Creating a Painting

Subject: Johnson Memorial Methodist Church, Huntington, WV

 



I recently completed a watercolor of the Johnson Memorial Methodist Church. This is another in a series of architectural subjects from Huntington. I have been photographing subjects around town for three years and am slowly working through them in paint. Huntington has a number of beautiful churches but I have found it difficult to find just the right angle or point of view to put on paper. To be honest, I have put the photos of this church aside a number of times - seemingly because it appeared to be so dark and stark. However the truth is I never really studied them. When I did, I found the the stained glass to be extensive and delicate. By moving around the facade I found a pleasing, balanced composition that gave the feeling of the massiveness of the structure without being stiff. I decided this would be the first of a church series.

As you can imagine I spent a long time with this work - about three weeks, off and on. The pencil layout was painstaking and required several days. Due to the shadows in the original photos I had to visit again at a similar time (7 AM) to re-photograph certain specific sections. It is during this part of the process that I begin to gain an appreciation for the structure in front of me. It is essentially a reconstruction - stone for stone and pane for pane. I begin to appreciate the design as a whole. Who laid it all out? How were horizontal and vertical sections chosen to advance or retreat in the facade? How was the stone chosen and where was it quarried? What stories do the windows tell?



There is also a larger context. Who was constructing these churches along 5th Ave? Were they local stonemasons? Were they all being built at the same time? Well, as you can see you have a lot of time to ponder while you paint.


Johnson Memorial Methodist Church
Ron Haeberle



After completing the drawing the next step was to work out the palette of colors. For this work the palette was limited and for that reason important. I had recently completed a pre-sunrise scene of tide pools at the beach and the reddish violet of the early morning light in that work was almost spot on. To be sure the work was consistent, I had to mix most of the paint for the entire painting in the beginning. The rest of the painting was relatively straightforward but tedious: constructing the windows, texturing the stonework and placing the shadows. A few final details and the job was done. This was a relatively large painting (for me), matting to 22"X28". This was necessary to develop the detail of the windows and stonework.

Having completed the painting I am now looking forward to tracking down some of the history of the building to answer some of the questions that arose during the painting / pondering process.

The painting itself has been matted and framed and submitted as an entry to the next West Viriginia Division of Culture And History  juried show which focus on historical structures in the state.



I am now off on another "project". It won't have quite so many little windows!

By Ron Haeberle

Renaissance Artist

It all Started with my Christmass Letter 2009

Saturday, December 18, 2010

The Bowersock's New Years 2011 Art Resolutions

Every year, every body we know has to mention their New Year's Resolutions during any holiday party or family get together. This year, we have decided NOT to talk about exercise....nor weight gain or loss....nor new and exciting exercise programs that make you sweat and feel miserable! We talked it over while eating Lemon Pound Cake along with hot chocolate with marsh mellows for breakfast yesterday and decided it was just foolish for us to make those kinds of promises. We will just break them and feel guiltier than we do now. We talked about the guilt and then decided that a glass of egg nog goes well with guilt.

Neither one of us felt much better, so we went back to bed and read awhile and took a nap...at 10:30 a.m. By 1 p.m. we found ourselves sitting on the couch in front of our warm fire in the Buck Stove with the Christmas tree lit and our little Snow Village all carefully arranged on the coffee table. While we were writing Christmas cards, we began to talk again about what New Year's resolutions we really want to make.

• We plan to let the Spirit of Christ's birth and the Christmas angel be our guiding light throughout the coming year.
• We are going to do some painting of the Snow Villiage that you see pictured here, glowing with the Angel light and find some of our youthful, innocent spirit through the art the we create from this inspirational village.
• We are GOING to draw, sketch, paint or photograph every day...something worthwhile everyday.
• We are GOING to clean up Bruce's studio.....again.
• We are GOING to catalog Bruce's 900 art books and shelve them by subject (ha ha ha).
• We are GOING to finish building the best "how to draw" website the world has every seen! This site will showcase Bruce and give insight to how he sees, draws, thinks, renders and paints. Visit him athttp://www.4artcoach365.com/ if you would like to learn to draw, buy a print, find out some of his favorite art books, blog, email, comment and share your thoughts on art.
• Bruce is going to learn how Facebook works and interact with you more often.
• Lil is going to act like a retired person and start doing art again often.
• We plan to take long walks and observe things around us, talk about positive subjects regarding art and how we can continue to hopefully inspire others to look for the positive, rather than negative.
• We plan to watch less news on TV and paint more.
• We have several art vacations on the horizon and hope to escape often to the beach to find our muse!

Have a very Merry CHRISTmas and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Bruce and Lillianne Bowersock

Renaissance Gallery Art: The Bowersock's New Years 2011 Art Resolutions

Renaissance Gallery Art: The Bowersock's New Years 2011 Art Resolutions: "Every year, every body we know has to mention their New Year's Resolutions during any holiday party or family get together. This year, we ha..."

The Bowersock's New Years 2011 Art Resolutions

Every year, every body we know has to mention their New Year's Resolutions during any holiday party or family get together. This year, we have decided NOT to talk about exercise....nor weight gain or loss....nor new and exciting exercise programs that make you sweat and feel miserable! We talked it over while eating Lemon Pound Cake along with hot chocolate with marsh mellows for breakfast yesterday and decided it was just foolish for us to make those kinds of promises. We will just break them and feel guiltier than we do now. We talked about the guilt and then decided that a glass of egg nog goes well with guilt.

