge and the lake. The feeling while I was sketching was surreal. The excitement of being next to the lake dangling my feet in it, watching the ripples, ducks gently floating along the waves, people kayaking and driving boats, sound of birds flying around, the sweet breeze, the sense of comfort around a stranger, a sense of surprise and puzzle to be considered important by someone I met only once, is all too vivid to me. By the time I was done sketching and started painting, clouds had covered the sky completely. So although I started with the blue, I had to tone it down to reflect the gray sky. I had heard from other artists fussing about how the lighting changes and they have to be really careful. I appreciated it on that day.

4. The Ballard Locks

One day, my colleague who had recently moved to Seattle told me about the Ballard Locks and how the engineering behind it was interesting to him. I was surprised that I did not know about the place yet, and I decided to go to see it sometime. Coincidentally, the Urbansketchers meetup happened in the same place the very next weekend! It was really interesting to watch the engineering. The locks were built in 1917 as part of the project to connect Lake Union with Puget Sound to the east and Lake Washington to the west. The purpose of the lock was to make up for the water level difference between the lakes and puget sound, and also to not affect the salinity of the lakes. Learn more about it here. 

This sketch is not of the locks though. It is of a bridge that lifts up to let the boats pass by underneath it, and when it is lying flat, it acts as a rail-road.

5. Lake Union from Amazon Dawson

 

Oh, I can't tell you how proud I am of this sketch! I had to go to one of Amazon's buildings named Dawson to attend a training for a few weeks. I would admire the view from my training room. From that point, the whole lake was visible! "I need to sketch this", I said. And I kept saying it until the very last session. But I had to sketch it after the last session was over. I stayed back after the session, and sketched the view. One can never do enough justice to the breathtaking view. It spanned, Queen Anne and WestlKe to the west, Fremont and Gas Works Park. I also felt very lucky to have access to the view and sketch the awesome view.

6. South Lake Union Park

for the first 5 months of Seattle, I always walked past the west side of the lake to my  office. I would think of sketching this view, but, well, there was always something way more important. Fast forward to two years later, I started joining a writers' meetup in SLU. After one of the meetups on a sunny Saturday, I decided to visit the SLU park to, you know, say hi, and ask, "It has been long time, how are you doing?" I sat down on a bench and sketched the sunny view of the lake union from the corner. It was very windy though, my papers kept flying everywhere.

Thats' it! if you visit Seattle, you know where to go if you want to enjoy the view of Lake Union!

Jule Fest and the story of ravens

On 18th Nov 2018, I went to the newly opened Nordic Museum in Seattle along with Seattle urbansketchers after a long time. I was excited to meet the fellow urbansketchers after a long hiatus, but ... only until the previous night. The morning of the meetup though, was a different drama. I did not want to get out of bed. I just wanted to curl up inside my blanket, watch some random YouTube videos to numb down my mind, and snooze away. I was doing everything to sabotage my previous night's plan. Here is how my internal stubborn and procrastinating monologue went on.

 8AM, hmm... it s a good time to getup, let's get ready and take the D line to the musuem.

 Cool! It is so close by! 

Aah,...let me sleep a little while.

9AM, you need to get up, eat breakfast, and go!

Naaah... I don't want to go, how about I skip it today?

No, but then you won't be able to go hang out for until another month! 

OK, I guess I should go. It will be nice once I reach there, I guess...

Nooo, I want to sleeeep.

9.40AM, get up! go brush your teeth, pack your bag, eat something, take a cab!

And I jumped out, brushed my teeth, packed my bag, ate breakfast, got ready, and got a cab at 10AM.

As soon as I was out of my house, it felt different. Much more lighter and brighter. It was a sunny day. I had a cool Uber driver from South Africa who knew 10 different languages. Thank you dear driver, for giving me some nice moments and dropping me safely at my destination. I was obviously late, but was glad I got out of bed. It was crowded outside, people were lining up to buy ticket and go inside to enjoy the JuleFest or YuleFest.

Once I went inside,  the mood was festive. People from all ages were strolling around the museum, and more people were coming in. Many were dressed in traditional costumes too. I met a few artists, busy finding spots for themselves amidst the crowd. I dodged around shops, exhibitions and people to find the boats at the end of the corridor on the ground floor.

