En Plein Spokane
Megan Perkins painted once a week for a year for her Artist’s Eye on Spokane series
Rain, shine, snow or wildfire smoke, Megan Perkins stayed true to her commitment to paint a Spokane-centric scene at least once a week for a full year.
This meant sometimes parking across the street from historic buildings, frequent subjects of her Artist’s Eye on Spokane series, occasionally running the engine so she didn’t get too cold while painting the brick facades in watercolor.
She also sketched from the announcer’s box of a Spokane Indians game in the peak of summer heat, at a downtown fire station while crews intermittently rushed to and from calls, and while surrounded by the art deco splendor of the Fox Theater before a performance.
On a sunny and warm May morning, Perkins is perched atop a concrete retaining wall in Huntington Park, sketching the suspended, momentarily immobile gondolas of Riverfront Park’s SkyRide. The artist deftly mixes splashes of indigo and violet paint in the plastic lid of her watercolor palette to get the deep lilac hue of the gondolas just right. The rushing Spokane River and sounds of nearby construction echo through the parkside river gorge as newly minted Washington State University grads pose for photos on the slope below.