Amigos

On this day, the sunny hues, friendly staff, and comfort food of Amigos provided a welcome refuge from the snow flurries of winter's long goodby.
(Colored pencil, and watercolor pencil, over ink and wash.)

Sign of the times

Toys’R’us, April 2018

Four years ago today, I tried watercolor for the first time since high school. I sketched the ToysRus across the road from a local Starbucks.

This week, I sat in the same space (now a Bibibop) and tried again, adding a little colored pencil to the ink and wash, later. The Starbucks has since moved next door, to a building with a drive-thru window; the ToysRus is going out of business.

I found the building lists to the left, on the page, like a ship going down, when I tried to level it in the photograph.

Toys’R’us, April 2014

Children of my parents’ generation read books and played with tools, fabric, and wooden toys; many children of mine settled for television and plastic imitations (“disposable” but not biodegradable). The next has gone virtual, ordering and streaming bits and bytes.

Footnote: I still remember my dismay when the car in the center of the lower drawing left, half way through my sketch of it.

Good Friday (facing West)

...a Saint at twilight, when the lights are low....*

This elderly gentleman was seated across the room, engaged in conversation with friends. An aureole of thinning, curly white hair surrounded his head like a halo, silhouetted against the lowering sun, coming in through the blinds. I only had time for the quick contour drawing.

*Allusion to Love’s Old Sweet Song

Holy Wednesday (facing East)

Breaking bread with a friend