Celebrating Summer and Getting Out and About
Every-day scenes with House Portrait Backdrops. Well done for making it this far and I hope you are doing well. After months of being bombarded with the dangers of the pandemic and the need to stay at home and stay safe, things are freeing up at last -- a welcome relief with the beckoning warmer weather and longer summer days. These paintings are a celebration of getting out and about. They include simple, enjoyable, every-day activities, that we should never take for granted. From kids playing in the streets, to walking the dog and an inquisitive boy checking out a free little library. All have architectural backdrops that represent life and people in the city -- weather in urban areas or quiet suburbs. [caption id="attachment_17352" align="aligncenter" width="2048"] Kids playing…
Bringing Spring into Your Home
While turmoil rages in the world . . . spring is here and knocking at your door In the words of William Shakespeare.... “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything." Being that I love to travel, my first response to being stuck at home was outrage. When I got over that and faced the fact that this is a necessity right now, my usual optimism set in and I decided to find a silver lining in this situation. Besides doing my usual house portrait work, I realized this is the perfect opportunity to make great strides in compiling my coffee table book so it can be published and released later this year. I confess that I have made more progress on this project in the last two weeks…
Sellwood-Moreland Neighborhood of Portland House Portrait Collection
Sellwood-Moreland in Portland has an array of architectural styles, including Colonials, Craftsman, Bungalows, Tudors, Cape Cod, Victorians and more, all of which are part of my Portland House Portrait Series. I have always enjoyed spending time in Portland. It's reputation of being quirky, cool, weird and green all at the same time, makes life very interesting. Its architecture follows the same mold. In turn, the neighborhood of Sellwood-Moreland represents these same unique qualities. I discovered a feast of architectural styles in Sellwood-Moreland and well preserved and maintained homes. Beautiful tree-lined streets and colorful gardens added to the vibrance of Sellwood-Moreland, a quintessential family neighborhood, with an amusement park, plenty of parks and hiking trails, and locally owned cafes. This neighborhood is technically a combination of two neighborhoods, Sellwood and Moreland,…
Welcome to my Portland Neighborhood of Laurelhurst House Portrait Collection
Laurelhurst neighborhood homes include Craftsman, Tudors, Bungalows, Colonials, Cape Cod, Victorians are part of my Portland House Portrait Series I have always enjoyed spending time in Portland and one of my favorite neighborhoods is Laurelhurst. My series includes paintings of homes in a total of 17 favorite neighborhoods and in 15 architectural styles that I feel depict Portland. I concentrated on 10 historic neighborhoods for my Portland series. These include Alameda, Beaumont-Wilshire, Concordia, Grant Park, Irvington, Laurelhurst, Sabin, Sellwood-Mooreland and Eastmoreland. Like many of the surrounding neighborhoods, Laurelhurst is filled with history. Stone markers flank the entrances to the area. The center of the neighborhood, Coe Circle, contains a gilded equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, which is a World War I war memorial. This neighborhood is located close to Downtown Portland, which gave…
Welcome Spring!
Spring has sprung! Actually this portrait was created from photos I took last bring when in Minneapolis MN. Just love the welcoming front garden. I would call it free-hand sculptured landscaping. Hey, I just made up a new term! This beautiful Victorian farm house style home really stood out from the crowd however. The original painting will shortly be hanging inside this home. The homeowner was kind enough to give me some info about the home which is below. [caption id="attachment_15890" align="aligncenter" width="3801"] This historic beauty has stood in this location in Minneapolis MN for over a hundred years.[/caption] This interesting snippet is directly from the homeowner: "The home was built in 1903, and the person who restored it (in 2007) did an incredible job between keeping the charm of…
Nashville Homes Series!
Georgian, Craftsman Homes, Bungalows, Tudors, Colonials, Cape Cods, Ranch style, and more in my Nashville House Portrait collection. Nashville is such a fun and vibrant city and its architecture is just as interesting. Commonly known as "the Music City", Nashville is an icon in American culture. Its where talented artists migrate for a chance to break into the industry and achieve their dreams. With architectural gems like the Ryman Auditorium and Belmont Mansion , Nashville also has a rich history and over the decades it has attracted artists of all genres. Though I did bring my guitar, my aspiration was to find some architectural stars for my Nashville home portrait series. One of the first architectural icons I visited in Nashville was the Replica of the Parthenon in Greece. The…
Alameda Neighborhood in Portland, House Portrait Series
One of my favorite Portland Neighborhoods, Alameda has it all! I have always enjoyed spending time in Portland. Its reputation of being quirky, cool, weird and green all at the same time, makes life very interesting. Its architecture follows the same model. And while there is a myriad of unique neighborhoods in Portland, I isolated around a dozen favorites and focused on those for my series of historic Portland house portraits. I am proud to include homes in the Alameda neighborhood as part of my 100 Historic Homes of Portland Collection. Alameda has a feast of architectural styles and well preserved and maintained historic homes and like many of my best-loved areas, it has beautiful tree-lined streets and colorful gardens. Alameda sits right next to the stunning Wilshire Park and…
Returning to my Auckland NZ roots. . .
Retracing my artistic journey and being shocked at what was no longer there Going home to New Zealand is always a sentimental journey for me. While I have returned to my Auckland hometown many times since marrying an American and living in the USA for the last three decades, this time was different. I decided I would retrace my footsteps of those early days when I abandoned a formal art education and opted for the adventure of going it alone and making my living from my art. It was Auckland's inner-city historic homes and architecture that sparked my passion for architectural art. Images of my paintings and photos from this time are sparse, but I dug around and collected up every remnant I could find. I was determined to go…
San Antonio House Portrait Collection
Watercolor Paintings in San Antonio When I ventured into San Antonio for the first time while touring Texas I was pleasantly surprised at the sheer diversity and impressive array of house portrait styles. I guess I was expecting to see many more Spanish style homes but I found that the Greater San Antonio area has it all! In studying up more, I learned that architecture in San Antonio comes from a wide variety of sources. While it is true that many of the city's homes reflect Texas' Spanish and Mexican roots; with some influence from French builders, rapid growth in the city since the mid twentieth century has led to a fairly wide variety of interesting contemporary architectural buildings as well. San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the U.S. and the 2nd largest…