A tower at the huge, and now defunct, Amoskeag Mills in Manchester, New Hampshire. Built in 1850 and once the world’s largest cotton mill, it’s now being nicely redeveloped and filled with other tenants. The sign said that this part of the place will soon become a Hilton Hotel.
These town houses or row houses are called, in Manchester parlance, corporations. The Mill built housing in this mid-1800's planned community for its employees and their families from Quebec, Scotland, Greece, Sweden, Poland, and many other places. Eventually, the mill industries moved to the southern states when water power was no longer the sole source of power.
I walked through Manchester up to the Currier Museum of Art. In the courtyard is this sculpture by Mark Di Suvero, entitled “Origins.” The black central part rotates in a slight breeze. I tried to draw it as it turned. I liked it.
The Currier Museum has many treasures. I drew this mural by Sol Le Witt, located in their café. It is called “Wall Drawing #1255, Whirls and Twirls.” This is only my interpretation of it, but the colors and shapes are accurate. You would recognize it if you saw it.
Main Street, New London, New Hampshire. In the background, buildings on the campus of Colby-Sawyer College. In the foreground, a row of very old and weather-scarred sugar maple trees, being tapped for spring sap. A sharp, hollow spike is driven into the bark; then the sap drips into the buckets. The mildly sweet sap is collected, and boiled down into maple syrup. The little peaked roof just keeps out the rain.
The modern method of collecting the sap. The sap from throughout the woods drips into the blue plastic tubing and accumulates in the white container. Sap season (or sugaring) is when the nights are still cold, but the days are warming. It doesn't harm the tree. I could sees the bubbles in the tube, and hear a steady stream of liquid going into the tub. I was practically hallucinating thinking of pancakes or waffles swimming in syrup. It is a health food you know, being full of minerals. You see the well known New England stone wall. That's a whole other topic.
DRAW-NH! My big New Hampshire project - Draw all 234 towns in the state.
I drew Town #234 on Saturday, November 17, 2012, at the Salmon Falls Mills in Rollinsford, completing the project within my self-assigned goal of two years. And now the book has been published!
Click the map to visit the project. From there you can go directly to an image of every New Hampshire town as it appears in the blog.
Or, by using the search box at the upper left of every page here on the blog, you can find all occurrences of a town’s name (or any other word you might be looking for) from throughout the entire blog.
Or you can buy my book, which contains the ‘official’ drawing of each town. Some people keep it in their car and check off the pages as they make their own colorful journey throughout the state.
My Summer 2015 project
Draw behind the scenes at the New London Barn Playhouse.
Click the picture to see all 45 sketches from my project of drawing behind the scenes at the New London Barn Playhouse during their summer 2015 season.
Recent publicity
Here are links to some recent commentary on my work:
All blog images are available for purchase as notecards and larger prints
Click the pic to learn more
Introduction
I live in the woods near the small college town of New London (New Hampshire, USA) on the east coast of America. My husband assists me with technical aspects of the blog.
I was born, raised (well, until age 6 and summers) and educated in New Hampshire. I graduated from the University of New Hampshire in Durham, in Fine Arts and French. I have lived a few years outside of the United States…in England, France, and Germany. We as a family lived in Maryland from 1970 to 2008. We have been back living in New Hampshire for over seven years now. As well, we love to travel, and are often in western Canada, where our grandchildren live.
I plan to share drawings, paintings, and other art explorations here on my blog. And then add some commentary about the scene that inspired the work.
Here’s a great site called Urban Sketchers, which has links to people all around the world who love to draw on location. I am listed under the members section.
Click the pic to visit
I wrote a few lines on how I make my drawings, and what materials I use. Click here on ‘Try It’ to read in detail about my methods.
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