Sketching Day in Calvert

More Pictures From Sketching in Calvert

Here are some more pictures from our most recent sketching trip in Calvert, Texas. You can see more at the posts below this one. Sorry that I haven't posted sooner, but my computer was hanging, I got into looking for genealogy things, and now, it looks like we have thunderstorms coming and I may have to unplug the computer.

1. Our morning starts with a kolache at Zamykal Kolache Shop on Main Street. Jody, the owner, is a delight to visit with. In the first picture, she is serving a customer while we were sittingat a table, eating. I had my usual strawberry kolache and a Sprite to drink. Barbara had coffee with her kolache.

I accidentally made a movie when I was trying to see if I had the flash on or off on the camera. I may try to post that later, just to try to figure out how to add video to my blog. It is very short, since I thought I was just taking a snapshot!

2. Deciding where to go to sketch always takes a while. You could find something interesting to do almost everywhere you look! We do consider where we can find shade and a nice place to sit. This time, we decided to work inside the park. Plenty of shade, and a breeze inside the bandstand and pavillions, with benches to sit on. And lots of memories there, too. This picture shows the open car door and the view of the park from where Barbara stopped the car on Pin Oak street .

3. This is the latest sign outside the park, giving the name of the park and the date. Virginia Field Park, 1868. Land was deeded to the park in that year. The park was named for Virginia Field for all of her dedication and service to the community and the park. There is a historical marker. Several of the large homes in town, including the Barton and Gibson homes, and Hammond House, once had this same type of fence around them-pipes painted white, set into concrete posts. The fences around the homes, however, had about 4 rows of pipe and were, of course, taller. I believe that I asked older people why the fence in the park was so much lower and, if I remember correctly, I was told that it was just decorative, and also a barrier to keep people on horses from riding through the flower beds and the Crepe Myrtle trees that surrounded the park. At one time, there were large concrete objects with a ring in them, on each side of the entrance, for tying up horses before people entered the park. The same hitching posts could be found at several homes, as well. Those at the park were sold and two large white rocks were left on each side of the drive to mark the park entrance. The rocks also made a good place to sit and wait for a ride after activities in the park. The same kind of rocks were at the entrance to the sidewalk in front of the high school.

4. The west entrance to the park and the bandstand. At one time, there were entrances on all 4 sides, but those were closed up years ago. There was also a drive or road all around the park, beside the flower beds. About where the baseball field was, there was sand on a curve. Some people, like my dad, when he was young, liked to drive their cars around the park, hit that sandy spot, and almost turn over. I think that some people actually did turn over. Sometimes, they just got stuck in the sand, which wasn't too much fun. When I was learning to drive, I got "Toot's" 1950 Nash hung on those big rocks that marked the entrance. She wanted to teach me to drive. "Honey" didn't want me to drive his nice new car, but "Toot" took me out anyway while he was at his store. We did fine in the streets, but I never did like tight places, and just swerved too wide trying to get out of the park, and went right up on top of the rock on my left. We walked home, she called "Honey" to come get the car off the rock, and I hid at my house for a while until I was sure that he would no longer be mad. (The car wasn't hurt.) I thought I would never drive again! But, Daddy made me drive the tractor out in the country. Eventually, I did get back to cars. I never did like close places, though. Give me at least two parking spaces on each side of me when I parked, and I just crawled when I had to cross a bridge. They used to be narrow!

5.Walking up to the bandstand. Barbara is always prepared to paint, or for any occasion. She does plein aire painting often so she has all the necessary equipment like chairs, which she is carrying in this picture. We had views of the bandstand from the east side, growing up, and from the west side after we were older.

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Martha Marshall has a new website. I've changed the link to her site under Artist's Blogs in my sidebar. You can just click on her name and it will take you there.

Myrna Waknov has an interesting video on her site today. Click on the video to see a reporter/writer from NPR Radio talking about producing work, etc.

