36"x31” acrylics    $900 "Long Cove, Mason OH"    Building or purchasing a new home is often the reason for commissioning a portrait. This one, of a Homearama house in Long Cove, is one of my larger paintings. Grounding the canvas in pastel pink was inspired by the techniques used to print greeting cards. In August 2006, the Mason Pulse Journal featured a photo of this painting as a work in progress.	"This house intrigued me from the time I first saw it in “Tyvek” and all during the building process for Homearama. Homes are as expressive for the people who build them as they are for the people who buy them."    Mason-Deerfield Arts Council recently moved into the historic home at Cottell Park, near Long Cove. The annual Mason Arts Festival will take place this fall on Sunday, Sept 19. For more information, visit www.masonarts.org	12"x16” acrylics    $350 This painting was done as a wedding gift to remind the bride and groom of that memorable day. They weren't kids just starting out. She had already had the wedding of her dreams long ago, along with all the requisite presents. This time, everyone relaxed in the ambience of this Lebanon, Ohio Bed & Breakfast, where both the ceremony and the reception were held.
16"x20” acrylic    $400    Carol usually begins a home portrait by taking dozens of photographs and doing at least three different drawings of the house. Winter can be the best time to take these pictures, without foliage and vegetation to block the views.	Once a drawing is agreed on, Carol may do several different color sketches before beginning to paint. Typically, she will email pictures of her progress regularly while creating a portrait, enhancing communication and ensuring ultimate satisfaction with the finished work.	While the Burl Manor is recognizable, Carol made the house look narrower than it appears in the photo in order to fit into this vertically-oriented painting. The home is no longer a Bed & Breakfast, in fact, it's now on the market.
24"x18” acrylics    $500    Here's a finished painting on stretched canvas, unframed. Early drawings helped the homeowner decide on the angle to be portrayed. And to feature her beautiful gardens and landscaping, a more “summery” scene was decided upon than most of the photographs used for reference. The artist can take pictures of a house herself, work from your photos, or paint on site (depending on the weather).	Carol says, "Taking digital photographs is part of my job and I try to provide homeowners with a variety from which to choose. It can be interesting to view a house from many different angles. But what I paint doesn’t need to be in the photos. Adding a porch swing, tomato plants, an American flag and a garden in bloom all resulted from conversations I had with a recent customer, whose birthplace looks a lot different today than it did when she grew up there."	12 x 16" acrylic painting, unframed $400 16"x20" acrylic    $400 These paintings are of homes in Wyoming, Ohio. In fact, this house is for sale very close to where the annual Wyoming Art Show takes place every spring.
"I still have this in my studio: one of my first home portraits, painted in plein air when I was ten years old. The town where I was born and raised — Findlay, Ohio — is filled with homes that have been cherished for over 100 years. So it’s not surprising that these houses captured my fancy early on as a favorite subject matter."    Do you have any home portrait stories you're willing to share? If so, Carol would love to hear from you!	Yes, please send me information that might be of interest... The fields marked with (*) are required fields. * First Name    * required * Last Name    * required   Telephone Number   * Email Address    * required   Please indicate any specific preferences you have for e-mail or telephone follow up!	"Do your children show artistic promise or like to paint? I’m grateful that my parents allowed me to take art lessons with adults beginning at a very early age and put me through college to get my degree in Fine Arts."    "When I was a senior in high school, this painting won me a Scholastic Art Award. Many people think they recognize it's location; do you?"      "Homeowners often commission "before" and "after" portraits of property. The first home portraits I ever purchased were Paul Overling drawings of the place I lived on Carney St. in Mt. Adams."