KEENER LIGHTING

I've liked this building for a while. Mostly for the windows, and that stained glass lampshade that appears several places on the building. I photographed it almost two years ago.

 Getting things sketched out.

Oops. I hope this still counts. It's not easy to watercolor in the rain.

Halfway finished. Still very red.

The sun came back, and it's setting. I've put a lot of yellow in.

Done.

A few notes on Keener Lighting. It's been family owned since 1952. (That's 61 years, y'all.) And you can get a Tennessee Vols stained glass lampshade here if you want. Here is the intersection as it looks today. (p.s. This is a great blog for information about Knoxville history.) Apparently since the older picture, The Knoxville Gas Company building has been torn down. When did the Keener Lighting Building come to be in existence?

After letting this sit in my drafts for a while, I found this better image of the Knoxville Gas Company here at the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection. It's a neat database to play around in. I happened to stumble upon photographs from a drag racing track here in Knoxville my dad didn't even know about. He too is a lover of old pictures (and ads) and can be found writing about "Run What You Brung" Southern Drag Racing and Memphis Barbecue here and here.