St. Brigid's in July

Drawn from Brigid's Green, across the road—looking west.

I finished the Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook about a month ago. This is drawn in my new “everyday carry,” a Handbook Travelogue Journal, 5.5” x 5.5”. I’m still getting used to the change in size, shape, and paper.

Rogation Days

Dublin Community Church, May 2018

This week, we come once again to Rogationtide*, when clergy and members of the English church historically "beat the bounds" of the parish, both to pray for God's blessing on the crops and to remind people where the perimeter lay. Contemporary observances may be found on Youtube.

Given the time of year, it was fitting to focus on a church when I joined local urban sketchers downtown, a few days ago. (Note to self: next time, bring a chair.)

Below is an earlier sketch of the building, done from a different perspective.

*These are the dates observed by the Western Rite Orthodox Church. Since western Catholics and Protestants celebrated Easter a week earlier this year, rogation days (set just before Ascension Day) will be found May 7-9, on their calendar.

Dublin Community Church, July 2014

Breathing space

Philodendron, dentist's office

A few weeks ago, I had a dentist's appointment. The philodendron in the waiting room was more interesting than the television.

Church of Jesus Christ, LDS (from back parking lot)

A few days later, we had another appointment, near a green space bordered by two church parking lots. We arrived early, so waited briefly in one of them.

I painted the first sketch after I returned home.  I was still in colored pencil mode, from January’s pattern practice, so went over the watercolor with colored pencil, on both of these, at home.

Through a glass, darkly

Window, Sharon Mennonite Church

Last month, an elderly relative, full of years, passed on to his eternal reward. He was buried on a day of blue skies, beneath the same sun that had so faithfully given an increase, a return, on the many miles he had spent tilling, plowing, planting, harvesting---
....life to the seeds he had let fall to the ground.

* * * * * * *
 

May their memory be eternal.

This month, a nearby community lost two police officers, who were doing their job, showing up to protect the weak.

The gospel reading for the following day was Matthew 25:31-46. “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the last of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” (Traditional observation of the second Sunday before Great Lent, the Sunday of the Last Judgment.)

Further reading: What does the chant ‘Memory Eternal” mean....?

Montage

On this day we ate breakfast out, ran errands, then took a drive to Sunbury, to see St. Barnabas the Apostle Orthodox Church. It's always interesting to see how an Orthodox congregation adapts a (previously occupied) building for worship and congregational life. The large flower garden at the foot of the exterior cross, backed by a sunny yellow cement wall, evoked Easter morning.
*******
The guy in the lower right corner, lolling against the dessert display case, was on staff at Jason's Deli that evening, awaiting the supper rush.

Churches

Fellowship Baptist Church, after the rain, 6/23

St. Brigid's Catholic Church, 6/26

Northwest Presbyterian Church, 6/28

First Presbyterian Church, Ada, Ohio
7/2



I find the churches in this area the most interesting buildings to draw, because architects seemed to place a higher value on beauty than with other modern buildings.

As usual, when I change sketchbooks, I find it difficult to adjust to the new paper. I liked the large Stillman & Birn Alpha I used a few years ago. The size of this Stillman & Birn A5 feels a bit cramped, and the paper doesn't take as much water as the Pentallic Nature Sketch I had been using. I used a little colored pencil over the watercolor on St. Brigid's, and a little pastel pencil on Northwest Presbyterian. (It was difficult to add watercolor layers, to get an even wash with a water brush, and to get pages to lie flat while photographing.)

I have learned from ArtTutor.com, that in order to improve my sketches, I will have to:
(1) Use heavier weight watercolor paper
(2) Give up the water brush
(3) Dedicate larger blocks of time to a piece
(4) Sometimes practice specific techniques working from photographs, where I can focus on difficult elements of a scene, over a period of time.
(5) Stay out of art supply stores; use the time to practice and improve
(6) Clear a space on my art table to actually work
(7) Get over my fear of masking fluid
(8) Become more comfortable working wet-in-wet
(9) Reduce dependence on ink lines to establish form
(10) Hold mark making tool further from the tip
(11) Try mixing more on the paper and less on the palette
(12) Experiment with glazing
(13) Consider negative shapes
(14) Try to fit sketching into a time of day when there are more shadows
(15) Draw thumbnails before sketching; consider options
(16) Experiment with limited palettes
(17) Be willing to sacrifice a great deal of pigment in the Pencil sharpener and the water jar.
(18) Work larger
(19) Use fresh paint

St. Patrick's Episcopal Church

Mental health drawing the last day before the election. St. Patrick is reputed to have chased all the snakes from Ireland into the sea.

