Very special watercolor portrait of home in historic Soulard neighborhood

Just finished on July 19th…. a watercolor portrait of a property very special to me. Built in 1870 and located in the historic Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, this 2-family residence belonged to my Uncle Raymond and was in the family for 59 years until he recently sold it. This residence is special to me because I lived there with my family until I was almost six years old, and my earliest childhood memories are from this home. The exterior has changed over the years, but I chose to depict it the way it looked during the mid-1960’s when Raymond’s family lived upstairs and my family lived downstairs. This custom house portrait will be a surprise gift for my uncle , now 81 years old, and I will be giving 8″x10″ color prints to his family and mine so we can all have a keepsake of the property that had been in the family for so many years.

This photo, taken on Easter Sunday 1965, shows me with my Father, and my Mom holding Richie,my new baby brother. Special thanks to my big brother Lon ( 8 years old at the time) for taking the photo — it’s definitely one of my favorites!