Downwind from the Pound Maker

Today Kim and I braved the weather to go out and sketch. It seems that every weekend we sketch together has turned out to have bad weather. Bundled in my fathers large but very warm sweater I went out to have some fun.

The sketches we did today were of both the pound maker and a very long Fire Engine. WE FROZE!! The sun was out and there were these beautiful white fluffy clouds but the wind was like ice hitting us at incredible speeds.

With all the challenges the weather threw at us we were still successful in pumping out a few sketches. Both Kim and I did some fun sketches of the Pound Maker in our journals. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this building, it is a building used to train firefighters in different fire situations. How do you train to rescue people in a fire you ask....? Well you set the Pound Maker on fire and go inside :) I have heard from a reliable source that the Pound Maker has various sections that simulate different fire situations. For example, a house fire, or perhaps an apartment fire, or even a garage fire. Needless to say, this building does its job in preparing our Edmonton Fire Fighters for rescue in all types of fire situations.

But where does this large, singed, concrete building get its name? Who knows? All I know is that a building named "The Pound Maker" is not one I would go into without some serious thought and training first. Having warn the bunker gear with hose and axe in hand I can only imaging going into a fire to save someone. Adrenaline might get me through the door and up the stairs but after finding the person to rescue I'm not sure that I'd have the strength, endurance or stamina to make it out alive. In other words...it would pound me!

So after sketching the dirty, not on fire, concrete building we moved on to a more complicated subject. Always taking on the challenge then realizing we may have bitten off more than we could chew. But we must be getting faster, because we usually have barely enough time to do one sketch. Thankfully we ran out of time before we turned into blocks of ice.

Our second sketch was of this pretty but very large and long red fire engine, complete with ladder. It didn't seem like such a daunting task until we sat down and started drawing. That's when I really started to notice all the details. The word "oops" almost slipped out of my mouth when it dawned on me that it would be more complicated than I originally thought. Full of geometric shapes and complicated measuring we got our drawings done but were not able to finish with the paint or inking. It was probably for the best, as we lost our paper towel earlier to the wind...

While sketching all these wonderful things we saw a lot of fire engines go by accompanied by a lot of curious looks from the firefighters inside. This place seems to be as busy on the weekends as it is during the week. The last time I was sketching the Pound Maker I saw them pressure testing their hoses while making big beautiful rainbows by shooting the water hundreds of feet in the air. It was quite a colorful sight.


To end the day I will be finishing the painting of the fire engine. I'm looking forward to doing some more sketches of the engines, maybe even some older ones too! If you know of any cool looking fire stations in or around Edmonton that would make good sketches let us know! We'd love to give it a try. Until next time...

Happy Sketching!