Storm Moon… from sketchbook to living room wall - commissioning a painting.
Whilst exhibiting at the wonderful Discover Gather Give Contemporary Arts Fair in Stratford upon Avon during 2019, I met a lovely client who subsequently commissioned me to create a painting for her. As it would turn out, this piece kept me sane during the following craziness that is Covid and it’s lockdown of life as we know it.
It gave me no choice but to start painting in what is now known as Le Shedio at the end of my garden, and with a new baby in tow, the now close proximity of my studio was fabulous.
My client’s wishes for her commission were straightforward: She had a space in mind and sent me photos of the room along with approximate measurements. She was able to point out a couple of existing paintings of mine that she liked the feel of, and requested a more recognisable landscape piece rather than abstracted, a gold circle to suggest a moon or sun, a murmuration and a good balance between dark and light. After that, I was free to create. Read on and scroll down to see the process unfold…
My sketch book was the first port of call:
Final loose sketch to work from.
Final loose sketch to work from.
I tend to work on several pieces at once and you can see here the large ink canvas on the wall that I used as my parallel piece here. Doing this lets me try out techniques and inks to see what’s going to happen - as the medium I use is so unpredictable. Resting on the easel is the stretched canvas frame ready for the final commissioned painting.
The first layer of ink down… this always dries completely differently to how I expect it to! So when I come back to work into it for the next layer the composition will have to naturally evolve - one of the reasons that I don’t work to a rigid sketch. I love this element of my process - the not knowing quite where the piece is headed next.
More ink has laid down along with some bleach. I mask off areas of the canvas with torn cardboard and use different spray bottles with various mixtures of watered down bleach in to create different strengths of splatter. I have to be careful not to be too over eager to see the result as the bleach can take different amounts of time to develop and it has been known for me to white everything out because I didn’t think it was working!
Deciding where the moon is going to rise… this can take the longest time, but when the feeling of rightness comes it’s wonderful :)
Finishing touches with my helper! Painting the edges black.
Gold leaf added.
Murmuration added.
Beautifully framed by Post Art Framers in Redditch in consultation with my client.
On this occasion my customer didn’t live too far away, so my partner (who happens to be a gallery technician) and I delivered the painting personally and hung it in her living room. It was so lovely to see it in it’s new home and be able to install it - a wonderful end to an eventful journey to Elsewhere. One of my main aims for my artworks is that they provide escape - they are paintings of nowhere yet somewhere, Elsewhere.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch for a chat about a painting for your home. There’s no space too large or too small. Let’s do this!