The Ins and Outs of Commissioning a Painting

Lately the phone has been ringing off the hook with clients asking for paintings that they can specifically commission with our artists.

We’re not sure what’s driving this mini gallery phenomenon but we’re always happy to accommodate when we can. Actually, commissions can be very tricky and we walk a little delicately around them. Usually the client has a very definitive idea of what they want. Sometimes they want another version of a painting that the artist has already done. Often they are pulling from their own memories, experiences or even design needs.

Nancy Franke has painted the terrace at Ann’s Provence home, Les Murets, a couple times for clients who have been there and who want to capture the memory on canvas.

Either way, we like to gently caution that art is a subjective and emotional thing and that the artist needs to be allowed to channel his or her own inspiration. We like to point out that artists generally don’t love recreating a painting they’ve already done so, nine times out of ten, the commission will be its own very individualistic painting.

The process itself can be time-consuming with client-artist meetings, exchanges of photographs and then, finally, the long-awaited final images followed by the unveiling of the real thing.

But as always, our artists have been coming through with flying colors. We recently coordinated a wonderful commission by Dawne Raulet for some clients who had a very clear idea of what they wanted. Dawne is known for her mixed media-photo-encaustic paintings and our clients had fallen in love with a small painting of hers of a beautifully lush magnolia.

Our clients fell in love with Dawne Raulet’s Magnolia, but it was much too small for their space.

The clients had a big wall to fill and they came to us with the very creative approach of painting four separate magnolias, each in a different stage of bloom. We all thought the idea was brilliant and this is what Dawne created for them:

Our clients, whom we absolutely adore, have promised to have us over soon to see these four paintings hung in all their glory in their new home. We can’t wait.

Doug Foltz is working on a commission right now for a couple who love his work. They’ve asked him to recreate a painting that is similar to this one – but they want him to number the dingys with years that their children were born. We love that very personal touch.

Doug Foltz’s Maine Dingys: the inspiration for a commission he’s painting right now. (The clients actually loved this painting, but Doug’s lovely wife refused to sell it!)

A designer client of ours fell in love with the work of Bonnie Beauchamp Cooke. Bonnie’s well-known for her gorgeously textured paintings of horses and she recently started creating lovely, elongated and sexy figures – all dripping with her layers and layers of medium. The client was working with some space constraints so Bonnie graciously came to the rescue with these three beauties:

And back to Nancy Franke, who is constantly being approached for commissions, especially of children. Nancy has a wonderful impressionistic approach to her portraits so they end being light, loose and full of the subject’s essence.

This lovely oil on linen commission is of the client’s teenage daughter.

And, finally, check out this absolutely perfect little painting that Nancy did for our Madame, Ann. This one had us all practically in tears:

The photograph that Nancy worked from….

…and the finished painting.

Nothing makes us happier than seeing a look of pure joy and excitement on a client’s face when “their” painting is unveiled for the first time – it’s their leap of faith with the artist (and us) that makes this the best job in the world.

Ta Ta…