Recently my wife and I made a trip up to Shamrock, Texas to shoot some photos for a painting of the U-Drop Inn. This iconic building is perhaps the most photographed building in Texas. It sits on old Route 66, just south of I-40. “Back in the day”, this stop on Route 66 was a favorite of many travelers. It housed a Conoco gas station, a garage, a laundry and the U-Drop Inn Cafe.
In an effort to collect more information on color and values, I set up my easel and worked through a quick “color sketch” of the the building, or I should say I attempted it. It was tough to grab all the reflected light bouncing under the porches and walls. After a couple of hours, I scraped it off and hung my head down in defeat. It was, however, a benefit as I start a larger painting of the building back in the studio.
Conoco gas station and U-Drop Inn Cafe on old Historic Route 66 in Shamrock, Texas
This building was inspiration for a building in the animated movie “Cars”. It’s one of the buildings on main street in Radiator Springs. My wife and I also came across an old junkyard in Shamrock that had an old Hudson Hornet, late 50’s model. Even though the Hudson Hornet in the movie was a early 50’s model, it was still kind of cool seeing one there.
Movies with good messages are difficult to find these days. Cars was an exception to this trend. If you boiled the movie down into a couple of sentences it would be like this:
Don’t be selfish and pursue your own glory. Put the needs of others first, sometimes sacrificing your own needs.
Seems I read that in an old, ancient book somewhere 🙂
