A Person, Artist, Software Engineer, Geologist.

I've not been just sitting around between drawings.  I've had 2 art on-line classes from Elephant Academy out of the UK and playing with watercolor (dang, still can't get it right).  So after a bit I get back and do another drawing.  This time of a barn here in Mars Hill, NC. It's almost like an endless supply of barns around here (it's close to it with > 10,000 barns). But I like to go back and play with watercolor.  I don't know if it's the color or working to find my style in it that I'm after. Intermixed with all this is that Summer is here.  Everything is green and that means more time outside hiking and fishing and warmer temps.  Vitamin D here I come. I've got a few more photos that I've taken to draw from and I'll get them done but in between summer and watercolor.  It all takes time. 

I'm almost 100% (well 96%) recovered from my broken shoulder last October (I've been very lucky recovering so much) and I think in the next few months I'll make those last few remaining percentage points, but the drawing continues. Been trying to get more drawing done from photos I took when I was last in Park City working on the yard for reducing water usage.   Here is the resulting drawing that was just completed.  It's an 8x10 of the big mine in Thayne's Canyon from a different angle.  I thought that it turned out great.  The perspective from the ground and the little bit of a wide angle gave it that bowed in look towards the tower.  the stairway is awesome as are the power lines running though it.  It just turned out great. This summer I'm going to take a number of my PC / mine drawings to my son and daughter still in Utah for hang in their homes. Enjoy.

We have many friends back in Park City.  We lived there for 30+ years before moving to our NC House.  One a year we get back to PC to see the kids and fix up our rental house (and reduce H2O usage, etc) and it's during this time we catch up with old friends. Among them is Doug and Nancy that live in a restored miners house above Old Town Park City (like the Last house above Main Street).  Very nice old house and fabulous yard where they can see the whole of downtown.  It was during the last trip where I snapped a photo of their house that I wanted to draw from. And this is the resulting drawing.  Great yard, house and with the fine filled ridge line in the background.  I do these drawing from time to time of someones house and then give them the drawing (framed).  It would mean more to them than myself and it belongs inside the house itself. So enjoy Doug & Nancy and thanks for taking Shay and myself hiking and to lunch when I was out there.

Last week my wife had a book event at a book store in Winston-Salen, NC.  It was with another author Greg Howard, who's book got banned in at least 1 school district. A good time was had by all at the event.  Greg and Bobbie now share the same editor (for Bobbie's latest book).  The bookstore was a very nice indie bookstore with wonderful (aren't they all) staff.  I ended up buying a couple of books for myself before we left. The facade was an old brick building and made a nice subject for a drawing, so I did one.  It was at night.  That gave it an even better look.  It's not large, jut 5 x 5 inches, but just a nice little drawing. As always, enjoy.

Early on I bought a book by Austin Kleon - "Steal Like an Artist".  Since then I had also bought another of his books - "Show Your Work!" and I've taken it to heart.   This drawing is of a "Sinclair" gas station in Summit county close to where my son owns a couple of lots.  It's an old timey type of station where the pumps don't match, the building old but with a unique style and there is a "real" Sinclair dinosaur on the roof.  Just one of those sights on a back county road trip. So here it is in a drawing.  My drawing is rough, simplistic and has an illustration type style to it, done only in grays.  When I first started these, I thought they where next but I didn't feel they were "Art" as it was the style I could do.   But I showed my work to others. I thought the response would be that they where nice but simplistic (they are) but art?  I didn't know.  I had fear (read the book - Art and Fear) that they where jus...

Mostly it's barns and mines, but today it's a light house somewhere in the northeast.  It's a little different as it's more of a setting rather than a single building.   I could continue to do barns and mines (not done with mines quite yet) till the cows come home but I'm looking for other subjects.  I've taken a number of photos of "other" objects, landscapes, etc. that I'm interested in and drawing those.   Not so easy to change a bit as change is always different.  Different == Scary, but not always.  I just need to do it and move on.  Not really moving aways from my drawing just learning more.  More is different more is fun more is ..... There are a number of drawings and studies that I've done that I've not posted.  They are for myself, my practice and understanding.  Not for public consumption, thus no posting.  I'd rather not display my learning steps and failures (yet I know, Art have no failures but it sure feels like it to...

I don't always (well maybe never) have interesting posts but I try to come up with something if only to show my latest drawing. This latest drawing part of my "Mine" series from the Park City, Utah area.  This is labeled "Master Control" as it's part of an (?) electrical panel in an old mine building.  It's been stripped of parts long ago with only some panels remaining that have been adorned with "local color".  Still an interesting subject for a drawing. On a different topic, I go back and forth between drawing, watercolor and different styles.  Still looking for another style that I can explore and like (and others like too).  I need to bounce some of my artwork off of others to validate a path I'm exploring.  Most times I don't as I know what I've just done is working or not, so it's only the ones that pass the "me" test do I show others. Winter is finally arriving and that limits the hiking / fishing days as the t...