64 Watercolor artist | FEBRUARY 2019
W
e’ve all been there: stopped at a red light,
slowed in a construction zone, detoured
along a side street, confronted by a rail-
road crossing. For most of us, these are
exasperating times, but not for John
Bayalis. He paints these familiar moments in a hyperrealistic
way that reveals how captivating the commonplace can be.The Appeal of Anywhere
Bayalis was impressed early on by the cityscapes and rural
scenes of Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell and Andrew
Wyeth, and later by photorealistic painters Richard Estes and
John Baeder, whose urban landscapes he saw on trips to New
York City as an art student in the 1970s.
“I decided to try my own version of the urban landscape
featuring views of my hometown in Wilmington, Delaware,”
he says. “I found the window rel ections and street scenes a
good i t for my detailed style.” His interest grew while living in
Milford, a small Delaware town where he painted and taught art
for 30 years. “h e street scenes and the vernacular landscape
outside of town opened up a wealth of painting subjects.”
Bayalis’ travels have taken him as far as Ireland and Cuba, but
his painting inspiration still derives from much closer to home
in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he and his artist wife, Margaret,
moved in 2013. “h e specii c locations often aren’t as important
to me as a more universal look—a view of ‘Anywhere, USA,’”ABOVE
Bayalis admits to being a purist
about using only the white of the
paper for his whites, such as for the
streetlights and headlights in
Central Avenue at Dusk (water-
color on paper, 16x30). “I lightly
scrubbed the edges to lift some
color and soften them for a
smoother transition,” he says.RIGHT
Beach Drive at Sunset (watercolor
on paper, 18x30) presents the old
elements of St. Petersburg, Fla.,
with its rising new skyline. “The
amount of street surface made it
important to use colors and grada-
tions that kept that area interesting,
without dominating the painting.”PREVIOUS SPREAD
The southern Delaware scene in
Moonrise (watercolor on paper,
16x30) is a nod to the American
landscape to which Bayalis is
attracted. “I like to include all the
commonplace or ‘vernacular’
objects, like signage, phone poles
and wires.” His wife, Margaret,
who waited patiently as he took
reference photos, appears
on the far left.