Commissioned Oil Paintings With Far Away Customers

Commissions are an important component of earning a living with art. Some artists love them, some do them while figuratively holding their noses, and some artists flat out refuse. I fall somewhere between the first 2 types of artists, because it depends on both the idea and the customer.

While I worked with Lisa on her commissioned oil painting of the Lake House last fall, I did some thinking about commissions. It is so tricky to work long distance, using photos, email and an occasional phone call. Words mean things, and relying on words to explain an unseen thing is tricky.

Three Rivers commissioned oil painting

There are several elements at work in this type of art-making endeavor:

The Ideas: Those who know what they want, and those who are not sure, and those who keep editing.

The Customers: Those who can communicate and those who cannot.

Hmmm, that makes 3 x 2 = 6 possible commission customers

1. Knows what she wants and can explain it – The easiest!

2. Not sure what she wants but can explain as she figures it out. . . keep talking, because eventually we will arrive. (Hi Lisa! We did it!!)

3. Keeps editing and can explain each new idea – keep talking, but my prices are really too low for this type of continual editing and changing. Construction companies call these “Change Orders” which means they charge each time a customer orders a change.

4. Knows and cannot communicate – yikes.

5. Isn’t sure and cannot communicate – Sorry, Toots, I am unable to be of any assistance here.

6. Doesn’t have an idea and cannot communicate – Fuhgeddaboutit.

It all comes down to communication.

The painting above was painted for a customer in the #1 category, except that she isn’t far away. She wants another just like it. That will be fun, and I will add the personal challenge of just like it only better.

P.S. I see it is time to update my commissioned oil painting page because I have put commissioned paintings on the sold page instead of where they belong! Where are My People? I need People for this stuff!

Lisa’s Lake House, 10

Lisa’s Lake House is completed – signed, varnished, photographed and titled correctly as “Hjartebo”.

Now it sits in the painting workshop so I can follow it while working on the duplicate paintings for Lisa’s sisters. You’d think I’d have this completely memorized, but my visual memory is not quite that developed. I could work from the photos of the painting, but the color matching would be off.

Hang on, Lisa, I’m painting as fast as the weather, the light, drawing lessons, developing a 2014 calendar and The Cabins of Wilsonia will allow!

Painting Multiplication

Yesterday I said I’d tell you what is happening with all the duplication and triplication and multiplication of Lisa’s Lake House (which has now been titled “Hjartebo”, but there are 2 dots over the a and I can’t find the key for that on the computer. It means “place of love” in Swedish. Remember, this is in Minnesota.) 

Lisa has two sisters! That’s what’s going on here. I started the 16×12 for one sister (it will be surprise but she doesn’t know about me, so it’s cool, no worries). Then the other sister requested a 20×16. Since the decisions have all been made, this shouldn’t be as painstaking.

I don’t mean I will be sloppy. It is just that I will be able to get things right the first time.

Lisa’s Lake House 9

Am I finished?? I am not finished until I sign, and I don’t sign until the customer is happy. Is Lisa happy? More will be revealed. . .

I am happy. I am really happy!  The hollyhocks and day lilies took out the Big Red Square feel of the painting, softened the edges, and livened it up. Lisa requested the chimney in spite of the fact that it does not show from this angle. That’s fine – I am her hired paintbrush, her humble servant. We also figured out how to put in the sailboat, once we figured out where the horizon line really belonged. Would you believe this lake is 3-1/2 miles wide?? That boat is waaaay out there!

Are you wondering what is going on with all this multiplication? Duplication? Triplication??

Tell you tomorrow!

Lisa’s Lake House 8

And finally, it is beginning to look detailed! There will be an extended drying session, because the shadows on the house are all wet. The next step is hollyhocks, lilies and geraniums, and they will go over the house, so it cannot be wet when I add those.

In addition to seeing Lisa’s Lake House, you can see I have several unfinished paintings and that I have painted the trim in the workshop a lovely teal. What you can’t see is that I poured teal paint on the floor while moving those telephone wires around. I think teal and brown are a beautiful combination, so the spots on the floor look okay to me. It’s a workshop, not a living room! (although sometimes it feels as if I live there. . .)

