Painting on Fridays: Exploring Landscape on Canvas Nurtures an Architect's Passion for the Artfully Sited House (Jeremiah Eck‪)‬

Jeremiah Eck started his residential practice in Boston with $30 in his pocket and little more than a pencil to draw with. Twenty-eight years later, the firm is thriving and Eck, FAIA, has taken up a paintbrush, retreating to his backyard studio each Friday to work on his landscape canvases. It's site work of a different nature, liberated from the concerns of clients, contractors, deadlines, and the limitations of budgets, materials, and building codes. Eck has been approached by patrons wishing to commission paintings, but he resists. "I don't want to make it a job," he says. Possibly, it's the perfect balance: pure art done for love and straightforward architecture done for a living. Of course, life is never that tidy and clear-cut. Eck has recently given in to a good friend's request for a commissioned painting, and he brings a great deal of art to his design of houses. His Web site, www.jearch.com, underlines his views up front on the home page: "We believe that architecture is an art and a service and, most importantly, that good clients make good architecture."