Gretel Parker is another illustrator/writer who I'm going to add to my links in my sidebar. She has an interesting poem about cleaning the moon on her website, along with some lovely illustrations.

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If you are a vendor, or if you have things that would be appropriate for Victorian times to show, you might be interested in the street fair that they are going to have with the Victorian Festival and Tea this year, Oct. 4. They are looking for vendors. Click on the link at the top of my page for more information, or contact Jody at Zamykal Kolache Shop in Calvert. They have a discount rate for first time participants. One thing they mentioned to me was anything like quilts, aprons, or anything that people make and would be approprite for the Victorian theme.

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Pictures from our last Calvert Trip

Here's some of what I do in the car when I am going somewhere with someone else.

In the top picture, I sketched shoppers in the parking lot while my sister went into the store. Good poses and movement of figures. People walking out of the store, in the summer heat, putting things in their cars, looking at their cell phone or game. At the grocery store, one young worker pushed a shopping cart out with his head covered with some kind of cloth or poster board on a frame. I wondered how he could see where he was going!

In the second picture, I was fiddling with the camera, thinking of taking pictures of some of the shoppers, if I saw a good pose. All that was in front of me was a sidewalk and a brick wall. I thought that I should try to figure out the camera before I got to a place that I wanted to take pictures. I thought I was trying to figure out how to turn the flash off, but, instead, one of those little doohickies on the camera was to make movies. I ended up with some pictures of myself in the car mirror. Which is kind of interesting, actually. Some possibilities for doing self portraits.

The bottom picture is a sketch I did while my sister was driving. I guess this could be called a drive by, only I sure didn't try to paint. I was doing good to get this much done with a pencil!

This is the "new" water tower at Benchly, Texas. I was looking at some tiny puffy white clouds in a cerulean blue sky, more than the water tower, but thought I would fill my space on my paper with the structure.

There are more pictures that show our sketching and our trip. But this was our start on a Friday afternoon, on our way to Calvert. Maybe I will do those as a slide show, or do another post.

Where has this week gone! In fact, where has the whole month of July gone! I think I have spent most of it trying to make the computer do something or another, usually just have to give up after a while though and wait until another day. Then, another day, another problem to try to figure out. Wish these machines were more cooperative, and simple.

Please notice a couple of changes.

*Martha Marshall has a new blog. I fixed the link to her in my sidebar.

* I added a link to another interesting site under Eye Sites. This one is Age Related Macular Degeneration Support, listed as ARMD Support.

*At the top of my page, in the upper right hand corner, there is a link to the coming Victorian Gala and Tea and Street Fair in Calvert Oct. 4.

*Check out Virginia Vaughan's blog, too, in my sidebar. She has had a really fantastic opportunity this past week, teaching a workshop to the young winners of the Houston Fat Stock Show youth art show. These are some really talented kids to have won that competition! The workshop was in Kerrville, Texas, so I know that they had a wonderful experience.

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In Calvert, they are looking for vendors for their street fair to be held Oct. 4 during the Victorian Gala and Tea. If you are a vendor and would like to participate, there is more information on the link that I put at the top of the page. Groups, or anyone that would have something that is appropriate for a Victorian event, might be interested. It could be for fund raising, or even if you make something like aprons or quilts that you would like to show. The Lions Club is one group that plans to participate and have a place where people can donate their old eye glasses.

Vendors do need to dress in Victorian costume, and there is information on that on their website.

Visitors don't have to dress up, but they are encouraged to participate, if they wish.

If you, or someone you know would like to participate, there are forms and more information on the website or you can contact Jody at Zamykal Kolache Shop in Calvert.

