Yet another sketch on the "Thumbnails" page. Done in a similar style to last weeks.

Quincy Triptych

       

        One of my favorite from a trip to Quincy when the garden was there. Cannot tell when this small building turned into a threesome. Has been a long time I am sure; though I have posted that drawing from '97 (From Deak's Mail Box) that has this shed just as the middle shed -though that is artistic license, or more likely just lack of attention or poor memory. That drawing was started in Quincy and finished, I suppose in Lawrence. This one is of the shed and the central tree. There are other drawings done (and to be done) from this little corner of the universe, but this 'ol weathered structure is a nice one. 

Have you been to the thumbnail page to see the sketch I am calling "Southern Hills"?

Exposed Wood

        Ok, here is one done the same day as the Well House. If you look up the hill behind the well house in the previous drawing you will see this little barn. Done in the winter before the snows started.  

Town Barn

       

        

        It has been around awhile. And only a few blocks off main street. I would suppose it held the horse, and perhaps even the cow- for the folk who raised their kids there and probably worked in town. The little “barn” had to have been in use long before people drove around in a “tin Lizzie.” Actually I wonder what the monster house on the property was originally. Looks like it could have been an hotel; and only “caddywampus” from the train depot.

White Redbud Season

        How about a drawing from this week. The pencil sketch was done 8 days ago now; it had been a few since I had done a sketch on location and I needed the opportunity to remind myself what is possible. The ink was completed today. The whole thing represents three to four hours of work; it goes a little quicker when you have no one but yourself to please with the outcome. It also helps to have a little cold wet weather for these kinds of things. I know, everyone is anxious for the weather to get with the program, but it is about the only thing that will keep me in long enough to do a drawing or two. Even at that it is all I can do to resist takin' a walk in the rain! (No one else should be out to disturb your peace and quiet!)

       I have thought for some years that this place might be an interesting drawing. I like the flowering trees that line the south side, and the fence, well... adds a lot of interest in black and white.

 

Take a peak at the Thumbnails page.  There is a simple sketch posted that helps show how to remember and render shading quickly. Let me know what you think.

Well House

        Done 2 months ago as of this writing. It was a great day for walking and sitting and sketching for a while in the afternoon sun. As previous drawings have indicated, there has been some good snows since this date- three at least that I can think of. This is just to remind us that there were times this winter without snow on the ground!  The ol' boy still runs a few cows in this pasture that is totally surrounded by the town and has been for longer than I can remember. Not hard to find either. I have walked past this during 3 surgery recoveries that I can think of right now. For whatever that is worth... We can see the well house from what used to be the rail line to Baldwin, and is now a bike path. In the mid 80's the rail line still ran north of 23^rd Street.  In the '70's trains still delivered paper to Color Press just north of 23rd.

Fair Evening

        In the fall of the year. A fun record of the light and shade in the evening. Not actually during the county fair, but at the county fairgrounds  This is the place (just to the left of the tree about 50 feet) where in the 70's we recovered Shannon's bike that was taken from under the carport. I think all the kids remember that story.  

Winter Holly Church

       

        The remains of a late snow. Five days before the start of Spring. Believe it? Of course we had snows after this one! This is about the 3^rd sketch I have done that included this church over the river, and the tracks. I will probably do more. Snow changes everything, refreshes the brain and inspires the eye.

Snow on the Divide

        A scene from the Colorado foothills. East of Palmer Lake, before you get to the 2 lane North to Parker. It is a place that just needed to be put to paper. There had been a good covering of snow though now the trees had cleared. A little snow helps keep the "lights" light and the "darks" dark. Mostly horses in the Black Forest now and has probably been that way for years, but I betcha these folk have ran some cattle in the past though none were obvious this afternoon. There is plenty of hay on the east end of the yard...

        We were visiting our kids who lived just a mile or so west of here when I got a quick start to this little project. It has taken 2 years for me to get on it, but here it finally is.

“Sammy” at the Piano

        The thing came home from work one day. With a broken foot it had landed in the trash bin, but I figured the grand-kids would find a use for it, and they did. One summer it watered many a dandelion. Later it served as a planter. When it arrived on Bonanza Street, it still had a lid and a handle. It has been a hard life for a yard decoration...but even an old beaten up samovar can have its moment of fame...  

From Deak's Mail Box

        Here is a drawing from 1997. This is from the east side of the first road turning up into Quincy. The kids had been married a couple years at this time. We may have gone quail hunting with Deak that day or maybe it was one of the later trips. You can see the old Methodist church in the background. The artist has taken some liberties with the drawing. (Oh well, ya get caught some times.) I did not feel that the goal was complete accuracy. If that were the case no drawing would ever get done. Pencils have a way of interpreting things in their own way. There are places where accuracy is important. Art is not always one of them. There are other things to be recorded besides shape and tone. If you want it literal, use your phone! But after all it has been a while since you could even trust a camera image let alone a digital one.   

Ol' Hedge

        

       Most hedge rows were planted when? Before the turn of the last century? During the WPA? They were an essential part of early farming practices. I do not suppose any of the existing trees are that old, but I may be wrong. Some were here before we moved into the area 30+ years ago. The trees grow old, die and the wood just gets more hard and more dense the longer it stands. It was a warm winter day with me just in a frayed jacket. I was not able to see any sign of life in this ol' fella, peeled of its bark, hard and dark. Where it stood at the south end of the ancient row it leaned as if it were trying to escape from the row across the fence into the creek below.

Over the Tracks

        If you follow the railroad out of town north toward Midland Junction you will before you get to the junction pass this place which is over the tracks to the west. If you keep on in that direction you should arrive at the river and the site of the old time Lawrence landfill of the early 1970's. This is the Kaw River bottoms; and the November sun is dropping fast, so catch the shadows while you can! Light and shadow- that is what makes a visual memory.   

Mud Work

        Done on a rainy day of which there were few last summer when they were getting the footings set for the new bridge on 23^rd Street in Lawrence. The date on the bottom says 7/12/12. We had very little rain in the spring and even less as the drought worsened over the Mid-west. But this day I sat in the truck a few minutes with the window cracked and the drizzle trying to spatter my paper. Wanted to get some remembrance of what it was like when they had the bridge torn out. They were setting re-bar boxes for the pillars of the bridge. Why they had the boom up in the rain I am not sure... Nor am I sure why it took such a fancy bridge (or a bridge at all!) but it looks pretty good now that it is done. Maybe now it also needs another drawing?

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!