House of Peter Stuyvesant c. 1936

George Stonehill made this watercolor painting, "House of Peter Stuyvesant," with delicate washes of color to create a dreamlike vision of home. I can almost feel George standing there with his paper and brush, squinting and trying to capture the scene before him. The colors are so pale and watery, like he’s trying to hold onto a memory that’s fading. The trees are just suggestions of green, and the house is a simple block of white with tiny, dark windows like eyes. But then there are those shapes in the yard – are they carpets? Or maybe garden plots? I wonder if George was thinking about the past when he painted this. Maybe he saw this house as a symbol of history, of the way things used to be. Or maybe he was just drawn to the simple beauty of the place. Either way, he's in conversation with so many painters from the past and future, and like them, he created his own way of seeing the world.