Drawn the Road Again

Category: Country Mouse

  • Mother Road, mother lode

    Mother Road, mother lode

    Last summer the Tailor and I spent a couple of weeks traveling every inch of old Route 66. And then I kept pretty quiet about it, because I just had no idea how to organize and share the sheer number of sketches and stories I came away with afterward. There really is no “long story…

  • Through the rear-view mirror

    Through the rear-view mirror

    Since the year is about to end, I figured it was the perfect time to look back and see how far I’ve come this year. I did all my traveling in the first two-thirds of the year (the last third saw me stuck in the studio and chained to big projects and their deadlines, hence…

  • Mission: Accomplished

    Mission: Accomplished

    This is the twenty-first and final installment of my Mission Mondays series, exploring all 21 Spanish Missions along the California coast. You can read more about this series, and see a sketch map of all the missions, at this post. Here we are, at long last! The very last California mission, in all its (understated)…

  • Suburban pilgrimage

    Suburban pilgrimage

    This is the eighteenth installment of my Mission Mondays series, exploring all 21 Spanish Missions along the California coast. You can read more about this series, and see a sketch map of all the missions, at this post. This place might be a little confusing if you let yourself get tripped up by the name.…

  • The long view

    The long view

    On the morning I did this sketch, I was supposed to be sitting in a darkened lecture hall, listening to a bunch of scholars talk about art. But I just couldn’t do it. On a day like that, it seemed criminal to pass up such a beautiful place. So I jumped in the car and…

  • New England transplant

    New England transplant

    You wouldn’t normally think of the Pacific Northwest as covered bridge country, but we do have a few here. Southern Oregon is home to a real beauty, and the last covered bridge still standing along old Highway 99. Of course, the rainy Northwest weather and towering conifers gave it away, but otherwise, the place made…

  • If these walls could talk

    If these walls could talk

    This is the fifteenth installment of my Mission Mondays series, exploring all 21 Spanish Missions along the California coast. You can read more about this series, and see a sketch map of all the missions, at this post. San Juan Bautista was the first mission I ever visited, more than two years ago now. It’s…

  • On the banks

    On the banks

    When Mary-Alice and I hatched our Florida trip earlier this year, I made a point of not planning any destinations ahead of time. I wanted to be surprised by what we found along the road. One of the many surprises that day was crossing the famous “Swanny”. An even better surprise (for me) was what…

  • Lonely outpost

    Lonely outpost

    This is the thirteenth installment of my Mission Mondays series, exploring all 21 Spanish Missions along the California coast. You can read more about this series, and see a sketch map of all the missions, at this post. The “Soledad” in Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad means “solitude.” And boy howdy, is that ever…

  • Blushing brontosaurus

    Blushing brontosaurus

    Vernal is the known as the gateway to Dinosaur National Monument. And don’t get me wrong, I’m always game for a national park—but I would have come all that way just to see the pink concrete dinosaur. (Priorities, right?)