Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

May all you packages arrive in time

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone who stumbles across this blog. My sincere wishes for a happy and prosperous 2015.

Still at it. . .

A selection of recent sketches 

I have been experimenting with color as the season is changing. Soon these colors will be gone and I will be working with blues and grays as winter sets in. All of these sketches have been done within a one mile radius from where I work. I am fortunate to work is such a visually rich area. Although I do long for buildings that are taller than two stories. . . It has been almost two years that I began my daily sketching and am beginning to see some improvement (although slight) in my ability to represent what it is that I feel about the scene that I am portraying. I also discovered or rediscovered a lot about myself and am working on the aspects of self that drive me to do this. There is a need to create something physical as most of my world is that of pixels rather than paint and even though I can make great images in my digital world, there seems to be something more 'real' or more tangible when I put pigment on paper, and I like the fact that this is not a commercial exercise but one of the heart and mind and when the sketch is done I can close the book.

2 seconds of fame

RI Local Magazine  - Click Image for Larger view

A local magazine, actually 'RI Local' did this short article about me. I am flattered and honored to have them call out my scribbles. The journalist that interviewed me did a good job of representing our conversation and the reproduction of my sketches is fine. (they look better reduced in size and printed on glossy stock) Thanks RI Local and Holly Abney - I still have no idea how they found out about my sketching. . .

Some recent things

Utility Pole - Click Image for larger view

I am still sketching every morning but it is getting harder to fit it in my day as darkness is encroaching on my sketching time. This morning I sketched the pole (sketch above) from the front seat of my car, in the rain. As I arrived in Hope Valley I was visually struck by all the poles and wire running down along Main Street and felt that they obscured my view. I looked harder and realized that each pole had it own personality. Like so many things in life they just needed a second glance.

Old Barn in Hope Valley - Click Image for larger view 

In my childhood I was a big fan of the books of Eric Sloane. He fill my imagination with visions of a simple life and barns and old tools with his wonderful ink sketches. I think at one point I owned every one of his books and I would lay in my room and read them over and over. It has been fifty years since then and I am just now beginning to appreciate just how much of an influence he has had on my art and my thinking. Thank you Mr. Sloane.

Old Stone Bank, Providence - Click Image for larger view

My artist frind Kathy and I have been getting out and sketching early in the morning, and one day we met down on South Main Street in Providence and tackled the buildings there. We meet at 6:00 am which I know somehow seems uncivilized to some, but it works for me and I am grateful that Kathy has the willingness to join me from time to time. I always learn so much when we sketch together.

Polo Field, Middletown - Click Image for larger view

This last image I did while we were at a polo match (Newport won) in Middletown. The view is of the field and the spectators on the far side, their tents and all the flags of the different countries that come to play on this field. Now for full disclosure, there were horses and riders going up and down the field. I am a coward - and left them out - I can only imagine the mess I would have made on my paper if I attempted to sketch them.

Bell School through the lens

Bell School, 7:00 am - Click image for larger view

This morning I visited Bell School once again and this time instead of brushes and ink I used pixels and light. The sky was just too fantastic for me to even begin to describe in my sketchbook. So I got my camera out, and waited a few minutes for the sun to creep over the hill behind me and light those treetops.

A Recent sketch - Click image for larger view

I think it is the solid design and the beautiful construction of this building the pulls at my attention. I come back often. I think of all the young minds that have gone through this building from 1826 until 1935 when a new school was built.  In 1826 Beethoven was composing his music and Thomas Jefferson & John Adams both died…so long ago.

Some recent pages

Kansas, Illinois & Providence, RI - Click image for larger view

I realized it has been a while since I posted and in the meantime we had gone off on vacation again..so here are a few spreads from my sketchbook.

Onset, MA - Click image for larger view

More from Onset beach - Click image for larger view

Visiting In Illinois

Evening Chatter - Click Image to view Panorama

Our visit with my brothers in Illinois was a spectacular time. It is always good to be able to spend some time with Dave and Dan. Dave has a new home in Kansas, Illinois and he and Tammi were the best hosts ever. . . thanks brothers for a great time. We went canoeing, to the fair and a truck pull and a tour of Amish country..all the time telling tall stories and having insult filled exchanges.  I can't wait until next time… Ben and Grace met Dan and Dave and Tammi for the first time and it was very hard for Ben to say goodbye to his Great Uncles, and great uncles they are.

