We were walking through Brisbane a couple of years ago, I forget where we were heading now, but it involved parking a long way from our destination. (The benefit of this, is that you get to see places that you wouldn't normally see if you were minted and didn't mind forking out $100 for all day parking.)
It was on one of these very rambling walks, guided by a confused Apple Maps, and tailed by two weary children (who seem to be able to access their reserves of energy at all the wrong times, this not being one of them), that we stumbled across an area of the city where the developers had yet to raize and rebuild. This area had a litany of beautiful Queenslander houses, all in varying states of upkeep, of which this was one.
On reflection, one of the things that I liked most about this house when I took the photo was that it was shadowed by a telegraph pole, with scatterings of purple Jacaranda leaves all around. The house itself had a beautiful colourbond roof, and interesting angles.
When it came to painting the house, I wanted to remove the telegraph pole and give it its own tree, and initially I had planned to add the Jacaranda leaves in, but thought it wouldn't make sense with the shape of tree I had boldly planted centre stage.
Although I still really like the version of it that I painted, there is something very charming about the building in the original photo that has the coloured glass in the window (which I am only seeing now on my big computer screen) and the contrast of the lattice work and the lines of the fence.
(I did cheekly remove their satellite dish, so I hope they're not too upset about that.)
I also named the painting "The Old Coach House" as it reminded me of other long thin buildings that used to be made for housing coach horses, or I suppose buildings alongside train stations. And the funny thing is, that when the painting got put into the system with the gallery, the lady working there had accidentally called it The Old Couch House... which, perhaps, she may something about the house's former past that I don't?
This painting is available from Michael Reid gallery, Northern Beaches:
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