Saturday, September 6, 2014

Indiana Theater

Yesterday I was standing on the sidewalk of Terre Haute, Indiana painting this watercolor of the sign of the Indiana Theatre, when a gentleman came up and identified himself as Rob Lundstrom, the owner.

I recorded his greeting. Hopefully this audio will play for you.

(Link to Soundcloud File)

It took about two hours to paint the image, and while we stood there, we met three other people, all artists. Two of them said they like to draw with their sons.

Here are four stages in the process: the pencil drawing, the big base colors, the shadows, and the finer details.
Jeanette here: Here's the sketch I did. A pencil lay-in, touches of watercolor with a waterbrush, finished with a Micron pen.  The short lady was squinting into the sun at us for the longest time, free model!

Best part was the tour of the inside of the Indiana Theatre. One of the ideas of John Eberson's "Atmospheric Theatre" movement was theming the rooms to the times of day, and making the ceiling of the auditorium feel like the night sky over a fantasy palace courtyard.

The Indiana Theatre doesn't do many movies, but the space can be booked for weddings, parties, reunions, and other events.





6 comments:

Glenn Tait said...

James, I miss old signs like that and you have captured it beautifully.

Jeanette, I love your drawings and would like to see more of them in the blog. Its great to see the different approaches and points of view at a single location; especially from two people who are such wonderful soul mates.

Chuck Grieb said...

As a regular reader of your blog - I wanted to share that I relish my daily visit Gurney Journey.

A beautiful painting; this post contains some of my favorite aspects of what you often share, a beautiful sketch, insight into your process, and I especially enjoy when Jeanette shares her take on the same subject - it is really neat to see how the two of you work and interpret the same or similar subject matter. Wonderful stuff! (Thoroughly enjoyed your recent Watercolor in the Wild DVD, too - the whole family enjoyed watching both it and your Painting Dinosaurs DVD).

Tom Hart said...

It's so great to see Jeanette's work; a nice counterpoint to your style, James. Both wonderful in their own way. Thanks to you both for bringing us along!

LizzVisions said...


As I was scrolling through my blog feed I thought this was a photograph! Such a beautiful, watercolor painting! Thank you for recording your process. It is so valuable to a young artist such as myself. Also its amazing how life's little synchronicities happen, with you meeting the owner of the building while you're painting. I think moments like that mean you are in the right place at the right time. :]

-Lizz
Smile a little at my blog here :]

John Kaay said...

Jeanette,
I love your line and wash painting!
Would you please write a couple of blog entries about your technique and materials?
I'm a long time oil painter who would like to broaden my horizons a little.
Thanks,
John kaay

Matt said...

Love this one. Nice work.