Two rooms, two moods

In my classes and workshops, I often talk about how a subject can be expressed so differently with a concept. One would think a painting of a bedroom in an old Maine cottage would be pretty predictable. However......here are two very different interpretations.

The first is a bedroom on the second floor of a three story shingled "cottage' on Penobscot Bay in Maine. The rooms on this floor had been redone; lovely pale colors, white woodwork, pastel bedcovers. I chose to paint it with the early morning sun streaming through the window. The light obliterated the hard edges, and cast the room in a soft, inviting look.

"Whisper of the Atlantic"

Private Collection

The second room was on the unfinished third floor. I went up the dark, winding stairs and stepped through the door into this room, and instantly, I knew there was a painting here. The rusted bed frame, dark wallpanels with graffiti and most of all, the moldy poster of the Mona Lisa tacked on the wall.

I wiped out the window after painting in order to create the impression of wind blowing the curtains. And after painting the very dark panel on the right hand side of the room, I took a piece of card and scraped out random marks. I wanted to make it appear as if there was a "presence" in the room. Imagine how different it would have been if I had put an actual person there. I like the mystery.

This painting was given First Prize in the National Watercolor Society's All Member show.