Red Awnings, Sunny Corner
A plein-air watercolour painted in a single afternoon session, 'Red Awnings, Sunny Corner' captures a street corner at midday, the kind of subject that rewards speed and commitment in equal measure. The title announces its two organizing facts: the saturated red of the awnings and the quality of the light, which at that hour flattens shadow and intensifies colour simultaneously.
At 20 by 13 inches, the sheet is generous enough to hold architectural structure and passing figures without crowding either. Working on site in watercolour demands that decisions about wash, edge, and tone be made before the paper dries, and the result tends to carry a directness that studio work rarely replicates. The shoppers crossing in strong light bring movement and scale to what might otherwise read as a purely architectural study.
Painted in 2025, the work belongs to a long tradition of urban watercolour made directly from observation, where the constraints of time and medium become part of the composition's energy rather than obstacles to it.