A Storefront Portrait of Lim Bances Realty in Springfield, New Jersey

by Jennifer Skopp

A woman contacted Jennifer Skopp to create this “Watercolor Store Portrait,” to help celebrate her sister’s grand opening of a new real estate office in Springfield, New Jersey, called Lim Bances Realty. The client contacted Jennifer on a Thursday and needed it for Saturday, the same week. It was a rush job.

This office is in a strip mall with other stores. It is one floor. There’s a very large, red awning that has the logo, the name of the business and the telephone number on it, in white letters and numbers. The glass door with a red frame is in the middle of the shop. There are two large windows on each side of the front door. Photocopies of house listings are taped to the inside of the windows. The sides of the building are made of yellow brick. There are two low, yellow brick planters sitting on the ground if front of each window.

To show that this scene was a celebration, Jennifer Skopp painted a red carpet leading to the front door. She added two clusters of red, yellow and blue balloons on each side of the outside of the store/office. Jennifer painted two planters on each side with bushes that were trimmed to three balls, topiary style. Each planter had a large, red bow on it. Jennifer added plants with red and white flowers to the brick planters to match the awning. She also painted a large, red, round, decoration with ribbons hanging down, on the front door.

In the Store Portrait there are two trees, clouds and the sky behind the office, that Jennifer painted using playful shapes. The entire scene does not fit into a standard rectangle, but is an irregular shape that Jennifer thought would look more fun.