Some Plein Air Activity in McKinney, Texas May 1, 2010

Residence, 508 Tucker St., McKinney, Texas

May 1 proved to be a beautiful day for getting out and engaging in plein air watercolor activity.  The Southwestern Watercolor Society set aside the day for just that.  I rose at 6:00 that morning, and made the 90-minute drive to the historic town, and immediately found College and Tucker streets lined with historic homes bathed in the morning light.  This one, actually, I began after lunch, so it was bathed in afternoon light!  The owner found me on College Street painting another home (one I will post in a separate article), and told me of this house, built in 1894.  Tom, an optometrist living in Colleyville, still owns this house where he grew up.  His parents acquired it (I believe) around 1947.  A student of architecture once told him that it is a Victorian style, visited by Colonial Revival and forecasting Arts and Crafts.  Quite an eclectic mix.

I found this composition very enjoyable in the making, until the sun came out and bore down on me (I don’t “do sun” very well).  So, I took several digital photographs of the house in the event that I take another run at it.  As for this sketch, I took it to cooler environs (shadow side of the McKinney courthouse) that afternoon, and modified it by adding an arrangement of violets and greens to the shadows.  The actual house is gray with maroon corbels, and very attractive.  However, my watercolor sketch turned out very drab gray, with corbels that didn’t quite match the burgundy that I admired.  Adding the cool colors to the shadows improved it somewhat.  I think I might have some further plans for this, in some additional sketches.  We’ll see.

Thanks for reading.

Tags: Americana, drybrush, Edward Hopper, field painting, French Impressionism, Historic homes, McKinney Texas, nostalgia, Our Town, plein air, Proust, Remembrance of Things Past, Sherwood Anderson, small town, Texas, Thornton Wilder, watercolor, Winesburg Ohio