Once an outline was on the paper I didn’t realise how difficult this was going to be painting all the little bricks and different light sources.

Looking closely at the photo I discovered that the sky was not in fact black, the trees created a silhouette and were the darkest part for the painting, so I needed to create a lighter sky.

This part was quite fun creating all the stars, I used my stippling brush to flick paint all other the background and masked the rest of the painting with paper towels. Maybe I should have also covered half the table and my poor iPad.

I also used this splatter technique to create all the tiny stones on the ground.

Now time to start adding some tree branches so later I could add all the foliage, I find this works best for me and sometimes I just leave trees with dead branches.

I also start adding some colour to the night sky as not all the stars were white.

Now time to see how much variety of bushes and trees I can come up with using only a handful of greens, yellow and pinks.

More distant trees were added and also some black paint just to create some tree outlines.

I also added a few Boganville as this is one of the main plants at Possum Park and such a pain to prune.

Now this is where I really struggled and I’m sure in time I will get much better and faster. I started adding a lot of yellow to the windows, trying to create light and a nice warm glow.

I lost count how many times I re painted the bricks on the side of the house with more yellow.

I think it wasn’t until I painted trees on the other side of the yard that the brickwork and light from the cottage windows really started to become believable.

Final tree leaves were added and a slight splash of yellow added to the bushes and anything close to the windows. Also a little possum was added sitting in the tree, which was only a few mm of paint really but it seems to work and people have already commented on it.

Finished artwork ready to hang and 30 limited edition prints will be made available soon, but only available for purchase at Possum Cottage its self.