Watkins Museum

        If you have been around downtown Lawrence long, you will recognize this vintage bank building. Look at the park to the north of the drawing and that is all you need to do to date this piece; the park has been completely redone since those days some 25 years ago when the drawing was done. This is one of those pieces that I located a couple years ago while organizing some of the older stuff in storage... The drawing itself is India ink done with a stick, or maybe a toothpick but taken from an original long lost pencil drawing done while sitting in the alley a half block east of Massachusetts Street. This image posted actually is from a copy of the ink drawing.   

Shadow Frost.

Dark Ice

        Here is one of those probably originating in '08 when the kids were living in Quincy. We had arrived in a borrowed truck in the middle of the night crashed at the place there, and woke the next morning to frost covering everything. You may still see some frost on the bales retreating to the left; but the actual scene was a lot lighter than this that morning. But the large tree was still a little dark underneath, and the atmosphere was so “mid-evil” that it lead me to this rendition. The place leaves one sometimes with the feel of the Shire and one might expect Bilbo Baggins himself to emerge from the wood.  

I found the old pen drawing from Mary's Lake. It is on the "thumbnails" page...

Sunrise Greenhouse

        The first time I remember going into this place was when we needed a manger scene for Christmas while we lived on Craig Court on the east end of 15^th street. It was later than 1975. I don't think we had been in that house long. When I brought it home the three kids were pretty happy with the purchase. We still have that set. I wonder every time we pass the greenhouse just how long the “smokestack” has been there, what it was first used for, and why it is still standing. Makes a very unusual scene; harks back to days before we were here. This line drawing was completed over a recent sketch with which I was not too happy at the beginning. I think now that I am glad I did not pitch it. It's good to get some record of a significant corner in town before it changes -which I am sure it will. Hope to get back there before then!

New sketch on the Thumbnail page from Mary's Lake...