The boats presented an interesting challenge of perspective. Having placed along a narrow corridor, it was difficult to catch them from an angular point of view. I was luckty to find a fancy wooden bench to sit comfortably while leaning against the wall. I did hesitate though for a moment wondering if it is on display and if I am not supposed to sit on it. As I settled down, I noticed some other artists already engaged in sketching the boats. Once I figured out the perspective, it was an easy work. A few visitors stopped by appreciating my sketch. I remembered, the time of 2011, the year I resumed sketching actively. I would find all these beautiful spots to sketch, but I would feel so shy and conscious of people watching me. Now moving forward to 2018, I am not only indifferent to crowd around me, I am also enjoying my interaction with them.  It is a much simpler process now. Step1: I want to sketch this spot Step2: I sketch it. Nothing in between. I think it is a good amount of progress.

Once I finished sketching the boats, I noticed I still had significant amount of time, to create one more sketch. I moved towards the entrance hunting for another spot. The beautiful statues of birds hanging from the ceiling caught my attention. I stood leaning against a wall, and started sketching the birds. The morning sunlight was reflecting through the translucent bodies and was enhancing the beauty of the sculptures. They evoked a nice visual of boats floating away in the windy sea, and sea birds soaring on the cloudy sky. The birds were a bigger challenge in terms of perspective though. Top view, angular layout, and spanning wings kind of confused me. It appeared as if they would fit into portrait mode, but they did not. I had to erase the sketches twice before finally figuring out the right perspective. 

While I was immersed in the birds, I heard a voice calling me out. I looked up and it was an old man looking at my sketch. I had a good 10 to 15 minutes of conversation with him (let's call him Uncle), and his wife (let's call her Aunty) who soon joined us.  It was so beautiful, I regret not writing down about the conversation on the same day.  Now, when I have sat down to write about it after so many days, I am afraid, I may not remember everything about the conversation. However, I will try my best to do justice to it.

So, here it goes.

I look up and say hello to him. He appreciates my sketch and says, "Do you know, they are ravens?" I did not know. I imagined that they might be some sea-birds. He said, "No, they are ravens. Look at their pointy tails. That's how you know they are ravens. They do look very similar to crows. But they are not. They are large in size, and their tails are pointy. On the other hand, crows are smaller and have round tails." Point noted.

Ravens have been an important part of Nordic folklore. To be honest, I know very little of Nordic culture. I ask to tell more. Uncle says,  they are perceived to be intelligent and wise creatures connecting the people with the spirits. Vikings used ravens a lot during navigation to discover islands. They would train ravens, and carry them in the boats while exploring. When they wanted to know if there is an island nearby, they would release a raven. If the raven returns, it implies there is no island nearby. But if it does not, then it found an island.  Noah had sent a raven to find an island when trying to escape the great flood. When it did not return, he sent a dove, which returned to him.

Then Aunty joined us. She said that ravens are very intelligent creatures and also very emotionally intelligent. The parent ravens spend a lot of time training their babies. In their backyard, a raven couple had created a nest. The baby raven fell down from the tree one day, and was trapped in a pit below the tree. Uncle decided to help it. He was worried if cats will eat it. So he shoved a broomstick into the pit, hoping that the crow would climb. Aunty was not so sure if it would help the raven. But the raven knew what to do with the stick. It climbed up with the help of the stick. Both of them rejoiced at the raven's rescue, and they continue to protect the birds whenever they nest.

I was fascinated by the importance of crows and ravens in Nordic folklore and wondered how important they are in Indian culture. I told them that although crows are not as revered in Hindu culture, in Odisha, it is believed that if a crow cries sitting on your rooftop or backyard for a long time, it is an omen that guests are going to visit your home today. They were excited to learn about it.

It was interesting for me to talk to them and learn about the stories. I was trying to retrieve all the information I had about crows and ravens in my memory while I was taking in all the new information I got. Crows being a very common place creatures in tropical India, I had taken for granted that they are bird of tropics. After I came to USA, I saw that crows were a common-place bird species too. But they prefer quiet unlike the crows in India who have adapted to urban life. I have also noticed that crows are depicted in Native American art pieces and in totem poles, although I have not researched into it. In the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series written by George RR Martin, which introduced me to medieval and ancient Europe, Sam is assigned the task to nurture and train the ravens. Ravens are heavily used to send letters across, similar to how pigeons were used in India. They were also able to say simple words (although I am not sure if it is fantasy or truth.)

On the other hand, in India, crows are associated with Shani (Saturn) as his vehicle. Saturn is considered a powerful god, who can ill-favor you. So, if you want to appease him, you should feed crows regularly. But otherwise, they are in general not given a lot of value, often looked down upon for their scavenging habits, and harsh voice. 

