Abandoned

This abandoned, overgrown, farm house sits on the same property as the barn sketch I posted under the title "Last Legs." The house is up and around the drive that passes the barn. The place hasn't been lived in for years and is now mostly obscured by the brush, trees, and tall grass that have grown up around the old house. Like the barn it will soon be gone.

I'd intended to go back and sketch the house the day after I did the barn but wasn't able to for a couple of weeks. When I went back this past Friday, to do the sketch, the sun was shining brightly but as I worked on the sky darkened to the west and by the time I headed back to the boat it had started to rain.

Last Legs

I've driven past this old barn, that's just outside of Whitehall, Michigan, for years. Saturday afternoon with boat launch chores at least under control, I decided to have a go a sketching the old barn that sits, ready to fall down, on one of many of Michigan's used to be farms. I've no idea how old the barn is but I did note the large beams in the structure are hand hewn.

I was almost done with the drawing when the gentleman who lives across the street from the old farm stopped by to see what I was up to. He told me it was a good thing I was drawing the barn now as the property has been sold and the barn will soon be torn down.

Greenwood Missouri field trip

The Art Mob made a trip to Greenwood for a sketch crawl...of course I started with my Starbucks!

Spring...Rockford, Michigan

It's finally warming up here in Michigan. So this afternoon I got out my art bag and took my portable chair and the dog for a short walk to the entrance of the condo association where my wife and I live. I sketched this scene of the mini farm that's directly across the street from us. The person who owns the place has goats, a couple of horses, and chickens...we hear the rooster in the morning.

It was a great afternoon to be out and was fun to do some art work again. It's also quite beautiful here, now, in Rockford where we live. The flowering trees are blossoming and the forests that surround us are taking on tinges of greens and yellows as the leaves begin to poke out as we head into spring. One of the great things about Rockford is that you don't have to go far to be out in the country.

Fun with friends at the Nelson Atkins Art Museum...they're kind enough to reserve tables so we can all sit together when we're done sketching!

Lawrence Sketch Crawl

We got out today in the snow to meet at the KU Spencer Museum of Art. I've never been here before. Plenty of nice art. I walk around to see everything and come back to this weird display of a fictional account of a lab animal that was stolen from KU back in the 1980's. It takes a while to see all the clues to understand what's going on. I like that. The museum is paranoid about water sources so we are told to keep with pencils. I made a friendly amendment to that and chose my fountain pen. The art cop making the rounds didn't catch me. I guess I like living on the edge.

USk Lawrence February Sketch Crawl

I recently found out about the Urban Sketchers Lawrence group. My second outing with them was this morning. We met at the local Lawrence bowling alley. It reminded me of the bowling alley in Topeka that I went to as a youth. Nice clean place. The bowling balls are more colorful than in my youth.

We had time to sketch and chat, and met at the donut shop in the same shopping center to share drawings. All in all . . . a great day.

I warmed up with some quick gesture sketching using my Pentel pocket brushpen (just love that pen). Then I went on to this sketch. Fountain pen, watercolor pencils and waterbursh. I love all the leading lines! The blue animal took me some time to figure out. It took some kids showing up and using them for the light bulb to come on.

Some of us talked about the upcoming USk Symposium in Chicago. Sure looks like a good time.