Tuesday, June 27, 2017

New Hampshire


The .art Internet Domain was recently activated, and I jumped in on Day 1 and registered the name www.colorfuljourney.art to use as the primary address of my blog.

You will see me using this address in the future, although I will retain the original www.colorfuljourney.us address so as not to interfere with my readers’ established address lists.


I had a little spare time while in the New Hampshire town of Jaffrey last week. So I drew their one room school house, which is located on the town green. When children walked to school in the 1800s, schoolhouses were scattered all around and numbered in the dozens in the larger New England towns. A few still exist. Most serve as mini museums of the old ways of education. Others are now private homes.



Behind the Jaffrey Meeting House, also on the green, is this graveyard. The markers shown here are from the early 1800s and are mostly slate, but some white marble. All the graves and their inscriptions are facing the majestic granite topped Mount Monadnock.

The author Willa Cather is buried here. I read that she came to this quiet little town to write. Her favorite inn is nearby.


The above drawing and the next three to follow are a preview of the next book I am working on. My goal is to do one hundred drawings of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. For those who wish to count along with me, I have now 35 drawings. I am budgeting one trip a week, or more, till I reach my goal. The miles mount up. And the seafood lunches are delicious.

These buoys and floats are hanging on a fence in South Portsmouth. They are no longer used and now make a fine display, but they have not been prettied up. The paint colors are nicely faded.


On a sunny spring day, I found this wooden, teal colored, garden fence. My favorite part is the tiny view of red bricks on the other side of the fence.


This block has a row of mixed architecture. I wouldn’t give it high marks for harmony, but it caught my eye. Mostly the sagging roof caught my eye. The one on the right is art deco style and is about a hundred years younger than the other two.



I also delight in small details in the streetscapes. These three mailboxes have been heavily painted over, but they still open and they work. I am amused at the tropical theme bas-relief sculpture on them. New Hampshire is a long way from palm trees and flamingos.

At first I thought the bas-relief on the right was depicting a crocodile, another non New Hampshire animal. But after spending a few minutes drawing it, I feel certain that it represents a lizard or salamander, and we have plenty of those in these parts. The lizard is on a building from the late 1800s, a little above eye level.