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rtist, Cynthia Matyi, is well known for her Celtic images, but she also designs lovely impressionistic, paletteknife paintings of the Victorian buildings in her colorful neighborhood, Columbia-Tusculum. The houses are multi-colored “Painted Ladies” with organic shapes and unique personalities, surrounded by old fashioned flowers and shrubs. The closely packed houses provide charming streetscapes; and, since Tusculum is a community built on hills, there is of ten a w acky perspective to Cindy’s pictures that are all painted ‘en plein air’ right on the scene. She feels that this gives her an opportunity to connect with the buzz of the neighborhood as well as develop a loose, vibrant picture that captures the essence of the scene and the local color at that moment.

“I find the colorful homes of Columbia-Tusculum a painter’s paradise,” said Matyi. “There are wonderful examples of Victorian America w hen well-to-do Victorians took the design of their homes very seriously. The people of this era were very status-conscious and felt their houses were a representation of their position. They also spent an inordinate amount of time socializing, and therefore, wanted their homes to serve as a statement of their taste, wealth, and education. With this as a backdrop, it’s easy to see why they spent time and money on intricate and plentiful design elements and rich colors - all in an effort to make a complete personal statement.”

The Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood includes a very dense collection of homes in the Victorian style. It has been featured in home design books on the style, which dominated residential architecture from 1880 to 1910. Characterized by large projecting bay windows, these homes are adorned with towers, turrets, porches, balconies, stained glass decoration, roof finials, cresting, elaborate brackets, banisters and spindles. “While the Victorian style has a definite character range, each house is so unique that I never tire of panting the ‘grand old ladies’ in their entire splendor,” continued Matyi. “The paintings in this show are all ‘happy’ works and would make very affordable art gifts.”