I have seen this view now and again during the past 27 years and frequently felt that “someday” I wanted to do a painting of this location, but for one reason or another just never seemed to get around to getting started, that is, until a few weeks ago in mid-September when I went out to go sketching, and while heading north from my home I drove over these railroad tracks.
It was late afternoon, and I only had a little while left in the day to do any drawing before I had to head back home. So, at the time it seemed somehow fortunate that as I came through this area of town when I did there was a nice play of shadow and light patterns that caught my attention. Also at the time I was thinking that the setting was conveniently located near home, I liked the warm quality of the lighting at that moment, the weather was comfortable, and there wasn’t very much street or pedestrian traffic to contend with at the intersection.
I parked my car near a rail spur for one of the local businesses, got out, and walked around tracks area while looking for an interesting view and settled on this one in order to get started quickly and not lose any more time, knowing that I would be returning to do additional drawings and sketches in the future.
This is a fairly quick line drawing study I did of the rail and depot area. At the time I simply wanted to make a note of the various shapes, and location of buildings, road, and rail structures all relative to each other. In part, it is an example of how I often get started when I prepare to do a painting. I typically begin with a series of quick small thumbnail sketches in order to become acquainted with the subject, and then continue from there with making slightly larger and more carefully rendered pencil or pen line drawings, like this one. These drawings help me become aware of proportions of parts of objects; the scale of adjacent buildings, trees, hills, bodies of water, clouds (and more); the juxtaposition of objects: the lighting; and significant seasonal or weather conditions.
I enjoyed making this drawing study but regret that not long after I had photographed it, the drawing became damaged while I was working in the studio on a new painting. I dropped a wet oil brush, and while unsuccessfully trying to catch the brush I accidentally swatted it and watched as it flew, bounced, flipped, and landed onto the drawing, which was located over on a nearby table where I had momentarily set the drawing aside.