Thoughts on making crap

Bell School again - Click image for larger view

I am still sketching just about every morning before work and making new marks in my various sketch books. As I look at the pile of books I have filled, I have come to the realization that, so far, I have not made any art…I have merely been working up to that point. I have a while to go. In the past couple of weeks I have had the occasion to talk to a couple of budding creative people, one who is beginning to sketch and another who is beginning photography. They both are concerned with making art. My comment to them is that, right now, in the beginning stages, all the images they are making are crap. Right now they are learning to see and beginning to understand their tools and all they can do is keep at it long enough to attain the understanding of their tools so they can create an image that reflects their vision. A style will develop, vision will become clear and purpose will reveal itself. I am still struggling with that, but feel that I am getting a bit closer to that end. I have been fairy diligent over the past year or so trying to sketch every day. I am still experimenting with various tools and materials, with various styles and with various visions, with value and hue, with composition and with just what it is that drives me to do this. I have done well over 500 sketches and feel like I have a good start. There is nothing in these sketch books that I consider art - it's all crap - but it is my start on a journey that will hopefully lead me to a destination that allows me to produce an image that reflects my vision. Right now all we can do is keep at it until it reveals itself -- like Yoda said -- 'There is no try, only do' -- so I will continue to make my marks on paper and encourage others to do the same.

Komatsu Bucket Loader - Click image for larger view

A trip to the Flight 93 memorial

Wall forms at the future Visitors Center - Click image for larger view

Working for VIBCO I have been fortunate to get to so many great locations. This past Tuesday was no exception. We are providing the vibration equipment for concrete consolidation at the Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania. Our vibrators are being used for the concrete walls of the Visitors Center which is situated on top of a hill overlooking the crash site. (We have also had many many vibrators at the site of the new World Trade Center, since the very first concrete was poured) We spent the day here in Pennsylvania working with the crew teaching them the ins and outs of external vibration, something new to them. The walls will have a textured finish and the goal is to get them as blemish free as is possible. Although we had some issues with the air supply to the vibrators (this is being remedied) the finish on the walls came out surprisingly well. We at VIBCO are honored to be even a small part of this  project.

Crane on the site and vibrator (inset) - Click image for larger view

We arrived on site at 7:30 am and didn't leave until  the job was done a bit after 4:00 pm - the middle of the afternoon gave us a very heavy downpour filled with lightening and high wind..it was pretty exciting and very wet. We sought shelter under the lee of this crane, which of course is a great lightening rod. . . We drove home after the wall was completed. It is an eight hour drive in good conditions - I got home at 3:00 am after eleven hours in the truck. It was the traffic in Connecticut the was the worst -- over an hour in one spot, but it did give me a chance to sketch this. 

Late night traffic - Click image for larger view

It was good to get home and out of wet clothing and although I was at work at the usual time the next morning, I didn't make the extra to get out and sketch… and my poor sketchbook is now covered in mud -- it got a bit beat up in the storm.

Some new sketches

American Star - Click image for larger view

On Fathers Day Carol and I went into Providence to sit along the waterfront. Carol sunned herself as I sketched. The picture above is an exercise in light and dark values. The ship is a white ship but the side facing the shore was in shadow.   I feel like the sketch is a success but that I may have carried the shadow area a bit too dark. The far shore should have been a bit lighter as well..

Locustville Road, Hope Valley - Click image for larger view

Another sketch done before work. I have found so many interesting views down in Hope Valley. It really is a very good place to go and sketch..I guess I am lucky that it is at the end of my morning commute.

Sabin Point, East Providence - Click image for larger view

Looking south down Narragansett Bay toward Conimicut Point in Warwick. East Providence is lucky to have these nice parks along the water. This is another Fathers Day sketch, just a small one about 2 inches tall and 8 inches long.