This commissioned painting was given as a Christmas present. The house had been completely gutted and restored inside by the owners, so my client had me create this painting as a gift to his sister and brother-in-law since they had labored so hard over fixing up their charming home.
Painting this house was probably the most detailed project I've taken on to this point in my painting career. But it was so cute and full of character that I just couldn't resist the challenge.
The home is located in Denver, so I was painting from photographs that the homeowner supplied. I was captivated by the composition of this particular photo -- the fence and garden in the foreground made it feel like a scene I would have found on my own and painted anyway.
It's a good thing that I loved those sunflowers, because painting those leaves around the tiny little bricks made my eyes cross at times. Getting the bricks to look nice and straight was hard enough, but then adding the jumbled mess of foliage to the mix made it a crazy-hard challenge.
I am quite satisfied by how this painting turned out. When I moved onto my next painting, I could see that my skills had been sharpened by working so hard on all the tiny details that make up this charming home.
Merry Christmas to Jeff & Judi!
--Marie Scott, January 2010
