Sue's Audio Books
  • Home
  • Arts
    • Painting
    • Poetry
    • Nature & Science
  • Memoirs
    • African Americans
    • Artists & Intellectuals
    • Explorers
    • Native Americans
    • Pioneers
    • Travelers
    • War & Military
    • Women
  • American History
    • American Revolution
    • American West
    • Civil War
    • Gold Rushes
    • Immigration
    • Slavery & Abolition
  • Miscellany
    • Odd Bits & Tangents
    • Nonfiction Collection
  • Me
    • About
    • Bookish (the Blog)
    • Sidney’s Brooklyn (1941-1960)
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
Sketch of dairy barn

Simple things, and little things

Bookish (the Blog) Christopher Whall, librivox, sketching

Above: my sketch of a dairy barn and milk house

Recently (June 2020), for the first time in my life, someone asked me to do a pen and ink drawing for them, a drawing of an old barn. The request came from a young plumber who was at my house installing a sump pump. The barn was on his grandfather’s farm, a family farm now through three generations. The plumber and I were talking about one of my drawings, which I had framed. The sketch was of an eccentric gingerbread Victorian, and he knew the building because he’d done work there. That was when he asked me if I could make a drawing of his grandfather’s barn.

What do you say to such a request? Anybody delving the depths of this website would know that it’s purpose is to document my quest for “meaning in my retirement years.” They would also find that the one set idea I had when I retired in 2003 was “to learn to draw” and that the website chronicles my efforts in that direction, which have not been exactly an easy go!

Photo of stone foundation of old baarn

I’d never drawn a barn… I had drawn quite a few old buildings… so I thought I probably could draw a barn… but… what to say….? As I dithered, I remembered something I’d recently recorded for LibriVox, advice from a stained glass master, Christopher Whall, on being true to yourself, and to art.  Whall was a leader of the Arts & Crafts movement in Britain at the turn of the 20th century. What he had to say those many years ago still rang true in my estimation: “Simple things and little things, and many things, are more needed in the arts today than complex things and great and isolated achievements.”

Whall authored a technical manual for “workers in glass,” in 1905, in which he talked frankly about “methods of getting work” for aspiring craftsmen: “Take anything you can get, and be glad, not sorry, if it is small and comes to you but slowly… if you have nothing to do for others, do some little thing for yourself; it is a seed, presently it will send out a shoot of your first “commission,” and that will probably lead to two others, or to a larger one; but pray to be led by small steps; and make sure of firm footing as you go.” I, frankly, wasn’t sure whether I was even seeking an audience for my work, certainly not a paying audience at any rate; but here was a chance given me, out of the blue, to validate the efforts I had been making to learn my “craft” of drawing…

Sketch of barn siding

So, what I said to the plumber was I’d like to come see his grandfather’s farm, and although I wasn’t a professional artist, I’d try to make a drawing of the barn.

It was a grand old dairy barn. I had great fun exploring and photographing it and the attached milk house. My drawings turned out–at least the plumber told me they looked “amazing”–and they made a unique father’s day present for his dad. Relatives wanted copies. I told the plumber that if anybody he knew wanted a drawing of their barn to send them my way!

You can listen to my recording of Whall’s advice to aspiring crafts people here.

You can read Whall’s text on stained glass here.

Martha Maxwell, Taxidermist (1876) Reflections of a Stained Glass Master

Related Posts

doors to chicken coop

Bookish (the Blog)

Chickens, Cats, & Self-Perception: On Drawing

Concrete post with date 1931

Bookish (the Blog)

1931-2020

soybean field awaiting harvest

Bookish (the Blog)

Egg-Shaped Stone with Crack

Photo of stream in a drainage ditch along 4-lane highway

Bookish (the Blog)

Urban Stream

Bicycle at crossroads in path

Bookish (the Blog)

No Country for Self-Driving Bicycles

sketch of old factory

Bookish (the Blog)

Learning to Draw, Line by Line

Graffiti under bridge

Bookish (the Blog)

Urban Naturalist (Watercolors #4)

abstract watercolor

Bookish (the Blog)

Cat and Dancing Dog (Watercolors #3)

watercolor painting with granulation

Bookish (the Blog)

Violet Granulation (Watercolors #2)

Photo of upside down citrus juicer on needlepoint pillow

Bookish (the Blog)

Citrus Juicer Inspiration

Recent Posts

  • Chickens, Cats, & Self-Perception: On Drawing
  • Rendering Clouds and Water
  • Cloud Identification
  • Japanese Beetle Control
  • Nurses’ Christmas Newsletters (1928-1947), Geneva, Illinois

Archives

  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016

Categories

Tags

Alfred East American West anti-semitism Arthur L. Guptill audiobooks August Jaccaci birds Brooklyn California Christopher Whall Civil War cochineal Constantine Panunzio constantinople contact Edward Carpenter Francis Roe Frontier Nursing Society Gold Rushes Illinois immigrants Immigration internet archive John Muir judaism letters librivox memoirs Mexico Mt. Rainier nature nonfiction collection Ohio painting pioneers poetry Sidney Gross sketching Slavery & Abolition Spain Spanish Borderlands Thomas Dallam war and military women World War I
  • Home
  • Arts
    • Painting
    • Poetry
    • Nature & Science
  • Memoirs
    • African Americans
    • Artists & Intellectuals
    • Explorers
    • Native Americans
    • Pioneers
    • Travelers
    • War & Military
    • Women
  • American History
    • American Revolution
    • American West
    • Civil War
    • Gold Rushes
    • Immigration
    • Slavery & Abolition
  • Miscellany
    • Odd Bits & Tangents
    • Nonfiction Collection
  • Me
    • About
    • Bookish (the Blog)
    • Sidney’s Brooklyn (1941-1960)
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
© Sue's Audio Books 2021
Copyright: Sue Anderson. All rights reserved.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy