Light Pole

Sept 14, 2010 - Dee and I were driving around downtown scouting sketching locations. We spied a statue thingy we wanted to draw, so we made the block and parked. By the time we got to our spot, a big ol' work truck had parked right in front of the statue. Dang!

Had to find something else to drawn until the truck left. Our shady spot was fairly small so the options were limited. Turned around and saw this light pole in a small slit of sky between a tree and the side of the building. I liked the tangles of wires and electric lines.

I especially found favor with this light pole because it had such a dichotomy of styles - the uber-modern halogen fixture and the gracefully curvy old-timey streetlamp with the hangy down bulb. It was a succinct history of Our Town all mounted on a pole. What more could an Urban Sketcher ask for in a sketch target?

This is the sketch that needed color fixing that I'm just now getting around to fixing. I had originally painted the wall a solid pale yellow color. That was indeed the actual color of the building in the afternoon sun. However, it didn't look right. Decided darker was better so I made it into a brick wall. Artistic license. :)

Pizza Hut House

Went to play at Miz Dee's house today. I arrived while she was out getting lunch so I sat in her driveway and sketched. Waiting is always an appropriate time to sketch.

I whipped out the little red emergency sketchbook (kept in my purse just for emergent sketching situations) and drew the odd little detached garage across the street. The house has this same roof line. Dee later told me the neighborhood refers to this house as "The Pizza Hut House."

We played in Dee's guest room closet today, cleaning things out in anticipation of swapping her office and guest bedroom. Dee was ripping and snorting, tossing and tossing and tossing. She was ready to be shed of stuff.

She tossed some vintage linens into the yard sale pile, and I, in a rare fit of retentiveness, told her she should probably keep those. Gasp!

Holy Cow! I don't know what came over me. I don't remember ever recommending somebody keep something when they were bound and determined to get rid of it. I must have been getting tired.

I could not, however, convince her to part with the seashell collection or the pile of old curtain rods. Sigh. Ya win some, ya lose some.

Final tally: Almost barren closet, one big bag of trash, HUGE pile to go to a friend's yard sale. Yay!

I started chuckling at one point and Dee asked why. I told her usually you can't beg, borrow or guilt a friend to come over and help clean out closets. I actually *volunteered* to help her do hers and enjoyed every moment immensely.

I ain't right.

Church Window

Last week I was laid low with some kind of fever-inducing microbial critter attack. Was a permanent horizontal fixture on the couch with only enough energy to punch the channel button on the TV remote. Discovered there isn't doodleysquat worth watching on cable TV. Thank goodness for PBS.

Started perking up Sunday night (finally!) and made a sketching date for today with Miz Dee.

The weather was beautiful. A nice breeze was blowing with a heat index less than 100°+. Yay! We found a deep shady spot in a meditation garden beside this fieldstone church. Lots of benches for staring at green stuff. Perhaps green stuff is helpful for meditation, I don't know. I stare at lots of green stuff most days but it doesn't seem to be meditation-inducing, at least not for me.

Anywho, after this sketch I realized I didn't want to draw any more fieldstone. Phew! That's a time eater right there, lemme tell ya what. The green stuff likewise was not attracting my attention, plus I needed to pee (TMI?) and Dee was uncomfortably hot even in the shade with a breeze.

We opted to move locations to downtown where, miraculously, it was much cooler. That doesn't seem logical since it's all asphalt and concrete, but there it was.

Sketched downtown for the next two hours. I need to do some adjusting to those sketches. Went in the weeds with color on both of them - "boffem". Will try to fix and get posted tomorrow.

After we packed it in for the day and were driving home I realized I never did get around to peeing.

Sigh.

High Rise Urban Sketching

Today Miz Dee and I got to sketch from Our Town's only skyscraper. We were at the nosebleed-inducing altitude of the third floor.

This is a view looking west:
From left to right: the hospital, a lime green apartment building, and the funeral parlor. The street doesn't really go under the hospital's portico, I gorfed the perspective on that. Oh well, I still have happiness for this sketch.

This is Our Town's City Hall:
It's a cool looking art deco building built in 1927. I've always wanted to sneak up and see what's in the tower section.