Works in Progress

Awakening | Fall Pleasures | Mesa Magic | Aspen Exploration | Gaining Perspective

A New Challenge, Paint a Commissioned Painting

Joyce, one of my clients, wanted two commissioned paintings of her property, to give as a surprise to her husband, Rex for Christmas. Her concept was to capture the essence of their home and land, and the views that meant so much to them both.

She invited me to visit her home so that I could see the incredible views, scout potential images, and see where the paintings would be on display. Together we walked the property, getting a feel for the visuals, while I listened to her speak of her feelings in and around her beautiful home. I took a lot of pictures, and ran some ideas by her as we explored the land.

(click on each image to enlarge)

Later I worked up a couple of rough pencil sketches to give her a sense of composition. When she approved them, I painted some simple 9x12 color studies. The mountain and sky views at her home were gorgeous, but the day I had visited, the sky had been stormy. So Joyce requested a softer, more ethereal sky. No problem - I went through my photo archives and found several New Mexico sky photos. Ultimately, I created Joyce’s sky using a compilation of three photos.

The backdrop to Joyce and Rex’s home is a beautiful and powerful mesa. To capture their feelings about this landmark and show its full expanse, I changed the perspective a bit, and heightening it to give the viewer a sense of its majesty (oh, the joys of artistic license).

Once we knew we were both on the same page, I began to paint. Joyce was delighted with the results, and so was Rex on Christmas Day.

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THIS is the beginning of a painting for a client who fell in love with a piece I had already sold. I asked her what moved her, and she replied sunsets. I have never attempted a late sunset, so this will be my first effort. I showed her pictures I had taken throughout the summer of some of the amazing skies right from my front yard. She selected four pictures  that she really was drawn to. They were all very powerful, turbulent brilliant shades of purples & oranges.

	The photographs:
	The painting in stages of progress:
(1) This underpainting is the very first outline of energetic movement and use of color.  (4) Too much, too busy, brushing off and starting over.	(2) This is the first underlayer washed to begin to push some of the color into the paper. There will be many layers of colors, and the sky will morph through many evolutions. (5) Getting closer, but still not happy with it. More work to do!	(3) Layering on the color... (6) Final Sunset attempt