This traveling thing can be tough in many ways, but perhaps the most wearying is always living in someone else’s home.  As hard as I work to make each place feel like ours, we always end up feeling a bit like house crashers.  But then again, in some cases, we find ourselves caring for an otherwise empty, lonely house.  Like the dwellings in Australian artist Paul Davies’ work, we are sometimes greeted by a sad shell.  It is only when a house is occupied and filled with love that it truly becomes a home.

Many of the houses Paul chooses to paint seem devoid of life.  There are furnishings, but no people to be seen, pools with no water in which to swim.

Like Davies’ abodes, a few of the homes we’ve occupied were crying out to be cared for.  The one we rented in Coeur d’Alene was a particularly sweet little cottage that seemed so neglected due to its rental status.  Any improvements were done on the cheap.  What a lovely home it could have made for the right family, if only it were given the chance!

Does anyone else see an empty house and think of how much happier it would be if it were cared for and loved as a home?  Just me?  What does your own home say about you?

To see more of Paul Davies’ work, please visit his website.

Featured image is Empty Pool + Modern Home + Palms, acrylic on canvas, 122×122 cm.  All images are via the artist’s website.