50th Anniversary Commission: 10" X 8" Colored Pencil on Ampersand Pastelboard

50th Anniversary Commission: 10" X 8" Colored Pencil on Ampersand Pastelboard SOLD,
Church of the Immaculate Conception, Jenkintown, PA

Working on a commission is always an exciting experience for an artist.  Especially when the family of an artist friend is the commissioner.  Which was the case for this commissioned painting.  The children of a dear friend asked that I create a commission painting of the church their parents were married in 50 years ago.  And they needed it F-A-S-T (4 days before varnishing!)   Current photos would not have been appropriate to use since the church had undergone renovations during those 50 years.  So the photo they provided me to use was needless to say small dpi and a bit grainy.  (I've attached it below.)  

I changed the composition a bit instead of just drawing straight from the photo.  Leveling out the camera distortion a bit for the church, and playing up the spring blooming tree to the left.  I felt by making the tree more important it would soften the hard edges of the architecture as well as help to settle the building into the scene.  Down playing the street presence.  Although the reference photo provided to me was old and a little desaturated from time I wanted to make this a bit more colorful.                             

Knowing this would eventually end up in the hands of another wonderful artist and friend, was a bit unnerving.  We all want to do our best for any commissioner.  Although I'm comfortable with perspective drawing,  and love other artists city scenes, architecture is not my favorite thing to do usually. (I enjoy more organic subjects as a rule.)   

Size suggestions were obvious, they wanted smaller but 6 X 8 would have been a little too small to develop a likeness, in my opinion.   So we settled on 8 X 10 in a vertical format (10 X 8).  

So there you go, a short show and tell about my latest commission.  Happy Golden Anniversary Suzzie and Frank!  Many many more to come! Oh and their daughter reported "Mom cried when she saw it" made me feel like I did a pretty good job for them.  Although I never strive to make someone cry as a rule. LOL

Now back to my current project which has seen way too many distractions!

Gloria

First Date - A Christmas gift commission 12 X 12 Colored Pencil on Cradled Hardboard

This is a commission piece I did for a customer reflecting on his first date with the woman he was about to ask to marry.  He wanted something similar to my recent "Wine By Candelight" piece he had seen at my Cooper Winery Show, but using the wine they had, flower on the table and their hands.  He sent me several photos of all the separate elements for me to place into a still life.   I waited to post it until now so the big event would have happened and she had her surprise gift and I'm sure said "Yes."

I primed a cradled hardboard panel on the top and varnished the natural wood sides so it could hang without framing.  This gave the piece a more contemporary look, and enabled me to leave it unframed.  Priming was with Colorfix pastel primer in a skyblue color, this primer has marble dust in it so the resulting finish is that of a sanded surface.  I chose the light blue since that was the color of the booth from the restaurant in his pictures and I had this also in stock. 

I worked up a lay out of the entire piece as a sketch and emailed it off for approval.  In order to get the glass ware reflections and shapes I set up my own still life with a similar white wine, glasses and a red flower (but not the same kind as he wanted used).  I did this so I could see the reflections of A flower in the glasses, and tablecloth and also to have a live set up to work from.  So I used about 5 of his photos and my own set up to come up with the sketch and resulting work.  After completing the piece all in colored pencil I sprayed it with a UV Archival Varnish in 8 layers so it can hang without glass.

The fun in this project for me was creating a piece that would later be the documentation of their first date, and something they will look back on as their marriage grows.  I was honored to have made for such a wonderful young man in love.