View from Maurepas

Maurepas Foods closed in October of 2015, after 3 glorious years as the neighborhood restaurant with inexpensive & innovative Southern dishes that highlighted seasonal ingredients. Their staff was always nice and friendly, a rarity in most hip establishments in Bywater (or anywhere else in the U.S.), and the decor matched the food they served as well: tastefully new and authentic at the same time. It was one of our favorite places to eat.

When I made the plein air painting below, they weren't open yet. I remember seeing boarded windows and a sign saying 'Maurepas Foods coming soon' or things of that nature. There was (and still is) a wrap-around awning that creates a nice shade where you can set up an easel and look at this view across the street in morning sun.

Koffskey Building, oil on canvas, 18"x24"
(2010 or 11)

L.E. Koffskey building used to be a pharmacy, but its current owners/residents are a photographer and a musician. I've been inside once a while back, and it was really nice since they kept the original tiled floor and most of the display cases that looked almost antique. The two-story building to the right is a yoga studio at the bottom floor, and an apartment on the second floor. 

View from Maurepas, oil on panel, 10"x20"
(November 2018)

After Maurepas Foods closed, the building behind me (which you don't see in the paintings) stays empty. The two Japanese Maple trees by the Koffskey building have grown much taller since the last time I painted them. And on this crisp fall morning they were in red and gold.