Custom home watercolor portraits by Stephen M. Frey — memorable gifts
The power of giving and of memory
In recent years people nationwide commissioned us to paint custom watercolor house portraits as unique gifts or to mark special occasions. I enjoy this creative work as a complement to practicing residential architecture. I do it because it brings smiles into other people’s lives through the enduring power of art and the positivity of gift-giving to others.
When someone hires me through our Arocordis Design Etsy shop request a custom order process, or contacts me directly here through our website I give them the gift of my love of architecture and storytelling in the customized watercolors I paint for them. I bring decades of experience creating memorable renderings and illustrations for commercial and residential architecture, telling the visual stories of the projects I’ve been privileged to work on as a design leader.
My creative story
I have been drawing and painting ever since I was a kid growing up in Essex Junction Vermont in the 1970s and ’80s. My grandmother, Emma Heffernan, on my Mom’s side was an oil painter. who worked in the upper Hudson Valley of New York. When I was young, I remember visiting her house in Troy, New York. I was inspired by her busy art studio in a converted study in the family single level apartment in the duplex they owned. It was always piled up with paintings, her easel, and wooden paint box, and countless brushes like flowers in large clear glass jars. The sweet fumes of oil paint wafted from the room. For me it was a magical place, full of mystery to my young eyes and nose, and surely a creative escape for her from a busy family life raising five girls in the 1950s and 1960s. And for me now, an ongoing inspiration years later.
Over time, she filled the walls around her house with large paintings inspired by the beauty of the surrounding Hudson Valley region. Her walls captured an ever-changing feast of meadow and brook, mountains, farms set into rolling hills from around the Albany-Troy area, as well as beautiful still lives she painted sometimes with flowers arranged and cut from her own garden.
In parallel to my practice of architecture for almost thirty years, I continued on her tradition of making art along my way, whether in acrylic or watercolor painting, drawing, or mixed media. Fast forward to today and my own professional art, the below highlight some of my recent watercolor commissions which typically focus on the house, home, and memory.
A porch that inspires
2179 14th Street - 2019, 11”x14” pencil and watercolor on 140lb cold-press paper
Coming full circle ironically, a family member hired me to paint this porch from her mom’s childhood home, my grandmother’s house. Developed from an old picture recently discovered in a drawer from another aunt, I created a full-color vignette imbuing the porch with the joy of a mid-summer reverie I myself experienced when I was a kid visiting there years ago. I spent many a summer there hanging out on this front porch looking out onto the busy side-street in Troy, New York walking distance from Rensaleer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI as its abbreviated.
The door on the right led to the first-floor apartment mentioned earlier. On the left, the upstairs apartment usually rented to students from RPI. An apartment especially memorable to my aunt because one of those renters she dated and then married in the early 1960s.
I strove to frame the image with the trunks of the tall evergreen and maple trees growing from the skinny area between the slate sidewalks and the street, and around the house. Surrounded by these trees, even though the home was in the middle of the city it sometimes felt like it lay in the middle of a sometimes dark and mysterious forest. This certainly added charm to the home.
Family home on Lake Michigan
Michmonamac Lakeshort Cottages - 2019, 11”x14” on 140 lb cold-press watercolor paper
I was commissioned to paint this a year ago by a family member for his wife as a surprise holiday gift. Part This home and its cottages on the shores of Lake Michigan have hosted generations of returning customer families and our extended family. Along with the main house view from the street, he asked me to develop and design a collage of special moments dear to her around the home. I chose vignettes from her garden, a typical sunset and beach view, and a favorite board game. To tell that special story, I settled on the composition you see here done with four matte windows below the large one for the main image as part of the completed framed work.
House and garden united, Washington State
Watercolor and pencil, A birdseye view of a country house and gardens - 2020. 11”x14” on 140lb watercolor cold-press paper.
Here I worked with a customer through my Etsy shop to customize this view of him and his wife’s newly bought home in Washington state. Upon his request, I changed the season of the source photo he provided from late winter to late spring or early summer on a colder day. I added vegetation and leaves to the many trees and bushes to convey a thriving blend of house and garden. Doing so helped unify the image and create an overall sense of place and space.
Helping further frame that story, the background wall of tall trees behind the home embraces the domestic and farm landscape and causing those portions to pop. Adding in dramatic overhead shade and shadow from a diffuse sky overhead helps soften the overall image while further unifying the composition. The softness allows the details of the watercolor to be more apparent, encourages the eye to meander.
To learn more about our watercolor art and custom commission process
We continue to take on custom art commissions throughout the year. Each one is special and unique with its own story to tell. If you have questions about the process please contact me below. Just click on the button and it will take you to an easy to fill out form. Tell us there how we can help you.
Visit the gallery
Wand to see more of our art just visit our gallery section of this website here. What you see there may or may not be for sale but it shows the breadth and depth of our art. I continue to add to it as I create more pieces. I have many small and large acrylic paintings to include in the coming months. In the gallery you will see the many themes I explore ranging from the custom home or business watercolor portraits to ones of nature, or natural elements, architectural details, ordinary things with a creative twist, and more.