The geraniums in this watercolor by Francis Hopkinson Smith caught my eye, as images of flowers in pots always do. It seems both obvious and also somehow wonderful that people have been growing flowers in clay pots ever since antiquity. In a place like Venice, where gardening ground is scarce, they must have always provided touches of color and grace. At the palazzo where Emily and Robbie Dolson stay in Where the Light Falls, it is easy to imagine small pots on window ledges as well as huge ones in the little back garden where Emily sits under a tree. For more about the Dolsons and Venetian gardens see my earlier post on Venice.
For excellent details of “Over a Balcony,” go to the Lines and Colors post Eye Candy for Today: Francis Hopkinson Smith watercolor of Venice. For more of Smith’s artwork, click here.
Smith, an engineer by training (he helped build the platform on which the Statue of Liberty sits) and a self-taught artist, was also the author travel books, short stories, and novels, including Peter: A Novel of Which He Is Not the Hero, a bestseller in 1908. I’ve ordered a used copy to find out what my characters in ANONYMITY might be reading! For his written work on line, click here.
For excellent details of “Over a Balcony,” go to the Lines and Colors post Eye Candy for Today: Francis Hopkinson Smith watercolor of Venice. For more of Smith’s artwork, click here.
Smith, an engineer by training (he helped build the platform on which the Statue of Liberty sits) and a self-taught artist, was also the author travel books, short stories, and novels, including Peter: A Novel of Which He Is Not the Hero, a bestseller in 1908. I’ve ordered a used copy to find out what my characters in ANONYMITY might be reading! For his written work on line, click here.