The Drive Home

 After the one week workshop it was time to drive home. Bayfield, WI to Topeka, KS. The route winds down the east shore of Lake Superior, but the lake stays hidden for most of the drive. An occasional pull-off does offer a view, though. Camera shots and sketches just don't capture the grandeur of this huge lake. The route drives by Superior, WI and Duluth, MN. I love the fresh water freighter culture in this area! I always stop at Duluth to watch freighters slowly exit Lake Superior southbound to either load or unload. That will be my next post.

For this post I sketched my overnight in Superior, WI, which is next to Duluth. I'm winging it for places to stay. Sometimes it doesn't go so well. The first three places had no room but the third one recommended the Androy Hotel. This is an old elegant hotel that has seen better days but refuses to die. Great ambiance and architecture! 

The on-line ship schedule says tomorrow morning we have two freighters coming through so I don't have time to eat in the restaurant in the hotel. I take time to sketch the bathroom (I was taking a shower and it spoke to me and demanded to be drawn). Still has the old fixtures but it was charming. Then the retired motel operator station was in the Lobby. If it could only speak.

I'm having allergy-type symptoms. To rule out COVID I bought a test kit at a gas stop from their discount bin. It will be negative. Oops. It was positive! Haven't had it yet. Luckily it will prove to be a light variety. Had to sketch the kit. I learned that no matter how long you stare at the test strip, the results don't change. Ever. 

MISA "The Lively Sketchbook" Workshop

 I pampered myself in August and attended a drawing class at Madeline Island School of the Arts (MISA). Koosje Koene presented a one week class focusing on adding people to our sketches to add life to them, thus "The Lively Sketchbook". August was three months ago from this post so this post is late. Guilty as charged. I had a new version of image edit software to learn and it intimidated me. That, and life just gets in the way. Whine, whine.

The workshop wasn't cheap but it was top notch. The "campus" is a re-made old dairy with housing available on-site. Madeline Island is up on Lake Superior and you need to catch a ferry to get there. The island is largely an art residential community. This was my second workshop there and I just love it up there. "We're not in Kansas". Students always develop their own dynamic. In this workshop we bonded well. 

My sketch of the campus was made from a quarter mile field access road that I bicycled to behind the campus (MISA has bicycles to use!). A staff person told me about it when I was shooting the breeze with him. A nice quiet spot. I found the feather there, which I had to include. The sketch of the ferry ride was on my return to the mainland. I was too hyped up when arriving to do any sketch time.

I'm not a water color artist. Watercolor skills were required for this workshop. However, I feel I can come close enough with my watercolor pencils so I bluffed my way through. In watching everyone else mix colors in a palette, I learned how to do that with watercolor pencils. Both sketches use a (primitive) wash for the background. Learning proper watercolor techniques is still on my bucket list. 

The sketches were made on site. Fountain pen, water color pencils with water brush, multimedia paper in my own sketchbook. 

More Bookbinding!

 It's been a long while since I bound some sketch books. Wilma's passing put me in a creative funk. However, I'm slowly getting back into sketching and bookbinding. I used up the last of my sketch journals recently. I signed up for a one-week art workshop last August on getting sketches of people into your sketches and needed to have a journal to sketch in. That was the push I needed to make this batch of journals.

It feels great to be in the saddle again. Several in the class had Instagram accounts. When I got back home I created one, too. So, learning that application and having to replace scan edit software (mine became outdated) put me behind in sketching and posting, but I'm making progress. We'll see if I can keep the momentum going.

I retired a few short years ago. My post-retirement plan was to do some bookbinding for sale and set up an Etsy shop for it. I lost interest when the health problems arrived. Now I'm reconsidering it. Intentions don't necessarily equal reality, so we'll see if I pull it off. 

Ah! Wonder Fair

 Wonder Fair is the name of my favorite semi-local art supply store. It's 15 miles away in Lawrence, Kansas. I decided I needed to set on a street flower planter and sketch it. It's an independent store, not a chain. It's one of those stores you go to just to look around. 

