Commissions: A Love-Hate Relationship

As long as there have been artists trying to earn a living with their work, there have been collectors and patrons eager to commission art that speaks directly to their own tastes and preferences, and not to the artist's.  For that reason, and because many artists feel a real sense of restriction when dealing with external guidelines outside their own internal  creative processes, we often have a love- hate relationship with commissions.

The first commission I ever had was when I was about 13. The father of children I baby sat for knew I was taking oil painting lessons, and asked me to copy a Modigliani for him. I dutifully did (and began my life-long love affair with Modi!) He in turn actually paid me money, I forget how much, certainly not much, but I was thrilled: it was my very first sale. And in high school, my boyfriend asked me to make him a painting of the woods, with a moose by a stream. And I did, for free because I loved him, and often wonder whatever happened to it after I broke up with him three years later. For my grandfather I did a man fishing in a stream which he loved and I loved making it for him.

In the eighties, when I got seriously back to painting after the kids were in school, I had a very successful solo show in Newark, NJ. An acquaintance, who had bought a 36" square painting of an oversized, abstracted rose at the opening, asked me if I would make a companion for it, in the same colors. I thought about it, and realized it was not something I could do. My large roses were all painted and titled with ee cummings poetry as my muse (see example below), and came from deep within my psyche. I could not paint one to order, and so I lost a sale.

"Palace Intricate"  36 x 36  NFS

 

 

 

And since then, other than portraits, I have avoided commissions as much as I can.   I have done many commissioned portraits, see example left and in earlier postings, which is a slightly different thing, but also a bit restrictive creatively, or perhaps a lot restrictive. I have had a fair amount of success with the portraits, but have grown tired of doing them, although I still will do it because once into them, I do get a certain amount of enjoyment out of the process.)

A few years ago, a very close friend whose summer home we visit every year on Lake George, asked me if I would do a painting of their house which they could have back home in Virginia during the year. I said yes, and then spent the next two years suffering terrible guilt because I could not do it. I tried, over and over again, but working from the photos I took was just not working, and I honestly believe it was because the painting was not coming from inside. I finally finished it this summer, and breathed a deep, deep sigh of relief. The photo below is a bit fuzzy, but it now hangs happily in Virginia.

Malovany Home, Lake George 

I would LIKE to be able to do commissions, because it is a nice way to earn some extra money, AND to make your customers happy. But I find it so difficult, not only emotionally, but while technically attempting the work in the studio. It reminds me of why I did not major in art at Skidmore: I told my mother I did not want art to ever become WORK for me. I wanted to keep my creation of art  forever as a joy. 

I don't know if any of this makes sense to you, but it does to me. And right now I have no company coming, and no commissions due, so inbetween water aerobics, I plan to spend a lot of time in the studio this week!

Daughters

The portrait is finished, and the mother of the girl seems very happy with it. What else can I ask for: who knows better whether what I have created captures the essence, the joy, of this daughter, than her mother. Below is the finished piece, not looking just like the photo, because apparently the photo had somehow elongated and narrowed her face.  

Lily

Someday I would like to do a serious painting of my own lovely daughter. Here is a poem I came across this week, about daughters, that resonated with me. 


Prayer for Our Daughters

by Mark Jarman

May they never be lonely at parties
Or wait for mail from people they haven't written
Or still in middle age ask God for favors
Or forbid their children things they were never forbidden.

May hatred be like a habit they never developed
And can't see the point of, like gambling or heavy drinking.
If they forget themselves, may it be in music
Or the kind of prayer that makes a garden of thinking.

May they enter the coming century
Like swans under a bridge into enchantment
And take with them enough of this century
To assure their grandchildren it really happened.

May they find a place to love, without nostalgia
For some place else that they can never go back to.
And may they find themselves, as we have found them,
Complete at each stage of their lives, each part they add to.

May they be themselves, long after we've stopped watching.
May they return from every kind of suffering
(Except the last, which doesn't bear repeating)
And be themselves again, both blessed and blessing.

___________________ 

I had a call from CMS, the arts showroom in New Jersey where I just took my work, telling me they think they have sold the giclee I brought them, "White on White." That was fast, hope it is a good omen.


And I have had conversations this week with an artist friend (who happens to be Nelson Rockefeller's daughter and is a lovely woman) who is involved with the Vermont Studio Center. Founded by artists in 1984, the Studio Center is the largest international artists' and writers' Residency Program in the United States, hosting 50 visual artists and writers each month from across the country and around the world. If accepted to receive a studio residency, you go for two to 12 weeks to the  historic 30-building campus along the Gihon River in Johnson, Vermont, a village in the heart of the northern Green Mountains up here. You live in one of many farmhouses on the campus in a private room, get all your meals, and are given a private studio in which to work. There are often writers and artists who come to lecture, and much give and take between the artists in the program when you are. I think it sounds like heaven. I told her I would be interested in doing it in November, or January-March of next year, times when I am just as happy not to be here. She seemed to think I would have no problem getting in the program, especially if I do not apply for a scholarship, which I would not. I am seriously thinking about it. Of course when I would REALLY have liked to do this would have been back in the day when I was juggling home, family and job, with NEVER any time to paint. But even now, the thought of that block of time with no meals to plan or cook, no one to think about except myself, no TV, no noise, no obligations, no responsibilities except to myself, and with my own studio, wow. I wish my son in law could come with me. (But I don;t wish that upon my daughter!)


