Watercolor Painting: Main Street, Dayton, Ohio - circa 1910 (2013)

This is a painting I made using watercolor and ink, showing the Main Street of Dayton, Ohio around the year 1910.  This is a date that falls midway between the celebration held by the city for the return of the Wright Brothers after their invention of the airplane (the bunting was probably left over from this celebration), and before the devastating flood of 1913.  The image is a compilation of photo's and interpretation of photo's made of Dayton and the public transportation seen on the roads during the time.  The overall layout was derived largely from a photograph showing Main Street in the book, Dayton: On the Wings of Progress (Lester Reingold, 2005).  I was fascinated by the hustle and bustle of Main Street during a market day, with the various competing forms of transportation.  As a nod to the changes brought by the Wright brothers, you can see at one end of the street a bicycle and at the other in the distance, the Wright Flyer airplane.  Two pigeons can be seen nervously watching the new developments in the air. 

Two photo's showing the painting in various stages of development.  Following a pencil sketch, ink was used followed by watercolor.