Helen Spurrier Watercolor Plein Air Sketches Historic Galena, IL Diptych (1953)

Helen Spurrier's impressionistic "plein air" watercolor sketches of a Galena, Illinois historic streetscape is fascinating in its fluency and use of the palette. There is spontaneity and grace as the freshly dabbed pigments blend and merge into unexpected combinations.

Mrs. Spurrier enjoyed sketching and creating on-site watercolor paintings in the historic Mississippi River town of Galena, Illinois. Galena was a key center of the lead mining industry in the early Republic and the home town of General Ulysses S. Grant, Union Civil War Leader and later U.S. President. It remains a Federalist and Victorian jewel and important center of culture and the fine arts.

The sketch is part o a diptych that plays with different lighting conditions. We have not separated these beautiful watercolor sketches and leave it to the purchaser whether they wish to frame them separately.

The sketches are small, about 6 inches by 4 inches each. They were created in 1952 during a jaunt to Galena from the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois where the Spurriers lived.