Virtual Paint-Out: Packard Factory Detroit Michigan

I haven't submitted a sketch painting to Bill Guffey's Virtual Paintout for a full three years,...let alone done any drawings to write about in that time. Nonetheless, I have remained a fan of VPO (and other sketch sites), and have continually mused about doing some more drawing/painting again. (I don't know about you, but these drawing/paintings take a lot of time.  They don't come easily to me.)

Having grown up in the Rust Belt (northeastern Ohio), this month's choice of Detroit coincided nicely with my renewed interest in sketching/painting.  So...once again, I logged in and began to wander the streets.
I had remembered reading about the Packard factory on David Byrne's personal online journal (He has an excellent section with his impressions and thoughts about Detroit) and was surprised to discover that I could get up close enough to it on StreetView to get the kind of composition I was looking for.
It's a huge automotive plant-built in 1903-that was abandoned in the 1950's after the once fabled Packard luxury automobile lost its appeal through mis-guided mergers, economic conditions, and regrettable design and business decisions.  To me, it is the quintessential poster child for the decline of the northern industrial cities of America.

So...greetings to all of my fellow participants.  It's good to be back.
Google Maps reference location here

EDM #110: Something with flames

I remember very vividly when this exhibition hall burned-in 1976. Back before I really knew anything about Buckminster Fuller, I was genuinely impressed by this geodesic structure when I walked through it during Expo '67 in Montreal. So later, when I saw the footage of this archetypal form on fire, I was mesmerized. (What a visual!)
Just the other day, I happened to be looking through an old publication from the seventies when I came across this news photo from that time. Through the act of freehand drawing it from that historical photograph, I was mesmerized again...such is the power of art.
(Apologies to fellow EDM'rs: this is not really an 'everyday' fire!)

EDM #148: Soothing

There is something very soothing about anticipating and then walking out to the end of a very long wooden pier, into the heart of a vast marsh with absolutely no one around...the sound of sea-birds and waves crashing onto a wild, sandy beach way off to the east. This is one such pier I traversed while visiting the beautiful coastal islands of South Carolina-during the cold Christmas holiday.

This drawing is very similar to another one I did several months ago. An unintentional series seems to be developing.

EDM #155 : Something with Steps

I really liked the look of this foyer and gently curving staircase in a home on the island of Nantucket in Massachusetts. (Inspired by a photo...not me: visiting, observing, and drawing in Nantucket itself...personally...which is a shame because...I like Nantucket.)

EDM Challenge #133: Peach

I wasn't even looking for it; but, this 'peach' stand fell in my lap when I was looking at a wonderful portfolio of photographs on Flickr by Stephanie Fysh (Lu) from Toronto. Being right up my alley and the perfect subject for this EDM challenge, I couldn't resist the attempt to draw it.

EDM #129: People Doing Something

I pencil-sketched this at a local take-out joint, the proverbial "greasy spoon", while I sat at the counter waiting for my order. Before I left, I took a snapshot with my camera phone for reference. When I got home, I finished my lunch...and this drawing.
If you notice, this is the first drawing on my blog that has people in it...such as they are.

EDM #137: Something You Turn Off and On

This is a view of the major state highway on which I commute most days to the intown neighborhoods where I work. This is the last approach before the road bends right to Exit 7 where I will turn off to go to my home.
Then, on the weekday morning when I return to Exit 7, I turn on the right entrance ramp onto this same artery, becoming a blood cell once again as I flow with all my fellow corpuscles into the heart of the city. This circulatory image is further enhanced when I make this trip in the very early morning or the late evening and all the vehicles are lit up: 'white' headlights going in...'red' taillights going out.
This particular drive home was downright lonely...way past the bloody mess of rush hour.

EDM #135: Salad

We have a friend in town who lived in New Orleans and returns there frequently, esp. for Mardi Gras. Sometimes-without notice-she'll brings us a jar of this wonderful stuff, spontaneously appearing as it does in the deep recesses of our mailbox.

EDM #109: Clock around the house

This Art Deco clock used to chime on the hour and half hour throughout my childhood. Even tho' it still tells time...the bells are silent. It now sits atop a similarly ailing TV set up in our attic loft-in a niche next to the chimney chase.
I have every intention of getting it ringing again. Its chimes are lovely and clear, and worthy of rebirth; a beautiful piece that will never be out-dated. (The same cannot be said about the temperamental TV-circa 1985.)

