Oklahoma Lake House Portrait with a Fiery Sunset Sky

This one came in hot—literally. I’m used to soft blue skies and little white clouds, and this reference photo said absolutely not. Think blazing orange, streaks of yellow, hints of pink, and just enough blue to keep it from looking like the sky itself had caught fire. It’s an 11x14, vertical, and technically a house portrait… but the house is not the main character here. It sits farther back on the property—large in real life, a little more understated in the composition—while the sky completely steals the show.

Getting that sky right took a few attempts (okay, more than a few). I restarted this painting three or four times before it finally clicked, finding that balance between “wow, that’s dramatic” and “okay, this might be too much.” Once it landed, everything else fell into place: the sweeping lawn, the tree anchoring the foreground, the back view of the house with its pool and balconies, even the small details like the American flag and subtle patriotic touches that make it feel a little like a Fourth of July evening on the lake.

Commissioned by a metro Detroit client for his client in Oklahoma (no pressure at all), this painting pushed me way outside my comfort zone. And just when I though I'd wrangled the sky on this one, he sent over a second commission that was a whole other sky moment... stay tuned!

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