Today, I’m talking about the Member Exhibit held at Second Presbyterian. First I want to say what a beautiful place for a member exhibit. The Watercolor Society (WSI) is so fortunate to be able to show here. I can’t even tell you how beautiful this entire church is. But I’m going to try with photos!
I was so in awe of this French Gothic style that I totally forgot to take a photo of my painting hanging there. Jeesh. And Indianapolis is over a 3 hour drive for me, so unless someone up there takes it and sends it to me, I guess I’ll never see it. Dang it.
Just in case, the member exhibit is in McFarland Hall on the 3rd floor in the north addition of The Second Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, Indiana.
Here’s my member exhibit entry
Here’s my painting, “Rose Mystique”. It’s a 20″x16″ acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas. You can see more details about this painting including work in progress photos on this blog post.
The original is for sale, but I also offer prints of this painting. You can choose from many sizes and prices. I don’t have it listed in the shop yet, but you can message me if you’re interested.
I’ve never been in such a beautiful place for an art exhibit. Well, just let me go ahead and show you my photos. They’re not great, but I did what I could.
While waiting for our show to be hung, we were given a tour of the church. I love history, and especially French Gothic architecture, so I was there with bells on.
We walked into the sanctuary and I was awestruck. It’s like stepping into a castle. The high carved wood ceilings and the flags. There was beautiful stucco like walls that the tour guide said was done by a Frenchman brought over to create them.
Then there are the stained glass windows. All I can say is wow. They are all just stunning. Many are Tiffany glass, like in the photo above and below. He told us you can tell a Tiffany glass with the special purples and blues. Apparently the technique used to be closely guarded.
I wish my photo would’ve turned out better, this doesn’t even come close to the magnificent colors and beauty.
When you look to the side, if you can pry your eyes off the first glass, is more of the castle look I was talking about. I just love the French Gothic style.
This church was built without flying buttresses. We were told this was quite a feat and modern model for the time. The flying buttresses were there for support. This church has steel beams for the support.
The is the back of the sanctuary. The choir is here and the organ. Look at those pipes! The rosette is 20 feet across! In this photo (above) you can see the detail of the magnificent wood ceiling.
A fact that our guide told us about the rosette was this was typical French Gothic style. You can tell because of the colors. French Gothic has blues and reds where German Gothic is more yellow and green in their rosettes.
I’m treating this tour like an art exhibit. It really was like one! All the work was amazing and true works of art.
I wish I could’ve gotten a closer photo, but I was only using my phone. It’s so off kilter because when I look up I get dizzy. Don’t know what that’s about, but I’ve never had great balance.
The chapel was much smaller but just as spectacular. This was an addition to the original church that was built in 1959 (I believe that’s what he said). The tour guide who is also an architect said this was his favorite room.
This is still very castle looking to me. Of course I’ve never seen a castle in real life, but I hope to someday.
There is stained glass windows all along the outside walls, but there is one very special one that depicts the 21st Psalm. Our tour guide told us that it was not common to have the 21 Psalm on windows.
There are two sculptures of Jesus that are original to the church in the chapel, but sadly there is no record of who the artist is. The first one to the left of the lectern depicts young Jesus.
Notice also you can see more detail of the beautiful stucco work on the walls.
The next statue was to the right of the lectern. It depicts Jesus older as a carpenter. The amazing thing I thought about these statues are that they are made of paper mache and coated with something.
I was shocked at how small they were, but they were beautiful. If I had to guess I’d say about 18″ to maybe 24″ tall.
This was unfortunately the last of the tour. I could’ve stood to see a lot more and a lesson about the outside would’ve been wonderful. However, we had lunch waiting.
The lunch was great. We had chicken salad, choice of croissant or pita bread, fruit, a nice green salad and the best creamy tomato soup I think I’ve ever had. For dessert, a white cake with a jelly in the center and homemade icing.
Not only was this time to bring your painting for the member exhibit, we also had a member meeting. This was my first meeting with WSI and I was impressed. There were fresh flowers at each table. During the meeting, they did normal meeting type things like reading minutes from the last one, going over figures, welcome new members and we voted on something.
A big part of the meeting was presenting a scholarship to a high school art student about to graduate. This year it went to a talented young lady, Katie Phan. She’s going to attend Perdue for animation. She had a small art exhibit herself and her work was impressive.
I haven’t mentioned the drive to the church. Once in Indianapolis and having made our way closer to the church we got to travel for 7 miles or so on Meridian Street. There were some magnificent old homes to see. I would love to see the inside of many of them.
More about the Member Exhibit
Well I guess I really didn’t talk much about the Member Exhibit so here are the details you’ll need if you want to see it.
As mentioned, the member Exhibit is being held in the McFarland Hall of Second Presbyterian Church which is on the third floor. It’s located at 7700 North Meridian Street in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Second Presbyterian is open 8AM – 9PM weekdays, 8AM – 3PM Saturdays, and 8AM – 1PM Sundays. Hours vary slightly from week to week, but are always posted at the main desk. Please call the church ahead of time to find out if an event is scheduled that makes access to the exhibit a problem (317-253-6461).
Learn more about me here. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started created more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is is mystery.
If you would like to keep up with what I’m doing, I have a newsletter e-mailed about once a month that gives you special status for invitations, birthday greeting and more. I’d love for you to add your email to my Friends and Collectors list!
