"Sam's Farm" was a garden shop in Fairfax County, about a mile from my house. It had a plastic greenhouse, an open display area, a shed for selling garden ceramic items and gifts, and an old cottage, even 20 years ago past its expiration date. It was seasonally appropriate throughout the year, though it closed from January to late March. In the spring they sold plants and flowers in containers, in summer and fall they sold flowers and local produce, and in November and December they sold Christmas trees. The decrepit cottage was used to show ornamented Christmas trees and shiny stuff, and all over the property concrete and plaster garden fixtures sat like large white mushrooms in the dirt. It was a friendly piece of rurality in the city. Now it is all gone.
I knew it had to happen someday, and that someday is now. Yesterday I saw the bulldozers taking down the shed and the cottage. Combined with other properties which have recently been cleared, the strip of land will be built up with expensive town houses and single family houses.
This is the only sketch of "Sam's Farm" I have, because it was next to a major highway and there was no place to sit for drawing. I managed to draw part of the shed while parked in their parking lot. The sign at the top says "No Trespassing." I would really like to know how the "Urban Sketchers" manage to find a place in their cities to do their sketch work.
Brown ink, water-based markers, and colored pencils on sketchbook page, from my lavishly illustrated 1998 journal. April 12, 1998.
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