COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Fans of Thomas Kinkade's sentimental paintings soon will be able to do more than hang them on the wall. They could hang them on the wall of a house designed to look exactly like one of Kinkade's paintings.
The California artist, beloved by middlebrow America but reviled by the art establishment, has signed a deal with developers in this resort city to help design five lake-view homes that are copies of homes in paintings such as "Beyond Autumn Gate."
The homes will cost $4 million to $6 million, part of an explosion of McMansions being constructed around Lake Coeur d'Alene as this once-fading timber and mining town gets remade by tourists and retirees.
"I had clients for years tell me, 'I'd like to have a house like this' and 'Show me a Kinkade painting,' " said Rann Haight, the architect who is designing the homes. "I said, why not?"
While it is easy to snicker at the work of the self-proclaimed "painter of light," millions collect Kinkade paintings.
Still, Mark Nash, a real estate expert from the Chicago area, said it's a bold move to market extremely expensive homes to Kinkade fans.
"The Kinkade art style has never been positioned as a luxury one," Nash said. "It might be a stretch to make a Rolls-Royce out of a Buick brand. But money has not always been able to buy you taste."
Robert Niles, who created the satirical Web site "Reuben Kinkade, Painter of Stuff," complete with a photo of the fictional manager of "The Partridge Family," said fans of Thomas Kinkade's art can be single-minded in their devotion.
"Kinkade's stuff is as cloying as a box of Lucky Charms," Niles said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "I just was amused by the misguided fans who thought his stuff was high art and a great investment."
If Kinkade is crying, it is all the way to the bank, because his paintings and spin-off products are said to fetch some $100 million a year in sales, and to be in 10 million homes in the United States.
Works by Kinkade, who labels himself the nation's most collected living artist, generally depict tranquil scenes, such as country homes and churches, lighthouses, lush landscaping and cottages with streams running nearby.
Kinkade was too busy to speak with The Associated Press, said Jim Bryant, a spokesman for Thomas Kinkade Co. in Morgan Hill, Calif.
The artist gets many requests from builders and others who want to capitalize on his work, but this project in Idaho was one of the best, Bryant said.
Details of Kinkade's financial involvement were not disclosed, but Kinkade is not contributing any money to the project.
The artist does appear in a video promoting the development. "People tell me they often wish they could enter into one of my paintings," Kinkade said in the video.
Haight and his partners, financier Roger Stewart and builder Steve Torres, will not be the first to convert a Kinkade canvas into bricks and mortar.
In 2002, a housing development of 140 homes near Vallejo, Calif., "inspired" by Kinkade's work, sold out, but at much more modest prices of around $400,000
The artist will participate in the design of the five Idaho homes, Haight said.
"Kinkade is a frustrated architect and I am a frustrated artist, so we can work together," Haight said.
"We would want him to be as involved as possible, and we will present all designs to him," Haight said. "We would welcome any comments and revisions. As a buyer, you are expecting his influence throughout the whole project."
The homes will be built on a 20-acre site with spectacular views near Bennett Bay on Lake Coeur d'Alene, some 40 miles east of Spokane, Wash. The project is called The Gates of Coeur d'Alene, and features homes from Kinkade's Gate series of paintings.
Coeur d'Alene has become a magnet for well-to-do urban refugees, and million-dollar houses are no longer rare, especially near the 30-mile-long lake. Home prices climbed nearly 30 percent last year to an average sales price of $210,000, among the top 10 rates of increase in the nation.
One of the newcomers was Haight, who moved from the Sacramento area a decade ago.