A carved raven holds a purloined ring in its mouth and huge golden ants march headfirst down the chimney. The bungalow barely needs the Raven’s Nest Studio sign on the porch to proclaim an artist lives here.

Although Rosemary Sylvanus Antel could equally advertise her background in chemistry and public administration, it’s clear that she would never be able to hide that she’s been an artist all of her life.

When I first met Rosemary at The Scoop at Walter’s, where 26 of her oil paintings are on display through the end of the month, I was struck by the beauty she’d revealed in a house that I might not usually even notice. All of the paintings are outdoor scenes; almost all of them Ballard landmarks or homes that caught her eye, often because of the light.

There are two painting of the Ballard Bridge, several of the Locks and Magnolia as seen from the public access beach on Seaview Avenue.

Rosemary told me that her work is considered realist. I read later that the style is characterized by rendering what the artist sees in a realistic way, without exaggeration or abstraction.

But Antel’s paintings of homes near her own look better than in reality; no moss on the roof, no clutter on the porch. “Artistic license,” she explained to me, further explaining why commission pieces of homes, “are not fun.”

As I got to know the artist a bit better I realized there was not necessarily a dichotomy between her paintings and the definition of realism. She sees the beauty and the light, not the chipped paint. She sees a blue house as gold if that’s the color she believes it should be painted.

“It’s the beauty that moves me, not the city-gritty.”

Antel first moved to Seattle from the South in 1967. In hindsight, her first 10 years in the Northwest climate were preparation for the climate of Alaska. She lived on Douglas Island while working as a chemist for the State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Her then 13-year-old fought the Alaska move, convinced that she’d be forced to live in an igloo.

Antel has been back in Seattle, and settled in her home/studio in Sunset Hill since 1992. In 1998 she was able to start painting full-time, although she had been painting since she was a child outside of Pittsburgh.
During her years as a single parent and chemist she tried to “shoehorn” in the painting.

She put plastic on the table after her daughter went to bed and painted watercolors because the clean-up was easy. Later she was able to move to acrylics; now that she has a studio in addition to her home, she works in oil.

The pilings at sunset from the public access beach on Seaview, boats passing through the Locks, hollyhocks against a wooden fence…the pieces at the Scoop are almost all smaller works, framed for the occasion.

Last summer, Antel broke her hip in a bicycle fall and by necessity her pieces have been smaller during her recovery, and closer to home. She’s painted the house across the street from her over and over, when there’s an early snow, a certain glow.

Although The Scoop always has art on its walls it’s beyond the core area for the monthly art walk and kept to its regular 8 p.m. Saturday night closing time during the most recent ArtWalk. At May’s ArtWalk Antel was in her studio at BallardWorks. She has been active in rallying BallardWorks artists to open their studios consistently on the ArtWalk night because she believes that the more people who see artists at work the better. The daughter of an elementary school teacher she worries about how funding cuts have affected the arts in schools.

Antel has taught art classes, mostly to adults who want to learn specific techniques. She said that children need to use art as exploration, trying all sorts of media whereas adults want to know, “How do you make the sky?”

Hours after first meeting Antel I opened a self-compiled book she had given me, “Meditations on a Cup;” featuring copies of still life in acrylic, each with a different flower, tea setting and meditation. Unlike her oil paintings at The Scoop with buildings and Ballard bungalows, the drawings in the book are very intimate.

I started to bend my head toward the page with the sweet peas as if to smell them. In that moment I positively longed for sweet peas. The sky I could see for myself but how do you make the smell?

Antel’s work will be on display at The Scoop through May 30. The Scoop is located at 6408 32nd N.W. and is open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday – Friday, until 8 p.m. on Saturday nights.