In just a few days we will be in Torchamp, Orne, France. Our condo is sold, after a hectic few weeks we are moved out and staying with Tricia’s sister in Ballard. We shipped three boxes to our new home in France, which according to FedEx have already made it to Caen. We are spending our days changing addresses, getting Neville ready for the trip, and just biding our time. So it made sense to reflect on the past few years by picking out a few of my favorite sketches.

In 2018 the Mukilteo Beacon started a publishing my sketches under the banner – Travelsketcher, I will be forever grateful for the connection with the community it brought, even minor celebrity status when people would see me sketching and ask if I was the Travelsketcher, you brought me great pleasure letting me share my art. The first sketch was of the sculpture at Lighthouse Park.

Mukilteo abounds in treasures, some iconic like the lighthouse, some less well known like the Community Gardens, a magical place that contributes to the Mukilteo Food Bank.

In 2019 I started doing workshops, “Yes! You can travelsketch!” Kris Hammer was starting Nature Together, an outdoor pre-school and nature oriented gift shop. The first workshop was done in the class portion of her shop, with adults sitting at child size tables, but it went well. Thank you Kris and your staff for making me feel welcomed.

The Red Cup Cafe crew were so supportive of my workshops, thank you so much. In March of 2019 they hosted a showing of my sketches.

Cafes and pubs are always favorite places of mine to sketch. These three fellows are ubiquitous in Mukilteo. I did this one at Bit’s, one of the men bought the original and Tracy, the owner of Bit’s has it on display.

A fixture for many years, though I fear not visited enough by the locals, was the Historic Flight Museum; sadly it closed for good in 2020. The wife of a long time museum docent, and a good friend of ours, commissioned me to paint the building as a Christmas present for him. I loved doing this one.

Then of course there is Harbour Pointe Boulavard, where we lived – hard to find a better walking path.

One of the last sketches I did was one morning as the house was in the process of selling. Always the predawn riser, I often enjoyed dramatic views that were missed by those still asleep. This morning was a full moon through the fog, sketched from the living-room of our condo.

We have good memories of Mukilteo, if and when we return from our travels abroad we will certainly consider Mukilteo for the next chapter, but whoa! That is a long way off. For now we will take our memories with us to France. You can follow our adventures on this blog, Instagram, and Tricia’s blog, TravelsThroughmyLens.com.