A painting begins

A beginning

The Fort Reno chapel seems a simple subject for a painting, brilliant white walls, straight angles, blue shadows, lots of  stories, considering it was built by German POWs in 1944, the year of my birth.
But simple it isn't I discovered as I began trying to do a watercolor, remembering that "I'm not a camera, I'm an artist," as the terrific painter Thomas W. Schaller writes in his book, "Architect of Light."

Final value study

First steps are value sketches, from an earlier one on site this week. Even that's not simple as you try to get perspectives and proportions correct. It took several attempts and views, while deciding on composition, and paints.
Then there was choosing the colors, looking for complementary and thus contrasting colors (in this case, blues and oranges).  a few experiments mixing paints, and at least three attempts of the skies on watercolor paper.
There was more "stewing," considering the composition, another value sketch, and more mixing of colors. And, underneath it all, figuring out what really inspired me, and what story I'm trying to tell. More on that later. 

And then I put the photograph away and don't look at it when painting, as advised by one of my workshop teachers Tom Lynch. I'm not painting the chapel, but what inspired me, again from Schaller.
Today, first stages in what I hope will be a work of art, not the  photograph I took Tuesday.