Steeple

Steeple   watercolor   20 x 12 

During the virus shut-down, my walking path is fairly regular...a small loop around the small community where we live.  Steeples have always intrigued me...this one just atop an abandoned medical building.  While not particularly engaging, it still represents, to me, an uplifting, a reaching toward the optimistic, the infinite. 

Originally, the background colors were very bright, leaning the work more toward the typical watercolor painting.  I could not resist the urge to pair the transparent with the opaque, so a wash of Chinese White was applied to the background, quieting the sky and moving the structure to the forefront.  I am not quite sure I am happy with this decision, but the sky area is now more akin with what we experience here in northeast Ohio.  I definitely have an allergy to happy happy skies. 

Over the years, I have also some to dislike, in my own work, the more primary application of paint to replicate shingles and bricks. So, in this case, the end of an eraser was dipped into a giant puddle of paint, creating a more secondary, chaotic and imperfect application. 

I am pleased with this more interpretive consideration of the subject.

West End,

West End (NC)   watercolor   25.5 x 15

North Carolina is a sleepy little town we pass through on the way to visit my husband's parents.  Usually the weather is sunny, hot and humid.  But the day I ventured into the town with my camera moodiness prevailed...the feel was impending storminess.  Water tanks dotting the skies in various towns throughout our country.  Attention demanded and attention paid.

This month The Water Tank Project will wrap more than 100 of the city's iconic rooftop water tanks in artists' canvases, versions of which will be auctioned to raise funds for projects in Tanzania and other places facing dire water shortages.  Each American uses about 100 gallons of water per day, as compared with two to five gallons used by the average person in sub-Saharan Africa.

Water....a most precious resource.  Attention must be paid.