How A House Portrait Can Be a Portrait of Who Lives There, Too

A House Portrait With Heart & Soul

In pandemic times , all my portrait commissions are from photos supplied to me from the client. Although I work directly from these photos, I always strive to make the portrait more than that image sent me, that the spirit and character of the subject shines through brighter. 

Recently, I was commissioned to paint a portrait of a house as a surprise Christmas gift for the client’s spouse. The house was the spouse’s childhood home in the UK.   The client wondered if there was a way to show that the spouse’s father, who had recently passed, was at home, and working in his second floor office. 

I was moved by this thoughtful, loving idea of a portrait. 

The reference photo (i.e. the photo I was to work from) was in focus. I could clearly see the shape and colour of the brickwork and roof. 

But it taken on a very grey day, which subdued all colour and contrast. The windows and doorway were dark.

A garage and car that did not belong to the homeowners was predominant in the lower left of the photo. The planters were empty. 

It was a snapshot of a house but not the story of the home.

So how to make the painting more than simply a copy of the photo supplied? 

Portrait of a House ©Christine Montague 16” x 20” oil painting. House portrait from a supplied photograph

Creating a Mood

I have not lived near any of my family since my youth. I understand the emotion of returning home, what it is like to pull into the driveway of a well lit home, the knowledge of the people you love and who you know love you excitedly waiting inside. 

So how to insert this emotion into the painting? 

Plus also place emphasis on the centre window on the second floor which was the Father’s office? 

The simple solution to bring attention to the study window was to make the scene a night painting, and “turn on” the light in the room. 

I personally enjoy looking at night scenes paintings, but I was sensitive to the fact that the loss of the parent was too recent, and a dark scene , even in beautiful blues, could be perceived as too mournful. 

But by creating a sunset painting , I could still the house with lights on.

A sunset painting is overflowing with the symbolism of beauty, life, reflection, the end of the day, and the promise of tomorrow. 

What better sky for this portrait painting?! 

Introducing Colour 

Now that the scene was to be a sunset painting,  I could introduce a new warm palette of pinks, gold, and mauve to the image. Warm colours are inviting, appealing and bring energy to an artwork.

The bricks of the house, although in a brown considered on the warm side, were actually glazed over in a cool blue as the front of the house was basically backlit and in shadow. 

This  contrast of warm sky and cool house front added dimension to the painting and added emphasis to the lit up window.

Drawing You Eye to the Office Window

I used the brightest colours on the office window. The white was clean and bright and so was the yellow.

The bricks around the office window are lighter than elsewhere, the illusion light was escaping from the space.

On the left of the painting, I toned down the attached garage of the neighbour and and omitted their car.

I set the house a bit further back than it was in the photo so that the viewer could follow the path up to the house. 

The other windows of the house reflect the sky and  create a frame for the office window.

The darkness on the pathway rail takes the viewer’s eye to the hanging flowers on the right of the door and jump up the line of the darkest bricks up to the office windows.

Portraits are about Likeness, Love, Memory and Tribute

And I think this portrait of a house fits these parameters. But much more importantly, the recipient did, too. 

The British philosopher Sir Bernard Williams said  “It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream”. 

How true for us all. I am very grateful to the clients that they entrusted me with this poignant portrait .

From Polar Bear to Pet Portrait - It's All in the Eyes

Although I am an experienced portrait artist, over the past few years, my online presence has evolved to that of polar bear artist. Recent followers do not know about my portrait painting service. And so recently, when out of the blue, I was contacted to paint a portrait of a very lovely Labrador Retriever, it was interesting for me to learn that one of my polar bear paintings had inspired the commission!

Golden Lab Commission. 24” x 24” x 1.5” oil painting on canvas. ©Christine Montague Contact me here, or visit Commission a Portrait.

How does a polar bear painting possibly relate to a portrait of a beloved pet?

It lies in that fact that I regard all my subject matter as portraiture, and my polar bear art is no different. I paint with the theory the eyes are the “mirror to the soul”. Until I get the eyes “right”, until they feel alive to me, I personally don’t connect to the painting. When that magical moment of connection happens, then the painting is on its way!

All artists have their own way of approaching a painting, especially when painting from photographic reference. Some artists apply the paint inch by inch, finishing each section completely before moving on to the next.

I use the more “whole painting” approach in my technique, but I start each session with the eyes and work out from there. As each new layer of paint is added, my focus remains on the eyes, until finally, the portrait comes to life in my imagination.

I have a biology degree, a fine art degree and most of an illustration degree. As a result, I like my portraits to be realistic and anatomically correct, yet emotional, too. But my ability to draw from my imagination, honed from my illustration studies, plays an important part in this process, too. One learns to be a bit of an actor - to feel that emotion and spirit of the subject and to try transfer it to the canvas.

For example, when I was commissioned to paint Dr. Oscar Peterson (Living Arts Centre, Mississauga, ON, Canada), I was honoured and thrilled to paint the jazz great’s portrait, but I had also never seen or met him in person. This was a larger than life portrait and I was working from someone else’s photographs. .

How was I to connect to the subject and make it more than a copy of a photograph?

First, I brought the whole painting to the edge of completion. It was a large painting (larger than life) and a complex one , as in fact it was multi-portraits.. Dr. Peterson’s piano was to be accurately represented. His hands were a portrait in themselves. And his face was clearly selected in the piano top!

So with the face roughed in, I began the final painting of it as I listened to the emotion- filled, heartfelt tribute of music and song that aired on CBC Radio that day. As his teenage daughter spoke lovingly about Oscar Peterson, the father, I did the final paint of his eyes and face.

So, when I began to paint polar bears, I wondered, how to bring the bears alive? How to make them more than a reproduction of a photo I took of a polar bear at the Toronto Zoo?

So for the painting below, Polar Bear Portrait Study 1 (Wistful Bear) ( and a couple of others in this earlier series) I placed my laptop on a stool in front me, as if a portrait model on a chair. One of my polar bear photos was up on the screen. I then created the polar bear portrait as if the bear was seated there in front of me. (wouldn’t that have been fun, although short lived.) Once again, the eyes say it all in this painting. (Read more about this painting here)

Wistful. Polar bear portrait. 12” x 12” x 1.5” oil painting on canvas. ©Christine Montague Contact me here

So when Ottawa’s CTV news reporter and anchor, Christina Succi contacted me to paint a portrait of her beloved dog, I was flattered, but also surprised to learn that it was one of my polar bear paintings that inspired her request. But then I learned which painting and then saw a photo of her dear doggy,

Can you see the connection?

Wistful Bear and the dog portrait it inspired side by side. ©Christine Montague

If you would like to know more about my polar bear art , or info on how to commission a portrait, please feel free to contact me here.