EDM Challenge #124: Draw Something Yellow

When I was a kid, my Dad built a cabin beside Lake Poinsett in South Dakota. He taught engineering at the college and had summers off, so we spent our time swimming, sunning, reading, and playing in the sand. In the kitchen was a collection of various cups, glasses and plates - we each had our favorite items that we liked to use.

Last summer my sister came to visit me in Oregon and brought a favorite speckled yellow cup from the lake! I now use it to keep my brushes in. So, it is my yellow project this week.

I haven't been drawing much lately and have missed three challenges (coin, shade, bell). Work has been really busy since I started a new summer job in May. We also took a trip to Maui and are going to Sun River next week. I haven't taken the time to sketch, but I have been taking pictures.

Here's a shot of a robin's nest in the tree right outside our front door. There are FOUR babies in a fairly small nest and most of the time we just see their beaks. They're starting to get bigger and have speckled feathers. The Mom is busy carrying worms all day.

Emma Pod

June 2007 Trip to Maui

We just got back from a week in Maui. We stayed at the Maui Prince on Makena Beach in South Maui. Above are photos of the entrance and some exterior grounds. They hosted the King's Trail Triathlon while we were there. In the past we've gone to a luau, taken a boat trip, driven to all the sights. This time we mostly did.....not much! Which was great.

 

Here are two shots of the interior courtyard and garden area of the hotel.

  

These are the interior garden stream and large koi fish pond. You can buy fish food and they all come with open mouths.



Hotel pool and beach, where we spent alot of time just lounging, swimming, snorkeling, iced tea drinking....

 

Beach area - there are coral reefs, fish, and turtles right off the shore! We had great snorkeling every day.

 

Bailey House Museum - an old missionary house and girl's school. The huge outdoor stone was used for various pounding needs. The museum houses a number of really nice paintings by Edward Bailey. Museum link: http://www.mauimuseum.org/:

 

Old Keawalai Church (1832) and graveyard near Makena Landing. http://www.keawalai.org/:

 

Below is the main street of Makawao - a quaint upcountry town with lots of nice, artsy type shops.
 

Kitty in an urn at the Greek Bistro!



We had a great time!

Emma Pod

Maui Roadside Attraction

 We just returned from a week in Maui - and guess what I found! Another roadside attraction to add to my collection!

Here are the front and back photos of a giant whale, probably made of concrete. It's located in a park on the main drag in the town of Kihei, on the southern coast of Maui.

Humpback whales spend the winter in Maui and hang out in the channel waters between Maui and Lanai. They have babies in the Hawaiian waters and then return north to Alaska.

Here's a link to the Island Marine Institute for more info on the humpbacks:
http://www.whalewatchmaui.com/index.html

We had a very nice trip and I'll post some more photos later.

Emma (tanned) Pod

Roadside Attractions

Awhile ago, Lydia at Arty Velarde http://www.artyvelarde.blogspot.com/ posted a photo of a large muffler man. I wrote a comment that I love the huge, old fiberglass and concrete animals, people, and structures that were created around the country. Lydia asked if I would post my photos. I grew up in South Dakota and if you've ever driven across our state, you know that it's very flat - and there are lots of kitschy items along the way. Here are just a few from photos I've taken on road trips back home:

At the edge of the Badlands on the western side of South Dakota you'll find Prairie Dog Village - which is a vast network of prairie dog tunnels, mounds, and actual prairie dogs - lots of 'em. The photo on the left is of the giant prairie dog that sits at the village entrance (made of concrete I believe). The Ranch Store is on the edge of Prairie Dog Village. And I've included a photo of an actual prairie dog.




In the town of Mitchell, South Dakota there is a Corn Palace. The exterior is decorated with pictures, mosaics, and murals made entirely of corn! Near the Corn Palace is the Corn Palace Motel where we stayed one night. Below the motel sign is a huge steer and across the street is this huge buffalo. I don't know the man standing beside the buffalo, but thought it would make a fun photo.

 


Next we travel to Huron, South Dakota where there is a giant pheasant atop the Dakota Inn. The ring-necked pheasant is the official state bird of South Dakota and people fly in from all over during hunting season.




If you've ever driven in South Dakota, you've heard of Wall Drug. There are signs everywhere for this giant gift shop-o-kitsch. Wall Drug takes up most of the downtown strip of the town of Wall and sells everything you can imagine. It's full of trinkets, jewelry, hats, t-shirts, cups, boots, film, etc. There are also alot of unusual attractions, like robotic singing cowboys, dinosaurs, jackalopes, a gorilla, cuckoo clocks, bargirls, bucking horses. I'm sure I took more photos when we were there, but I can't seem to locate them. Here are just a few of the giant dinosaurs out front, the farmyard animals, and a jackalope (which is supposed to be a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope).

 


On the southern Oregon Coast we found Prehistoric Gardens. There are alot of different dinosaurs, but I only have this one photo. I wish I had taken more.

My last photos are of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. I took the photo on the left when we were traveling south on Highway 101 a few years ago. It's from the Trees of Mystery near the California Redwood Forest. The photo on the right is Paul and Babe from Bemidji, Minnesota - I borrowed this pic from another website for comparison.

 

If you want to see more big sculptures, here are some fun websites I found:

World's Largest Roadside Attractions website: http://www.wlra.us/index.htm

Gallery of Huge Beings: http://www.wlra.us/hugebeings.htm

enjoy! Emma Pod

More American Art Pottery

I drew some more of my Arts and Crafts/American Art pottery collection. On the left is an antique copper box with a raised/embossed lid. The middle vase is a Brush McCoy with a mottled vellum glaze.

The pot on the right is my very favorite of all my pots. It's a Peters and Reed piece that has a raised organic, leafy design on it. The pot is quite heavy and has a wonderful matte green glaze (darker than I've painted it here). I remember I bought it about 10 years ago in Vancouver, WA and paid $125 for it - my most expensive pot.

When I first started collecting in the early 1990's, art pottery was just starting to get expensive. Matte green pots became really popular and spendy. Now there are so many reproductions and fakes being made, it's hard to know what is "real". I was watching PBS "Antiques Roadshow" and they showed several pots that were recently made in China. They were made to look old, had dirt in the glaze, the clay bottoms were scuffed and darkened, and they were reproductions of TECO and Grueby. Ebay is full of items called Arts and Crafts "style" matte green pots.

Before ebay, I used to find some great deals in little towns between Oregon and South Dakota. We would drive home through Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Nebraska and stop at antique stores in little towns along the way. Because of their remote locations, prices were usually low. That all changed with ebay.

Emma Pod

EDM Challenge #120: Draw a Flashlight

 This week we were supposed to draw a flashlight. Now, I know that we own a number of flashlights - a bright pink one, a black one, a couple of small red ones, a tiny key chain one, and at least one large yellow or orange industrial one. But, the blue one is the only flashlight I could find this morning. I drew the sketch at left - which I didn't really like.

Then later in the day I found the pink flashlight, so tonight I drew both of them together, below. The pink one is a bit off on perspective, but oh well.....I'm not gonna draw a third time.

Emma Pod

EDM Challenge # 119: Draw Some Rocks

This is my drawing for the EDM Draw Some Rocks challenge. It was fun to do!

I didn't have any good rocks nearby, so drew this from a photo I found online.

It's watercolor and sepia Micron pen.

Emma Pod