Painting again!

Charlestown, SC

Southern Beauty

This painting was inspired by a lovely antebellum home my sister Jane, Jamie and I toured last spring in Charlestown while  in the south.  

When I travel I enjoy taking pictures of simple subjects, looking for angles, colors, flowers and an interesting composition.  This beautiful staircase caught my eye as I wandered around the gardens at the end of the tour. I print the photo and carry it in my sketching bag that travels with me wherever I go.  If I have a few minutes I enjoy sketching the photo to see if it might be the subject of a future watercolor.  The sketch was done last summer sometime but the watercolor had to wait till January 2009.  I had the sketch already on the watercolor paper when I took a class here in Tucson from Murray.  His goal is to help us loosen up when we watercolor.  Well after one of his classes I thought I'd try the looser style I had learned on my Charlestown watercolor.  I like the effect  on most of the painting.  I'll let you look at the photo and see what you think of my artistic rendering of the old "southern beauty."  What a fun way to remember a glorious spring afternoon!