A Storefront Portrait in Springfield, New Jersey

by Jennifer Skopp

Jennifer Skopp saw this cute gift store in a town near her New Jersey home and thought it would be fun to paint a “Store Portrait.”  This gift shop is in a quaint town center. People walk to shops, rather than drive to a strip mall.

The store is in a brick building and there is a striped awning. The front door has a large window. The two store signs are the shape of small ovals and appear on each of the two large windows. Many of the gifts on display could be seen through the store’s windows.

Jennifer’s goal was to paint a generic gift shop, rather than a specific one. She changed some of the colors from the original photograph of the store and worked with a palette where the primary colors were dominant. Instead of a black and white awning, Jennifer made it blue and white. She painted the front door red and changed the color of the two store signs to yellow. Jennifer included a round yellow planter and a taller, blue triangular shaped planter, on each side of the outside of the store. She painted the trim on top of the building blue.  The entire Shopfront Painting does not fit into a standard rectangle, but is an irregular shape that Jennifer thought would look more fun.