This was a commissioned painting of a nice Cotswold Cottage. It is very pretty but presented a few problems, firstly of the plain gravel frontage which was saved by the little wall and small tree in the foreground which also gave depth to an otherwise flat frontage. The other tricky aspect was the repeating windows across the facade, which were broken up by emphasising the reflections of trees behind the viewer. Showing the sunshine from the left drew shadows across which helped again give depth, and the flowering shrubs and climbers all softened the edges. By request the neighbouring property was faded out which helped remove the harsh roof ridge to the right. The owner was pleased with the result! But it shows that it can demand interpretation to make a photo of a property into a 'painting.'
Below is the 'rough' compositional sketch that I almost always provide before doing the actual painting. This is to try to sort out all the above points and make my mistakes in the thumbnail sketch, not the finished artwork!
To see more house portraits visit my website via the link below:
http://fothergillsgallery.co.uk/contents/en-us/d41_House_Portraits.html
