Houses of St. Lawrence: Red, White and Blue Garage

I just posted the House across from Brown which I finished last week.  This one was completed today.  It is a larger and different view of another painting I did a few weeks back of a well kept garage near Jacksonwald Avenue.  I admire it for its clean, simple lines and its patriotic colors.  Also, it hearkens back to a time when things seemed to make sense, at least on the surface.  In this day and age, things have become so complicated with layers of meaning and information, that a simple little garage like this somehow brings peace to my mind and steadies my soul.

Red, White and Blue Garage #2, 10" x 10", oil on canvas

Houses of St. Lawrence Series

It would seem that I have started painting a series of paintings concerning the Houses of St. Lawrence.  If you follow my blog (which is easy to do... just click on the link over there >>>>> and subscribe via email...) anyway, if you follow my blog, you may have seen some of my paintings of houses that are in the quaint (yes, quaint) town I live in.  I keep thinking about them and, well, I have painted a few more!  This one is of a house right on the avenue that you can see if you are coming down Brown street towards the avenue.  Its not a common view of the house, unfortunately, due to the fact that Brown is a one way street, going away from the avenue, but I see it all the time because I turn down Brown to get to the alley behind my house.  Wow... that was long winded and not really necessary.  :)
Never the less, I admire the cute little house and the cool brown stone wall that retains the property all of the time.  And here it is!  Again, I think about when this house must have been built, and think about the craftsmanship that went into that stone wall.  You just don't see that kind of thing in contemporary architecture and building.  So here's to old school....

House across from Brown, 10" x 14", oil on canvas

Looking down the avenue - Beginning stages

So, I just started this one today.   Come back tomorrow, and I just may be finished.  The colors are bright and eye popping, and as I drive down St. Lawrence avenue, I always see these three houses, just like this, asking me to paint them.  I imagine what the avenue was like when they were built... no cars, horses, buggies, farm land, more people walking to where they were going.  Its nice to imagine.  Anyway, I think I will tone the colors down a bit, but the day I took the reference photo, the colors were quite strong, and I am trying to capture that! Still going with the looser style!

Little garage

Another house, except its not.... It is someone's pretty little garage on a side street that I never realized is... Red, White and Blue!    The small building behind it has a simple green roof that contrasts nicely.  I always like to look at this little garage when I pass by for its simplicity and the owner's upkeep.

"Red, White and Blue garage", 4" x 4", oil on canvas

As you may have noticed, I am experimenting with a looser style of painting.  After doing the dog portrait from a few posts back, I felt like I needed to loosen up a bit.  The next few paintings will probably be similar.