Watercolor Painting of "The Nauvoo Temple - Winter 1845-46"
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 This painting represents a specific time and place in American history. During the early days of the LDS Church the Saints suffered from persecution and were forced out of Missouri by an extermination order issued by Governor Boggs. In the dead of winter they crossed the Mississippi River to Illinois and purchased a tract of unwanted swamp land. Within a few years they built a city there called "Nauvoo" which became one of the largest cities in Illinois, rivalling even Chicago at the time. Here they built a temple to God with the hope of worshipping in peace. However old animosities arose and they were driven out once again by mobs. Their temple was barely completed at the time of their exodus and during an 8 week period between December 1845 and February 1846 thousands of faithful saints were able to receive their temple blessings there. Among them were some of my own Mormon pioneer ancestors, who eventually travelled by covered wagon and on-foot across the country to settle what is now Utah. This painting depicts those few weeks in winter when, in spite of severe religious persecution, the people were able to attend their beloved temple. |
STEP BY STEP PAINTING DEMONSTRATION BY ROLAND LEE |
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1. I am using an oversize sheet of Arches 140 lb. cold pressed watercolor paper for this painting. I first soaked it in the bath tub, then stapled it to my backing board. When dry I carefully worked up my drawing using a light 4H pencil. Because of all the detail and architectural details it took quite a while, using a t-square and triangle to get my perspective lines as accurate as I could. That was really the toughest part for me. I am using reference photos which I shot of the re-built temple during a reference trip to Nauvoo in May 2009. Only a few old photos and period paintings exist of the original structure so artistic license is necessarily used along with my research. |
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2. While you can't draw in every detail at the start, I at least need to get the proportions fairly accurate. As I begin painting, I will lift the lines a little with a kneaded eraser so they won't show through the paint as much. |
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3. I wanted this painting to have a warm, majestic feel, even though it was a winter scene. So I used lots of yellows and pinks in the dramatic sky, echoing those hues in the shadows of the temple and the reflected light of the snow. |
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4. The painting underway on my drawing table. Notice how I pin my sketches and reference photos to the table as I need to refer to them for structure. |
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5. Even though it's a winter scene I want to allow a few autumn colors to show through to help warm the painting up. Now I do a little more careful sketch of the buggy and start to paint it since this will be an important visual element. I also bring in my darks now so I can adjust the values.
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6. The buggy is finished and looks
pretty good so I can move forward with the more tedious work of establishing
the windows and surface details on the temple. This part takes a long
time, but I don't want to start before my overall value and color scheme
is established. Now I can clearly see where the painting is going. |
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6. I continue to build up the values now and go to work on all the foliage. I work a little bit tightly on a few of the foreground shrubs to identify detail more clearly. After a couple of weeks on the drawing table, the painting is completed. "The Nauvoo Temple - Winter 1845-46" Collection: Grant and Joyce Lee |
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7. Proud owner Grant Lee along with Andrea Lee Conley (on the left) and me on the right. Now the painting is headed to Idaho and a custom frame shop there. |
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8. The finished framed painting in the Grant and Joyce Lee home in Meridian Idaho. Joyce used her artistic skills working with the framer to come up with a great presentation. |
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