Here's a photo of the house in Denver that I'm going to paint.
Last week I started a new painting…
It’s a commissioned project that is being given as a Christmas Gift. Isn’t that a thoughtful present? The neatest thing about it, is that the gift is coming from a bother named Brad, to his sister Judi and her husband Jeff. They have gutted EVERYTHING in this house, including taking out the floor after Jeff fell through it one morning! I hope my painting will capture the spirit of this lovely historic house which has been lovingly restored.
Jeff & Judi’s home is located in Denver, so they e-mailed me several photos to use as reference material. I chose this photo because it looks just like a composition I would have created.
Now I have to figure out how to paint scallops and bricks, as this is something I’ve never done before.
It will take a while for this oil painting to be dry enough to ship, so it will probably arrive in February… a perfectly good time of year to enjoy receiving a gift.
Day 1: I drew the house onto a 36" x 24" canvas. (sorry it's hard to see the drawing in this photo)
Day 2: I first began painting the sky, then began working on the house. I think I spent more time messing around my studio today than I did actually painting. Figuring out how/where all the little details of the architecture fit together is very much like working on a puzzle. This intricate part of the process really hurts my brain!
Day 3: I finally started to get into the groove.
I got the scallops figured out. Once I did the reflections in the window, the painting began to take on the feeling of the rest of my work. I also added lots of blue and yellow to the scallops to make it feel like the sun is hitting them. I could have enjoyed painting for hours if my time hadn't run out.
Day 4: Today I have to start the bricks. I actually think I figured that out in church yesterday. (The sermon was excellent.. my mind only wandered onto this for a couple of minutes! And only because there is an entire wall of the same bricks at the front of the church staring at me from behind our pastor.)
At this point, I REALLY did not want to stop but I had to go pick up Nathan from school so my day was sadly done.
