Painting helps Crossett forget fire

    Washington residents Bob and Karen Crossett have had a tumultuous year. The Crossetts spent four months in a motel after their house was ravaged by fire in January. The fire occurred in the second story of their home and destroyed the bedroom and left smoke damage in other rooms of the house. The bedroom was gutted down to the studs and had to be completely redone. The Crossetts moved back into their home in late May. 

    The Crossetts said that spending the entire spring away from their home was not easy, but that the staff at the Super 8 Motel were very accommodating to their needs. Karen works as a cook and her husband Bob is retired. Bob kept himself busy with an easel and a paintbrush, a hobby he started just one month before the fire, and a hobby he has continued to pursue since moving back home. 

    ?It?s peaceful,? said Bob. ?It did help to get my mind off the house, because it was a depressing time.?

    Bob said he likes to paint pictures of nature and the countryside. Barns and flowers are of particular interest to him.

    ?My wife grew up on a farm but I did not,? said Bob.

    He said that sometimes he paints barns while looking at a photo, and at other times the barns exist only in his mind. He wants to someday sketch a barn while looking at it in person.

    ?I?d like to go out into the country, sit down and paint a barn,? said Bob ?I haven?t done that yet because it has been so hot. I have a barn or two I?m looking at. There?s one near West Chester I?d like to paint.?

    Bob is especially fond of lilies, of which there are many in his garden. He said he takes photos of the lilies and then enlarges the photographs so they are the size of his canvas. He places the canvas over the lilies to sketch them. Then he goes to work adding color to his creation.

    For one painting, Bob colored the entire canvas yellow. He adds one color at a time until the painting looks just like the real flower in the garden.

For the full story, see the Sept. 10 edition of The Washington Evening Journal