Commission artwork

Along with my regular plein air painting sessions at Arlington Court,  I have been doing some painting in my home study for them.  

They asked if I would be able to do a painting from a photograph.  This one is displayed in the Old Kitchen Tea Rooms, and depicts the scene from years ago before the Arlington estate went to the National Trust.   Here's the photo...

I like a challenge and set to scaling this image up from my reference photo of 4x6 inches to 16x24 inches - on canvas.

- Initial outlines and I added the darkest areas to start -

- Then the addition of some detail -

I think this is where I started to feel the painting was becoming something.

- Subtle additions where I add items to the table -

Some of the reference photo was blurry, so difficult to decide what was there. This is where artistic license came into play - plus I couldn't bring myself to add the dead pheasant and turned it into a loaf of bread!

 - Finally, when the above layer of paint had dried, I added a final glaze of green from the window -

and the

Completed painting

This had to sit for a couple of weeks to completely dry, (titled and signed on the back), then I took it over to Arlington and hoped they would like it.  As it was, they Loved it....phew what a relief.

It is now displayed in the Tea Rooms, the place where the scene originated.

A very enjoyable Commission

I love doing Commission paintings and recently I was asked to do a painting for online friend Eileen in North Wales

The subject was "Annie" her lurcher - now I'm sort of used to drawing a lurcher aren't I, so right up my street  

With a good reference photo to work from and the brief was that the medium could be my choice.   Usually I know straight away the medium I'll use, but I was swayed between Oil and Watercolour here.   I often do a Watercolour to start me off as it gets me into the feel of a subject/testing tones etc.  However, for texture and colours in Annie's coat, Oil painting is great to use.   I finally opted to concentrate on Oil.

I'm delighted to say that Eileen and her husband were really pleased with the painting - (I surprised them with a gift of the watercolour too).  They have sent me photos of the paintings framed and now hanging on their walls.    

"Annie" - Oil 

and here's the Watercolour

  I LOVED PAINTING BOTH VERSIONS
AND I'M SO PLEASED EILEEN AND HER HUSBAND ARE HAPPY WITH THE PAINTINGS

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