(Quiet) The House by the Library

I painted this over three afternoons by a house that is physically near my neighborhood, but that to me had the timeless feel of Americana, be it that of Mark Twain or the present day. I got a great surprise as I was finishing up - I'd been planning to turn on the lights in the upstairs room, but the owners came home and turned on the light downstairs. It looked so much less predictable - so much warmer and more convincing than it would have upstairs, and it represented just one of a million different surprises that we encounter when painting en plein air.