Houses Painted From Photos

I thought my readers might enjoy seeing where I get my ideas for my paintings. Over the years I have taken many photos of houses from all over the US and Canada. Jumping out of the car to take a photo while my poor husband patiently waits can be a challenge. Doing a painting from a photo requires closeups and as you can see from the photo below that this was such a large house that I taped two photos together. This elaborately detailed victorian house is located nearby in Lexington, MO. Lexington has been a great source for old civil war homes. The courthouse in this beautiful town has a canonball stuck in one of the huge columns. I must get back to photograph it sometime. I hope to paint this great house as a winter scene, but for my book, Charming Village Scenes You Can Paint, I needed a summer scene. I painted this house on a curved front cabinet in the picture below.

I believe this photo (below) was taken in Saratoga Springs where I was teaching a seminar. This house was painted on a lap desk which was also featured in my post about crackling.
Over the years I have received photos from people all over the country of houses they thought I would enjoy. Someone also sent me books of victorian houses. It's been such a joy to paint different styles of homes from across the US and Canada and a pleasure to teach seminars to all the wonderful students I've had over the past 25 years.