A First Date at the Ice Cream Shop: White Mountain Creamery (Boston)

There’s something kind of perfect about your first date being at an ice cream shop—and even better when it ends up as a painting.

This 5x7 watercolor captures White Mountain Creamery, a bright yellow-and-green storefront near Boston College that’s been a neighborhood favorite for decades. Between the striped awning, the tiny “open” sign, and what felt like an entire novel’s worth of lettering across the windows and signage, this one turned into a detail marathon. I broke out my tiniest brush, worked under a magnifying glass, and carefully painted all that crisp white text one letter at a time—which is exactly as relaxing as it sounds.

What makes this piece even more meaningful is that after 42 years in business, the creamery recently changed hands and is now New City MicroCreamery. The location is still there, but it will never quite look like this again. And that’s one of my favorite parts of what I do—capturing places as they were, whether it’s where you met, where you grew up, or where you kept going back for “just one more scoop.”

Learn how to commission a hand-painted watercolor storefront ➜