It is especially poignant when the children have grown, the parents have moved to assisted living or have passed away.
The request for this home portrait came from such a family - they remember their home with great fondness and wanted to give a painting of it to their mother after the house was sold.
The only photos they had of the house when she lived there were of the house buried in 3 feet of snow. She is not fond of snow, so I had to do some changing!
Fortunately, they had also taken current photos in the summertime. Even though the house is now a different color, I could at least see the landscaping. So let's see how I painted this home:
They asked for a view from an angle rather than straight-on. So I used one of the current photos to make a nice composition.
I start by painting the sky, then decide to do all the green of the trees, shrubs and lawn using mixes of blue and yellow paint. I keep the background trees more on the blue side to visually push them back in space.
Below I paint the lawn and am adding cast shadows in the foreground. I mix greens from yellow and blue paint and add a few red streaks here and there into the wet paint.
Here is the landscaping completed:
Next I paint the gray stones, cement areas, walkway, driveway and roof. This is an initial wash of paint with no details added yet. I use a mix of blue and burnt sienna to make the gray with a touch of rose added.
Here the blue color of the siding and yellow shutters are added:
For the stone wall (I love painting stones!), I first outline the stones with a darker gray that I've mixed.
When that is dry, I add more washes of burnt sienna, red and blue to individual stones to get some variation, leaving some of them a light color:
Here I'm adding some detail to the windows:
This is the painting so far. It's almost done, but it needs a few more details like the front porch railing:
The railing is painted with a fine-tipped brush. Since there was always a wreath on the door, I add one that matches the house colors:
After a few more adjustments of light and dark and another wash to deepen the color of the siding, the painting is finished - just in time for Christmas!
I'm happy to take custom orders. Please contact me for a custom painting of your pet, home, garden, grandkids, favorite vacation spot or whatever your heart desires.
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