This is in response to a friend’s request to post for National Train Day!
(Go visit him here if you love trains and that will lead you to others who are posting,
and the logo also was stolen from him….)

When I think of trains I think of my first trips on trains,
which were out of Los Angeles Unions Train Station
(possibly the most beautiful station),
heading south to San Juan Capistrano Depot to see family or a boyfriend,
or north, when my girlfriend and I decided to take the train to San Francisco on a whim.  When I recall both the Los Angeles Union Train Station
and the Los Angeles Airport I have the same visceral experience: home.
Not the wonderful smells,
like the Pacific Ocean when you are at the water’s edge in winter, all foggy and salty,
or the smell of the Santa Anas, or Eucalyptus or orange groves or horse stalls,
all home home home.
No, this is the smell of coming home, and I can call it up,
a bit of salt air and smog and diesel fuel and the cram of crowds in a hurry.

I’ve not taken a trip out of
Portland Union Station but I love the building, one of the most beautiful
in the Pearl in NW Portland.
We see it from many angles
as we pass it when we go over the bridges. In honor of Dan’s request
I wanted to do much more,
but work got to me. Details and  impressions and a portrait, above.
I made a mistake in the portrait,
though most won’t catch it.

The rhythm of the building exterior
and the lovely rounds remind me
of the Hotel Del in Coronado.
The building was built when the industrial age was fascinating,
and so, exposed tendrils of metal
adorn the building, so much more beautiful than anything built today.

*sigh*
I want to go back in time.

This is my first time out with the Fabriano journal.  I have mixed reaction to the paper — inks that don’t normally feather, feathered… watercolors floated a bit due to sizing, I assume.  I will write more as I work more with it as it is my new USk journal.

PS I have two more drawings in me for sure… will post and link to them eventually.

Part two is posted, here.

Fabriano Journal, with a Pentalic HB woodless pencil,
Platinum Carbon pen, Platinum Preppie Pen, Noodler’s Lexington Grey,
and Greenleaf & Blueberry, Daniel Smith, Sennelier, and Holbein watercolors.

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