Recently I was asked by my friend, the Rev. Eric Stelle, to paint a watercolor of his church to be used as an item in their silent auction fundraiser. Of course I was eager to please my friend, so I said yes and drove to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Gig Harbor to make a pencil sketch and a plein air painting.
The painting wasn’t good enough to be used for the auction, so I came back to my studio and made another. Again, it wasn’t quite right, so I made another. And another. And another. I made a total of 18 small watercolors, trying to improve each one. Finally I came up against the deadline and sent him three watercolors and an ink sketch.
As I painted the same subject over and over I became very familiar with the scene and I began to vary my interpretation. I think I learned a lot about composition and color choices. But I’m not sure if I want to paint every subject 18 times! I told Eric that he can use the images for their publications (newsletter, letterheads, etc) and for their website. I hope the silent auction will be successful.
Pretty good for them that they get choices. That’s quite a gift.
Eric’s a good friend, and I hope the auction will be a success. I gave him three because I couldn’t figure out which one would sell best.