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? I just turned my back for a sec, and look what happened on the easels! I think I’ll go lie down for a bit, maybe take an aspirin or find some chocolate.

Lisa’s Lake House 7

The saga continues.

Here is exactly what I emailed to Lisa about it:

“Why can I not notice that the wet paint shines until I put it in an email to you?? sigh. The shadows on the left side of the house are really darker, not shiny lighter!

“In other news:

1. The sky is repainted and the trees and distant lake shore are repaired.

2. the hosta bed is now painted

3. I added the barest tiniest hint of lake through the porch even though it squeezes the side of the house a bit.

4. The stump has more texture (white geraniums can’t happen until house is dry)

5. The shadows cast by the battens are straighter and more distinct (I’ll have to rephoto it  when it is drier)

6. The windows are straighter and I added a bit of sunshine to the one on the far left (we’ll see how it looks dry).

6. The boulders are beginning to look like Minnesota rocks instead of rounded river rocks.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

Leave these dadgum paintings alone in the workshop and they begin multiplying in the dark!

Lisa’s Lake House 6

Lisa and I have been discussing the height of the horizon line. When I work from a combination of somewhat incomplete photos and a customer’s memory, there is a lot of explanation involved. It became necessary to thoroughly understand horizon lines and where they belong so that I could put this one in the right place, since it didn’t show in any photo.

Then, Lisa’s Mom’s friend (I could go and on and say her mom’s friend’s cousin’s neighbor’s brother-in-law’s sister, but it would be a made-up lie just to amuse myself) sent a photo with a (barely) visible horizon line.

This caused Lisa and me to rethink the placement of the horizon line in her painting. I lowered it, and then had to stop painting because it was too overcast and dark in the painting studio to mix any colors correctly or to see any detail. (You know how I love me some detail!)

Here is the painting with a lowered horizon line and nothing else changed since I last posted about the painting. (Had to take some time away for family stuff – not slacking off, just living life.)

When (if?) Lisa approves the new height, I’ll put the distant trees back in. Then I’ll patch up the roof and the trees from where the lake splashed over them.

Lisa’s Lake House #5

As I was painting on this fifth pass over the canvas, the phone rang. I was between colors and just staring at the canvas, so contrary to my normal phone habits while painting, I answered.

The caller identified herself, and I was completely blank mentally.  Completely. I realized that I was concentrating so much on the details of the painting that I felt as if I was at the lake in Minnesota. In addition to not putting down the brush, not interrupting the flow of thoughts is another reason to let the answering machine pick up while painting.

After showing Lisa step #4, she made a few requests and changes and additions. I paid attention, then put on my strongest magnifying glasses and went to work on the details of the distant lake line along with some other things. I LOVE detail. (Hmmm, I’ve mentioned this before, yes?)

Here is the latest pass over the canvas:

The lake was looking rather ocean-ish. Because I couldn’t see the horizon line in any of the photos, and Lisa asked me to open up the trees for a better view of the lake, I was just baffled as to what to do. (My normal thing is to bury stuff that I can’t see under growing things.)

Lisa sent me a video, taken while standing on her dock and slowly turning 360 degrees around the entire lake view. I watched that video numerous times, and then paused it and studied the distant shore line. Aha! So THAT’s how a lake shore looks at a distance. . .

The house and windows now have tighter detail. There needs to be more shadow on the house, but not as much as in the photo sitting at the base of the easel. I’ll work on that next.

I began “planting” things below the house on the left. When Lisa advises me as to whether or not these are believable, then I’ll either turn them into something else or continue. (Well, duh, Captain Obvious.)

Lisa’s Lake House #4

Nope, not the fourth lake house of Lisa; it is the 4th pass across the canvas.

In my opinion, the sky, clouds, lake and trees are finished. However, my opinion is subject to change, and if I see something to improve, pass the paint brushes and step aside!

The roof, the porch and steps all seem finished to me, but Lisa has the final say.

I’ve resized and repositioned the windows until they finally look right. (or perhaps I have commission fatigue? Lake house fatigue? Lake house painting blindness syndrome?)