Metal Chicken and Wagon (Wolcott, CO)

 

This was another sketch from my Memorial Day trip with my family. Where we were staying (the house on the right which is another blog post) also housed a winery. I had stopped drinking about six months earlier, so I didn't want to hang out at the winery while my family was tasting/imbibing. 

I started doing this sketch later in the day. My brothers were getting a private tasting. My mother walked back from the winery and decided to hang out with me. The altitude and wine had gotten to her, plus she and my dad had had a disagreement. 

I don't usually have an audience, but my mother was fascinated by my process - especially once I stared adding the water soluble graphite. 

Wolcott Farmhouse (Wolcott, CO)

 

Sketching is a great way to remember events. This was done right after my whole family had been Covid vaccinated. My parents, brothers and their families (except one of my sister-in-laws) all got together for a Memorial Day trip to the mountains. We rented this big airbnb place and spent a long weekend together, as a family, for the first time since the pandemic started. 

My nephew, the youngest of us all, was totally throwing frisbees all over this lawn all weekend. My eldest daughter had her drivers permit and wound up driving us most of the way out to Wolcott, a little town near Eagle. I did some scouting that weekend of the Colorado River (the 'Radie') which I wound up solo backpacking a couple weeks later.

I had just received a couple of fountain pens before the weekend (an early Narwhal and a PenBBS) that my Dad tuned for me that weekend - he wound up buying a Narwhal and becoming friends with the CEO of the company! 

Doing this sketch was one of the first times my extended family got to see me working on my craft. 

Aquaduct Hike (Tabernash, CO)

Backpacking training hike. Did 11 miles. This was about my halfway point where I stopped for a rest. Tried out a skinny A5 watercolor pad.