I called the Father and asked him if I could sit on the premises to sketch the church. He had no problem with it and asked me to have a bite at the fall festival they were having. I thanked him, but waited until the festivities were over before I went to sketch, so I could get everything unobstructed.
I went and sketched everything, made some color notes and came back home and painted it. I had it in storage and then Katrina came.
We had a small black and white tv that we hooked up to a car battery (nowhere to go, anyway!) and were watching the footage, and all that was left of the church was a weird frame looking thing, and that was it. Unbelievable!
I knew where the painting was and was immidately compelled to get it. Unfortunately, when we got there, the door to the ladies restroom was so swollen, it was days later before we could open it. The extra time in the closed up room with the heat and moisture did nothing for the items that were in there. I knew this was very bad because mostly everything in there was watercolors and works on paper.
When we finally got the door open, I was carefully removing sheets as quickly as I could (with a flashlight) looking for the church. Everything was soaked with a slippery silt.
There, on the very bottom, was a creased paper, totally flat with the linoleum floor. It was so wet, and so slick, it had a weird type of suction. I gently pulled it up,turned it over,and opened it. There was the Church of the Redeemer, creased, dirty, very soggy- but still alive.
I couldn't believe it held up as it sat for approximately a week in waterlogged conditions. And I thought that since it was watercolor the colors would have dissolved off the paper. Not so, thank goodness.
I am going to make prints of this painting. Please see the Print Page.
