Commission Painting

Here is one of the commission paintings that I've just finished. The story goes like this, a local couple that I have been lucky enough to know for the past few years wanted to know if I could stop by their home and talk over a commission painting. When I arrived they explained that her family was originally from eastern Iowa and they owned land there. A house was built on the property in the 1830s and her grandparents made it their home. The house survived until it was torn down in the 1950s. Now my friends have given the town a corner of the property and had a new public library built in the very spot that this grand house had once existed. They wanted a painting to hang inside the library to honor the home. They explained that there were no photographs of the home and I would be working from an original painting that was done by her grandmother in the year 1895. Before I saw the painting I thought, "Oh boy, what have I gotten into now?" When they showed me the 111 year old painting I was instantly taken with it. The artist was very gifted and had done a great job capturing the feel of the house and it's surroundings. I took the little painting (size 8" x 14") home and began to layout the 16" x 28" canvas that would become the painting to hang inside the library. I tried to match color and style to a certain extent. It was not an easy painting for me to work on. After a challenging few weeks I finally put the last brush stroke on it and called it finished. The couple was thrilled with it and can't wait to frame it and get it into the library. The small painting is the original and the larger one is the one I did. It is oil on canvas.