Recent Request
April 2025
Recently I had the opportunity to work on a commission with a new collector. I LOVE commissions because I enjoy listening to what people like about about my style and what they would like customize. In the process, there is good conversation and listening to their ideas or what they want from this painting.
This was a fun painting to create because from the inspiration piece I needed to translate a few major elements— color palette, material, and surface.
Top left corner: inspiration painting (watercolor on paper); Top right corner: color palette study; Bottom center: small sample (acrylic on canvas.)
Above in the upper left is the inspiration piece “New Growth”, 2021. This painting is a watercolor on paper. In the upper right is my initial color study based on the request for a brighter and more vibrant color palette. I presented the new palette from a dark green to a bright green and brown to purple. When I presented these colors to the collector, I learned that the mountain colors were their favorite colors! The grassy area would also shift to greens, purples, yellows, and white. The bottom image is a 12” x 12” sample. This small sample was helpful to see all the customized selections on canvas. Once this was approved I moved forward to the final painting. The commissioned painting was 24 x 24 inches.
The other unique challenge was how to make acrylic look like watercolor. I played with this and quickly knew it was going to take layers of thinned acrylic. I applied the colors with watered-down acrylic to the canvas with soft fabric, hand applied you could say! Each layer needed to fully dry before applying the next layer. There are 4-5 layers for each mountain and sky. I left some lighter areas to show through, like it does with watercolors.
There were two lines in the painting that gave us most deliberation—the outline color of each mountain. I sampled six different colors for the collector to find the best combination. In the end, the collector said keep it vibrant and they trusted the artist’s eye. No pressure, ha!
This was a fun collaboration and commission to create. The collectors are happy to have the painting (above on the right) that was specifically made for their collection, home, and it’s an original!