Tag Archives: Bryn Mawr PA

Pharmacy

One million years ago, in my college years, the following scene was very familiar to me. Here’s the story: I went to Bryn Mawr College, a short walk from the town center of Bryn Mawr, PA. This pharmacy, Parvin’s, was there then looking pretty much as it does now. It was on my regular shopping route of bank, card shop, and pharmacy, and is right down the street from the train station.

In July 2021 my husband and I went to the farmers’ market in the town square parking lot and I took this photo. The card shop is gone (it was next door) but the bank is still there. And Parvin’s! I made a pen drawing of the scene in my 8×8 sketch book.

Of course I have seen the building many times since my college years, but somehow it seemed that now was the time to set it more firmly in memory in this manner. I guess I am getting old and nostalgic.

Scratch Art 2

More scratch art work inspired by a class I took at Woodmere Art Museum in spring 2021. Look here for the first post, which explains the origins of this inspiration and some general background on the medium.

Here’s another one. The photo is of a building in the train yard in Bryn Mawr, PA. I was intrigued by a lot of scenes in this yard and took a lot of photos. I like this one for all the shapes and lines.

And here is the image. I think this one had a lot of potential but the black/white balance is off – it’s too evenly distributed between the tones. I should have left the roof at left in solid black and then it would be fine.

On the other hand, there is a lot to look at here – I am happy with how I depicted the scene as far as the lines and composition.

Lesson learned. You can take away the black color and once it is gone, it is gone. There is a procedure for cleaning up small problems but not large areas, and in reality, no error correction in this medium looks good, I think.

Note to self: Try to map out the blacks/whites very clearly in your mind before you start to cut away and…pause to review the image as you go along.

At the Train Station

I like train stations, and we have a lot of them in my area – since we have multiple commuter rail lines going into the city. There are always interesting buildings in the vicinity of the actual station building, too. Here are a couple I encountered this past summer.

This first grouping is in Bryn Mawr, PA. It’s a building directly associated with the station. (If you want to see more details, take a look at this post I wrote about a walk in the area of the station my husband and I took.) I liked its architecture as well as its state of decay.

The second grouping shows the end house in a row of homes right up on the tracks in Glenside, PA.

I like train stations, as I said, and I think I will be looking at their environs more closely from now on – there is a lot to see.