Sketch and floor plan of Holy Trinity Church in Biokhovo village 1903

This sketch and floor plan of the Holy Trinity Church in Biokhovo village was made by Vasily Polenov with watercolor. I love how the architectural rendering sits just above the bird's eye plan. I can almost see Polenov now, hunched over his paper, carefully mapping out the church. You can see the hand of the artist so clearly in the slightly imperfect lines. The feel is light, airy, and a little wonky. The brown-red outlines of the structure contrast beautifully with the pale blues and greens he uses to suggest the domes, rooftops and sky. Polenov is thinking like a painter, not just an architect. He's using the watercolor to give us a sense of place, as well as proportion. This piece reminds me of some of the architectural watercolors of the Bauhaus artists. It shows how artists are always riffing off each other, even across generations. It is a conversation. Painting is a way of thinking, of embodying a feeling through line and color, a dance of certainty and letting go.