Landmark Theater

Plein air painting this week was on Broadway.  Looking across the main street is the Tower Theater.  It is a complex of businesses but the theater is still running and its tower is the highest on Broadway.  It gave rise to many 'Tower' stores along Broadway and side streets, eg Tower of Records, Tower of Books, etc. 
This was a wet into wet composition done rather quickly.  You can see some water stain at the top as the tape held water and it puddled out.  The tower is stark white and the vegetation is well overgrown around the front.  I tried mixing greens on the paper with some success.  It was a wonderful day that started cold and warmed.  We ate lunch right behind our painting location at Willie's.

Painting on a Cold Rainy Day

I was up early Saturday, finished reading the news, showered and was looking for something to do.  Outside, the morning was cold, windy and raining off and on.  I remembered our meet-up at the Tower Theater.  I grabbed my paints and headed out, not expecting anyone else to show.  Would you believe two people were already painting and one was sketching.  Wind is more difficult to deal with than the cold and rain.  Rain is bad for watercolor painters, you get the 'snowstorm' effect with the spots.  Anyway, I worked at it for two hours and was the last to leave.  You can see from the photo that there were no shadows, but the wonderful art deco Tower Theater is in behind all those growies.  I did some sketches and will take another shot at it, but it is interesting to see what quick sketches and a few brush strokes can accomplish.