Commissioning a Painting

Some thoughts on taking the next step toward owning a very special part of history and beauty~ possibly a portrait but maybe a still life or a landscape.. Whatever your heart seeks, I will aspire to transform your hopes, your wishes, and vision into color and line so that I may encapsulate beauty and present it to you on canvas.  May this treasure that you and I have created, give you and those you love, with generations to follow, a full heart and much pleasure for years to come.

Whether it be a landscape, a still life or a portrait, the commissioning process is quite direct and simple.  The first step would be to contact me and speak about what you would like to see realized.  I will help you determine and understand the working process involved to see your artwork created.  For instance, sittings will be requested to paint a portrait including a photography session which will determine the most pleasing composition.  As to your request I will explain, craft-wise, what it will mean to produce the piece you are requesting for you to know what to anticipate and how much time the work of art will require for completion.  Following our initial consultation you will have a clear understanding of working process, an estimated time of completion included with a cost framework that will allow a time frame to suit your comfort and capability.

Commissioning a work of Art is a very wonderful experience, not only for what awaits you, but for whom you'd like to have painted.  It also is a profound privilege for me, as the artist, to offer to you my talent and my vision, coupled with yours to create a unique and beautiful work of Art.

A Genre Piece

The O'Brien family portrait was a wonderful experience to paint~ I was able to put together a genre piece reminiscent of paintings done in prior centuries, composing and creating a family portrait, as a unified and cohesive composition illustrating a beautiful relationship of the family captured in a moment in time.  

I have had the great opportunity to become a direct link to the Old Masters. My lineage is woven through the French Academic and Impressionist Traditions dating prior to the 17th century. 
It is that lineage and a deep respect and appreciation for life and its visual relationships that has facilitated my ability to see, and to record. 
There is a relationship, that may be seen of color and value composed with line in nature to reveal the visual story of life. Within each brush stroke, one's artwork may record what is incomprehensible to the mind yet the heart celebrates. 

As a portrait sitting may inspire an artist to be moved by the profundity of existence within the sitter, so may a sunset or sunrise inspire another. 
And if words could articulate such a moment of profound beauty, wouldn't those words be likened to poetry? 

Allow me to invite you into my world, within the process of seeing~ and responding on canvas. We will journey together to witness the unfolding of visual poetry. 

Either you may come to my studio in the mountains of North Carolina, or I will come to you. The process begins with finding a place to compose your portrait with natural light. We will discuss possibilities for the composition and create a suitable vignette within which to paint you. 

 

Upon choosing a few settings to photograph and discern which environment is the most pleasing and attractive, we will choose a pose which will range from head and shoulders to three quarter length to full length for your portrait painting.   

After the photography session, we will collaborate and choose from the most attractive pose and composition.  At this point we may begin an initial sitting, based upon your availability.  We may also establish portrait sittings throughout the process unless you would prefer my developing the portrait from my studio with the initial sketch that has established "notes" from nature, presenting an invaluable tool for proceeding in completing the portrait.

In pricing your commissioned portrait there are many choices: Portrait size, complexity of composition, number of subjects, and full or partial view.  I feel it is best to speak to you about the options and provide you with an estimate.  

"Let us take the wonderful opportunity together to reawaken a dormant tradition virtually lost in this century." 

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