On Carroll Street
A painting from Orient Point, where the land ends on the North Fork of Long Island
10”x14” Watercolor on 300 lb. Arches Cold Press Paper
A painting from Orient Point, where the land ends on the North Fork of Long Island
10”x14” Watercolor on 300 lb. Arches Cold Press Paper
A painting from Orient Point, where the land ends on the North Fork of Long Island
10”x14” Watercolor on 300 lb. Arches Cold Press Paper
Behind the Painting
I painted three brownstones on Carroll Street. I pass by them often on my way to Prospect Park. I read up on the buildings.
They were part of a row of six houses, designed and built in 1887 by John Magilligan. His wife Mary was his business partner. They built spec homes all across Brooklyn, more than a hundred of them in Park Slope.
The brownstone may have come from a quarry in Pennsylvania, or Connecticut, or New Jersey, a soft sandstone buried in the ground since the Jurassic period. The detailing was Neo-Grec, a movement inspired by the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the mid 1800s, with a little Egyptian architecture thrown in for good measure.
I painted the scene twice, once alone in my studio, the second time with a group of artists painting along. I noticed something new each time, patterns hammered in metal cornices, how the light hit the bay windows, where the stoops had been removed.
I felt the scene vibrating with energy, branches twisting, someone walking their dog with a red grocery bag, a few new leaves on the trees.
