Expectations

I was talking about commissions yesterday. The painting above was a commission for a Supermarine Spitfire. Pat who came around yesterday reminded me of some of the work I did I years ago when we lived in Mid -Wales. Unfortunately I only have images of paintings going back for about 5 years.


When doing a commission for someone it is very important to have a good talk with them to ensure you know what they want. Even then it can go wrong. I did a painting for a nice couple in Pembrokeshire. We sat down for about an hour or so and discussed their painting. In fact I could have probably done the commission in the time we took to talk about it. I made careful notes showed them examples of my work and got the exact angle and content they wanted in their picture.

Some people are particular about skies and colour, other people are superstitious about birds in their paintings, so that was covered and agreed. All of which was fine and I say they were a nice couple. They wanted a watercolour so I did a sketch and over the next few days completed the painting.

I sent them an image of the painting and received a response. They were delighted with the painting but wanted daffodils in the borders and more green in the trees. All this was well and good but it was autumn and I had painted the scene accordingly, and it was a nice painting.

You can’t win them all. No-ones fault really just different expectations and how people view things.