"Another Sketch From The Air Museum"...

The other unfinished Paso Robles sketch...

Here's the second of two quick sketches that I started about ten minutes before Tee, me and our hosts, Ed and Irene Rush, decided to leave to get some lunch in downtown Paso Robles. I did have time to, at the Estrella Warbirds Museum, capture fairly well an F-86, a T-33 and the tail section of an F-104.

After lunch, we decided to visit an artist in residence kinda co-op called, "The Studio On The Park" which is located across the City Park square in downtown. I had a few great conversations with some of the artists. Anne Laddon, who created the concept of the studio, was very congenial, as was her studio mate, Tamara Thornton. They both share a studio together and I found, through asking many questions, that both ladies came from an advertising background and had to deal with the idea of eventually being put out to pasture.

They seemed to have made the change into a fine art arena quite successfully having felt that they had accomplished all they had expected to accomplish as ad women. Nice place to be.

Anne's site is: http://www.anneladdon.com/artwork/ and Tamara's is: http://www.studiosonthepark.org/artists/artist-directory.php?artist_id=96

Copyright 2016/ Ben Bensen III

A City Park Sketch...

A WPA Sculpture!

I grew up near City Park. I fished there. I played ball there. With my friends, we use to get dressed up and play army there in and around the lagoons, hiding in the large oak trees waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting enemy we imagined. As we grew up, we'd rent the paddle boats and have races and then, stop by the Casino, as it was then called, to have a Barq's and some chips.

Nowadays, whenever I have the need, I will go and visit the park and reminisce about those good times and maybe mosey over to NOMA to revisit the old classical paintings and sculpture there or pick up on a new exhibition. The last time I was at the museum was to see the Leah Chase exhibition, where an artist spent a few months back in the kitchen of the famous chef at her Dookie Chase restaurant, documenting her life as a cook. The show was okay... not great, but okay.

But, having visited the park, I later on, returned with sketchbook in hand to just sit and draw and soak in some rays and vitamin D. Drawing with a larger tip Pentel forces one to be more shape oriented and not so into the details. It makes for a bolder look. For someone like me, who is a rather timid draughtsman, drawing faint lines either on paper or in my head searching for the right line, this is a definite challenge.

Many of the lagoons in City Park are spanned by bridges created by the WPA back in the late '30's and are quite decorative. This sketch is of a flowered concrete vase on top of the end pillar of a concrete wall that borders one of those bridges. In a world full of desperate hard times, it constantly amazes me how imaginative, creative and, at times, delicate the workmanship and design could be. It makes one wonder why we can't have this kind of design today. Makes me wonder about a lot of things!

I don't know why I don't come here more often... it is such an inspiration!

Copyright 2013/ Ben Bensen III

Feedin' Da Ducks?

City Park Lagoon on Easter Sunday

I guess I should come here more often to get inspired and perspired at the lagoons of City Park. Certain parts of the park have lagoons that are close to the picnic grounds and they are full of debris from the picnickers. But you can find some nice areas away from the "littering crowd" that are quite idyllic.

We came here with my mom, after we had Easter brunch at a place we didn't have reservations for because the restaurant we wanted to go to said they didn't take reservations, but they actually did, but they had no tables left to reserve and didn't want to tell us that the day before over the phone because that was their way of saying we don't want you unless someone with reservations doesn't show up. ( I realize that that's a run on sentence, but did it anyway for fun! )

Therese and I thought it would be something different mom could do since she mentioned it only about a thousand times before, but she bumped her knee on the back of the seat of the car, which as most people know, is pretty padded and refused to come out to feed the ducks. So, Tee and I did!

Pretty lame duck, me thinks!