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| Our group |
Carlos's lovely watercolor gives you some idea of what this tranquil spot is really like. Everyone commented on how quiet and peaceful this spot is.For those of you not familiar with painted churches, they were mostly (but not exclusively) Catholic and founded by German and Czech immigrants to Texas. Many of them are southwest of Houston in Fayette County. I've heard two versions of why the churches were painted. One was that in the early days the congregation couldn't afford stained glass so the paint dressed up these simple wooden buildings. The other version is that the painting recalls the gothic splendor of European churches for which these immigrants were homesick. St. Mary's in Plantersville is a fine local example.
Everyone had their own plan for tackling this subject. The morning was cool-ish, so folks like Carlos went to capture the outside of the church.
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| Ken |
You can see Ken Roy hard at work if you look at Carlos's sketch. Ken did a fine job with a little ink and watercolor. |
| Susan |
Susan chose a three-quarter view to give the church a more 3 dimensional look. She also got a bit of the history of the church from the historical marker. Imagine this country spot in 1873. |
| Rick |
Rick did a closer look at the entrance in pencil. |
| Chris |
I went over to the parish cemetery, which still has some of the old metal German grave markers. It also has live oaks that, I'm sure, date from the founding of the church.Some people went right inside to attempt to catch the lovely painted sanctuary. To give you some idea how complicated that was, here are some photos. |
| The sanctuary, the altar and some paint detail |
So, the only choice would be to greatly simplify. Kyoko did that very well with soft, luminous watercolor. |
| Kyoko |
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| Britt |
Britt focused on just the chancel and stuck to watercolor only. |
| Shaw |
Shaw made a similar choice keeping her focus specific. |
| Susan |
Susan moved a bit farther back and got a nice view of the ceiling and the painted posts. |
| Chris |
I climbed into the choir loft and tried to get the entire sanctuary. Susan and I both found that we had to go to colored pencil for the smallest details. There was just so much to draw! |
| Cori |
Cori tried a bit of everything. The interior, the entrance and a stone from the cemetery. She stuck to pen and ink.Of course we had a throwdown on the church steps. Then a couple of us went off to lunch.
If you have not yet joined us on a sketchout, please join us for the next sketchout. We try to stick to indoor options in the summer and we are a friendly and nonjudgmental group. If you are interested, please follow us on Instagram or join our Facebook group by answering a few questions. We had some new faces this time and hope to see more in the future.