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It looks like summer has arrived, with all its heat and dry weather. I'm amazed that people are amazed that it has reached 100 degrees and over outside, and that it is dry with no rain in sight. The amazing thing to me is that anyone is amazed! They do it every year! So called "record setting temperatures and record low rainfall". I think I've been hearing that even before we had so much news on the radio! Like over 60 years! Now, in the '5os, we really had a drought! No rain for years. We had begun to think that nature was no longer able to produce rain! We looked eagerly at dry lightning to the east, and hoped it would rain. People had to haul water from the fire department in barrels and anything they could find. Cattle died or had to be sold. But, my great-aunt predicted that the drought would last for 7 years and then we would have 7 wet years, and we did. In the '70s, without air conditioning, the thermometer often hit 117 in the shade on the south porch. We tried keeping our aquarium on that porch and I guess the poor fish just boiled when we put them in there! They didn't last long. We even tried to cool the water down, but it didn't help. They had been accustomed to air conditioning and an even temperature.

I don't know what people expect. After all, this is Texas in the summer. It's supposed to be hot and dry. We did have a couple of years when it didn't reach 100 degrees, and we had a lot of rain in the summer, without having a hurricane. Now, it seems more normal. Not so pleasant, though, if you have to be outside.

I'm keeping water in the birdbath for the birds, but they seem to have taken off for a cooler place or something. Haven't noticed them splashing in a few days. Maybe they do when I'm not looking. There were some little rabbits hopping about the yard. I think we need to put out some water on the ground for them. But then I don't want to water the fire ants. (I hope that they will move on or die out.) A small lake near us was drained a few years ago, so those critters that hung out there, had to move on to other places.

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Edie and Peggie told me that the building that I wondered about, at the red light in Calvert, was once Molly Tucker's hamburger place. I wonder what else was in there. At one time, Miss Molly had her hamburger place next door to Conitz Dry Goods Store. I'm thinking that she probably moved when the dry goods store burned in the 1950s.

Miss Molly made the best hamburgers. In fact, the only ones I would eat. She made "sissyburgers" for me and I still eat those today.

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Stay cool and have a great weekend. I'm just so glad that we have air conditioning and fans, these days!

Tuesday-Ironing Day

Tuesday

Ironing Day

8.5"x 11"

pencil

Back in my hometown, when I was growing up, Monday was wash day, all over town. I've written about that and shown a drawing of it, at my house, last week. Today I am showing the next day in the week, after all that washing was done.

Clothes were sprinkled with water, then rolled or folded over, ready to iron (without steam. We did have electric irons, though. Mama had a GE iron.). Things that didn't have to be ironed, like socks and underwear, were folded and put away.

Bertie was there to help Mama, some. Friends came over to play and we had a good time sitting in the pile of clean clothes on the kitchen floor, or crawing through cabinets, playing with the pots and pans, or just hiding. Mama didn't like for us to go in the cabinets, unless she cleared out all the cookware and let us play there. We must have dented a few pans.

I know that Mama was glad when the weather was good and we could play outside. But, sometimes, it was more fun to be in the house, where everyone else happened to be working. The grownups probably spent a lot of time shooing us out of places where we shouldn't be.

In my drawing, I've shown Bertie coming out of the dining room into the kitchen. Mama is at the wooden ironing board, ironing. I've shown three little girls playing in the clean clothes and the cabinets. The smaller one has to be my sister, the one in the cabinets must be my next door neighbor, Edie, and the one in the clothes was going to be me, but I think she looks more like another playmate, Tootsie. My pictures seem to have a life of their own. What I have in my mind is not always what comes out on the paper!

We had wooden cabinets in our small kitchen, with a built in dough board near the door. There were some shelves over the sink where Mama would put a plant, vases, and some souveneirs from trips, or wedding presents. She would put her rings on the bottom right shelf while she worked. The counter had small octagonal tiles in white, with some black trim. A glass bowl of water is shown on the counter. This is what was used to sprinkle the clothes once, then again when ironing if a wrinkle appeared or if the clothes dried before they were ironed. Some people had a sprinkler head that they placed in a Coke bottle. But a handful of water worked just as well. On the right side counter, there is the radio, where Mama would take it to listen to the soap operas after dinner. (That would be lunch, to some people.) Otherwise, the radio was kept on a small table between the living room and the dining room.