St. Brigid's Catholic Church, in the wind

The perspective here is off, a bit more than usual, I think. I was becoming re-oriented to the earth beneath my feet, after nearly falling over while gazing at the steeple with clouds scudding past behind it. The sensation of movement resembled that of being on a ship or a slow moving vehicle. For a brief moment, I felt I had glimpsed an unseen reality, of some nature. The church and I were moving through time.

I was unable to find a parking spot with a view of the whole church. The bells rang. Congregants soon came pouring out, maybe from a wedding. I thought, this may be a moment, a day, a couple will remember for the rest of their lives.

Remembering Grandma

Mattias Adolfsson's class in Sketchbook Skool showed me the emotional connection between drawing and memory.  Penelope Dullaghan's gave me an appreciation of the fun of playing with patterns.

Here, I remembered Grandma: above, the rows of canned fruit and vegetables lining her cellar wall; below, the rows of women she sat among Sunday mornings and evenings, on the right side of the small Mennonite church nestled in the hills. I remember their names.

Small Cachet sketchbook I usually practice tv people in; graphite;  Ph. Martin watercolor on top, pastel pencil (with a little Uniball Signo white gel pen) on bottom. 

Faith Community Church

Local Evangelical Free church.

This paper is a bit rougher to draw on with a fountain pen than any other I've used so far. It's difficult to photograph without a yellow cast (under the lighting I'm using, at least). Also, sketched on site and painted later, which always sacrifices a little veracity.

Still, it's fun to see how it (the Pentalic Nature Sketch book) takes watercolor. It's the smallest mixed media sketchbook I've drawn in (5x7), and some of the sketches are feeling a little truncated. The spiral binding inhibits sketching across the gutter.

St. Brigid's, thumbnail sketches

Beating the Bounds, St. Michael's of the North Gate, Oxford

The  members of St. Michael's of the North Gate, Oxford, have beaten the bounds of their parish on May 1st, for the past 600 years. The priest blesses the inhabitants of the buildings holding the boundary stones, and the people tap the marking stones with willow rods. The annual reminder keeps the perimeter from moving or being forgotten. In the past, the lines were used to gather and distribute local taxes.

Church at Mill Run, Lutheran

Drawn quickly from observation, light wash; layers added from memory, later.

Cross, Hilliard United Methodist church

"In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o'er the wrecks of time...."  

                                    (From the hymn by John Bowring)

Blooms

Bouquet, First Apostolic Church lobby.  Sign out front: " Life is fragile; handle with prayer." (Background shadow is full of watercolor "blooms," which are usually avoided, if possible. I found them interesting here, because they echoed the silk ones.)

Lapin's Camino pilgrimage sketchbook

(camino de santiago from picnic on Vimeo.)

Lapin is a well-known French illustrator, artist, and urban sketcher who lives in Barcelona. His memoir of walking the Camino is an interesting record for the Lenten season.

Community Church Window

January 2015

July 2015

St. Brigid's (thumbnails)

Rogation Days

From Steve Roud's The English Year, p. 176-177:

Rogationtide is the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday immediately preceding Ascension Day, the fortieth day after after Easter Sunday....It was traditionally the time for the faithful to go in processional around the parish, led by the clergy, ... giving thanks to God, and blessing the fields, crops, and animals....

.... the processional to bless the fields came to include the notion of checking the parish boundaries, and what is now called 'beating the bounds' was born....

....In the absence of effective record-keeping, the extent to which local officials were forced to rely on the memories of old people for evidence in local matters and legal disputes cannot be overstated, and this was especially true in the area of custom and tradition. 

This year, Ascension Day in the Western Church falls on Thursday, May 14. Rogation Days are May 11-13.

First Day of School

Waiting for the Bus

Church Basement

In memory of Thelma Howdyshell, May 4, 1907 - March 22, 1992. (Mattias Adolfsson Sketchbook Skool assignment: first day of school.)

Note, added later: The public school I attended had an overflow first grade class, housed in the basement of a nearby church.
Further note: Grandpa drove me to school the first day.