Stepped Gable House Sketch

 

A few weeks ago I sketched a house in Norwood that I really liked.  I had such fun with that one I decided I would start photographing any house that caught my eye.  A couple weeks ago I was walking with George in Walnut Hills and was basically taking pictures of every single house because the architecture is amazing.  As I was photographing this particular house (and pointing at the lovely brick detail) the owner got out of his car.  I was a little embarrassed to be caught red-handed and blurted out, "I like to sketch houses and your house is beautiful and I am going to sketch it."  He instantly replied, "I'll buy it!"  I then told him he had better see it before he agreed to that and promised to be in touch.

Normally, it could have been months (or years) before I got around to sketching a house I liked on my walk.  But after my interaction I thought I had better get right to it.  Below you can see the inked black and white line drawing. 

After inking, I add watercolor to the drawing.  This is my favorite part of the process.

The next image shows the entire sketch.  When I posted this on Instagram my architect neighbor told me I should look up Flemish architecture (Thank you Roy!).  One of the main characteristics this house shared with the Flemish style are the stepped gables.  "A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in a step pattern above the roof as a decoration and as a convenient way to finish the brick courses." (Wikipedia) 

Last week I printed a tiny copy of the house and left it in the mailbox with a note for the owners. They contacted me and yes, they indeed wanted to purchase the sketch!  I usually like to add the address and mat the sketch if I have a mat that fits.  Below you can see the final drawing (with their address photoshopped out for their privacy).        

“There isn't any questioning the fact that some people enter your life, at the exact point of need, want or desire - it's sometimes a coincidence and most times fate, but whatever it is,
I am certain it came to make me smile.”

― Nikki Rowe

In the future I will try and be a little less obvious when I am taking photos. But my serendipitous encounter with the owner turned out to be such a lovely exchange.  And every time I do one of these sketches I fall a little more in love with the architecture of Cincinnati.  When I think about how and why this sketch came about I really don't know the reasons.  But I do know that life is fascinating.  Although the twists and turns are beyond my comprehension, I am slowly learning to let go of control and let life show me the next step (even if it is a corbie step!).

"My Favorite Things" Watercolor Cards

INSPIRATION

Do you ever feel like there are certain parts of your house or objects in your house that you really like?  This spring I decided to sketch those parts of my house in order to calm my nerves.  Instead of thinking about the pandemic I focused on sketching the peaceful and the lovely...and it really helped.

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

These are a few of my favorite things.

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes

Silver white winters that melt into springs

These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites, when the bee stings

When I'm feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don't feel so bad"

― Rodgers and Hammerstein

THE CARDS

Below you can see four of these scenes.  "The Magic Carpet" is a sketch of my bedroom.  Everyday Bubo can be found napping on the bed and Otus is usually looking at something out the window.  I also love the way the wooden carving fits perfectly into the curve of the wall.  And I totally lucked out and got the carpet from Everything But the House a few years ago.  I would be remiss not to mention how much I like the bulbous, bumpy legs of my nightstand which I found in an antique store in Geneva, New York.

The focus of the next card was "The African Violet" which can be found in the kitchen.  The African Violet was from my Dad's retirement ceremony.  In addition there is an air plant my friend Jyoti gave me and a young purple hyacinth bean plant that I grew from seed.  I thought it was adorable the way it wrapped itself around the shade pull.  If you look closely you can see a mottled purse crab and a sea urchin shell I collected in Charleston.  You can also see the bottom of the roman shades which is made of fabric with a beautiful orange and green pattern that I love and that makes me happy every time I walk into the kitchen.

"The Rocking Chair" can be found in the computer room.  If Bubo is not asleep on the bed, he can often be found curled up on the rocking chair.  And Otus seems to prefer his bed on the radiator.  The scene would not be complete if I didn't include my Japanese Midori calendar.  I love the scene of the Japanese warrior Kintaro riding a koi fish.  

And finally, "The Begonia" lives in the dining room next to the hanging pothos plant.  I have always loved the way the red backside of the begonia leaves mimics the color and shape of the flowers in the roman shades.

In case you couldn't see Kintaro on his fish.

This month I was looking back at the sketches and decided I would experiment with making notecards.  I thought I would give them away as Christmas gifts and/or sell them on my website.

I printed the cards at Moo.com and was pleased with the quality of the paper.  One of my goals is to experiment with different printers so if I re-order I am going to try a couple other places just to compare paper quality and textures.

THE PACKAGING

I decided to make matching Bubo tags to complete the packaging of the cards.  Below you can my paper cutter getting a good workout. 

 

And I am always excited when I can use my hole punch and miniature hammer.  It really does make a perfect hole.

I debated about how to package these.  I thought I had the perfect solution and dug out my fifteen-year-old see-through, plastic A4 card sleeves.  But for some reason the envelopes didn't fit.  It was a lucky misfortune because it then dawned on me to simply wrap them in paper and tie with twine.  I was so pleased with the simplicity of this solution and seeing them altogether like this made me immensely happy. (Funny Addendum:  I wrote this post yesterday and woke up at five o'clock this morning with the Sound of Music song in my head.  It dawned on me that Julie Andrews was singing about her favorite things as a strategy to get through difficult times and so I added the lyrics to the post and added "My Favorite Things" to the title.  Then I noticed that my post contained "brown paper packages tied up with string" and I had to laugh out loud.  The mind is an amazing thing!)

I keep finding that I am in love with the small details of life.  I like to look closely and to spend long amounts of time on the minutia.  Sometimes I try and force myself to pull out and look at things from afar, but then something will catch my eye and I am pulled back to the delightful detail.  I guess my love lies in the wee particulars.  

“The Lord likes small things best, especially those done with love.”

