Holy Trinity 1

A Movie and a Coke, the subject of my August 31 post, was the first of three 24 x 18 watercolor paintings I did as a commission from Nick Vouras.  The original Kozy Korner restaurant was an obvious choice for this painting.  The subject for the second painting was equally obvious.  Nick had long been active at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church on Wilmington's N Broom St. Since Nick had chaired the annual Greek Festival there several times, I chose to depict the church with festival dancers circling around the church.

At the time I did this painting  the church's dome was in an incomplete stage of repair, covered with a black rubber membrane and its future was not then settled.  I presented the dome ambiguously, subject to the viewer's interpretation. 

Holy Trinity was built in the late 1940s on the site of the former  Coleman DuPont residence at 808 N Broom St   At the time Mary was living on W 8th St with a backyard adjoining the DuPont/Holy Trinity property, and witnessed the fall of the imposing residence and the rise of the imposing church.

We have frequently visited Tarpon Springs, Florida, home of a large Greek community. I've been struck by the resemblance of St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tarpon Springs,also built in the 1940s,  to Holy Trinity in Wilmington. The same yellow brick, similar domes and bell towers. I was told that they shared an architect, Eugene Brothers.  Here's St Nicholas cathedral from a postcard.

I had the opportunity to paint Holy Trinity again a couple of years later.  We'll look at that in my next posting.