Part of the job of a commissioned painter is to guide the client and help the determine what they would like in their painting. For this commission, the client originally said, "All I know is that my favorite color is blue and that I want something fun." As the artist, I had to determine where to go from there. We sat for a while in the room where the painting (in this case, 2- 3'x5' paintings) would hang. Whether they would be vertical, horizontal, size, etc. The room was completely blank accept for a sectional sofa, a few pillows, and a rug. This was a large family room.
I asked her what some of her favorite memories were. Personally, I like to paint emotions/memories for my clients. Paintings that remind them of pleasant memories in their life. She told me of her travels and I encouraged her to list her favorite places. She wrote down..France, Germany, Italy, Hungary.....HELP! Turns out her family had taken a river cruise the year before. After much ruminating in my head and about 50 photos that she sent me via email, these are composites of European village memories that I came up with. FUN! FUN!
