TRAINS - 1

Since I'm not painting right now - too tired, too busy with other things for a while - I'm going to put up some "old" paintings that you might enjoy - and the subject will be TRAINS!

Baldwin Engine 90 (Watercolor)

Several years ago my husband and I made a trip to Pennsylvania which took us to Johnstown (site of the famous Johnstown Flood); past the location of the crash of (9-11) Flight 93; Hershey (where we toured the factory and got chocolate!); Intercourse (yep, that’s really the name) and Bird in Hand, both Amish centers; and Chadd’s Ford, home of the Wyeths and their museum. We also went to Strasbourg, home of the railroad museum.

We took a train ride on an open car behind a steam engine through the Amish countryside. Wow, it was beautiful. I took quite a few pictures, but missed what would have been the best – as we rounded a curve there was an Amish farmer with horses and equipment hitched up – but I wasn’t as quick with my camera as the train was rounding the curve!

On the way home I “painted” a couple of the paintings in my head and, unbelievably, they turned out to be just as good on paper as they were in my head!

This is the front of the locomotive. It was painted on Saunders Waterford paper which is very soft. I like to glaze, and by the time I got to the final touches, just when I wanted to be very tiny and specific with my paint, the paper was as soft as a desk blotter. Just a tiny touch with the brush would cause an instant bleed.

After I finished this painting I knew I could truly handle watercolor!