Interiors

Heads Up sunroom, 7½x9" watercolor

Just got back from a mad dash down to Beaufort, North Carolina. No doubt the town has much changed since Blackbeard set anchor in its harbor almost three hundred years ago. In reference to this quaint little seaport town, I recall a statement made by someone across the bridge in Morehead, “Those Beaufort people are said to be a little more gentrified than we are.”

I am charmed by the new friend I’ve made in Beaufort and by her house so full of artifacts and artwork (including some of mine I’m proud to say). She and her husband are world travelers and their house and garden offer testimony to all the exotic places their travels have taken them. Charles, who initially served two years in the Peace Corps, has spent 25 years as a foreign service officer for USAID.

An accomplished leader of child development in third world countries, at home Deborah is an exemplary cook and host. After a scrumptious dinner Friday night we retired to the sunroom to enjoy dessert. The minute we sat down in the room adjoining her kitchen, I spotted the carved heads above. Had to paint them.

What is it about interiors that so intrigues us? Much of a person’s soul, I think, is revealed in their surroundings. Like the lines on an old person’s face, a room and its furnishings convey a wealth of information about its inhabitants.