More Historical Places

Time to pick up and continue drawing my historical places around Allen Co. I’ve been working on them for a couple of years. I like to do on location sketches but some of them are in places with no parking. Today my friend (Barb) encouraged me to find a couple of places for us to try out. One had a huge tree right in front of it so we agreed to come back in the fall when the leaves were gone. Next was  the St Peter’s square which includes several buildings. We picked the church. Probably because it was the hardest. (ha)

Actually the clouds were looking pretty great around it. I need to add those yet.

Lunch at the Oyster Bar. Fish tacos, yum. Then another building... Fairfield Manor. It’s a huge building. This is just the front. It extends back for a good block.

It was a fun day... k

Kekionga Plein Air Event

We had a great weekend for the plein air paint out. Weather was perfect on Thursday. I’ve been wanting to paint the Bass Mansion at St Francis for some time so the time had come. It has been a while since I’ve used my oil paints but I decided to give it a go.

            

I was pleased with it. Rather large for a plein air piece. 16x20.

The next day several of us painted at Lakeside park. I don’t like to haul too mich equipment very far so we parked on the street and painted the flowers that were close by.

 That evening there was a quick draw or better called a quick paint. You have 1 1/2 hours to finish a painting. Then they are judged and prizes are awarded. I decided to just bring my sketch book along and draw and wander around to watch everybody else. My there are some talented artist here.

On Saturday it stormed and rained hard in the morning but cleared off for the afternoon when everyone was to bring their paintings downtown to be judged and put up for sale. It’s all during the Taste Of The Arts festival weekend so there are gobs of people all over the streets around Freimann Square.

Tents and stuff in front of the museum. Need to learn to put people in my drawings. 

I think I’ll start working on that...  k

Ouabache State Park

Sometimes you get up in the morning and have no idea what you might do that day. This was one of those days. We (Barb and I) have visited here before but it has been quite a while. I love to visit the buffalo. When we first arrived the buffalo were no where to be seen so we parked over by the pond to do some skethcing. There was also a family swimimg and picnicing.

This was a quick one because it was looking like rain. The red down the middle is the thread that I use to hand stitch my sketch book.

Before we left the park we decided to check on the buffalo one more time. We saw 2 way back in the distance. Being silly we made some odd sort of noises and what do you know, they began to mosey in our direction. I wanted some close up photos so I waited patiently (🤨) for them.

We also came across some interesting flowers. 

They are called Indian Blankets.

It was a fun day in spite of the rain... k

Fun in the Sun

I found some photos to sketch and put some watercolor on.  It’s what I do when the weather is a bit rainy.

Here’s another one. He got caught napping on the picnic table. I guess when you’re tired, anything works. 💤

That’s it for today...  k

Busy Day

It was a nice cool morning to go plein air painting today. However, due to some electrical workers and construction at our site for today the street parking was closed. I know that construction is necessary but I think we’ve had a great deal of it this summer. Alright, enough crabbing. As it turned out we made the best of it and were able to do some painting, sketching and of course talking. I love this group of gals. We really enjoy being outdoors and doing what we love to do.

I’m not sure whether I will put color on this or not. I guess “not” for now.

After lunch “Taqueria El Ranchito” (one of my favorites) we drove up to Auburn to drop off some art supplies to a friend. As we drove through town my buddy (Barb) said she liked the tower on the building on the corner. I guess it used to be the Auburn City Hall and now it has a “police” sign in one of the windows. Whatever, it has an interesting and unique tower so we pulled over and sat in the car and sketched it.

I’m not used to starting with watercolor but I thought I’d give it a try. Definitely not able to get much detail in. Nothing like the first one of the church from this morning. Just fun and play.

On my way home I happened to spot 3 deer munching grass beside the road. By the time I turned around all I could get was one of the little ones.

Isn’t he cute?     K

Fun

I’ve been looking at this giraffe photo that I took last year when we went to the zoo. It has a lot of shadows and sun from the slatted roof so I tried to get rid of them. What an elegant animal. It was great FUN watching them.

I suppose you could say these are my favorite items... ice cream, coffee, and flowers. I actually have a coffee cup with a loon on it. That will have to be the next coffee cup I draw.

Grace and peace...k

Play Is Good

I just tagged along with hubby this morning on his trip to Auburn. He had a meeting at the Cupbearer Cafe so I could sit at a table, coffee at hand, and do whatever I wanted.

There happened to be a group of guys sitting fairly close by in front of me so... you guessed it. I had to try a little direct watercolor. I need to practice that more often but it was fun to play and try it out.

I found I had some more time so I did a small piece of one of my favorite flowers.

God bless...k

Plein air

Today our plein air group met downtown on Berry street to do either the History Center or the McCulloch/Weatherhogg house. I’m still working on my historical homes in Allen County so I chose the McCulloch/Weatherhogg house.

My view was of the south and east side. Not the front. As we were finishing up one of the employees came out to offer us water or anything else we might need. She also mentioned that if we wanted we could come in for a little tour of the building.

We, of course, got to see some of the original pieces of architecture that was still displayed in the house. However, much of it had been restored with several offices to accommodate its current tenants. We were very appreciative to have been able to check out the inside of this old restored building.

There are still a few details I’d like to add. It was a very difficult building to get all the angles going in the right direction. More practice will help. Anyway it was a good morning and good company.

Grace and peace...k

Lakeside

Yesterday BY and I had a picnic lunch at Lakeside park. It seems to be in full bloom with beautiful flowers everywhere you look. It was also a very nice day to sit in the shade and do a bit of sketching.

This was kind of an interesting plant with flowers all over it... and then one of the maintenance guys came along to clean the shallow pools of water.

Another interesting plant. I have no idea what the name of it is?

And this is one of a dozen or more that sit all around the reflection pools. It’s a very peaceful place to hang out.

Peace and blessings...k