Commission

The painting above is a commission I have worked on all day. For the most part commissions of people homes, and churches are about the place itself. They are not about the painting. It is normally a matter of detail and accuracy and presenting the subject in a favourable light.


I have done atmospheric commissions but only when I knew that’s what the customer wanted and that it would look appropriate for the subject and composition.

Generally the drawing is as time consuming as the painting. I was quite happy with the result of this one. I had to take some artistic licence in respect of the sun. The sun does not in fact shine on the front of the house but by rotating it 180 degrees you bring the house to light and solve the problem of a white subject against the sky. The left hand gable is now in shadow and the right is covered by the shadow of the adjacent house. The front of the house is now bordered by a darker tone and stands out.

So provided the customer is happy (which I am sure they will be) a good days work.

Wet and Windy

The picture above is a watercolour from my sketchbook. It shows Druidstone Haven with 2 tankers at anchor in St Brides Bay.


It reminds me of a trip we took across St Brides Bay in our sailing boat. The forecast had been quite good and we left Solva heading for Milford Haven. We set out and started crossing the bay at a good rate with a medium wind on our beam. After 20 minutes the wind started to pick up to point where we had to reef our sails, (reduce them). We couldn’t return to Solva as the tide was going out and were committed to our course.

The wind was soon over 30 knots and we were going like a train with hardly any sail up (something like the size of a handkerchief). Our problem was we had to go through a really difficult piece of water (Jack Sound) at exactly slack water and we didn’t know what the conditions were on the other side. It was raining and blowing hard now.

We locked our dog below and closed everything up attaching ourselves to the boat with lifelines. The wind was now showing over 36 knots, gusting more, and the seas were nasty with waves breaking right over the boat. We negotiated Jack Sound and fortunately the conditions were no worse the other side. We heard a distress message from outside Solva but there was nothing we could do about it. We got to the entrance to Milford Haven hoping the wind would not have shifted. We were lucky and fought our way up the Haven to shelter under the cliffs and drop our anchor next to a professional sailing yacht, which had been sheltering all morning.

We were very tired wet and glad to go below and fall asleep. It was not the strongest wind we had ever been in but it was the worst conditions. Had we known the conditions were going to deteriorate anything like that we would not have left Solva.

Oh Lord

The picture above is a little watercolour out of my sketchbook from the end of last year. We had a week near Druidston and this is the farm where we camped in our van.


Yesterday I went to watch Wales v England in Cardiff with my son. We met a few interesting individuals and had a nice time. The result however could have been better.

We arrived in Cardiff and went to the Hilton Bar. It was quite full and there were a few golden oldies there that I recognised and probably more I didn’t. I noticed Dusty Hare and Jason Leonard. We got talking to a gentleman in a wonderful green and red striped blazer. You probably have to be very confident to wear something like that or completely insensitive. He was very confident. He turned out to be a Lord and was a member of the Commons and Lords Rugby Club who had been playing that day. He said he was a centre, I was far too polite to comment on his position considering his ample girth. There again I suppose there is a bit of the pot calling the kettle black there. He was a very pleasant chap and kept us company until he ditched us for the Chairman of the R.F.U. (understandably as he had his tickets for the game).

When we got in the Stadium we had to climb into the gods. I don’t like heights but it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t get nosebleed. We normally sit in the lowest tier near the halfway. The problem we had was that half a dozen English supporters were sat behind us. We are used to friendly banter but to be honest there wasn’t much that was friendly about it and it was all one way. It got quite personal and I received a shower of beer for minding my own business much to the amusement of the visitors. I got a “sorry” and was told it was an accident. Shortly after I received another soaking from them again. I regret to say they were getting to me and I gave them some rather specific advice. Fortunately that seemed to do the trick and my son also calmed things down by making an effort to tolerate the idiots and set up some sort of rapport.

Nevertheless a good day out and met some interesting people.

Today we had the grandchildren this morning and I made a replacement gate. This afternoon was spent watching rugby. I did stretch some paper ready for some work tomorrow or Monday.

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.

Carmarthen

Here a are some drawings of several features of Carmarthen including the Castle Gate.

