Yellow Creole Cottage

Many of my paintings are inspired by my walks around New Orleans’ Garden District. This classic “creole cottage” caught my attention years ago, when it was in a state of disrepair. I was able to witness as it was brought back to life, a state of beauty, while maintaining its subtlety on this quiet, shaded street.

This painting takes a very angular, linear approach, with a sharpness that communicates that these traditional style homes have been made new again. The long lines of the eaves pull your eye from left to right, progressing across the facade of the yellow house to the blue fence, prompting the question, “what is behind that door?” A shared courtyard, perhaps. Following the triangle of the composition back from right to left, the stairs present themselves as a welcoming architectural detail, in contrast to the closed doors and windows that mask the assumed oppulence inside.

The colors of the built elements balance each other in an interaction between desaturated primary reds, blues and yellows. The dormer window frames echo the red of the foundation and stairs, carrying through the ground and back up to the red house in the background. The roof and fence balance each other on a complementary axis. It is technical and inorganic.

Then the tree takes center stage, bringing life fully into the scene. Your gaze stops being pulled across the composition and becomes absorbed by the intricacy of the leaves, like fractals, in a multitude of tiny, perfect shapes. The tree stands in sharp contrast to the house it [fronts, adorns, decorates], both in color and shape. Though the tree is obviously in the foreground, the negative space of the house is pulled forward, increasing the interaction between them as they occupy the same visual plane.

This was a challenging piece to create, to make color decisions, to have the tenacity for long straight lines, and to sit with once it was complete.

Original is acrylic on canvas. Prints are available in limited editions per size. Read more about print quality, edition details, and commissions in the FAQs .