Slow to promote......

As a followup to the mural story, my wife and I gave a phone interview about the painting of the mural. We were able to meet an editor of the county newspaper during a Friends and Neighbor parade and he took our names down for a later article in their paper.   The county paper places the local news of a certain town on the front page of that towns edition and a neighboring town may never see the article. It helps to sell papers as it probably will be the only article about something going on in Woodward and the rest will be the larger town's news.

A very nice college student called and we helped her with the interview process telling of what is involved for two people to paint a mural with a specific historic time.  We sent her pictures as they didn't have any and we shared the details of how the depot had been restored the past two years.

My wife and I were asked to help illustrate a book for a local women who had written a book of poetry.  It was called  I Will Meet my Maker in Bluejeans.  I was reminded of the painting that I created for her many years ago and wanted to share it with you.  It is a water color that has been painted with thick watercolor  on watercolor paper.  It was an illustration for one of her poems and I felt I needed to work the paint thicker to get the detail I needed to get the glowing sunset effect.

I was reminded about this all because the local PBS stations are running programs today about Iowa's one room school houses and the salvaging of the barns in the state of Iowa.  The barns are being torn down because they are not being used or that they have fallen in from decay. The country schools that exist are 200.  There had been over 12,000 schools in Iowa at one time and the state forced them to be closed in 1966.

It would be fun to paint an old school house but I need to find one that is still standing in my area. 

Woodward Community School....A visual memory of a building..........

Woodward Community School 

1907-1991
Woodward, Iowa

This is a print of a drawing that I created a few years back.  When the building had been torn down I was saddened to see such a building with architectural detail being removed from history.  It had some structural problems but in this country so few of these buildings are still standing. 

The architects of the time were all trained with classical ideas and even in the small town of Woodward,  a building would be created with prestigious design. The cupola itself duplicates many that can be seen in Italy and France.  This cupola didn't last many years as the high winds that cross the prairie in Iowa are strong and it was lifted and strewn on the ground in 1922. The mouldings and Roman arches are so classical in design and one can see those similarly designed throughout Europe.

The bottom basement like casing around the building mimics the buildings in Venice as well as many structures in European countries.  The pediment over the door comes from the design used on the Parthenon in Greece.

The corner decorations are still used to day, copying Palladio's architecture of the past.  We have an entire mall that has been today required to have Palladio's influence in it's design.

When the building was first built it was an elementary through high school building.  Initially the basement was not finished and the kids would go down there and play recess on a dirt floor.  By the time I started teaching in the building in 1976 the bottom floor was finished and turned into shower rooms, restrooms, boiler room, the main office and the bottom right back corner was a small classroom.  I taught it that room for four years.

I have been selling these prints for a number of years and in fact put them away for a while awaiting a new audience.  Some students remark that the building gave them bad memories and others would remember the pranks they could pull because of the central stairway.

I am glad that I have created a drawing of this building as it deserves to be remembered in all it's glory.  Sadly we tear things down in this country with only a life span of 84 years.

If any person is interested in purchasing a print of this building they may send me an email.  The black and white print is 12" by 16" and costs $25.  That will cover the cost for shipping and Iowa sales tax in the price.  The color print is a hand tinting of the black and white version and each has it's own special treatments to make it unique.  The cost for the tinted print is $40 which includes shipping and tax.

Inquires can be made, questions can be answered by, and purchases can be arranged by clicking on the below name.   I will accept checks,  money orders and also can do PayPal for any purchase.  

Larry's Artspot  Sales