I’ve got plenty to do and not a whole lot of time to devote to blogging which is just as well as I don’t have a lot to say anyway. I’ll try to make up for it later this week but for today I’ll just share some art and notable memories from the last two or three weeks.
This spontaneous pencil drawing was made spur of the moment on Sunday February 2 just as the morning services were being concluded at my church. The final hymn had been sung and announcements had begun when our pastor’s little boy made his grand entry into the sanctuary by toddling up the aisle to be with his daddy. Our pastor, not yet thirty years old himself and just starting out on his career as a pastor, has only been with us for six or seven months. An affable fellow and a talented speaker. our pastor clearly loves being a daddy as anyone can see when his little boy is around. Of course, right on cue, Pastor Brandon breaks into a big smile, scoops the little tyke up and holds him while speaking to the congregation while we all marvel at the love and adoration between a young father and his little sidekick. At least I did anyway. I found the moment quite poetic and sublime. As he concluded the service with a prayer I grabbed my sketchbook and pencils before the moment was lost and made a fast sketch of our Pastor Brandon holding his son while praying. Occasionally a Kodak moment hits you without warning and compels you to stop whatever you are doing and to jot it down before it is lost to time. I have those moments of inspiration fairly frequently. Sometimes I manage to capture them but, more often than not, they slip away before I think to sketch it or at least take a photo. But I caught this one and I’m happy.
I patronize Michael’s, an art and crafts chain, pretty regular and this is one of the two Michael’s stores I drop by whenever I’m in Roanoke. Seems to me like they ought to call the store Bryan’s considering how much money I’ve spent in the different Michael’s stores over the years. After knocking around in Roanoke on my last trip there I made a pit stop at the Michael’s in the Valley View area for some brushes. After parking my car I drew this view of the store for kicks before going in. It was a cold and windy day and I was looking for a reason to procrastinate getting out of my care and facing the stiff breeze.
A granite stone bench conveniently located along a section of trail that I suspect not too many people use at Falling Creek park in Bedford. A pity I couldn’t sit on it while drawing it. This was done using watercolor pencils which gives my illustrations an interesting and almost psychedelic vibe. At least in my hands anyway. It was getting to be late in the evening when I did this and a troop of a dozen plus hungry deer stampeded nearby into the adjoining bottomland along the creek for their evening buffet. Either they took no notice of me or they did notice and still didn’t care.
We didn’t have church last Sunday as they were still without power after our latest ice storm. Just as well I suppose as the morning was unfit for any kind of activity except going right back to bed and hibernating until July. The forecasted rain had set in and was coming down in torrents and flooding the yard. It was the sort of day that was fit for neither man nor beast or even the mailman. Unless you were a squirrel of course. While looking out the basement door, marveling at the deluge I couldn’t help but notice a chunky squirrel helping himself to an ear of corn that my Mom had set out earlier on our squirrel stand. Rain be damned, he obviously didn’t mind the weather at all and was gonna get his. Cleaned off most of the ear all by himself even while holding his tail over his head and still getting drenched. That’s motivation and I marveled at the fact that he didn’t seem bothered by it. Squirrels are always fun to watch and draw so I went and snatched my sketchbook and a pencil and got busy sketching him as he pigged out.
My final piece for today is this whimsical watercolor of what is supposed to be a rose hip encrusted in ice as a result of our recent ice storm. This is one of the many photos I took the morning after the ice dump and I managed to bag some good shots. This one is my favorite of them all. But, try as I might, I couldn’t do it justice, even after several attempts. While I certainly don’t hate it, I’m not exactly in love with it either. But at least it is still recognizable and even mesmerizing I dare say. I may mess with this some more, I don’t know. Leonardo da Vinci once said that a painting is never finished. They are simply abandoned. And if I’ve got any good sense I may just abandon this, take the lessons learned, and move while I’m ahead before I make things irreparably worse.
