Driving through the midwest on a summer road trip, you might get a glimpse of a church rising above our small town.
If you keep reading, I’ll tell you where I glimpsed this scene, and show you a few other shots of the picture.
One day I happened to be walking on the Old Farm Road -one of the gravel roads on our historic campus of St. Mary’s Academy. I saw, framed in between an opening in the cottonwoods that line the College Creek, the steel of the dome walls of the church rising above a distant tree line.
Truly an “Aaaaaaaa!” (with an angelic chorus) moment.
I decided to come back and try to paint it.
I did…brought a picnic, and plopped myself on a blanket (to protect myself from our local cross of chiggers), and listening to a podcast and the birds, and sipping some iced tea, I laid out my supplies, clipped my book, and started to paint. This was in-between taking tasty bites of warm rotisserie chicken wrapped in homemade pita and dipped in a feta and basalmic sauce made by a dear roommate.
Have you ever tried to paint and eat at the same time? It’s very messy.
Somehow, I was able to do both, and not get any grease or stains of any sort on my paper. Thank God for cloth napkins!
I had a concert to get to so I did rush things a bit. The painting was a bit of a “fastie,” but I’m really happy and grateful for how it turned out.
Do you think this would make a good card for the locals?
And before you leave, check out these products below. I’d love it if you would because when you click the link below, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
This is the watercolor notebook I have been using for capturing the rising of the New Immaculata. A good friend gave it to me as gift and I think of him often when I use it!
This somewhat pricey paintbrush set is worth every penny. The perfect sizes (except a good rigger brush and a large squirrel brush if you’re going really big). I love the portable, non-fussiness of them.
And if you’re wondering what sort of paint I use, I tend towards Winsor and Newton’s Permanent Sap Green, mixed with a lot of cadmium yellow, Windsor yellow, and yellow ochre.
Thanks again for looking! Hope you have a great weekend!
#watercolorpainting #microadventure #urbanpainting #urbansketching #midwest #kansas #kansasartist #stmarysks #windsorandnewton #moleskine
Bridget Bryan 