Art Blog

Hand-crafted home portraits and discovering beautiful Victorians subjects in Traverse City, Michigan Traverse City is about 15 minutes from Lake Arbutus. It's an artsy community-spirited city with an abundance of interesting cafes and restaurants as well as unique boutiques, specality stores and art galleries.  It also hosts a popular film festival annunally which we enjoyed.  Traverse City is named after the Grand Traverse Bay, which the city heads. The bay earned its name from 18th century French voyagers who made la grande traverse or "the long crossing" across the mouth of the Grand Traverse Bay. There are lots of beautiful historic homes in Traverse City, especially elegant and well cared for Victorians from smal to very large.  I did my usual "house portrait walk-about" and selected what I think are some of the…

Custom home portraits of Craftsman Homes and Mountains -- A Perfect Combination! One of the greatest things about staying in Pasadena and the surrounding area is that you are able to enjoy the changing colors and moods of the San Gabriel Mountain Range. They provide  such a wonderful backdrop to any house portrait painting. As you can see here I especially love to capture the mountains around sunset when they turn shades of soft blue and green. It  makes the darker, natural tones of the craftsman homes in Pasadena stand out. Located in northern Los Angeles County and the western San Bernardino County, the San Gabriels also have wonderful walking trials and I never failed to find pockets of interesting house portrait subjects nestled into the hills. Architectual styles mainly included Craftsmen…