Mitchell and I attended the Restoration Celebration to raise money for the
the 2016 Most Endangered Places, and to hear the winners of the 2015 Demuro Awards,
as the guest of one of our clients, Karla Pearlstein of Restoring History.

This is part of a series for Restore Oregon.

Thanks to Drew Nasto for letting me use his images
to place into sketch format to commemorate the night!

When we draw, we remember.
When we draw details,
we get to know our subjects intimately.

The simple act of pen to paper allows me to cement
an event forever in my mind and heart.
I remember standing with Mitchell listening to the guitarist,
Matthew’s and Karla’s and Peggy’s faces,
the lovely conversations at the table and after,
a new friendship made, a loyal superintendent,
many patrons of our business dressed up for
a night on the town, and the gift given!  Thank You!

I understand the decorative details of the ballroom design
(my architectural background helps here).
I studied the stunning mandala on the hand-painted jacket
from the Pacific Northwest College of Art,
and listened to the stories,
so many great speakers and stories
of buildings lost and buildings saved,
especially Max Williams’ story of watching
a building come down in his home town as a boy.  

With the promise of more buildings to be saved,
I watched many people pledge their faith and dollars
in Restore Oregon and our built history.

  Artist commentary below, on process! 

I thought to take the evening through from start to finish.

I tied the various sketches together with background waterproof inks
which allowed me to add to them, deepen the colors, splatter watercolors.
Super5 inks: Delhi, Dublin, Australia.
This was true tying in the Quin Gold and Quin Brunt Orange of
Istvan Roman’s guitar to Delhi’s saffron yellow ink.
Matthew and Arthur’s suites were almost black;
I made them deep purple blue instead.

I used artistic license to make the scene work.
I didn’t want to draw every last person in Drew’s amazing wide-angle photograph,
but wanted to give a feel for the activity in the room
and the spirited feel of the evening!
The woman I drew may have given much more, I don’t know:
I used our bidding cards to show a monetary amount
because I think a lot of folks gave $250.

The jacket Thomas Mann wore
from a student at the
Pacific Northwest College of Art
(still trying to get the artist name!) was stunning!
How could I not show another artist’s work?
Mitchell would totally wear a jacket like that!

I drew some of the mandala in the
Platinum Carbon pen, and used
Noodler’s Lexington Grey ink and Super5 Delhi
so it would not mix with the watercolors on top.
Then I free-handed the lovely scroll work.

I started with Peggy Moretti’s image because I had her photo first,
along with the Demuro Award plates.
I left space on the folded journal for other items as they came, watching the story play out.
I wanted an image of Arthur Demuro because the award
was named for him and so many told stories of him.
His was the last image to come to me.

Stay tuned for the Buildings, coming soon!

Inked sketches on a handmade Arches Journal with (mostly)
Platinum Carbon pen, Pentel Brush Pen, or Pilot Parallel pen 1.5;
Super5 or De Artramentis Document inks;
Daniel Smith, QoR, Holbien and Greenleaf & Blueberry Watercolors.

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Photographic images by Drew Nasto.