One of my favorite commissions to date started with a simple request: paint our home with the mountain behind it.
The home was in Big Sky, Montana — a beautiful modern structure set against the dramatic backdrop of Lone Peak Mountain. The client wanted a painting that captured both the architecture and the landscape, something that felt personal and specific rather than generic. They wanted watercolor. They wanted it to feel like the place — expansive, clean, majestic, but also warm and lived-in.
This is the story of how that painting came together, from the first photos to the final signature. If you’ve ever wondered what the commission process actually looks like from the inside, this will give you a window.
Starting with Reference Photos
The client sent me a collection of photographs — about fifteen shots taken at different times of day and in different seasons. This is exactly what I hope for with any commission. Multiple references give me options.
I spent time studying them before I picked up a brush. I was looking for the photograph that told the best story — the angle that showed both the home and the mountain in a compelling composition, the light that felt most characteristic, the moment that felt most like what it’s actually like to be there.
I settled on a summer late-afternoon shot where the mountain was fully lit, the sky was that particular Western blue that feels impossibly deep, and the home sat in the foreground with warm afternoon light on its facade. The composition was natural — the house in the lower third, the mountain rising behind it, with enough sky to give the whole scene breathing room.
Planning the Composition
Before touching the watercolor paper, I made a couple of small thumbnail sketches — maybe 3×4 inches each — to work out the values and composition. Thumbnails let me experiment cheaply. I can try a tighter crop, a wider view, a different emphasis, without wasting good paper.
I decided to simplify the foreground. In the reference photo, there was a lot of detail — landscaping, a driveway, some construction equipment. None of that served the painting. I kept the essential elements: the house, the mountain, the sky, and a suggestion of the natural landscape around the property. The goal was to distill the scene to what mattered — the home in its setting.
I sent the thumbnail sketch to the client with a note explaining my compositional choices. They loved it and gave me the green light to proceed.
The Painting Process
I worked on a full sheet of Arches 140lb cold press paper — generous enough to give the composition the scale it needed for the expansive Western landscape.
The sky came first. Montana skies are vast in a way that’s hard to overstate, so I gave the sky nearly half the painting. I used a graded wash of cerulean blue deepening to ultramarine at the zenith, laid in quickly while the paper was wet. The clouds were lifted out with a thirsty brush while the wash was still damp — just soft, luminous shapes that suggest summer cumulus without becoming the focus.
The mountain came next. Lone Peak has a distinctive profile — rugged, angular, with snow remaining in the high couloirs even in summer. I built it with layers of blue-gray, violet, and touches of raw sienna, letting each layer dry before adding the next. The shadows on the north face gave me the opportunity to go dark and dramatic, creating a sense of mass and presence.
The house required the most careful balance. It needed to be recognizable — the client had to look at it and see their home, not a generic house shape. But it also needed to feel integrated into the landscape rather than pasted on top of it. I used a combination of watercolor washes and pen-and-ink line work to give the architecture definition and specificity while keeping the overall feeling loose and painterly.
The foreground was the simplest: warm greens and golds suggesting meadow grass and native vegetation, with just enough detail to ground the composition without competing with the house or the mountain.
Progress Check and Final Adjustments
About two-thirds of the way through, I photographed the painting and sent progress images to the client. This is a standard part of my commission process — it gives the client a chance to weigh in before the painting is finished, and it gives me a chance to course-correct if something isn’t landing.
The feedback was enthusiastic. The only request was a slight color adjustment to the roof to match the actual material more closely — a reasonable and easy fix. I adjusted the tone in the final detail pass and added the ink linework that defined the windows, roofline, and architectural details.
The Finished Piece
The completed painting measured approximately 14×20 inches — a size that felt right for the scope of the landscape. After the ink dried completely, I signed it, photographed it for my records, and allowed the paper to flatten under weighted boards for two days.
I packaged it flat between rigid acid-free boards, wrapped in glassine paper, and shipped it insured. The client received it, had it framed behind UV-protective glass by a local framer in Montana, and hung it in their living room — where it looks out at the same mountain the real windows look out at.
That, to me, is what a commission is about: taking a place that matters to someone and distilling it into a painting that holds the feeling of being there.
Want Your Own Home Painted?
Home portraits are among my most popular commissions. I paint homes of all styles, from Maine cottages to Western ranches, from family farmhouses to modern architecture. If you have a place that’s meaningful to you, I’d love to create a painting of it.
