House Tableau

Part of an ongoing project of painting on location Milwaukee’s historic architecture as subject.

What interests me in painting architecture interiors and exteriors of primarily historic buildings?

Most of the following ideas are not present in the paintings themselves, but are implied in the structure of the house and the objects it contains.

• There are the people who built the houses: architects, designers, and fabricators.
• There are the people who lived in the houses.
• There are the materials and the history of where the materials came from.
• There are the the loving details and craftsmanship.
• There are the people who support the functioning of the house.
• There are the visitors.
• There are events and history that occur during its lifetime.
• There is the evolving and changing community around it.
• There is the evolving and changing purpose of the house.
• There is the personality of the building. It’s sounds. It’s soul.

A house (and this can be extended to architecture in general) contains what’s public and what’s private. Visible and hidden. Much like a human, architecture is an embodiment and extension of the body.