Sophie Fain loves her walks around the Upper West Side.

“It doesn’t feel like you’re in the city. It feels like a gem,” she said as she walked on 88th Street from Columbus to Amsterdam Avenues.

She was talking about the brownstones that line the streets from Central Park West to Riverside Drive in the neighborhood. 

“You don’t see buildings like this anymore," she said. "A lot of thought and craftsmanship went into it.”

The brownstones have been there since the 19th century and many are unchanged outside, but about a year ago they began changing Fain’s life.

While Fain has always been an artist, between pursuing her masters and teaching at a public high school, life got in the way.

 But she still wanted to paint, so she turned to social media and asked her Upper West Side neighbors to hire her to paint whatever they wanted.

“I was offering these commissions for such a low price that I felt there was little at risk here," she said.

Her first commission was to paint a brownstone two blocks away from her home with watercolors.

"I thought it was a really cool idea," she said. "I was always interested in architecture.”

She got to work and when she shared her art online, something happened.

“It kind of just blew up into its own thing where so many people found their own attachments to their homes,” she said.

 People all over the Upper West Side started reaching out with heartfelt stories about the neighborhood they love, asking Fain to immortalize their homes.

“it’s a testament to how much people love the Upper West Side,” she said.

 She’s had so much business from the dozens of brownstones she painted that it has helped pay off her student loan debt for her masters in school administration.

“They say it’s about the journey, but I really like the destination at the end," she said.

The destinations have been all over the place. She had someone contact her from Sweden, who used to live in the neighborhood. Her art is also in a Joe’s Pizza down in Miami, and of course all over the Upper West Side.

Believe it or not, Fain used to hate watercolor painting. It all changed when she started painting the Upper West Side. And now it may alter her career path next.

“I’m going to go back to school in the fall as a special ed teacher, maybe in a couple years go into admin or become a full-time artist," she said. "Who knows.”

A career path not set in stone thanks in part to the timeless brownstones.