Moonlit Window

Gothic church windows can range from the simple to the ornate. While their shape is common, the glass inserts can go from the totally unadorned lead glass to the most ornate stained glass. Examples of the latter can range from the artisanal (Duke Chapel in Durham, North Carolina) to the artistic (Fraumünster in Zurich, Switzerland).

Moonlit Window is nothing grand in itself. Just a gothic church window with plain lead glass made dramatic by the moonlight streaming in and highlighting the texture of the bricks framing the window-well. In my opinion, the sharp value contrast gives this simple painting a dramatic feel despite its mundane subject.

Moonlit Window, Watercolor on 140lb paper, 4"x6", $30 (unframed)

Lead Glass Window

Windows set into the stone and brick facades of old churches and cathedrals provide a wealth of color and texture to make for interesting pictures. For Lead Glass Window, I masked out the white in the window more precisely than in the brickwork. It was then a straightforward matter of laying in the warm and cool colors to make up the brick and stone sections, respectively.

After peeling the masking fluid, I touched up the painting overall to reduce the stark separation betwen the warm and cool areas. Voila! Another ancient window that has been around for a few centuries and will probably still be there for another few.

Lead Glass Window, Watercolor on 140lb paper, 4"x6", $30 (unframed)