cc2001 | Christmas Grain | 2001

Christmas Grain

15 December 2001

Watercolor on paper

11" x 15" (28 x 38 cm)

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Watercolor, 11" x 15" (personal collection).  Similar to 1997's design, but with a retro twist.  A few of these old grain elevators still speckle the Nebraska landscape. The low, worm's-eye perspective attempts to emphasize the dominance in the otherwise flat plains.

My comments - it's funny how the palette of this card resembles that of 2002...a little auto transfer it seems.  Also similar, I liked this card and concept, but I don't think it was a public hit.

I had some glass and a mat that fit so I made a frame for this piece in 2023.

It's funny to write that and realize the painting is over 20 years old.

the sketches...

Card Sketch 2001e,

Pencil

This was the sketch that eventually turned into the 2001 Christmas card. It was the perspective that sold me. This low, look-up shot best exemplified the towering effect these old buildings had in Nebraska – both physically and economically.

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Card Sketch 2001f
Watercolor

I was struggling with the right color for the wooden sides of this giant so I just started throwing some paint on this sketch. The image looks a little strange because I actually cut this from some cardstock. The final card is reversed but almost exactly the same layout.

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Other preceding sketches...

Card Sketch 2001d (left)
2001, Pencil on paper

This was the last elevator I drew that wasn’t used. I liked it and I was getting closer. The angles and perspective were better but it was still missing something.

Card Sketch 2001c (right)
2001, Pencil on paper

Another in the series of grain elevators. This one didn’t have the worm’s-eye perspective I was looking for. The normal, rather flat perspective here doesn’t really show how these old giants dominated the landscape. Therefore, it was not used. I did, however, like how the “grain” turned out.

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Card Sketch 2001b (left)
2001, Pencil on paper

I'm often impressed with tall buildings - especially when they're in the middle of nowhere. This doesn’t really match the grain elevator theme, but the idea is the same.

Card Sketch 2001a (right)
2001, Pencil on paper

This started a series of old grain elevators I wanted to use for the Christmas card of 2001. I try to include something symbolic of Christmas, as we know it. In this case I used tree decorations as the “grain”.

-mm-