Dancing Buildings

“We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.”
– Herman Melville


 

Dancing Buildings
from Vernazza, Italy

8″ x 10″ Watercolor

I almost titled this one, “Why I Paint” because it was so fun and so satisfying!  It took me a little over two hours and is larger than I usually paint.  The original reference photo is from Joan Tavolott  over at WetCanvas and it was very  inspirational.  One of my fellow WC-ers called these my “Dancing Buildings”,  hence the name. 


I first drew a 30 minute sketch.  After it was completed, I began painting in the watercolor, being careful to avoid touching any pencil lines with my paint.  When I finished, I erased all the pencil lines.  This is the original sketch.



This has inspired a 6″ x 18″ acrylic painting.  I’ll post it when it’s finished.
Thanks, Joan, for the wonderful photo!  Check out Joan’s blog, too.  She’s a wonderful artist.

About Herman Melville

American author Herman Melville is best known for his epic whaling novel, Moby-Dick, which wasn’t recognized as a masterpiece until after his death. He was born in New York in 1819. At age 20, he went to sea on a whaling ship. His seafaring adventures included time with cannibals in the Marquesas Islands, the basis for his successful novel Typee. His later, more philosophical, novels were not as well received as his early adventure yarns, and he died in obscurity in 1891.