Neither one of us felt much better, so we went back to bed and read awhile and took a nap...at 10:30 a.m. By 1 p.m. we found ourselves sitting on the couch in front of our warm fire in the Buck Stove with the Christmas tree lit and our little Snow Village all carefully arranged on the coffee table. While we were writing Christmas cards, we began to talk again about what New Year's resolutions we really want to make.

• We plan to let the Spirit of Christ's birth and the Christmas angel be our guiding light throughout the coming year.
• We are going to do some painting of the Snow Villiage that you see pictured here, glowing with the Angel light and find some of our youthful, innocent spirit through the art the we create from this inspirational village.
• We are GOING to draw, sketch, paint or photograph every day...something worthwhile everyday.
• We are GOING to clean up Bruce's studio.....again.
• We are GOING to catalog Bruce's 900 art books and shelve them by subject (ha ha ha).
• We are GOING to finish building the best "how to draw" website the world has every seen! This site will showcase Bruce and give insight to how he sees, draws, thinks, renders and paints. Visit him at http://www.4artcoach365.com/ if you would like to learn to draw, buy a print, find out some of his favorite art books, blog, email, comment and share your thoughts on art.
• Bruce is going to learn how Facebook works and interact with you more often.
• Lil is going to act like a retired person and start doing art again often.
• We plan to take long walks and observe things around us, talk about positive subjects regarding art and how we can continue to hopefully inspire others to look for the positive, rather than negative.
• We plan to watch less news on TV and paint more.
• We have several art vacations on the horizon and hope to escape often to the beach to find our muse!

Have a very Merry CHRISTmas and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Bruce and Lillianne Bowersock

Miniature Show: People's Choice Awards

People’s Choice Awards




Director Fern Christian Count the Vote

 People attending the 10th Annual National Miniature Exhibition were handed ballots when they came into the gallery to select what they felt were the best entries in this years Miniature Exhitition. There were to select works in two catagories: Most Elegant Entry and Most Creative Entry.

There were tons of worthy choices and it was hard to narrow it down to two.. But choices had to be made.


And counting the ballots was a much bigger job this year, due to the record number of people gracing our gallery with their visits.The stuffed to overflowing ballot box was finally opens and the votes tallied this week at The Renaissance Art Gallery by director, Fern Christian.



The voting was close, but choices were made.The final tally did reveal clear winners however.



Linda Rossin’s “Elegance in Motion”. The beauty of the rising flamingo captured the attention of the most guests for the Most Elegant Entry Award, while Sandi Worthington’s 1inch by 11 inch “Going To Water” won the Most Creative Entry Award.





Artwork Choosen by the Public,



Congratulations to both Sandi Worthington and Linda Rossin on their selection by the guest of The Renaissance Art Gallery for this year’s People’s Choice Awards.

End of the Show

Sad but true, this is the final week for the 10th Annual National Miniature Exhibition. It seems like we have been preparing for it forever! Then it was here, and almost before we know it, it is over.

People's Choice Ballots

We have been going over all the votes in the people’s choice box. The box has been emptied twice! This is the final week of viewing and voting, and it is kind of sad.

This has been a fabulous 6 weeks. The miniatures we have on our walls are outstanding. We have all enjoyed having them and showing them off.

Although the miniature exhibition is always a lot of work for the entire gallery, it is also about the most rewarding of our shows. Each year we welcome back old friends to our walls and become acquainted with new friends as they enter our show for the first time. Over the years we have watched as artists have matured and even taken a different directions. There are many who started entering our shows years ago. For many this was their first attempt at showing their artwork, but now we see them becoming known artists in this field, with collectors coming back year after year to see their entries.

There is always so much to say about the miniature show

The same is true with our quests at the gallery. Of course we invite back all those who have graced our gallery in the past, but it is also exciting to welcome people who have never been to The Renaissance Art Gallery. Even after nine years in the community, people come in saying “I never knew you were here!” Well, we are! And it is nice to be discovered at last! But it is also gratifying to have long time friends bring along their families to our miniature show. When people come back year after year, you know you are doing something right!


This year we had a great deal of success, thanks in no small way to the local media. They really rallied around this show, giving us the feature coverage we needed. Happily, that also meant publicity for deserving but until now less recognized local artists. That is always very satisfying. To help people discover a “new” artist.

"Sitting the Gallery is always much easier during the Miniature Show. There is so much more to talk about, and so many more visitors. As the weather gets colder and the teapot is kept warm, we all enjoy having people stop in and simply talk about art. With the miniature show there is always so much to say!


Another joy we have is watching children react at our receptions. They often don’t know what to expect, but soon overcome any shyness and get into conversations with other artists. They really show their love of art. Many even forgetting to get their cookie!

One more week and this, our 10th Annual National Miniature Exhibition will be a memory. The works will be taken down. Those works that sold sent on to their new homes, and other pieces returned to their creators along with our good wishes and thanks for lending them to us. Each and every one of them has been a joy and lightened not only the lives of the members of The Renaissance Art Gallery, but the many, many who viewed them on our walls.

It has been an active show

PS. The final totals for the People’s Choice will be announced next week!