A Bigger Commission

In late fall last year I took a commission through my gallery in Santa Fe, to paint a still life for a collectors dinning room. They loved my work but had some ideas on subject matter and we agreed on the size of 60X72. When working to this size I move from the studio to my garage. In truth the canvas can fit in my studio, but there's not a lot of room. Though the garage may not be luxurious, there's lots of space to move around.

Here's an early sketch, I produced a series of these concept sketches. Gradually elements from various drawings are pulled together to produce the final design. This isn't the final, since I felt it more interesting to show some other choices during the process to provide a contrast to the final painting.

After the sketch is approved, I provide a number of different color designs to choose from. You can see how different the final color choices are when compared with the final painting to this plan.

Some elements within the painting are discussed in detail, such as what tablecloth design to use.

The final canvas is stretched primed and ready to go.

Notice my embarrassing, but surprisingly functional makeshift easel. The studio easel would cope with this size, but it's heavy. Rather than carry it to the garage I used a cool chest with a length of wood on top. The canvas is placed on this and held above by two metal wire coat hangers bent and twisted over the top of the painting.

The cloisonnist lines are painted onto the canvas, sometimes I'll even project my loose sketches over the canvas to help guide me, keeping strongly to the initial sketches. I will also refer closely to photographic reference materials of elements on the table to make sure I represent them accurately.

Using the color plan as a base design I paint in strong under-painting color.

A painting of this size takes some time to complete, it represents many weeks of hard work.

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Below in the final painting. The colors within this work are hard to show within a photograph. Taking a picture of this scale of work provides unique challenges, the color represented in the small detail image, represents the work far better than say the shot with me beside the painting.

 Arrangement of Tulips fruit & Peruvian cloth

Acrylic on Canvas           60X72

A detail.