This painting is a part of my Western Avenue Series, through which I'll be making 24 watercolor paintings, one to document each mile of Western Avenue, in Chicago. I started this project because while it is not considered to be among the most “beautiful” of Chicago’s streets, Western Avenue is a perfect place to document the humanness of Chicago, the positive and the negative. In the words of Stuart Dybek, "Western, with apologies to State Street, is a great street, Unlike State, it is a street that goes to the interior, the heart of the city, as it glides and glows through a United Nations of neighborhoods." Check back next Monday to see a sketch of the next painting in the series.
Finally! I have completed the next painting in my Western Avenue series. The last weeks have been marked by transition. I have gone from working part time and free lance to full time position with an architecture firm in Chicago. I have also started teaching in the evening design program at Archeworks. So, I've been in the process of transition, but hope to return to a more regular schedule of Western Avenue paintings. I really enjoyed showing two of the paintings in the a.DOT show last month and giving an artist talk about the series. I am looking forward to an opportunity to show the full series once they are all complete.
This painting depicts an auto repair shop. It's not extraordinary, but seems quite typical of the part of Western in which it is situated. The street is lined with small businesses, but many of the storefronts are quite utilitarian in nature.
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I love your architecture watercolours of Western Avenue. It makes me want to walk down this street one day. I love the sense of lives and livelihoods, of familiar places that once existed.
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