TOM WILLS PRODUCTIONS: No. 185: Architecture

Bristolville, February 2013.

I have a healthy respect for those artists who produce architectural renderings -- recreating shapes and angles rather than eyebrows and hands.
It is a tricky thing, it turns out, to capture the light and shade of something that never moves: a building, a house, a town.

My buildings and landscapes are imperfect. There is no math involved. The lines are not perfectly straight, there's no protractor used to get the angles just right.

Click on photos to enlarge.

But think about it: Do you see perfect lines when you look at a building? Probably not. Odds are that you are moving, there may be some reflection, glare or heat haze, blurred by distance.

I haven't done many buildings. My first attempt was about 10 years ago, when I drew my then-new home. I thought, perhaps, I could persuade other new neighbors to have drawings done of their new digs. But the only one done was mine. I did use a ruler to get the lines right, and quickly realized that method was a pain.

I will still draw YOUR house!

Fast forward eight years, and I tried it again on a drawing of Barrea, Italy, for a long-time friend. This one was more cliffs and shoreline than architecture. But I loved it, and she loved it, and I adorned it with one of my late mother's classic frames.

Beauty within beauty.

Last year I painted the lighthouse at Ashtabula harbor, and a country road in Michigan traveled by my brother. My cousin Pam bought the lighthouse; I hung the road in my foyer. It has a primitive look to it but is very colorful.

Thank you, Pammy Jo.

Cousin Pam called me a few weeks ago and wondered if I could draw the town square in Bristol Township, Ohio. She's involved in a community group there, and the group is working on some sort of identity and logo. She went out and photographed the buildings, and emailed them to me that afternoon. How could I say no?

My brother's road trip.

According to Bristol Township's web site: The village settlement at the center of the township is dominated by a town square reminiscent of New England village greens. The oldest meeting house in the township was the Congregational Church.

Built in 1845, the church still stands on the northeast corner of the Town Park. Pioneer families organized this church in 1817. Since the demise of the congregation, the building has served various functions, including the housing of special school events, meeting rooms for the Women's Relief Corps and most recently as a township storage area.

Other buildings on the town square include the historic century-old Town Hall and the Methodist Church, which was rebuilt after the original church was destroyed by fire in 1951.

It was decided to add trees.

This one has a lot of "feel" to it. I fleshed out the bare winter trees but chose to eliminate large trees in the foreground, which would obscure the buildings. Some of the things are suggested more than perfected: The sign announcing church services, the Town Hall sign, the lamps, siding and shingles.
The overall effect, in my opinion, is like an old-timey black and white postcard. I toyed briefly with washing watercolors over it but held back. Now I know that would have been a mistake.