Architectural artifacts

What fun to be warm and dry and sketching all of the variety of architectural artifacts on display at the Architectural Heritage Center.
A big hit was the transfer decorated toilet, which we were informed was not all that unusual.....but decorated inside the bowl....now that was unusual!

Noodlers Blue Heron ink

How would you like to pay homage to the Greek God Nilus whenever you flushed the bowl?



Some of the other items on display were ones that I had sketched before on a previous visit...it is nice to see the differences or sameness of approach.

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I seem to remember doing this figural bracket before but couldn't locate it for comparison.

































I did find a 2010 sketch of the carved brackets though...

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Watercolor and ink

After lunch with the other sketchers I returned and did some other sketches and talked to the gentleman at the desk who was a fountain of information.

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Historians and Historic Plumbing

Our visit to the Architectural History Center this weekend was fun, but as the baby gets more engaged with the world I think I'm going to have to plan on sketching faster and faster. Here are the few doodles I did pull off...

 The comfiest chairs for nursing were in the room where the local history authors were showing off their wares. Really interesting to listen to them chatting about everything from the politics of historic preservation to strategies for self-publishing.

 This young man was entertaining himself with the computer tablet while his mom rocked the history table.

Highlight of the beautiful exhibition on old-growth wood in local architecture: "The Nilus," a fabulous 19th-century toilet. The lid and seat are rich dark wood, and the base is white porcelain with very intricate floral patterns in black linework. The butterfly and arching sheaf of wheat are some details of the pattern on the exterior...but I didn't have time to record more of the details. (There was art on the inside of the bowl too!)

A snapshot of the group assembling to head out towards delicious Robo Taco. We had probably around 14 people out for the event? Good fun, nice to welcome a few new faces to the crowd as well.

December Sketchcrawl

Here are a couple of my sketches from this weekend's sketchcrawl. It was really fun, even if I didn't last as long as some of you. There are a couple of others sketches on my blog, if you're interested. You may see an attempted likeness of yourself, but I left the names off to protect the innocent. Thanks again to Alanna and Kalina for organizing this.

Building artifacts

This was one of four carved wooden brackets hanging on the wall at the center....not sure what building they came off of. They were quite large (probably 40-48" in length) and in a natural 'wood' state with no evidence of having been painted before. All together an interesting puzzle.

The Architectural Heritage Center is a place that I have wanted to explore for some time and I was very happy to be given the opportunity on Saturday's sketchcrawl.

These are some 'typical' door and window facades from a Victorian building. Besides the design of these artifacts it was interesting to see them as fragments of buildings within a building. The sheet metal ornaments had very boldly sculpted and quite wimsical too.

Building Ornament

Sitting in the corner of the Architectural Heritage Center, this big pink gnarly hunk of ornament called my novice skills to the challenge.

The sketch is 3x4.5" in a homemade journal of the same size on 24# linen paper with a black Pilot VBall, brown Slicci and Tombo and Pitt brush pens.

Saturday Sketch Crawl

Went out with the group for the first time and really had a good time. These two drawings were done at the Architectural Heritage Center. On the left is a stone entry ornament and on the right is an original light fixture from the Convention Center.

The drawing on the bottom is a sketch from inside The Side Door, the bar where we had lunch. It was nice to meet everyone and check out all the sketchbooks.

Cast Stone Building Ornament

On our sketchcrawl at the Architectural Heritage Center I found someone to sketch who was guaranteed not to fidget or become embarrassed at my staring. She sat patiently while I studied her to my heart's content. I've been working mostly in pen and ink and watercolor recently, but graphite is hard to beat for a satisfying values study.

I had a most enjoyable time with my fellow sketchers today not only sketching but drinking tea and chatting while passing our sketchbooks around.