A Chimney Sweep's Dream

Trips abroad always give me a great source of subject matter to paint. A Chimney Sweep’s Dream was inspired while on a bus tour around the city of Vienna. Travelling slowly around a curve in the street there appeared a row of apartment buildings. Each was attached to the next. The weather was chilly because it was March and great plumes of smoke were escaping from multitudes of chimneys. I thought it was very unusual to have so many chimneys on each building. Keep in mind that I was on a bus that kept moving so I had to live stream all these details in a few seconds. I remember thinking that this was a goldmine neighborhood for a chimney sweep…hence the name.

The other thing that put my imagination into overdrive was the unique design of the windows in each unit. Each building and floor had carefully crafted windows different from those of the surrounding buildings. There was no time to take a photo, so I just made careful notes of every detail that I could recall. So, although I did see this row of buildings in real time; they were created here solely from my imagination and a few written notes in my little sketch book. It is always a good idea for an artist to carry a sketch book…especially when travelling!