Artist Date: Starved Rock

Today was just a great day! My sister Jennifer and I drove to Starved Rock Park and met my hubby's Aunt Pat for a sketchcrawl. Remember Maggie, Joe's cousin featured a couple of posts ago? Well, Aunt Pat is her very talented grandmother.

This is Fox Canyon...one of many beautiful canyons in the park. You walk on a bridge spanning this to get to the lodge. It was pretty cold out today so we stayed by the fire. At home when the fire needs to be stirred I always wish we someone would come along and do it for me. At the lodge an employee comes along every 20 minutes or so and stirs it up and adds a log if needed. Ahhhh........
Jennifer sketching........there's another fireplace back to back to this one (behind those partitions) but that side was all set up for a wedding reception. Aunt Pat and Jennifer showing off our sketchbooks. About the time we were done we needed to move a bit because a couple getting ready to be married by the fire. Want a bite to eat? I love the old part of the lodge best...lots of huge logs and stone and wonderful rustic furniture made for the lodge. It was built in the 1930s.

Jennifer and I by the koi pond in the new part of the lodge.Aunt Pat shows Jennifer and I some of her new works. She is painting a series of images using ink she made from pokeweed berries that grow in her yard. She combines them with watercolors and ink drawings. The ink is the fushia color you see in the background of the first painting....and it is combined with orange to make the background in the second painting. This is my drawing for the day...I got caught up in the detail. The beams and such were very dark backlit by the light streaming in the windows, so it was hard to see details. I bet my ink is low in that pen after drawing all those dark shadowy areas! We had a great day. It's so fun to go with others who like to draw...they don't mind sitting and spending a while to sketch!