EDM Challenge #132: Chain

This is a 'look' up at the copper rain chain that hangs from the gutter that is attached to the fascia of the deep overhang outside our kitchen porch, under which are situated our herb planting boxes. When the clouds pour, it is a genuine pleasure to watch the water dance down this chain...and if-like now-it is hot and dry, they look beautiful even when not animated by the coursing rain.

EDM Challenge #131: Spray Bottle

This is a local product. It was manufactured by someone who rented a storage space near one I once rented. He produced the stuff right there...and was very enthusiastic about its effectiveness. He gave me several samples to try, this being one of them. He was convinced that it would sweep the country once people learned of its powers.

"P-Eliminator"...can you guess what its miraculous properties 'eliminate'? Yes..."P". As a test, I applied it to the following sentence, to see if it actually does what its name implies:
"The quick brown fox jum s over the lazy dog"...it worked.

(If you also happen to have an errant pet who thinks the whole of his domain is under continual threat, thereby warranting the use of the occasional 'squeeze play' at key transition points-to ward off real and imagined interlopers, this product might also help to minimize the aftermath of such machismo. Beware of getting drawn into 'spraying contests' using this product in that way!)

EDM #17: Musical Instrument

A couple of penny whistles, with a close-up of the fipple. In the hands of a real player: one of the happiest and most poignant sounds ever heard on God's green Earth.

EDM Challenge #17: Musical Instrument

A close-up of the fipples of a couple of penny whistles.
In the hands of a real player, one of the happiest, and yet most poignant, sounds ever heard on God's green Earth.

EDM Challenge #128: Doorway View from One Room to Another

This is the view from our living room into the kitchen area. I was sitting on the couch after having gone through the rest of the house-looking for a doorway view to draw that corresponded to my mood and time-frame. I gave up, sat down, and...this view presented itself.
It is two steps up into our kitchen from the living room. The first step is also a landing-with the stairs to the lower level feeding left, down to where the bedrooms are. (We live on a very steep slope!) The next opening-also left-is to the entrance room and the front door. Beyond is a captured, built-in daybed in a nook with an interior 'window' that filters light from the front door space into the kitchen sitting area.

EDM Challenge #126: Sponge

All the sponges we have are predictable rectangles. So...I went to the source: sure to find some interest there.
The above drawing is the result of my little bit of research on 'sponges'. This is a "Barrel " sponge. I don't know if this type of sponge will end up helping me wash my car; but, I did learn that natural sponges-as we know them-are the 'skeletons' of the living variety...and fish love to go inside them because the water in there is always moving and rich with nutrients. (FYI: sponges don't eat fish!)
I also considered drawing a loofah...until I learned that a 'loofah sponge' isn't a 'sponge' at all, but rather, a gourd.

EDM Challenge #33: Eye

I drew this from a magazine. I was drawn into and drew out of the incredibly subtle variations of light, reflection, and shadow found within the iris itself.

EDM Challenge #30: Chair

This ladder-back chair reminds me of two such chairs that stood as sentinels behind the couch where my mother stationed herself. She also stood guard-in a way...over those two chairs. They were antiques and of such fragility, she forbad anyone from putting them to the use for which they were first created.

Everyday Matters Challenge #123: Bell

This is a view looking out from our side deck-which is covered by an arbor from which this bell hangs. The large leaves to the left belong to a tree that is native (and revered) in our little ecosystem: a 'bigleaf magnolia'.
This beautiful, custom-made bell was given to my wife and me by her mother when we moved into our new house. Besides looking very pleasing, the bell is rung occasionally to call the cats: the three of whom use this deck to enter and exit the porch.

EDM #127: Skyscape

When driving across the Great Plains at dusk, the domed canopy of the sky slowly engulfs you and becomes your world. You can see the beginnings and endings of rain-hundreds of miles away...and the lightning competes with the rays of the sun.

EDM Challenge #121: Coin

This is a 1942 Liberty half-dollar that my father had in a worn, black leather box in the back of his drawer when he past away. The reason it has meaning to me is that he used to have a huge piggy bank full of them. It was very heavy. When we were young, my sister and I would beg him to let us count them. We thought Dad was some kind of Midas.
Years later, I learned that the movers stole that piggy bank when he and my mom had to move out of the house that we grew up in. Undaunted and in spite of his advancing age, he obviously had started collecting them again. There were 14 coins in the box.