Strawberry Hill House commission

Each painting is a challenge and this one was no exception. To paint a white house in snow is not that easy and needs some thought, for obvious reasons.

I always try to capture something of the essence of a building as well as the architecture. In this instance I decided that I could answer the practical challenges as well as include an important historical element.

This idea was to adopt a dramatic background with a full moon which would allow the white/cream house to appear to push forward towards the viewer.

What better background to adopt than a spooky nightscape for a house where the first Gothic novel was written? The Castle of Otranto written in 1764 by Walpole was the inspiration for my painting.