Northshore Magazine

ne Sketch Book draftsperson House Painter Artist Rob Leanna brings perspective to North Shore houses. By Nancy E. Berry artist rob leanna has been studying and painting the façades of Newburyport's rich housing stock for more than 30 years. "A fire in 1811 burned down acres of houses," he says as he walks the streets of Newburyport looking for subjects to paint. After the "Great Fire," town officials mandated that buildings in the downtown area be made of brick. Leanna's love of old houses is evident. Strolling through the 400-year-old town, he calls out the various house styles, their ages, and miscellaneous little-known facts about Newburyport. "Many of [the] houses were constructed by shipbuilders who used the day's pattern books," says Leanna. "At one point, in the 1960s, a development firm wanted to tear down all the buildings along Market Street and put up a new mall. Citizens banded together to prevent this from happening, and instead, the town rehabilitated the historical buildings and revitalized the shopping district." Born in Kansas, Leanna first showed an interest in historical houses during a visit to Colonial Williamsburg a few years before his family moved to Newburyport. "My parents were looking to try something new and had always liked visiting the East Coast," says Leanna. To support the family, his father, a city planner, and mother, an artist, had the idea to renovate old houses. They chose picturesque Newburyport as the place to live and start their venture. "My parents renovated a home from about 1735, which led me to do a lot of research and gave me a hands-on experience with older houses," he says. "Our own house was a brick Federal mansion built in 1805, which I really enjoyed finding out about." Today, Leanna has started his own cottage industry, Painted Buildings, and he preserves the houses he loves in watercolor—emulating late 19th-century art styles. Bringing authentic qualities of hand-drawn and hand-painted illustrations, he combines a creative sensibility with extreme technical skill. Typically, Leanna works from a photograph of a house, sketching the architectural details in pencil before adding a wash of color. "I use a 140-lb. cold-pressed paper and Holbein watercolors," he notes. Depending on how detailed the actual architecture is, he can complete a house portrait in two to three days. Cottage Industry: Leanna combines artistry with technical expertise. 34 nshoremag.com March 2014 KJ NS Mar14 Sketchbook.indd 34 1/16/14 9:55 AM

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