Uncle was nice enough to click me while I was sketching. Here is me perched in a corner while sketching the sculptures. 

As I said bye to the couple, I was excited to have finished a nice sketch as well as to have encountered such lovely people.

Centennial Park: and story of my guilt trips

The summer last year, I left my beautiful, lake facing apartment to move to a cheaper and smaller place in a less remote location. As I was hunting for apartments, I was delighted to see that Puget Sound is so close by! On top of that Mount Rainier is visible with all its glory! I loved the location of Lower Queen Anne and soon zeroed in an apartment. Although it is not very glamorous, I love that it is small enough for my needs, and in a safe location, plus apartment management is also friendly and genuine. And, I live close to waters!

But after I moved in, I confess I am not visiting the waters, the beach, and the park that often. Sometimes, in the weekends I have to guilt trip myself to go there. Once I reach there, I ask myself, "Why on earth don't you come here everyday?" But the pattern repeats. I stay back thinking I have to accomplish a lot, I have a lot of responsibility, only to waste time in stupid activities. The guilt trip and beating up is sometimes too much to take. I wish that whole chatter just stopped and I could seamlessly take in the view like all those joggers in the park. Funnily, all these sketches are an attempt to force myself out of my shell to go there and provide myself a nice time.

Sunset, Olympic Mountains, and Puget Sound from Centennial Park

This painting captivates the after-sunset glow of the sky, with Olympic mountains and Puget Sound taking darker tones, as the western sky kept changing one vivid palette to another. I am not sure if it was a week day or a week end, but I was determined to just go and sit there. As I sketched this, it became pretty dark, and I remember sitting on the rocks, with my flashlight on, and trying to hold on to the flying papers, and trying to finish my painting soon, while shivering in the increasingly cold wind. I felt proud with a sense of adventure, and told to myself that "I should come here more often. The time spent here is totally worth it. I must invest in this in order to rejuvenate myself."

.... Only to procrastinate until my next sketch. My frequency of visits to the park increased definitely. I remember going there in cold nights and watching the breathtaking night view, and telling myself that I should come and paint the night view. But that did not happen until the next spring. Mount Rainier was basking on the southern horizon with all its glory. I feel, this is a better view than Kerry Park. The sky was a delicate satin of pink, blue and purple. The mount was simmering with golden and silvery light. It was a beautiful evening with gentle cool breeze brushing against my face. Those few minutes of painting were of pure peace. I decided to visit more often, and my frequency increased especially since it was summer. But I still hesitated to sketch. 

I started visiting the waters, and spent more time playing with the waves, and listening to them, everytime exclaiming to myself, "Why don't I come here more often?"  I would see a distant view of the lake, and western sky while walking from work, and debate, "I should probably go take a walk. Nah... I am too hungry, I need to cook and eat first. Nah... there is too much work and too many deadlines, I need to sleep early tonight."  I would miss many beautiful opportunities of sketching thinking "I am busy, may be another time." One day, I myself was frustrated enough with the annoying inner monologue to put my sketchbook and a set of pencil colors in my bag. The following sketch  was of a beautiful, worth framing scene. The colors definitely did not do justice to the beauty of the scene. I forced myself, "Just do it, even though it does not look pretty". And here you go...

 

I remember deciding to walking out of my apartment after staying indoors for long time. I decided to explore the way south, and walk up to Belltown. It was a nice walk, with many beautiful views, full of people enjoying the summer evening. But my heart was not there. I was constantly struggling between wanting to enjoy the moment, and worrying about issues at work. On my way back, I saw this gorgeous view. Although it was getting dark, I had to sketch this one. My inner critic kind of scolded me. "Sketch it! You lazy fellow!". And I obeyed, and sat down to sketch. Sketching the tree was difficult and boring. So I hastened, to avoid the boredom. Still, I liked the way it turned out, although I think it looks better on paper. 

My frequency of visit to the park has increased slowly, although not to a satisfying level. Every time I visit there and see the vista of the lake, the mountains, the vast sky, the green grass,  and the Mount Rainier basking in all its glory as if watching over the city and guarding it from all the trouble, I remind myself. "I am so lucky to live so close to such magnificent beauty."  And I realize what Manoj Das meant when he spoke how being with nature makes you want to bow down with gratefulness in contrast to man-made things which make you want to possess ("Himalayara Himachhaya tale Masoori" in his book Antaranga Bharata).