Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Burns' Barn


The ink is hardly dry on my New Year Intentions. I've not fallen off the wagon, but I'm teetering on the edge. I almost didn't make two posts this week. But I did work on my intention to draw buildings. The urban sketches proved a bit too intimidating, so I'm going to draw buildings instead. This is maybe only a partial building, but surely the fence counts for something.
I was given a beautiful book called Historic Alberta with photos by Michael Breuer and text by Rosemary Neering. This photo is from that book which will be my main source of reference for the first few buildings. This barn was built in 1927 on Pat Burns' ranch near Calgary. It is now restored and lives at Heritage Park in the city. Pat Burns was one of the fathers of the Alberta cattle business and established a slaughterhouse in Calgary. In 1898, he began shipping cattle by rail to Vancouver, by ship and then foot to the Yukon. There the cattle were slaughtered and floated by raft to provide food for the Gold Rush. He became the city's first millionaire and in 1912, along with some other backers known as the Big Four, began the Calgary Stampede. In 1931, he was appointed to the Canadian Senate.
Watercolor pencils, Pigma Pen in Moleskine sketchbook

4 comments:

Angie Willis said...

This is great. Did you say you hadn't drawn buildings before!! I tried my first couple of building/architectural drawings the other day but find I've got a long way to go before they look as good as yours.

Anonymous said...

Very lovely and a great beginning towards your goal. Love all the postings.

Leah said...

I love your drawing! And I especially love that you're adjusting your challenge to make it doable and fun for you.

Anonymous said...

I think it looks great. Very nice indeed.