Is it the Twelve Days of Christmas or the Twelve Paintings of Christmas?

When I returned from the workshop last week I had three house paintings, a lake painting and two dog paintings to finish before Christmas. I knew this would happen and I was prepared for it, but it is still never easy to paint commissioned work fast. You want that luxury of time, but I am the kind of person who likes challenges. Luckily they were all small pieces, 9"x 12"and 11"x 14", or it never would have happened. They are done now, proofs approved and sitting around waiting until they are dry enough to mail. I can breathe a sigh of relief and begin to focus on our family's Christmas plans.

This house is in Buffalo. She wanted the farm behind it to show and requested that I remove the snowblower in front of the driveway. Buffalo had received nine feet of snow when this picture was taken, and the painting I did actually tells a story and is much more interesting than a typical straight on view a home.

Photo

After the Blizzard

11"x 14"

House Paintings - Commissions I Love to Paint

I'm not sure why, but I love to paint houses for people. I've never wanted to be an architect or create structural drawings, but there is something irresistible about painting a home with character- one that has been taken care of and loved for generations. I have painted a lot of house commissions, usually as gifts around Christmas time or for a birthday. I can say with certainty that a house painting will always look better than a photo of the house. This is not always true of a portrait of a dog or a person, or even a cat. Up close and intimate photos of people and animals can capture personality and depth. It's a lot harder to photograph an inanimate house and get the same level of detail.

Whenever possible I like to start the house painting en plein air. This extra step allows me to judge the color more accurately and to take in things that will not be obvious in the photograph. (Trust me on this- there are tons of things that you see in person that you would never think of from viewing a static photo.) If the client lives a good distance away or the order is placed in the cooler months, I always ask them to provide as many detailed photos of the area surrounding the home as they possibly can.

Looking at photos of the Precht house might lead you to conclude that there is nothing very special or interesting about their home. But when you are there and seeing it for yourself the colors are brilliant; you notice the details like the red mailbox and the waving flag and the brilliant color of the perennials. Spending a few hours on location allows you to create correct perspective and gauge color more accurately. The time of day is critical too. Some light on the house is desirable but you don't want to be painting with the sun behind the house.

The two hours I spend creating a plein air sketch are well invested. While I painted their cat appeared at the window where it sat and gazed at me for a good thirty minutes. This was providential; I'd received photographs of two cats that they wanted somewhere in the painting. Birds were flying up to the bird feeder continually. Would I have noticed this from a photo? Would I have even seen the feeder? Probably not.

Here are a few photos of this project taken while I painted. Notice the lack of detail.

Painting from life gives an artist ideas and allows her to immerse herself in the atmosphere of the scene. This creates a more accurate portrait of the setting and often a better composition.

18" x 24"

oil on linen

Channeling Kincade

Channeling Thomas Kincade...OK, maybe not exactly, but whenever I am presented with painting something as pretty as Carol's house and gardens, I think of Kincade. I don't dislike the recently deceased and seemingly troubled artist, as so many artists profess to. I actually liked a lot of his earlier pieces and I have a plein air book written by him that was given to me by my cousin. It has some extraordinary work in it. He started out doing plein air and painting from life. This is why his fantasy garden paintings have so much depth and realism in them. I mean, you know they can't be THAT pretty, but they're still realistic to the point where they COULD be! It's the whole commercialism and "painted reproductions" that left me shaking my head in disgust. People were fooled into thinking they had an original when it was just a printed canvas with some paint added to it. His death just proved another theory of mine I like to think is true: great wealth acquired too easily does not buy happiness. I would rather paint 100 paintings and sell them for $100 each than spend one week managing a business venture that offered copie of my paintings on clocks, teacups, toilet seats etc. You get the picture. The fun is in the doing.

Carol commissioned me to paint her house and surrounding area. It's a non-traditional painting in the sense that it is the BACK of her house. She has a pool, which can be seen with that tiny bit of blue beyond the entrance. She has flowers and statues and lovely trees. It was a challenge to find a place to stand that could really take in everything.

I began with a plein air painting in the late afternoon and took lots of photographs of the plants and architecture because I knew I couldn't finish it in one session and I would need the references to add the detail. The tree is right in the middle of the yard and it's right in the middle of my painting too so it was a challenge to break that unwritten rule of composition and make it work. But I think I did OK.

Carol's Paradise