the lineup

This was the lineup inside the front door of the kids townhouse. Dad's boots and Grandpa's boots as well.  Along with some of the grand-daughter's crocks. As well as other shoes. Not usually this crowded, unless there is company in the house. It is a subject that has endless interest and possibilities.

Mack-National

A page of sketches in a 5" x 9" pad done from my pickup one lunchtime at the shop, where I work from time to time.  These sketches are fun to do and you learn a bunch about stuff when you do 'em. You learn stuff about the subject, about drawing, as well as about yourself...

Asberry Oaks

Asberry Oaks was done from the sketch.  I was stopped at the quiet corner of Dakota and Ohio  when I said, "gotta do this sketch".  So straddling the bicycle in the middle of the street that is what I did... These pin oaks are all over the town -all over the mid-west!  They are not as monstrous as they appear- the perspective puts 2 trees together, making them seem huge.   The subdivision has been there since the 1950's though, and the trees as well I suppose, so they are not young.

Done on Canson 140# paper about 9.75" x 11.5"

Here is the sketch. From a 5 x9 pad.  The notes showing beside it are from the page below it; there is only the title on this sketch. But it was done on a peddle to Checkers for their 19 cents a lb bananas on Tuesday, the 22nd of December. The painting was done that day or the next.

E 11th street

The notes on the sketch from which this came read: "E 11th  N 1550 Rd.   2/23/15   30 degrees  4:00 PM  Clear."   Yet in the sketch there are some clouds in the west and the sun shines over and through them, catching the tops of the building, but leaving this east side in the hazy shadow. So I guess it was not completely clear, at least in the west.  That was in a 9" x 12" Canson sketch pad.  The painting is more like 11" x 14".  These are definitely winter colors subdued by a  winter sun that back lights the scene.  There is another painting I have done from a sketch I did at home inspired by another place along this road in that same sun.

cropland in the Kaw bottoms

Although it was not in this part of Kansas where I grew up, still did spend a bunch of time as a kid on the bottoms of the Republican river  which comes out of Colorado, southern Nebraska, and eventually feeds into the Kaw.  So scenes such as these are not unfamiliar to me.  The cottonwood groves; the willows; rustling of leaves in the prevailing wind can suppress all other sound, leaving one numb to even the crunch of your own steps in the grass.  This painting was done from a sketch done mostly from memory this summer while the corn was still partly green.  There is no day or month recorded on the margin- only" Summer 2015".    It was done on Canson 140#  paper 9" x 12" I believe.

teenager

Guess who!!    Some high school kids have a characteristic teenage stance or posture. Some do not. This particular grandkid of mine is quintisential teenager. Even while sitting on the couch watchin' the tube.