On the stove, there is a pot of homemade soup cooking, a coffee pot so Daddy could have a cup of coffee when he came in, and a smaller pan with some starch cooking, ready to use on things like shirts or pinafores. The broom is in the corner by the stove, along with a rack for a cup towel and a hook for a pot holder.

Ma, our part Blue Maltese cat, who had soooo many kittens over the years, is lounging on the linoleum floor. Her latest litter of kittens are in their favorite place, under the stove.

The window in the door is covered with dotted swiss curtains with a patterned trim. Mama was always sewing or making something to improve the house, and painting and wall papering went along with that. I remember the kitchen being yellow, light green, white, but always bright despite having only the door and window, and an overhead light to provide light.

In the space in front of the cat, there was a refrigerator with a cabinet over it. Inside the cabinet, there was the water heater. The door to the living room opened between the refrigerator and the cabinet where the little girl is peeking from.

I always wished for a fireplace, an attic that we could go into like in "Little Women", and a basement. But, our house was more of a two bedroom cottage. When it was first built, and Mama was showing the ladies around while they were there for an afternoon game of canasta, people were just delighted to see the "honeymoon cottage". I remember how impressed they were with the built in dough board. It wasn't long before we were crowded, and more modern homes were being built with so many neat things. And we longed for a bigger, more modern house. But Daddy wasn't about to move from the house that he had built and had paid for.

Today, my washing and ironing was done at the same time. Things are sorted, go in the washer, then the dryer. I hang things up right away, put things that need ironing on the ironing board. Things that are ready to hang are put away, while the ironing is sprinkled with a spray bottle. I kind of dawdle with that ironing as I put the ironing board where I can watch tv. Boy is it hard work, ironing all 4 of those shirts! Not really. It's nothing compared to the big load that my mother and Bertie did when I was young.

We learned to iron as children by doing the flat pieces, beginning with handkerchiefs and pillowcases. Some people liked to dry their handkerchiefs and scarves by flattening them out on the stove. That way, they didn't need much ironing. I still dry my scarves that way. Not on the stove, but on the shower handles. Thank goodness for tissues, so we don't have handkerchiefs to wash and iron like we once used.

As I iron today, I think, first, why didn't we buy wash and wear instead of looking for just 100 percent cotton! And, then, I think that it is nice to be able to iron shirts for someone again, after many years. And it's nice, having the time to do those little things.

And I remember how the clean clothes smelled after being washed outside and dried in the sun, and the smell of food cooking in the kitchen, the sound of the iron sizzling as Mama ironed, the odor of Berties dip of snuff, and the noises of little girls playing in our kitchen on ironing day.

Hope that, if you are ironing today, that it goes smoothly.

Look on the links on my sidebar and enjoy some of those sites. I enjoyed reading about Mary Marshall's participation in an art show over the weekend. And Esther Read had a story published in the "Corpus Christi Caller Times" about her mother. Virginia Vaughan has a lovely painting today of an old well on the farm that she is leaving, and a nice story about that place.

The Art Step in downtown Bryan was quite an event. They have a First Friday event each month there, so, if you missed this one Saturday, you have other chances to go. I sent two paintings to the auction Saturday. One was an acrylic on 16"x 20" canvas of the Art Deco series, "Deco Street", in black, white, and silver. I put it in a dark, plain wood frame and it looked really elegant. The other was of the watercolor farmhouse that I have shown you previously, and I put that in a barnwood frame with a gray mat. That one looks nice too. Goes really well with my stone fireplace! I thought I might have better luck with something smaller, but I guess that either they were not small enough, or the right person didn't see them. I still have them, in case you are interested.

My photos didn't come out very well. I'm not having much luck with the digital camera. There is a lot of yellow or orange on one side of my Deco Street painting from a lamp in the room, I guess. The frame doesn't show at all. In the farm house painting, the colors are distorted, and the whole picture is blurred. But, I'm going to put them on here anyway, so you can see what I sent to the auction.