I have spent a lot of time in Nevada County visiting my mother in Penn Valley. I love to explore this deeply historical part of the Gold Country and there seems there is alway something new to visit and sketch.

And so it was that I found myself on a chilly but sunny morning on the first day of my Spring Break, sketching a statue of a draft horse at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley.

The massive statue is called The Gentle Giant by Todd Andrews and represents a draft horse hitched to three logs. The statue is highly kinetic for a static statue. The horse is straining to pull the logs, perhaps uphill. I hoped I was able to capture some of this energy in my sketch (certainly my spelling had much to be desired).

On another morning I headed out to sketch a piece of narrow gauge rail equipment that had recently been put on display near the Sacramento Street exit from Highway 49 in Nevada City. This is a wedge snowplow from a narrow gauge logging railroad. It found it’s way to Yosemite Mountain & Sugar Pine Railroad in Fish Camp. It was burning in a fire on August 30, 2017 where it’s wooden parts were destroyed. It was donated to the Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum in Nevada City were is was restored and put on static display on the site of the former Nevada City narrow gauge depot.