House Portraits

"Camborne Circle" - pencil, pen and watercolor, 8" x 10", 2010

"Belle Manor" - acrylic, 16" x 20", 2004

Though I haven't been able to find 20 minutes to sketch in the last couple days, that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about art. To incorporate more of my finished art in with the sketches I've been posting lately, here are a couple house portraits. Commissioned work like this is very enjoyable to me, and I often sketch houses and architecture for the fun and practice of it. While neither of the houses I painted above had dramatic architectural details, I aspired to make the houses as charming and welcoming as can be to please the clients and my own sense of style.

Mackintosh roses

A Charles Rennie Mackintosh design appealed to me tonight for its clean and balanced nearly symmetrical composition, though my 20 minute sketch leaves a lot to be desired compared to the original (on a silk upholstered back of a ca. 1904 chair). My reference photo was black and white, so I picked some soft colors to show off the leaves and roses. Pencil, pen, and watercolor, 5 1/2" x 8".

Travel inspiration

The past few years I've kept a travel sketchbook when we go on vacation, but there are many great vacation images from the past that I never sketched. This 20 minute sketch (pen and watercolor, 5 1/2" x 8") was from from one of these old photos. It's a view of the very interestingly shaped "copper pot stills" at the Labrot & Graham (Woodford Reserve) bourbon distillery in Versailles, KY. As I recall, the stills were custom made in Scotland and shipped to KY and assembled there. If you happen to be a whiskey or bourbon connoisseur, Woodford Reserve is truly a top shelf bourbon superior to any other, and it was a fascinating distillery tour.

Out the window

With all the still life and random images sketched since January, I have really been aching to try some landscapes with this restrictive 20 minute timeframe. The snow is finally melting here and the view from my studio window (drawn quickly in pen and painted with watercolor, 5 1/2" x 8 1/2") is starting to look like a slight promise of spring.

Though not consciously done, I really like the loose Fairfield Porter-type feeling achieved here. He's one of my favorite artists of the modern era; with such vibrant expressive interiors and beautiful light-filled landscapes, often using analogous color schemes (art lesson for the day!) Even though what I do here is small beans, I still try to absorb as much greatness from the masters as possible.