The house you're leaving, or the one you just bought.
People commission these at the two ends of living somewhere. Right at the start, when the keys are still unfamiliar — or right at the end, when the sale has gone through and there's a date on the calendar.
A photograph of a house is documentation. A painting of it is something else: it's the version you'll actually remember, with the light the way it was on the good afternoons.
Painted in oil, on canvas, by hand.
Recent house commissions
I paint the house the way you remember it.
Real estate photos are taken to sell a property. They're wide, flat, shot at whatever hour the agent was free, usually with a car in the driveway and a bin by the gate.
That's not how you picture the place.
I can move the season — paint it in autumn even if the photo was taken in February. I can take out the parked cars, the bins, the neighbour's fence, the power lines. I can put the porch light on. If the tree in the front garden came down in a storm three years ago, and you'd rather it were still there, send me an older photo and I'll put it back.
Tell me what the place looked like in your head. That's the painting I'd rather make.
Housewarming and closing gifts.
A lot of these are given rather than bought for oneself.
For a housewarming, it works because it's the one gift that can't be duplicated and won't be returned — it's specifically theirs, and there's exactly one.
Several estate agents commission these for clients after a sale closes. If that's you, get in touch about repeat work — I can keep sizes and framing consistent across a run so they read as a set.
You order first and I email you a link for photos afterward, so you can arrange the photo without announcing what it's for.
Childhood homes and houses that are gone.
Some of these aren't about a house anyone still owns.
A house that was sold when a parent died. A farmhouse that's been demolished. The place someone grew up in, painted for their seventieth birthday, from a photograph taken in 1961.
Old photos are usually enough. Small, faded, scanned from a print, black and white — I'm reading the architecture and the light, and I can work in colour from your description of what it actually looked like. If several people in the family remember it slightly differently, tell me whose version to paint.
Sizes and pricing
- 8 × 10 in — from $265
- 12 × 16 in — from $400
- 16 × 20 in — from $575
- 24 × 30 in — from $708
Five frame styles, or unframed. Custom sizes priced by canvas area. Free U.S. shipping.
Houses are wide, so this is one case where a custom size is often the right call — a landscape format suits most properties better than a standard portrait ratio. For a house with a lot of architectural detail, or one set in a garden you want included, go to 16 × 20 in or larger.
When to order
Most portraits ship about four weeks after you approve the mockup, and I guarantee within five.
If it's a closing gift or a housewarming tied to a move date, order about six weeks out.
If you're moving out of the house being painted, take your photos before the furniture goes and the garden gets tidied for viewings. The place looks like itself right up until it doesn't.
From people I've painted for
"So true to life, looks like they posed for it."
— Pat, Dec 2025
"Derek's treatment of light, the capture of movement, all against a cloudy backdrop was well done. He truly listened to my edits, and spent considerable time back and forth with me."
— Bene, Apr 2025
"The painting arrived beautifully framed and well packaged."
— Clemmie, Jul 2026
House portrait questions
Can you paint it in a different season than the photo?
Yes. Autumn colour, snow, summer green — tell me which and you'll see it in the mockup.
Can you remove cars, bins, and power lines?
Yes, and I usually will unless you ask me not to.
Can you add people or pets to the house portrait?
Yes — a dog on the lawn, a family on the porch, from separate photos. Pricing goes up per subject.
My only photo of the house is very old. Can you work from it?
Usually yes. Black and white is fine if you can describe the colours. I've worked from photographs older than I am.
Can you paint a building that isn't a house?
Yes. A family business, a church, a barn, a restaurant, a shopfront that's been in the family for three generations. Same process.
What if the proportions come out wrong?
Architecture is unforgiving that way, which is why the mockup stage matters here more than usual. You approve the composition before I paint, and I revise the finished painting until it's right — before it ships.
Send me a photo of the house.
Order first. No photo needed yet — I'll email you a link.