I spent the first 8 years of my adult life in the Upper East Side… so, it would seem fitting that my first painting started and completed in Minnesota would be this Upper East Side Town House. The source image was captured on the 4th of July… two days after my Independence Day — clandestine all around.

My goal was to treat this architectural painting as a portrait… breathing life into the windows. Several weren’t lit in my source image, but fortunately I was able to retrieve some after I left the city.

Here is the entire process in 80 seconds… if you love this beautiful track, performed and produced by MH the Verb, featuring Aaron Pfeiffer and Jules — you can buy it now. Fittingly titled “Running Shoes” — I spent many evenings running loops in the gorgeous Central Park.

And on to the process we go…

Beginning with a basic line drawing, and blocking out some shapes in cadmium orange — medium, of course.

Working the forms in a warm palette.

Fully under-painted. There are three separate tones… though it doesn’t look like it.

Blue sky and blue/grey sidewalk… the sky would eventually be re-painted, while I watched the Trailer Park Boys.

The identification phase… blunt shadows, beginning to create dimensionality.

Painting a subtle gradient on the town homes… I would eventually repaint them entirely… but I wanted to choose the other tones based on what it would feel like upon completion.

Sky is repainted… then I went into the windows on the flanking town homes. I found myself eager to jump into detail at this stage… but I constantly remind myself: big picture. The more detail behind the window panes, the better. Oh, and the stairs took an entire evening.

Creating a story in the house. The exterior of the buildings are painted with cadmium red medium, hookers green and a touch of pthalo blue (green shade). The windows on the central home are mixed with purple and cadmium yellow medium (and a touch of titanium white and cad red medium mixed). The contrasting complements create harmonious chaos… I’ll admit, I got carried away with this sentence. But I’ll leave it anyway.

I guess that’s why they call it window pain… window panes are difficult to paint. Here is the Minnetonka studio is all of its glory.

Oh, so very close… all that remained was the tree… and shrubbery. Shrubbery.

And, completed. 24″X48″, acrylic on canvas. Thank you Debbie, I hope you love it!

A little detail of the tree and bay window. Have a terrific day, thank you for tuning-in. If you’d like more Upper East Side inspired art…

Try the Guggenheim.