Series of Old Nauvoo Paintings - Painting of Nauvoo Blacksmith Shop and Red Brick Store

Roland Lee painting of Joseph Smith's Red Brick Store in old Nauvoo Illinois. My ancestor James Henry Rollins worked in this store Click here for more information about this painting



Roland Lee painting of the Webb Blacksmith and Farrier shop in Nauvoo Illinois. My ancestor Orin Nelson Woodbury worked in this shop. Click here for more information about this painting

Last summer we went on a LDS Church History Trip across the United States following the old Mormon Pioneer Trail, a route followed by many of my own pioneer ancestors. Of course I completed a number of drawings along the way in my travel sketchbook with the intention of doing a series of pioneer paintings. With encouragement from other family members I keyed in places where my ancestors lived and worked. For the past month I have been working on a couple of these paintings and it's been slow going. I kept changing them in one way or another tryng to capture what I both saw and felt about the experience.

I was able to follow the painting process on both of them with step by step photos which I will post as soon as I can get them ready for downloading. For now here are the two paintings.

James Henry Rollins Pioneer History