Oil Pastel: Neffie's Cottage, Summer of 2004

This was always one of my favorite drawings, because of the way it "feels". I know it's a simple drawing, but I fell in love with it as I was doing it. I originally did it for someone, but as I was drawing it I realized he would never appreciate it as much as I would, and I decided to keep it. I never even showed it him. The irony is, I would never have started drawing it if I wasn't thinking of giving it to him. It's a rough drawing of Mount Riga lake, and it was done sitting at the dam house, on Mount Riga lake, as closely as I could to the way I thought it looked, while giving it some fictious elements. The sky is more accurate than the scenery. The clouds overhead formed billowy, thick mounds which while steely gray I assumed would not shower, and they in my memory then did not. The house however, while based on a house that really existed, is made up. I loved calling it "Neffie's Cottage", not only because it was the name I used at the time, but because Neffie is also made up, by Michael Nesmith, and the man I had wanted to give this to reminded me of Michael a lot in many ways. The entire image is basically real, and yet not real. And I think a beautiful, cozy, mysterious little place...