― Mother Teresa

If you would like to order the "Watercolor Cards" please visit my website, NessyPress.com and click "Notecards" at the top.

The Oxbow - Fall Seedpods and Galls

"Each tiniest phenomenon is beloved, is love itself..."

― Henry Shukman quoting Master Nansen, One Blade of Grass

The Oxbow

 On election day George and I decided to go for a walk at the Oxbow Nature Conservancy in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.  George is a member and received a newsletter that described a new trail so we thought we would check it out.

When we first started, we had to move at a snail's pace because I couldn't stop finding things to photograph.  I felt like I was at the beach and had to stop to look at every interesting shell.  My subjects fell into five categories: Illinois bundleflower, goldenrod bunch galls, corn, people pics, and unidentified awesomeness. 

Bundleflower

Below is a photo of the Illinois bundleflower (Desmanthus illinoiensis).  (I did a print of this seed pod a few years ago.  You can see the final print here and read more about the process here.)  I recently learned from a friend that it is also called Prairie Mimosa, which I think is a prettier name. This particular photo was one of my favorites because of the sparkly background.  

Goldenrod Bunch Gall

Below you can see my next subject, the goldenrod bunch gall.  I didn't know what this was when I was photographing it, but I knew I loved the incredible dried flowers.  Apparently this flower is caused by a tiny fly  (Rhopalomyia solidaginis) that lays its eggs on the topmost leaf of goldenrod (Solidago canadensis).  The stem of the goldenrod stops growing upward, but the leaves continue to grow, thus forming a rosette.  These "flowers" provide a home to many types of midges and thus food for insect predators.  In the fall the midge emerges from the gall and the females lay their eggs in the soil and the cycle repeats.  One interesting fact is the female lays all male or all female eggs.  This is all quite interesting to me, but I have to admit the thing I love the most is the fantastic form of the rosettes.   

Corn

 Corn (Zea mays) was the third subject.  As you know if you read this blog, I have had quite a corn obsession lately.  You can see my latest print of corn here.  I got all excited about doing another print after walking among the rows of corn and seeing it close up.

The Humans

I also had an adorable human subject who would sometimes model with the plants and who sometimes turned the camera back around.

In addition to these subjects, I had a couple unidentified seed pods.  If you know what they are let me know (just found out they are Velvetleaf, Abutilon theophrasti).  Instead of grouping the photos by subject I thought it would be more interesting to mix them all together.  I usually end most of my posts with some "deep thoughts" but decided instead to sprinkle in some quotes and let the photos stand on their own.

"Age is not all decay;
it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within,
that withers and bursts the husk."

― George MacDonald

Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Decline is also a form of voluptuousness, just like growth. Autumn is just as sensual as springtime.
There is as much greatness in dying as in procreation.”

― Iwan Goll

"The world is filled with hidden love."

― Daniella Kessler

Velvetleaf, Abutilon theophrasti

"There are always flowers for those who want to see them." 

—Henri Matisse

"I quaked in awe for the most ordinary things." 

―Henry Shukman, One Blade of Grass 

House Sketch - Hudson & Floral

"All fortune is good fortune." — Boethius 

Through the years I have slowly come to understand the above quote.  You might wonder how a tight muscle in my butt led me to draw this house...let me tell you the story.  About three years ago I developed a very uncomfortable tight muscle that prevented me from taking my usual long walks around my neighborhood.  I would walk for a few days; my muscle would become terribly tight, and I would have to rest it for a week.  And then the pattern would repeat.  I tried countless remedies...acupuncture, chiropractor, dry needling, orthopedist, x-rays, etc.  Some of those things provided varying degrees of relief.  Two times during those years we went to the beach and my symptoms went away.  I wasn't sure how the two were connected.  But to make a long story short, this spring I finally figured out that if I walk on flat surfaces my tight muscle goes away!

What that means practically for me is that I can't walk in my hilly neighborhood.  So this spring at the start of the pandemic, I began driving to flat Norwood to take my walks.  At first I wasn't that excited to have to drive over there just to walk.  But who knew that behind the strip mall façade there were gleaming-white, giant marble buddhas, silent passageways under I-71, ancient trees, and the subject of today's post...magnificent architecture!

When I began my walks I found myself amazed at the variety of architectural styles.  You can find houses built in the 1800s as well as sleek, modern homes...all tucked in together.  I have a penchant for old homes and discovering new gems each week was great motivation for my walks.  As the months have gone by, I kept having the thought that I should draw some of them... but other projects kept taking precedence.  Finally this week I had a chance and I chose one of my favorite houses at the corner of Hudson and Floral.

The details in this house are stunning.  I love the exposed rafter tails, the fish-scale siding, the circular porch with its adorable red roof, the ornate spindles, the alternating colors of the window arch, the sideways brick ornamentation, the contrast in colors between the orange brick, the blue siding, and the red roofs, and the strangely-shaped bell tower!  I don't know the correct architectural terms for all the awesome details...but it makes a girl swoon to imagine herself standing on the second-story porch waving to her friends while drinking a delicious lemonade.

So now you have the story of how a tight butt muscle led me to discovering and sketching one of Norwood's finest gems.  It seems that in every action I take, life keeps showing me how I can find joy in sorrow, pleasure in difficulty, and good fortune in what appears to be bad fortune.  Somehow, knowing this helps lessen the fear, calm the senses, and reassure the one who is afraid of the dark.  It seems we need both extremes in this world...the opposites define each other and herein lies the play of life.

Put light against light - you have nothing.
Put dark against dark - you have nothing.
It's the contrast of light and dark that each give the other one meaning.  

— Bob Ross

"God is in the detail." — Mies van der Rohe