Realtor And Artist Paints Old Town Alexandria Homes For Calendar

ALEXANDRIA, VA—By day, Betsy Grady-Carey is a realtor at Long and Foster's Historic Old Town office. By night, she blends her passion for homes and art by painting homes. For the second straight year she's turned that passion into a 2019 calendar of Old Town Alexandria homes.

A 30-year resident of the area, Grady-Carey sells properties in the Old Town Alexandria, Fort Hunt and Mount Vernon areas and does art on the side. She told Patch she has dabbled in art her whole life, but it became a serious passion about five years ago. A friend she had painted a portrait for convinced Grady-Carey to take art classes at the Torpedo Factory Art Center.

Her work took off through The Twig, a thrift store and organization supporting Alexandria Inova Hospital, which she's been a part of for 12 years. Two years ago, The Twig asked her to paint portraits of the homes on its annual Historic Homes Tour for promotions and as gifts to the homeowners. She painted the homes for the second time earlier this year.

"That was the first time I've painted townhouses," she said. "The homeowners loved getting [an]...oil canvass painting of their homes."

The calendar idea emerged from colleagues in her real estate office as a gift idea for clients. The 2018 calendar debuted last year featuring homes on the Historic Homes Tour. For the 2019 calendar, Grady-Carey chose her own selections of homes.

The 12 homes represent all four quadrants of the historic Old Town district—she made a point to choose different colors and styles too. The home on the cover is her favorite; it's a white home at Cameron and Columbus Street with a unique roof.

"They were all fun and fascinating to paint because they are all different styles," she said.

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The 12 home paintings took a matter of months to complete. Grady-Carey would first look for homes with unique architecture around town and take pictures of them.

Being a realtor helped in the painting process since she understands concepts like dimensions and how windows are laid out. By setting painting times in between her day job, she finished paintings on pace of about one per week.

She's sold her calendars to various shops and realtors, and she plans to save some for her own clients. The calendars are available for $12.95 online or at these shops: The Twig Thrift Shop (106 N Columbus Street), Alexandria Visitor Center (221 King Street), Old Town Shop (105 S Union Street) and Periwinkle (111 S Columbus Street).

Aside from painting homes, Grady-Carey has painted portraits of people and pets for family and friends. To see more of her art, visit Grady-Carey's website.

Images provided by Betsy Grady-Carey