Have a dry and Happy 4th!!

Irregardless Landscape, 7x10" watercolor vignette

French is such a pretty language. And lucky for us, many of our words come from the French. Vignette, for instance, the word used to describe a borderless painting. Most of us are familiar with photographic vignettes, those often old-timey photos whose images fade into white. The same word applies to painting.

And then there’s en plein air as well as my term for the method I used yesterday to paint these two paintings, dans la voiture. How I chose to use this term for painting in the car, is better explained on my “Dans la voiture” blog post. Yesterday I had just enough time in which to paint these two vignettes before meeting customers for dinner at Raleigh’s Irregardless Café. It was necessary when I was painting, to turn on the air conditioner intermittently to stay cool, the heat on the dashboard to more quickly dry the base coat, and the defrost to defog the windshield so I could see the scene before me.

All this work was rewarded afterwards by a wonderful dinner at the popular Irregardless. I needn’t recommend this restaurant to those who have had the good fortune to dine there. Not surprising the engaged couple I had dinner with are considering the Irregardless’ catering services for their wedding reception next year.

Irregardless, the café, 10x7 watercolor vignette

Welcome to The Fishhouse

Old Homes Tour at The Fishhouse, 7x10" watercolor

This is actually the second painting I did of The Fishhouse. I’m including the first one below for those who didn’t see it in yesterday’s Behr Path newsletter.

The woman sitting in front was one of the hosts during the Tour. She would welcome people to The Fishhouse, invite them to enjoy some refreshment (see glass with pink lemonade on a nearby piling), and give them an introduction to the house they were about to enter.

When she saw that I had included her in the painting, she said, “Just like they used to wear—an apron and tennis shoes with anklets.” Since the house was built in the 1940’s, I assume she was referring to that era. It was intentional that I included her 21st century sunglasses. It was not intentional that the seagulls look like Greek sigmas flying backwards. Together, they could form a fraternity.

The Fishhouse, 14x22" watercolor