How to Commission a Personalized Painting of Your Vacation Home

Even a simple photo on your phone can turn into something your family keeps forever.

A lot of people think commissioning a painting is this big, complicated process.

Like you need the perfect photo. The perfect moment. A whole back-and-forth conversation just to get started.

You don’t.

Most of the time, it begins with one photo—usually from the water.

The angle you naturally take when you’re out on the boat, or standing on the dock, looking back at your place. That perspective already holds more feeling than people realize.

From there, I take it and start working through it.

I’m looking at the light first—what time of day it feels like, or what it should feel like. Then composition, what to keep, what to soften, what to let stand out. Some pieces stay very true to the original photo. Others become a little more layered, a little more intentional.

Not different—just clearer. More like how it felt to be there.

You don’t have to overthink your part in it. You just have to recognize the photo that feels like your place.

The rest of it is on me.

The most important thing is working with someone who understands that this isn’t just a house. It’s a place you’ve lived something in. And the goal isn’t to copy it—it’s to reflect it back to you in a way that actually holds onto that.

If you already have a lake-view photo you love, you can start your portrait here.

—Rachel