Artist and illustrator Laerta Premto fuses drawing and her wanderlust in her illustrations of architecture. She transfers her observations of “place” onto the paper. We explore her illustrated series of architectural gems in Hartford, Connecticut. In her illustrations, Laerta captures the beauty of Connecticut’s capital city through her observations as a city dweller.
Resources for this podcast include the writings of Bailey Van Hook, Historic Buildings of Connecticut blog, and WTNH. You can view and connect with Laerta at her website: trav_elle.com and at trav_elle on Instagram. She also has a shop at Esty, Travelle Studio, where you can purchase her prints.
SCRIPT: Welcome to Episode 101: Laerta Prempto: Seeing Place in New Ways: Artist Laerta Premto fuses drawing and her wanderlust in her illustrations of architecture. She transfers her observations of “place” onto the paper. Her works expressed through the media of watercolor, acrylic, and pen are void of figures. What we see is the outer flesh, the facades of buildings through the lens of both an artist and immersive traveler. From Hartford, Connecticut, where she calls home, to her sojourns abroad, we experience the beauty of a cityscape with its iconic landmarks. I, like Laerta, call Hartford, my home; she lives in a high-rise with a view of the Connecticut River in the city’s downtown. I am tucked away in the capital city’s suburbs, my backyard view, a cathedral of trees. Her illustration series of Hartford’s architectural gems and monuments–they are so enchanting and why I celebrate her in this episode. In a bit, you will hear from the artist herself in my short conversation.
Laerta carries through the free-hand drawn lines of each architectural work more than just its structure, its design; each space roots us, the viewer, to its history, to its purpose, and to our wonderment of their beauty. What she offers the viewer in their looking is to see in the iconic, an aesthetic pleasure for your senses. Her drawings sit in the white space of the paper, bare of a surrounding landscape; that is left to the viewer’s imagination. And yet there is Laerta’s presence, her joyful spirit, in the strokes from her brush, in the shading of her color palette. She says, “art awakes feelings of hope, understanding and nostalgia…. through my eyes and artwork, you travel for a moment in time.”
From her Hartford series, I am going to focus on two works, two urban buildings: The Colt Armory and The Parkville Market. This series evolved from the 2020 pandemic. Laerta shares, “Before Covid-19 and the lockdown happened, I had been contemplating for a long time about moving into a city. I didn’t know which one; NYC, Boston, Hartford, New Haven…wasn’t really sure. When were in lockdown I was living in the Hartford area so it got me thinking about Hartford more. I kept thinking of the route I would go to work and what landmarks or buildings I’d pass. Since I was working from home like the majority of people, I started to miss the daily routine of what my eyes would find interesting. So I thought what if I started to sketch them….Each time I’d paint one, I would also look up the history of the landmark and get to know the story behind it.” From these sketches, Laerta finds “the value in appreciating the beauty around you; to feel more present with my surroundings and where I live.”
Let’s take a closer look and position ourselves as Laerta did, on route, walking past two of Hartford’s iconic works of architecture through two illustrations in her larger series. First, The Colt Armory, originally built in 1855 it was a central part of Samuel Colt’s firearms-making empire. Based in the district of Hartford known as Coltsville, the armory was later joined by additional buildings, including housing. Three years after Colt’s death, the original armory was destroyed by fire in 1864. It was then rebuilt by Colt’s widow, Elizabeth Colt. The new building, larger than its predecessor, was more decorative with design based on the styles of the Italian Renaissance. What the new Colt Armory carried over from its original structure was its most dramatic feature; the blue onion dome with gold stars topped by a gold orb and a rampant colt horse. It is the original symbol of The Colt Manufacturing Company. There are different theories concerning the blue dome’s origins ranging from its being a tribute to Sam Colt’s early Russia business contacts, or perhaps inspired by the Byzantine churches he saw in visits to Russia, to simply being a dramatic marketing statement and reminder of the Colt’s factory, his family, and their contributions to the industry of precision manufacturing in Hartford and the world—No one would forget Coltsville. (historic buildings of Connecticut)
The expansive factory complex with its rectilinear, nave-shaped spaces integrated by a succession of windows, is morphed in Laerta’s illustration. What is amplified is the iconic blue dome, often described as the jewel of Hartford’s skyline. Seen by thousands of travelers each day from the highways that slice through Hartford along the Connecticut River, we see the dome, as Laerta sees it, dusted with gold stars perched on a circular colonnade of sixteen white pillars on the factory complex roof, the elegant, gold orb atop the dome — what we see is more than an ostentatious landmark; beyond Colt’s desire, according to author Ellsworth Grant, “to shake up the stagnant traditions which he felt stultified the city.” We see the Colt armory through the observations of a city dweller, Laerta. We see it expressed with a bit of whimsy, almost child-like, perhaps feminine. Laerta says, “I used to pass the Colt Armory building to work every day. I felt like a little rebel one day and drove by it a little closer. What a magnificent history it has! And this is what surfaces in her illustrations, that curiosity, that joy when looking at the familiar with fresh eyes.
