This tutorial will show you how to turn a Photo into a painting

First fix any shadow / highlight issues with Curves / LevelsIf you have Photoshop CS or Photoshop Elements 3 Choose image>Adjustments>Shadow Highlight
Move the amount slider as high as it will go. The image may look a little too bright in places but that doesn't matter.
If you are using Photoshop 7 or less, choose the curves or levels setting to brighten the image.

Choose Edit/Fade Find Edges (This option will only be avaliable at this point, if you do anything else between Find Edges andd Fade, you won't be able to do this)
Change the blending mode to Luminosity. This will restore the colors (Don't close the dialog yet)

Reduce the Opacity slider until you are happy with the result. I used 35 for this image.

There you have it, in 3 easy steps you have created a classic.