Downtown Moscow 1951

Downtown Moscow, Idaho, circa 1951. This is a commissioned piece for the coming Moscow Arts Commission auction in September. I was committed to do it by my best daughter-in-law, Naphtali Garfield, but I didn't mind. Old Moscow types will identify places like Washington Water Power (current home of New St Andrews College), the Varsity Cafe, Fonk's Five & Dime, the Moscow Hotel, and the two theaters. (The guy in the foreground is feeding a parking meter - not currently on Main St.)

Late Afternoon Tower

From another photo Bill Church took - I wanted to play with the light and the colors, as well as the various textures of these great old buildings that are so much a part of our landscape here. It's hard to do them justice in their height and strength. They constantly remind of us of our past and all that we depend on from God's blessings of this land. And, they're just fun to paint!

Moscow Alleys II

So here is the last of the four alleys-this one's looking south, out onto 5th street. I was drawn to the tile in the sunlight and shade on the left hand building. Also, how about the major poles and cross-bars used for utilities? Even in the age of wireless internet! Hope you enjoyed looking at the 'back stage' of Moscow.

Moscow Alleys

Not long ago I went downtown Moscow on a lovely spring evening. The light was great and I wanted to take some shots of Moscow's back streets and alleys. I've started a series of four alley paintings. The top one is behind NSA and the Chamber of Commerce. The middle one (which I did a while back) is between 3rd and 5th streets, and the bottom one is behind Bucer's. I'm working on one more... Why alleys, one might ask? I like the rich variety of colors, textures and shapes - really. Plus they say a lot about a town.

South Grain Elevators II (Start with one below)

Now I've largely finished the right hand side and will work from the center out to the left. There is no rhyme or reason for this other than I like to establish the center first, it sort of anchors the painting for me.

Speaking of the center, this is a close-up to show you the way I put on the paint - watercolors generally are not meant to be viewed this up-close and personal; they do better from a distance, sort of like the Impressionists' work. But by way of illustration it shows the layering and coloring of the washes. As I've said before, this is not meant to be architecturally accurate - rather to evoke a feeling with just enough description.

As I move left, I did up some values on the foliage out front. I really like the juxtaposition of creation with man's works. Not to mention I just wanted more green in the painting!

Ta-da! The end result. I feel pretty good about it - I think it balances well. The white shed and semi-trailer are similar in light and value to the two grain storage units on the right. Perhaps some day one of the guys who used to work here would look at this and say, "Good grief! That pipe never went that way!" But I don't think that's going to happen - if it did, I'd just say, "Now it does!" Thanks for looking! God bless!

South Grain Elevators (Part I)

When I saw this black/white photo on Bill Church's blog, I was very excited! These grain elevators used to be on the south side of Moscow and were torn down a few years back. I had always wanted to paint them, but didn't take the time to take a photo. However, I wanted them in color and with more light. So I took some liberties (they call it 'artistic license', I guess) and used the colors from the pea mill paintings. I hope you enjoy seeing the progress.

Sorry about the quality of the photos here - but anyway this is the rough sketch on Arches 140 lb paper. It's about 20 X 22. You might be able to see where I've put the Mask-It, a kind of thick liquid which protects the areas I want to keep white.

This is after an hour or so - the initial washes are in and I've started to focus in on the highest tower. As you can see, I amped up the light coming from the right.

A another hour or more and I've worked from the center out mostly to the right. These buildings had so many different textures of metal and wood, even varying on the same building! Then all those great exhaust ports (I think) like so many nostrils, helping the buildings breathe. And check out those little sheds on the very top!

Lewiston RR Bridge

Kathryn, my business manager, said I should post a work in progress...so here 'tis. This is the original photo of the RR bridge in Lewiston. (Julie and I saw it a lot since we passed it every day on our way to her radiation treatments.) I liked the strength, colors and patterns in the structure.

This is after a couple of hours of work: I use painters' tape (of course!) to tack down the edges of the watercolor paper (Arches 140 lb. rough). Then after sketching it in, I used masking fluid to save the areas I want to keep white. The sky and background washes were put in next (the Lewiston hills are just starting to get the only green they will have during the year). The bridge is very complicated, so I tried to get just the basic lines in. I never try to do an architectural rendering - I leave that to the pros. The original sky color was depressing, so I decided to make it mostly sunny, with high, thin clouds, moving at an opposite diagonal to the bridge.

Getting down to the detail work at this point - putting in the strong cross bracing of the bridge. I really liked the high control rooms with the windows - imagine the view from up there! The two white curves are suspended walkways - very cool! When the bridge is lowered, they form a pedestrian walkway across the river. (I masked them in earlier.)

After finishing the raised bridge, I did the blue metal ends on each side of the river, being sure to make the further one a bit more unfocused with less intense color. I wanted to keep the viewer at street level, so the dike (grassy slope), the street lamp and the sign were put in last. I purposely shrank the sign since I didn't want it to pull too much attention, so it serves as a visual anchor on that corner. And now it's done - thanks for reading and looking, feel free to let me know your comments. Blessings!

The Old Pea Mill 1

This is the full version of the portion shown in the blog header. This Pea Mill is slated to be torn down sometime soon. It has stood for many, many years at the corner of A and Almon street in Moscow. In addition to its fascinating shapes, rusted colors and over all solid appeal, Julie's dad worked there in days gone by. So it's special to us! I did a series of three paintings of it - now we will remember it when it's demolished.

Alley in Downtown Moscow