NC State University Art, Graduation Gifts & Bell Tower Prints
NCSU Bell Tower Watercolor Paintings, Art Prints & Graduation Gifts
I’ve lived in Raleigh for years, so I’ve probably driven past the NCSU Bell Tower thousands of times.
I teach watercolor classes at Pullen Arts Center, which means I also have the pleasure of regularly navigating the traffic circle next to the Bell Tower—a traffic circle that apparently confuses a shocking percentage of American drivers.
Seriously. Traffic circles are not that hard.
Take a trip to Europe. You’ll either learn how to use one or spend the rest of your life trapped in a roundabout somewhere in France.
Anyway.
I like painting landmarks, and the NCSU Bell Tower is about as recognizable as Raleigh landmarks get. I’ve photographed and painted it many times over the years, sometimes working outside en plein air and sometimes using my photographs later in the studio.
I was once told by a former dean of NC State at an art opening that the Bell Tower now actually makes bell sounds.
There is, however, no actual bell.
Apparently we’ve reached the point where even bell towers can fake it.
The paintings below are some of my different takes on the NC State Bell Tower, from traditional watercolors to poured paintings and a few that went completely off the rails. Fine art prints are available and make great NC State graduation gifts, alumni gifts, Raleigh wall art or something for the person who spent four years at NCSU and doesn’t need another coffee mug.
They’re also real watercolor paintings. I paint them. With actual paint.
No AI-generated watercolor slop here.
Sometimes a Bad Painting Just Needs a Monster
My “Monster Smash” painting actually started as a plein-air painting of the Bell Tower.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t very good.
I brought it home and left it sitting on a table for almost a year because something about it kept bothering me. It wasn’t terrible enough to throw away. It wasn’t good enough to finish.
It just sat there.
Then one night my kids were watching the Godzilla movie with Matthew Broderick—a very forgettable movie that probably shouldn’t have been made—and I had an idea.
Why not put a giant monster in the painting?
Did that make any sense?
No.
But I’m an artist. I can do whatever I want, assuming it doesn’t violate the laws of the state I’m currently standing in.
So I painted a giant monster stomping through the NCSU Bell Tower scene.
I posted the finished painting online.
It sold about five minutes later.
Since then I’ve joked with my students that whenever a painting isn’t working, just add a monster.
Seriously.
It works.
Watch Me Paint the NCSU Bell Tower
Ryan Fox AWS, NWS, TWSA
Ryan Fox Painting
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