Raleigh NC Watercolor Paintings: The Stories Behind the Art
Raleigh, North Carolina—or “Rally,” as the Southerners say—is a nice little big city. When I moved here from Portland, Oregon, one of my first thoughts was, “Where is the downtown?”
Coming from a larger city, the adjustment took a while, but Raleigh’s charm eventually set in. Downtown itself is fairly compact and very walkable, and the city has plenty of interesting places to photograph—and later paint. Over the years, I’ve photographed Raleigh from numerous vantage points, and many of those photographs have eventually become watercolor paintings.
Downtown Raleigh skyline from Boylan Bridge
There are some great views of the Raleigh skyline from Boylan Bridge. Just don’t get up before dawn on the summer solstice thinking you’re going to photograph beautiful purple sunrise light.
I don’t know what I was thinking. Actually, I wasn’t.
I wanted sunrise photographs. I simply chose the wrong day—or possibly the wrong month—to do it.
Palette knife watercolor painting of downtown Raleigh at sunrise
For anyone who says you can’t paint a watercolor with a palette knife, I say: “Boo you. Watch me.”
This painting was an experiment using water, gravity, a palette knife, and very thick watercolor paint. It was also a convenient excuse to use up some tube colors I didn’t particularly like.
The downside is that the paint becomes extremely thick. Even though it’s watercolor, it can take a LONG time to dry. Don’t stack anything on top of one of these paintings too soon unless you want whatever is above it permanently attached to your artwork.
Watercolor painting of the downtown Raleigh skyline at sunrise
The only thing missing from this painting is the police car that likes to sit at the bottom of the hill where the speed limit suddenly drops from 45 to 25 mph.
They don’t mess around there.
You have been warned.
Another word of advice: to photograph this particular Raleigh skyline view, I had to stand in the middle of South Saunders Street while watching for traffic coming from the south.
In hindsight, wearing a black shirt probably wasn’t the smartest choice for visibility—especially since I’m slow, can’t run worth a darn, and have both a bad ankle and a bad knee.
This was not one of my greatest moments. And I’ve had a few.
But I got the photographs and successfully played Frogger that evening.
Raleigh Skyline Watercolor—and the Red Crayon Disaster
This next painting came from a photograph I took years ago from the spaceship-looking Clarion Hotel, now Hotel Indigo.
I had spent hours freehand drawing an aerial view of the North Carolina State Capitol on a full sheet of watercolor paper—22 × 30 inches. This was back during my stay-at-home-dad years, when the kitchen became my temporary studio after everyone went to bed.
Exhausted from drawing late into the night, I left the sheet mounted on a board and leaning against the kitchen wall.
The next morning, I discovered that my toddler, Rocco, had decided to help me finish it.
In red crayon.
Lots of beautiful little red scribbles all over my carefully drawn Capitol.
He did a great job.
Unfortunately, waterproof red crayon does not come off watercolor paper.
I couldn’t really be angry with him. It was my fault for leaving the painting where a toddler could reach it.
So, somewhat frustrated, I flipped the paper over, redrew the Raleigh skyline in record time, and painted the entire thing very quickly while he was at preschool. I used loose washes and tilted the paper so gravity could do much of the work.
And somehow—it worked.
Maybe it was the frustration. Maybe it was because I finally stopped worrying about ruining the painting. Either way, it became one of my favorite Raleigh watercolors.
Thanks for the help, son. Seriously.
NC State Bell Tower Watercolors
Of course, you can’t have a collection of Raleigh paintings without a few North Carolina State University paintings.
I originally started this Bell Tower watercolor en plein air—which is the fancy art-world way of saying I painted it outside, on location.
I wasn’t happy with it.
At all.
The painting sat unfinished on a table for almost two years until my kids happened to be watching the Matthew Broderick Godzilla reboot.
It was a bad movie.
But it gave me a good idea.
I added a giant monster stomping on the NC State Bell Tower.
The painting sold five minutes after I posted it on Facebook.
I learned an important artistic lesson that day:
Never give up on a painting. If it isn’t working, just add a monster. Or possibly a spaceship.
Explore My North Carolina State University Collection
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