Early Morning in Serenity Creek

Oil on Wood Panel - 18" tall x 48" long

For the last several years, as I've ridden my motorcycle through all sorts of small towns in the Midwest. I've been fascinated by the old buildings and their wonderful architectural elements. Having grown up in NYC I did think at one time that "Small Town America" was just a long lost memory. But it still exists if you keep your eyes open. I've taken so many photos of so many interesting buildings and houses and I guess I've finally decided to use them.

Serenity Creek is my own unique view of Small Town America. I hope that you enjoy it's progress.

I started by doing a lot of research on the look of some towns in the midwest at the beginning of the 20th Century. There are some wonderful Panoramic shots that you can find on the internet. I wanted to see the buildings as they were meant to be.

This photo is of my drawing board as it looked while I created some drawings for my own unique buildings. As you can see I've surrounded myself with all sorts of reference photos.

Here's a close up shot of some of the finished drawings for 3 of the buildings.

I drew the buildings to the actual size that I want for the painting. This will allow me to actually trace the drawings on to the canvas. This way I don't have to draw things twice.

This is a scan of another one of the buildings. I scanned them all in so that I could print out a copy to use for placement on the paper that I've cut to full size.

Doing that allowed me to move the buildings around to get the best composition. It was really cool to be able to do. In fact I scanned the drawing above in and then cut the buildings apart so that I could mix and match them.

Here's a scan of the church.

Here's the finished drawing. I did it on brown paper because that's what I had readily available.

I did some more research on cars and chose ones that were manufactured around 1950. That gives me a bit of leeway in the era that this painting is in. There will be a few people in this but I thought I would wait a bit to decide where they go.

Here's the start of adding paint.

I used the full size drawing above and transfer paper and transferred the drawing to the wood panel. It's really so easy that way.

As always I started with the background first and just had a really good time with color.

I want this place to evoke all sorts of warm feelings when you look at it. I think these colors are gonna work for that.

March 26, 2009 - I waited a day or so for the background to dry so that I could put some of the clouds in. I want this piece to have a dreamy sort of quality, so there's lots of wonderful color in the clouds and the sky. Hopefully I can maintain that same quality as I put in the more defined parts of the painting, like the trees and buildings.

April 1, 2009 - Sorry it's been a few days since I updated these. But I have been good and taken pictures as I finished each session.

In this one, I thought that the trees above were really stark and that was all wrong for this painting. So I've added in some soft background trees.

I worked a bit more on the trees in this session. Then I decided to put some base color into all those fun windows.

And if you look closely, you can see that I've started to add another building in the background between the church and the first store on the left. That space was a bit too empty.

Lots more work on the light or lack of it in the windows here. And then added shades to the upper windows too. There will be more detail later inside the windows, but this was a good start.

Then I decided to put some color into the church. That was fun.

April 7, 2009 - I Spent a few hours just working on the Church and the details that go into that. I also did some work on the trees around the church. Below is a close up so that you can see the detail better.

Then true to form, I came back the next day and decided that I didn't like the color of the church. It's probably correct as it was, but it just didn't work for me. It was to blah. Not dreamy enough. So I worked on it some more and changed the color.

I'm liking this much better. But it's still not quite right.

But that's the great thing about oils. Don't like what you have? What a day or two, come back and take another look - then paint right over it.

Friday, April 10th - As you can see, the church underwent yet another color change. I think this is much closer, but maybe it's a bit too dark. I'll have to work on the other buildings first though to see if that's true.

I've got a good start going on the next building. And I'm really liking this one.

I also changed the color a bit on the sidewalk and the street. I warmed those up a bit.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - Worked more on the second building, more details and shading. Then worked on the little house in the side street. You can see a close up of it here. That was fun and tedious at the same time. The brush I used to add some of the details has about 3 hairs on it.

And keeping with a running theme, the church got a bit of a color adjustment too.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - About 7 - 8 hours work since the last posting. It's really slow going because of all the tiny detail. (Who thought this was a good idea???)

But so far I like what's happening.

I worked a bit on the trees this time. Making them a bit darker close to the buildings so that the buildings will pop.

And, yep the church got another bit of color adjustment. LOL!!

Friday, April 17, 2009 - Still working on the buildings. Laying in the first level of color for each. Slow going but really fun to watch them acquire their own character.

Remember my hint for being able to sit at the easel for several hours -- Books on CD! Keeps that side of your brain quiet that insists that doing laundry is more important. It's just bored and need something to listen to. Music only works for a little while. The books on CD are great. And your local library has lots.

Monday, April 20 -- For those of you who don't have a website or a blog with a work in progress section, I suggest that you take periodic photos of your work anyway. There's about 8 hours of work difference between Friday's photo and today's. But I have to tell you that I had no real concept of how much I actually got accomplished until I just now put these photos near each other. And I've impressed myself!! LOL!!

Let's see -- I worked on the trees - added dark edges right along the buildings - that's made them pop. Then I put color into the last building. And then I switched colors on some of the buildings. I think it works better now that the lighter buildings are closer to center.

Friday, April 24 - Okay so at first glance there doesn't seem to be much done here. But look closely. There's more color behind the trees, the upper right has more yellow and cream color and there's actually a lot more detail in the buildings that you can't see in such a small image. AND the church received another color adjustment. There's close ups of the buildings below. They really are a lot of fun.

Wednesday, April 29 - The light was a lot warmer in the studio when I took these shots than on last Friday. So they appear a lot more yellow than the actual painting is.

But there are a lot of actual changes. We have trucks now! They were tedious, with all the little details. And they really need some more, but I need a new small brush before I can tackle that. -- More shading was done on lots of the buildings and the awnings received outlining which allows them to really pop. And some of the windows had flower boxes added. Those made me giggle. So did adding the lamp post. More of those will be added later. AND ... TaDa....the first person is there! I'm still completely unsure of what to do with all that empty space in the front. I have considered just cutting it off! LOL! I'll have to see.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - It's finished and now has it's own page in the Americana Gallery.

Click the diamond to go straight thru to that page.