A House Portrait from Scottsdale, Arizona,

by Jennifer Skopp

While visiting relatives in Scottsdale, Arizona, Jennifer Skopp appreciated how different the landscape looked compared to suburban New Jersey and decided to create a Watercolor House Portrait of her family’s home.

This house is in a development. It is off-white and the pitched roof is a light reddish brown, which is the colors of all the houses in this development. The garage is on the right. A middle section of the house protrudes from the rest of the house. It has a large vertical window that is almost the same height as the house. The left wall of that section has beautiful, bright red bougainvillea growing on it. To the left of that wall is the mostly enclosed area where the front door is.  There is a horizontal, light reddish-brown trim that is on all the outdoor walls of the left and center sections of the home.

The front garden is the width of the left and middle sections.  A driveway is in front of the garage. The soil looks like it is composed of sand and very small pebbles. There are low, round cacti, and round plants with long spiky leaves. One tree in front of the main entrance is leaning to the right. It has long branches that are crooked. Tiny, wispy leaves hang from the branches. There are also low, round plants that are densely filled with tiny green leaves and a few plants with small orange flowers. Bushes and shrubs line the middle section of the house, except there is one cactus in the front with many offshoots, which Jennifer learned are called “pups.”

Jennifer decided to show the front and left sides of the house. This way there is a view of the bougainvillea. She painted the shadows purple. The top of tree frames the top of the Watercolor House Portrait. Jennifer enjoyed working on a house that was so different than the ones you see in the eastern part of our country.