Making the invisible, visible...

A few weeks ago, I began sort of a series  - trying to make 'art' out of common things we don't usually see. Here is another under this heading. I am thinking of it as making the invisible, visible.

I had walked around Barbara's neighborhood during a watercolor class when I came upon the fire hydrant. (see Post on 10-13-16) Another day, I walked around her house with my camera. Again, I was trying to see what we don't normally look at. It was fun to look purposefully for the invisible.

In her furnace/laundry room I discovered furnace pipes - perfect! I took several photos and went to work. My goal was to simplify - I left out the clothes hanging behind the pipes and just focused on the pipe shapes themselves.

I sketched it out with pencil and then got out my matchstick and ink. I was ready to take it to class for critique.

I really liked the sketch and I was anxious to paint it. We talked about what kind of background would not interfere with the overall image. I decided just to use all the colors I was using in the pipes and do some wet-on-wet painting.  I also cropped it closer to the pipes, creating a more vertical impact. Voila...

 Artwork titles are always a challenge - one of my friends suggested "Turn me on." I am not sold on that - open to other suggestions.

"Painted Ladies"

For the past few months, my watercolor class has been working on a project - "Painted Ladies." We were each supposed to find and paint local Victorian houses. Traditionally, these houses are colorful - painted with at least three colors - and stand proudly in various neighborhoods...strutting their stuff!

Most of us groaned with this assignment. However, over the weeks of painting and critique, we all began to appreciate the what we were learning with this task. We were each to have three paintings ready to go for the show at the St Michaels Library during the month of November!

I began with the Parsonage Inn - a B&B in St Michaels. I have always been intrigued by its many angles and its fun turret. I painted the entire house several times before I figured out that what I really liked was the chimney and roof line. Here's what I finally came up with.

 After driving around town and looking at lots of photographs, I decided to paint the "Eagle House" - located on the grounds of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. The house has an interesting history - you can go to cbmm.org and read about it. Bottom line - it has an eagle on the top of its turret. Yeah, I am into turrets...   The thing that caught my eye with this house, in addition to the eagle, was the strong shadow across the front. I love these strong colors and light.

I still had one more to do. Several years ago I had done an ink drawing of a house for the local holiday house tour. I found my old drawing and decided to redo it in color. I picked just a section of the front of the house for this painting. After all, there is only so much fancy porch railing that I can do! What were these Victorian craftsmen thinking?  

We hung the show yesterday - what an amazing display. Stop by the library and take a look. And, of course, many of the paintings are for sale...