Let’s turn our attention to another illustration Parkville Market: the 20,000 square foot space was transformed and repurposed from its original owner, Bishop Ladder Co. to a food hall, boasting of restaurants from diverse cultures. In Laerta’s illustration, we experience it as she sees the space; like the Colt Armory, what blazes across atop a non-descript building painted a rusty hue with darkened, large paned windows, is the blazing neon, red sign: Parkville Marketplace. One reaction I have from this work, and I have eaten and visited Parkville Marketplace, is the silence. Parkville Market bustles with people, diners, and cuisine. I love the way Laerta sees it; the expansive building is reduced mostly to bold neon sign.
The pandemic helped Laerta “to fall in love with the city.” Using the same playful style of her sketches in her world travels, Laerta turned her attention, her desire to seek inspiration in her “own backyard.” “It’s so easy to look elsewhere,” says Laerta,” compare and think that the grass is always greener. The grass is greener where you water it.”
Illustrations are an accessible art form, they are images created to inform as well as to embellish the printed page. Good illustration is critical in such fields as medicine and science, where it may communicate essential information more effectively than text or a photograph. Illustrations in books allow readers to experience and understand literary works more richly, enhancing the written words. In Laerta’s illustrations of iconic spaces, we experience both the tangible and through her hand, her viewpoint, her personal engagement with architecture. “The whole point of me doing this artwork is that it’s made me feel more present with my surroundings and where we live, and that’s what I want people to get out of this,” Laerta says.
As Laerta brings to the surface this wonderful, engaging combination of place, history and her lived experiences as a city dweller, she continues along with the legacy of women illustrators. It is an interesting one for women in the United States. From writer Bailey Van Hook, “In the United States, women illustrators became increasingly common starting in the 1870s, by the 1890s they were well established. In many ways it was an ideal career for women at a time in which gender roles were rapidly changing. In the face of the restrictions and confinements women had to endure at the turn of the century, many nevertheless created careers for themselves, not only as illustrators, but as designers, decorators, weavers, copyists, and colorists. A woman could be paid as a professional yet spend limited time in the public sphere.
Although the major magazines and publishing houses were based in urban areas, it was not necessary for the illustrator to live near them, since once an illustrator’s reputation was established, the art editor could as easily send her the stories as have them picked up. A woman could work in her own studio, an extension of the domestic and more private sphere of the home, deemed more appropriate than the rough and tumble world of business and commerce.” (woman’s art journal, Bailey Van Hook) Then as now, illustration was viewed by many as a stepchild among the arts, several rungs below “fine art.” Because the work was perceived as practical and commercial genius was not needed, merely a service- able talent, training, and on-the-job experience. In this light, the career of an illustrator seemed eminently suitable for and not beyond the reach of women. It did not encroach on male-female labor divisions.
Allow what I just read to sink in—The art form of Illustration becomes an avenue for women to support themselves as artists. It was an option because it aligned with Victorian ideals for women to be anchored in the domestic sphere. In the near future, I plan to dive deeper into the “overlooked” women illustrators of this period. Today contemporary female illustrators have harnessed the platform of illustration. Women artists are able to share their message graphically. Especially during this time of social distancing, women illustrators like Laerta transport you through her documentation of walking and engaging with architecture. In essence that is what evokes from her illustrations. Laerta says, “We don’t really spend as much time exploring our own local environment; we’re always looking to go elsewhere.” Her illustrations in us to be “a tourist in our own cities.” And now my conversation with Laerta Premto.