I went out to see someone about a commission today. This is an odd process and every artist is different in how they go about it. The finances vary, the methods vary and the customers vary. I know some artists who won’t accept a commission because they find it puts them under too much pressure.


There is a big difference between doing a painting and then letting the customers choose whether they like it sufficiently to buy it, and doing a painting to order. You can pretty well be sure that someone who buys a painting off the wall is pretty happy with it. If you do a commission you can never be 100% sure its what they want or if they will reject it.

Some artists require a deposit, for larger sums even a contract is signed. I never ask for a deposit and operate on trust. I don’t like someone to put down money for something they haven’t seen. I have been let down once in the last 10 years on a commission when the customer decided they didn’t have enough money after all!

So all in all my system works okay.

This afternoon I did some tuition and an old friend of ours, Pat came to see us and collect a picture.

The Valley

Interesting day today. After the initial dog walk we had a few problems. My mother’s boiler had packed up. Her Telephone wasn’t working and she needed the doctor. So after sorting that out including getting hold of the plumber who to be fair came straight away, we had late breakfast and I went to the gallery. I did an oil painting of Gower and Worms Head. Being an artist or for that matter any occupation can be complicated these days. We are thinking of getting a sign made saying:


“Boarding Kennels, Nursery, Residential and Care Home.”

You have got to smile. There are plenty of people far worse off in the World.
My brother who is an art teacher spent some time in Tunisia of all places. He was employed by their Government to teach in the University. If his tale of woe is anything like half truth it was pretty bad. He didn’t get paid for the first 6 months. Excuse followed excuse then he got one months pay. His accommodation was by any standard a hovel. The streets were used as the final resting place for all household rubbish and human waste. The place was filthy and corruption was endemic. He finally decided to leave and had to call the British Consul to get out of the Country as the Police and Immigration wanted bribes to let him and his motorcycle out. He drove back to Britain with Legionnaires disease he picked up there. Fortunately he survived but spent several months in hospital emerging a shadow of his former self and still suffering. He never received his money. I think it would take more than a regime change in Tunisia to encourage him to return there. There is a huge divide in the World between the haves and the have-nots. Unfortunately on many occasions one corrupt regime is often replaced by another one equally corrupt.

Anyway the painting above is one of my favourite views from Penllanffos, East down the Towy Valley. God bless Wales. January hasn’t been a bad month. It is normally fairly quiet after Christmas but we have sold a few. I have another commission to see to tomorrow and some tuition to do.

Low tide

When we went for a walk on Sunday the tide was out a long way. It must have been a Spring Tide. I thought I must do a painting of the castle with just the beach and here it is above. There is always a danger of overdoing sand making it orange or having a large area of colour so there is a need to break it up. I think it has worked okay.


I posted about a couple of incidents we had with the car yesterday so I thought I would add to the theme. My first mode of transport was a motorbike and we have had many adventures on those that I will probably get around to talking about. The first four wheeled transport we had was a green Morris 1000 pickup that I bought off a fireman.

He had used it for his other job which was gardening. It was in good condition but we thought we could add a little character to it.

So we spent a week cleaning it up and re-spraying it metallic blue. We had all the equipment so it was a fairly easy but time consuming job with several layers of paint. It was to be fair, stunning and quite unique.

So we decided to take it for a test drive to Shrewsbury. Now on the way we met a nice family from Birmingham, a young man and his girlfriend, their baby and grandfather.

Now actually it didn’t happen quite like that.

Fifteen minutes into our maiden journey we were going around the double bends at Buttington when the family from Birmingham hit us head on. They had crossed the double white lines at an excessive speed and written off our pickup.

The grandfather broke his leg and the young man came through the windscreen. Alex went to hospital and I crocked my knee.

The charming family had stolen the car and were on their way to Aberystwyth for 2 weeks holiday. The young man didn’t have a driving licence and of course there was no insurance. Fortunately the Morris 1000 was pretty sturdy and we had no long term effects. We were third party so in the end we got nothing still the boy went to detention centre which was some consolation.

We did re-spray and do up a mini for Alex a while later. My father had the mini off her eventually and left it parked on a hill without the handbrake on while he opened a gate. It ran away and turned over writing it off.

Fortunately we are more successful with our paintings than car spraying.