Meeting Street Inn, Charleston

Comments

Login or register to add a comment

You are right here Richard I can't imagine how long this must have taken you, with the amount of detail you have included, it is beautiful and as you say a real one to explore, what a lovely building it is and a lovely terrace area, the dappled light playing over the scene really adds to the nostalgic feel and great to see that you were prepared to spend the time on it o get it to this great standard

Thanks Ros, I'm glad you like it. Best wishes, Richard

Hi Richard, just going back through old postings, just had to open this, I can see why you were so taken with the setting, just want to sit there and drink in the atmosphere. Greatly admire your work. This is the style I am leaning to, although with water colour, sorry if am repeating myself. This is just superb.

Thanks Peter, Much appreciated. I've just taken a look at your portfolio and it's excellent. The fact that you can achieve that in watercolour is really impressive - much harder than acrylics where I can re-work all my (many) mistakes until I get it right.

In 2012 my wife and I took a vacation in the USA and spent two wonderful weeks visiting several old friends that we had made when we lived in South Carolina in the 1990s. During our stay we visited Charleston, South Carolina with some close friends and spent a couple of days touring the area and enjoying the classical architecture of the city. As we explored the streets the historic district, we popped into the Meeting Street Inn (no 173) and were immediately impressed by the wonderful atmosphere in the garden courtyard. I knew immediately that I wanted to paint it. The building dates back to 1874 and over the years has had a variety of uses, including a saloon, restaurant, fashionable boutique, auto parts store and bicycle rentals store. Then, in 1981 the property was renovated, enlarged and transformed into the Meeting Street Inn. The Inn thrived until its parent company failed in the late 1980's and it grdually deteriorated until it was acquired by the current owner in 1992, since when it has been converted into a luxury inn and hotel. What inspired me to paint this scene was the wonderful light. It was a beautiful day and the dappled light playing across the courtyard captured my imagination. Although I knew this painting was going to be a challenge, it turned out to be far more time-consuming than I had expected. However, I enjoyed the experience and am pleased with the final result. Although there is no clear focal point, my hope is that people will spend time exploring the painting and picking out some of the interesting features of this wonderful place. And if you look carefully, you can see that my favourite dog Oscar has crept in again and is enjoying the sunshine in the top courtyard.