Home Stories: What I've learned From Painting Homes

Earlier this year, I found my niche in this season of life.
Watercolor home portraits.
I discovered that I enjoyed watercolor so much
but I wanted more than just to paint landscapes and flowers.
I needed my art to have a purpose.

That "need" sent me to my facebook page,
asking my friends if they'd like me to paint their homes.
The response was overwhelming, YES!

It's been amazing.
I feel like I have won the lottery of Artistic Expression--
the intimacy of people's lives has been gifted to me like
I am part of their family story.
I love it so much that I cannot foresee a day when I am not painting homes.

One of the things I've learned is that home size doesn't matter.
I've painted huge ones, like the one above--
a stately Georgia brick home,
being sold after the family living there downsized it after 17 years.

Or this one:

I like this one ALOT.
The woman who commissioned it was not raised in it,
but her mother was...and it was interesting because I was sent two photos to re-create it as it was in the 70s...one of the photos was when it was brand new, the yard was dirt still, but those little tulips popped up. Her mother was a child, standing in the door way. The other photo was present--painted white with green shutters, mature landscaping with huge trees in the yard.  But she wanted it as it was when her mother lived there.  I just loved that.

This is actually the first one I did.  A family home in Midway, Utah, that is now on the Historical Society Home registry.  What a treasure for the family that lived and loved there!

This was actually commissioned by a friend for her employer--a gal who endured a divorce and then a subsequent death of someone she was dating--and had reconnected with a high school sweetheart, remarried to him and this home is their "fresh start" together with their families. 

This is another sweet home in Georgia...a new home for a couple who just had a new baby. New memories are being created within those walls daily!

This house belonged to an Air Force family that we got to know while they were stationed here. IN fact, the family also commissioned another portrait of the previous home they owned in Texas before coming here, and want a third portrait of the home they're building in North Carolina--their current assignment!  What sacrifices our men and women in the military give to protect our country! Their roots are planted all over the world.

This West Yellowstone, Wyoming cabin was built by and served three generations of the same family.  The memories made there have blessed their family for decades!!

This little home in Maryland held a lot of love and provided safety and security for a large family. As soon as it was delivered to the mother of this home, the rest of the now-grown family wanted their own portraits.

These three homes were all new beginnings for families--stories I don't know, but commissioned by their realtor as closing or anniversary gifts. 

Now these last two are what prompted me to write this blog today:

This house no longer stands--it was burned to the ground in the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs, five years ago. The family lived there for 14 years.  They'd been out of town when the fire started two days earlier, and once they got word of the imminent danger, they raced home, grabbed what they could and were directed to safety by the fire fighters.  The home was engulfed in flames just minutes later.

This home is also a memory.  It was destroyed a couple of years ago by a tornado that ravaged the entire street it sat on.  The little family that lived there almost destroyed too. They declare that angels held onto their children, preventing them from being sucked into the sky.
Can you even imagine?

Home is more than brick and mortar.  It is sanctified by the love created between the families who live in it.  Sacrifice, hard work, charity, compassion, and promises to love one another through thick and thin, as they say-- these are the things that also build homes to last. 

I love home stories.
If you're thinking you'd like to have a special home done in watercolors, you can visit my etsy shop: etsy.com/shop/DawnDesignsHomes. 

If you'd like to learn more about why I believe Families are SO important, I invite you to look right there: https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/the-family.