Here is assignment #2 from my Watercolor class. We had to stylize something and I decided to stylize a place. I grew up close to Kirtland, Ohio and I think the historical sites in that region will always have a huge impact on me. As a high schooler I’d often stop by the Kirtland Temple to sit and think (I took classes at a community college just down the road so I had the opportunity to stop by often). I loved the peace I felt there.
As an adult I’ve come to adore the Stone Quarry where the builders of the Kirtland Temple cut their stone. I love that the builders labored and sacrificed for years to work towards a blessing they could not even envision having never seen or heard of a modern temple. They only knew that God had asked for the sacrifice, and so they gave it willingly. There are so many days when I think- Why in the world am I still sick!? What good can possibly come from this!? And then I think of that stone quarry where those saints labored and worked without knowing the blessing that would follow. And there it is again- that peace that Kirtland brings.
I wanted to capture the serenity of the location in my painting with muted colors and soft lines. I tried to give it an almost ‘story book’ feel. The sites included in the painting are the Kirtland Temple, the Whitney Store, the Stone Quarry and the Johnson Farm complete with apple trees and strawberry fields (a more modern day addition, but one I wanted to add since I spent every summer and fall working with the apples and strawberries!).
Sorry, no step by step photos of this one! I completely forgot! The whole thing was drawn with various sizes of black Micron pens
[…] are pretty big) If you’d like to see how it looks after its painted over, check out my Kirtland, Ohio painting. This was the first time I used ground to cover up a big area. I regretted it! Look at the […]