Monday, April 13, 2015

O'Connell snow


          February 17 apart from being my dad's birthday was this year a snowy day. Because we have had so little snow this year there has been almost no time to do any drawing in the snow. That's why I found myself sitting on the road into the Teen Challenge property with this view of the vintage stone house on the corner just south of me at the entrance to O'Connell Youth Ranch. This is not the first drawing I have done of this house, or the area, from all directions, but the dusting of snow made the scene more luminous than normal; and this view sitting there was for me a fresh one with more flow from side to side than earlier sketches.
          I had been sitting near a small culvert on the one lane entrance road for about 20 minutes when a “duelly” crew cab pulled into the gate with a 16' trailer in tow loaded a good 5' high with firewood. No problem, huh, I can just back up 100 yards to the yard and avoid getting stuck in the shallow ditch on the slick grass... But my truck would not start. I had left the lights on when earlier the snow and the overcast sky were making it a little dark to see. So I had to bum a jump from the fellow driving the duelly. He had a couple teens with him one of which helped me hook up the cables. The driver seemed a little frustrated, as he well might be; it was not early and they had a lot of wood to unload at the house. They may well have spent a good part of the day splitting and loading it. Turns out after the truck started I was actually able to drive around him w/o getting stuck. Then I was able to go one street north where there was a dead end east of the round-about so I could sit & finish the drawing enough to stop and head for home. Although after finishing this drawing I decided the view to the north would be better if done right then than later in the year, so I started another drawing before the flurries totally stopped.

          This drawing is done in a 9” x 12” format totally in pencil. This is one of my favorite recent drawings, and my favorite of the old place.

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