Labor D
ay weekend, and we spent it in Santa Cruz, in the warm California sun. Well, quite a bit cooler than the usual super hot sun we have in Davis, so that was a nice change. I love being by the sea. Santa Cruz is a cool city, and we stayed near the Boardwalk. The hydrants here are different than in Davis so I managed to sketch a few of them. I am sure I look a right plum sketching these, but I don’t care, it’s more for the catalogue. Most are yellow (one or two were orange) but there was a greater variety in the ‘trim’, and I sketched a couple of orange ones, a red, a blue and a green. I don’t think I have drawn any of these models before either – very similar ones, but not exactly. Well maybe the blue trimmed one is similar to one I drew in Santa Rosa. Oh, I don’t know. I feel like one of those mad 19th century explorers sometimes, searching for and cataloguing new species of flora in the deep urban jungle. I really should make an effort when I find these new specimens to write down the manafacturer name, maybe the year if its legible, but it’s too late now. I’m not so methodical, I just draw the things.
Incidentally these were all drawn in my watercolour moleskine (moley #10) in uniball vision micro pen with watercolour. All were done on location, sat crouching in the street hoping I don’t get run over or weed on by a dog. If you want to see a whole load of fire hydrants (and other metal pipes that come out of the ground), then here is my Flickr set, “Hydrants and Pipes“. Or perhaps you thinks it’s a bit barmy. But hey, as they say – “Keep Santa Cruz Weird”, right?
These are great.
cheers Michael!
Love your hydrants– we paint our conjure boxes and we have some lively ones but I love what you are doing with the hydrants– your drawings are elegant– so glad my friend Marie Brown sent me your info– please keep drawing! K
Thanks! I have a bit of a thing for hydrants.
More brilliant hydrants. I keep seeing hydrants around and thinking how you would stop and draw them.
Danke, Rob. There’s one town in CA, Belmont I think it is, where they paint their hydrants like people. I want to go there.
Bethel Island fire hydrants. I put pictures of the fire hydrants on my blog: http://winnowings.blogspot.com/2012/07/water-water-everywhere-and-not-drop-to.html
I did not know there were different kinds of hydrants. I thought they all looked more or less alike.
These are really great, Pete. We don’t have any like those in Quebec City. Still a few types here that I haven’t sketched yet, though.
Cheers Larry! I do hope to sketch Canadian hydrants one day. We don’t have them at all in London.
Thank you for sharing.