I had business in Kansas City so I took my 11 month old Black Lab Molly to the doggy day care. That frees up time so I can sit and relax and sketch. I have noticed the pup, as much as I love her, does impede my ability to sit and chill and sketch. I'm hoping as she ages that she will be less demanding of my time.

If you follow my posting, you'll see that I had a quiet spell, but I'm getting back in the groove. I bind my own sketch books and I've used them all up. Need to get back to book binding. These last few sketches have just been on sheets of mixed media paper. 

Celebrate Clumsy

 Before things green up is the best time to do trail work. We needed to scope out trail conditions of part of our Landon Trail south of Overbrook. I was checking out a culvert and fell, hyperextending my wrist. Got the job done but need to baby my wrist for a few days. This drainage is not a real creek. It's just run-off from a pasture, so it will be dry most of the year. Cattle can use it to cross between pastures. The railroad built this in 1930 and it's still rock solid. 

When I sketch, I don't use pencil first. "Lead Free". It's faster but riskier. I concentrated drawing the hand so much that by the time I was drawing the wrist, I was getting sloppy and not checking my proportions often enough. Thus the long skinny arm. I still like lead free. Every time I look at this it reinforces the idea that I need to stay aware of proportions the whole time I'm sketching. This was drawn with my long Lamy fountain pen. I sure like that pen!

Anyway, it was still fun to sketch it. When the quick-med place put on the brace I immediately knew I had to sketch it. I'm right handed so the sketching subject could just sit there as I sketched. I liked the straps and grommets, too. It gives me a gothic bowler rock singer look. 

Maintenance Work

 Finally took time to sketch. The pasture cedars are more visible now since the grass/hay hasn't greened up yet. They keep on living, even though they are stunted from being mowed all the time. I pulled one here to get some satisfaction and noticed the intricate root work and decided I needed to sketch it.

The railroad spike is from our Landon Trail. Seems impossible to pick them ALL up. They're sneaky. When I do find them, I carry them out so bicyclists and horse riders don't get hurt.

Now I need to bind my next sketch journal. This sketch is just on a sheet of drawing paper. We'll see if my binding notes are good enough to do it again. It's been quite a while.

January USKC Sketch Crawl

 It's been a few years since I've made it to a Kansas City sketch crawl with Urban Sketchers KC. Wilma and I went a few times before. She liked to kill time as I sketched and enjoyed the common meal afterwards. It was time to get back in the saddle. As I've said before, I'm not an urban type guy, but we don't have a Rural Sketchers organization. I like the KC group, even though I'm pretty much anonymous. We gathered at the Kansas City Museum (never heard of it). It's a restored mansion in old Gladstone just north of downtown, with a focus on telling KC history. 

We had over 30 sketchers, which is more than I've ever seen! Too large to be personal but if I knew anyone I could fit in. The architectural details with all the hardwood trim were great! Some great stained glass windows, too. I found their Library & Gentlemen's Retreat with a great fireplace and oak trimmed book cases with leaded glass doors. The owner, Mr. Robert Long, preferred this room to all others.

We sketched from 10-noon. I met in the lobby at five 'till noon for our "throw down". It's my favorite part, where we network and share our work. Nobody there?! Only three other sketchers who didn't know where anybody was, either. I found out later they all met in a room upstairs that I didn't know about. I packed up and left. Ate at a restaurant I liked that was a former sketch crawl location and drove the 65 miles home. Still a nice outing, just diminished because of failed communications. 

My scan came out too light. I used Noodler's Lexington Gray ink, with a light tough. Not good for contrast in reproductions but fine on the original.

Sketching has made the short list of things I want to continue. I want to keep doing the hobbies that let me enjoy today rather than rely on the future to enjoy life. 

The Home Place

This was a camping trip back in April. Wilma died three months prior. I'm hoping I can still enjoy camping without her so this is a trial run. Long story short, I'll continue camping. I miss her and would rather do this with her, but in her absence I still enjoy it.

The campground I chose was in Land Between the Lakes. We've camped there a few time and always loved it. That also gave me a chance to visit Paducah, for the National Quilt Museum. I always loved going there. They have good coffee shops and craft beer, too.

 I still intend to return to sketch journaling. It will be sporadic but I can't give it up.