Commissioning

How to commission a picture

The process of commissioning a picture is simple.  You talk to me about your idea, the medium you prefer and the budget.  As soon as we are agreed on these, I will work up some preliminary sketches, at no cost to you.  From those drawings, you will select one that you like, or that is closest to what you like, which may mean incorporating a feature from one sketch into the body of another.   From that point onwards, I carry out the commission.  The time you have to wait varies from project to project and I will try to be honest about this.  Closer to the time of finishing, I will contact you about the frame and delivery arrangements. 

Commission of Don Carlos

One recent commission was an oil-portrait of the first Alpaca to enter Britain, the foundation-stock of all subsequent European alpacas. 

His name was Don Carlos.  His owner and I discussed the format for the portrait and what came to mind straight away was Van Dyck's triple portrait of Charles I, showing the head-on and left and right profiles.  I drew up some sepia sketches to illustrate the idea and the owner agreed on this approach. 

Blackface Sheep

Another commission was from a breeder of Black-face sheep.  He was very proud of his bloodlines and his prize flock.  He wanted them set in a snowy landscape, so I produced a series of sketches with a large tree as a focal point and a wall running into the distance towards hills.  There had to be realism about the sheep forming a bunch, so this required either people or dogs - we chose the dog and the distant figure of the shepherd. 

For additional information, my client gave me several of his black-face breed books, containing photographs of his own animals, to understand the finer points of champion sheep.   My client was very pleased with the resulting picture - but the effect of the breed books was that I painted the sheep in show condition.  'They're very clean,' he commented, drily.

Sun Birds

The Australian Sun birds were a commission from a collector, who wanted a special gift for his Australian wife.... I enjoyed this opportunity to illustrate these exotic birds in watercolour. 

Ardvorlich

An enjoyable kind of commission is when collectors have a particular place they wish me to paint, maybe a particular view on a grouse moor, or a place in a wood.  This is never sweeter than when it falls on my own back doorstep as it did when I was asked to paint an oil landscape of Ben Vorlich in Perthshire.  My client's uncle had the shooting at Ardvorlich for several years in the 1970s and this was where he had shot his first grouse and his first stag.  Ardvorlich then passed to the current laird, who became a friend through our renting a house on the estate.

Picture of Scampi

There are some dogs I paint and some I do not!  This is Scampi, our border-terrier, whose personality was far too big for his small frame.  His little black toes tittuped over the polished floor.  He cocked his head, to the left, then to the right.  If he could get on a sofa he would!  If he could bite another dog, he did.  But with humans he was a gentleman.  The friend who recommended the breed to us has much to answer for.  There are two kinds of borders - the ones that bite other dogs and the ones that don't - Pip just forgot to mention that this distinction existed.  Scampi came from Porlock.  He was bred for the Devon and Exmoor staghounds.  Generations of working parents engendered in him the need to get in there first.  RIP Scampi.

Eagles over Wester Ross

'The couple who asked me to do this had seen a smaller watercolour I had painted of the same subject. They had been up to Wester Ross and experienced the vastness of the landscape and thought a large version would suit the space in their dining room wall. I wanted to express through the height of the birds above the loch and the hills below, the enormous distances the birds cover in their territory.'