A Painter’s View of Madison

An artist painting the Museum of Early Trades & Crafts from across the street.

Downtown Madison is beautiful every day, but this past Sunday it had a little extra charm. I came across a fellow quietly painting the Museum of Early Trades & Crafts in soft watercolors. Not something I usually see.

I started chatting with him. He was easy to talk to, and as it turns out, he’s a physician who recently got into painting. He’d traveled from NYC just to spend the afternoon here. He kept saying how beautiful Madison is, and that he’d been wanting to come out and do this for a while. We ended up talking about photography, too. He’s an avid film photographer, and film photography is near and dear to my heart, even though I mostly shoot digital these days. We connected right away.

It reminded me how easy it is to overlook what’s right in front of us. I’ve walked past the museum hundreds of times and even shot a magazine cover there. But sometimes it takes a small reminder, like a guy with an easel and a paintbrush, to help you see something familiar in a new way.

I asked if I could take a couple of photos, and he was flattered that I’d asked. Just a quiet, pleasant moment on a sunny afternoon.

His watercolor painting in progress