Backyard climbing structure

 For years I've been drawing and painting this climbing structure in our back yard. For some reason it always cheers me up, like a friendly little being looking back at me and reminding me of happy times with my kids. I've done it in different media and seasons, although with a predilection for snow scenes, and made it my avatar on line. Alas, all things must pass; the structure was falling apart and becoming an attractive nuisance, so today we had it taken away to be supplanted by a garden shed. Here is a little farewell tribute to a long standing muse.

Skue

You’d see upon the highway years ago
Serving as an ad hoc wall and warning
Old oil drums guarding worksites, row on row
Crudely painted orange stripes adorning.

Word was, they were provisioned by the Mob.
For this cause, perhaps, or one less drastic
A new, updated model got the job
A drum simulacrum of orange plastic

It retained the features of the barrel,
Public recognition not to squander.
How to call it in a cry of peril?
“Look out for them skeuomorphs up yonder!”

Now we see once more a new mutation:
Like a barber pole, a tower slender
Needs a taxonomic appellation
Perhaps I could tender a contender?

I rummage in my cluttered lexicon
My monkey mind, a whistling dwarf
Wielding his pickaxe, mines chthonic axons
Brings back a diamond: “Skeu-ecto-morph!”

Is there a point to this epiphany?
A private triumph over entropy.

Hartsbrook Farm

This is a scene I never tire of sketching. The geometry of all those metal roofs and the ever-changing light are always rewarding.

Watercolor, 4" x 6"

Clothesline

Another one from the Cape.

Oil linen panel, 10" x 12"

The light on the clothesline and trees was one of the first things I noticed on arrival. I did this in three sessions on site plus some little touches at home.

Propane

 The propane tank lurking like a submarine in the bushes caught my eye, along with whatever that rusty metal cylinder is next door.

Grass Spider Web (Precipice Pano)

Another take on the view from the precipice, this time in a vertical pano format to get in the entire sweep from the cliff edge beneath my feet to the horizon and sky. I noticed a bedewed grass spider web at my feet and was struck by the dramatic sense of scale created by this tiny spider setting up shop atop a 128 foot bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the edge of the planet, and beyond.

Cape Cod precipice

 Our rental at the Cape was perched atop a 128’ bluff. I attempted to render the view down to the beach in a watercolor sketch. It was challenging to indicate the height and steepness. I did consider adding a Wile E Coyote silhouette at the bottom.