New York City – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor & Black Staedtler Pigment Liner

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
– Mark Twain

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

New York City – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor & Black Staedtler Pigment Liner

That was fun!  I wish you could see it in real life.  All the windows in my building paintings are done with iridescent paint, so they kinda sparkle like real windows.  The reference photo was provided by MissMouse at WetCanvas.

The large building in the center took me a full hour to paint.  You really can’t see it here, but the pink tiered building on the right even says New Yorker on top.  It’s teenie-tiny!

About Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens, the iconic American humorist and writer, is better known by his pen name Mark Twain. He was born on November 30, 1835 in Missouri. He worked at several jobs, including steamboat pilot and miner. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, and other successful novels. His writing captured a very American vernacular and flavor, and helped create a distinctive American literature. He died on April 21, 1910.

Who Lives In The Pumpkin House? – Watercolor & Ink

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”
–Mark Twain

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Who Lives In The Pumpkin House?  – Watercolor & Ink

Some of you may remember this one.  It’s from a year or two ago.  I didn’t have time to do something Halloweeny in time to post it today.  Have a wonderful Halloween!  Are you in costume at work today?  Tell me about your costume.  I have on a necktie.  Yup.  That’s it. 

Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens was born on November 30‚ 1835 in Florida‚ Missouri‚ the sixth of seven children. At the age of 4‚ Sam and his family moved to the small frontier town of Hannibal‚ Missouri‚ on the banks of the Mississippi River. Missouri‚ at the time‚ was a fairly new state (it had gained statehood in 1821) and comprised part of the country’s western border. It was also a slave state. Sam’s father owned one slave and his uncle owned several. In fact‚ it was on his uncle’s farm that Sam spent many boyhood summers playing in the slave quarters‚ listening to tall tales and the slave spirituals that he would enjoy throughout his life.

In 1847‚ when Sam was 11‚ his father died. Shortly thereafter he left school‚ having completed the fifth grade‚ to work as a printer’s apprentice for a local newspaper. His job was to arrange the type for each of the newspaper’s stories‚ allowing Sam to read the news of the world while completing his work.  More…