Old Power Plant

This evening I visited the old power plant and fish hatchery at White Rock Lake in Dallas. I was taking photos on the east shore and looked over and the sun was pretty much blocking my view of the plant, so I got back in the car and went to the West Shore. When I was in the Arts Magnet during my last year in high school our teacher used to take us here for drawing. The view above is from the spillway. The bottom two photos are of the fish hatchery building.
The smoke stack is one of the most interesting features. This stack has been piercing the sky for about 3/4 of a century, unused.
This nearly one hundred year old power plant is now the home of a Dallas Water Utility Service Center; however, water has not been drawn from this lake since the drought of the 50's. When I last visited this plant in the mid 70's it was idle and the powerplant building was in


about the same shape as the Fish Hatchery building shown below. I walked around the entire building, photographing broken windows, bricked in doors and old brick walls and cement steps.

Sketchbook: Cornfield and Windmill

Tonight at Sketching in the Galleries we went to the Barrett Collection of Early Texas Art exhibit. Our assignment was to show the texture of our subjects in our sketches. I drew two paintings, but preferred this one of Otis Doziers' Cornfield and Windmill. This oil painting is of a cornfield and barn with windmill in the background. The scene was night or late evening but I translated it to night in this graphite and white pencil drawing on black paper.

Revisiting the Back Pasture

I returned to the lower pasture to report on how the geldings and colts enjoyed their summer at liberty. Squirt eagerly came to see what I was up to with my camera. Had I had a halter he would have not come close without a fight. Squirt looked very good for a 20yo gelding. His hooves looked better than they ever have, despite having not been trimmed in months. There is nothing like a wet summer and lots of tall grass. No need for hay.




Badger is Squirt's running buddy. He is a retired cutting horse. He ran playdays for a few years after his cutting career, but now enjoys pasture life. He is still runs when he sees a halter coming and does he best to get cooperation in the pasture to play "Get between me and the person with the halter" with other horses.



Elvis started the summer as the third horse, which is a tough in the equine buddy system. He is still a young gelding and this was his summer off. I am sure he will soon be in training for a career in Barrels and Poles.

Late in the summer a yearling colt was added to the pasture. He is still a year off from training and needed some socialization, so what better place to put him than a pasture with the geldings. Elvis now has a buddy.

Sketching in the Galleries: Calders' Three Bollards

Tonight we returned to the Nasher for our night of sketching. Our instructions were to find a sculpture in the outdoor sculpture garden and integrate out drawing with aspects of its environment. We started at 7:15 so our daylight time was limited and rapidly changed. After 15 minutes of sketching the lights came on and changed the color and depth of my subject. I brought out my orange and continued on. I finished by bringing in the color of the grass and the shadows cast by the sculpture. It was soon too dark to see my black paper so I moved to a brighter place to finish up. My media was hard pastel on black Ingress laid paper.

Eclipse Quarter Race Horse Sale

Today I photographed the Eclipse Fall Mixed Sale in Grand Prairie, TX. This sale is of Racing Bred Quarter Horses, conducted by Eclipse Sale Company which was established and managed by managed by Jay Helzer of JEH Stallion Station. The first part of the sale was mixed with mares, weanlings, and horses of racing age. The sale was mostly yearling colts and fillies. The prices were mostly under $40,000, but one bid reached $155,000 for Even Steve, A Mr Jess Perry x Lil Bit Rusty Yearling Colt offered by Tex Gal's Stable, Royce Rogers, Agent. This bid did not reach the reserve so was retained by owner.

Sketchbook: Asian Collection

This week our sketching class went to the Asian Galleries. Although this is not my favorite part of the museum, I decided to stick it out and try some different things. Our assignment was to draw objects as opposed to paintings. I chose a statue of the torso of a Hindu god earing a Dhot on tinted paper using dark graphite and white prismacolor pencil for the highlights. My goal was to describe the form and texture as best I could. I worked on both the intended forms and those resulting from many centuries of wear.



Next I moved into the main gallery and found this stature of a Hindu god in the lotus position. I had read the day before in American Artist Drawing Magazine about an Artist who draws in graphite on black paper so that the graphite becomes the light part of the drawing due to reflectivity. Seeing this black statue and having some black paper I decided to give it a try.

Sketchbook: Old Man and the Sale Horse

While waiting at the Museum for my Thursday night sketch class I did this drawing from a photo (see photo in August 29 post). This was one of my best photos from the Fasig-Tipton Summer Yearling Sale.

Sketchbook: Ring Men

After each sale I come home with many photos that I am eager to work with in my art projects. This drawing is from one of many photos I have taken of the ring men (bid spotters). Despite that fact that there was not any real action going on in this image, I was intrigued by the relative positions of the two ring men as they watched for their bidders. The ring man in the center has been the subject of many of my other photos and drawings. Last year I created a composite image for drawing and I have reposted it below in B&W.

In the Kitchen: Green Chili Potato Pancake, Sausage, and Egg

Early this week I had mashed potatoes, so with leftovers I decided it was time for my favorite Potato Pancakes. As usual I take the leftover mashed potatoes, add milk (goat), and multi-grain pancake mix until I have enough to make a good potato pancake batter. I then added a fresh fire roasted (hot) Hatch Green Chili (shredded) and about 4 Black Bernier Olives. I mixed the added ingredients into the batter and then made 3 large pancakes. I then cooked an egg over easy and placed it on a plate with a potato pancake and some pork sausage with Baby Bella Mushrooms sliced which I had cooking while mixing the batter. I then poured green chili enchilada sauce over all and served.