Meanwhile, with the portrait completed, I am free to work stress free in my studio, and cannot wait to begin! I plan to get about three pieces going at once. Tomorrow!! 

Hidden Worlds in My Hometown, and Faraway Worlds in Revolt

Interesting article in my home-town newspaper The Montclair Times in Montclair, NJ about an art show a group of folks from The Studio Group are having entitled "Hidden Worlds." One of the curators wrote " Every person on earth filters what they experience, sometimes seeing things that others might not notice, but is significant to them.  In this exhibit we reveal 'other worlds' perceived through the individual visions of the artists in our group. We explore ideas of obscuring and revealing, through abstract, metaphorical and literal means." 

No time to be in the studio this week, with our weekend in Nadick, MA blue-grassing away at the Joe Val Festival, and with my daughter-in-law and grandkids here for winter break. Next week my plan is to finish the portrait and move on to some new projects I have in mind. 

Meanwhile, I received an excellent comment on the portrait from an artist-friend Lew Dana who wrote:
  
"I looked at the photograph and the painting of the girl again. At heart it's quite successful and cheery.
"In view of the comment from the family that her face needs to be "rounder" -- you might consider one thing:

"The bottom of her left eye. In the photograph it has a downward arc -- the eye is widest at its center. In your painting, the lower edge seems to arc up in the center. It makes the eye a little "pinched" or "squinty". A slight adjustment in the arc (and a big pain in the neck) would widen the eye slightly and give her a "rounder" look.

"Eyes set the tone for one's "reading" of a picture. Mean, squinty eyes make people in paintings and real life look pinched. Eyes that are more open are more appealing, more welcoming, nicer and, well, rounder."

As an uncertain world swirls into chaos in the mid East, it is hard to imagine all that is happening there while living in the peace and serenity of a dense winter snowstorm here in Vermont. But I was amused by a comment in my cousin Howie's blog today:

"Democratic, big D and small D, demonstrations continue in the mid-East and mid-West. Tyrants like Qaddafi and Walker must be resisted by their subjects. Will NJ be next to throw off the yoke of the oppressor?" 

The Portrait Evolves....

I have been working a bit each day on the problem portrait, and finally have it to a point where it is viewable. Still very much of a WORK IN PROGRESS (hair and neck are and chin are just roughed in) it begins, at least, to look like the photo I am using. I am not certain, however, that it really catches the feel of the young lady in question .

In progress # 1

Photo

 







I have sent this and a detail to the family for comment, and they seem to feel features are spot on, but face needs to be rounder, chin less defined. Easy fixes. I will be away all weekend, which is good, I can approach it with a fresh eye and maybe some more family suggestions on Monday. I am beginning to see that the problem is again, with the photo, because it is taken at an agle which foreshortens her lower face.

In progress # 2

 (Later) Here is the portrait with some modifications as requested: softening and shortening chin, broadening and thus rounding face.  At this stage, changes are all very subtly done, but can make a big effect. But you have to be careful not to lose the likeness -- I now think her left eye is a little too open, not dark enough, needs more under-eye poufiness and looked better previously! One problem is that in photo it shows her incredibly long eyelashes, but when I attempt to replicate that, it makes her look like a 50's movie star! Again, ALL an easy fix if family agrees. And should the hair appear bushier? Still need to work on neck and clothing.

Portrait Problems and a Poem

I used to do a lot of portrait commissions, but have backed away from them in recent years in favor of less detailed work, and a looser painting style.

Sara

I sat in my studio this afternoon looking at a portrait I started several years ago and never finished. The problems I had with it and guilt I had over not completing it are part of the reason I stopped painting for a while: every time I would enter my studio, there it would be, reminding me of my failure. Normally I do not find portraits such a challenge at all --  I have had quite a bit of success with them, a few examples are shown here. 

Greta 

Why does the one I am revisiting in my studio, of a young girl at that beautiful time of life, just entering her teen years, cause so much trouble for me? The answer is simple--- the photographs. Without good photographs, a portrait artist can do nothing but fail. And in spite of repeated requests from the formal photographer who refused to give me anything but minute, non-enlargeable copies of the images I needed, and from the family who just did not have the right photos, I ended up with nothing that really worked. What is needed for a portrait are photos which 1) even if for a full length portrait, include head shots that are not too small and are very clear images; 2) reflect the accurate color of eyes, hair, skin tone; 3) include clear distinction between pupil and iris in eyes; 4) be correctly lighted, in sharp focus, and not be washed out; 5) for head portraits, not be straight head-on shots with no shadows on the face –some shadow is needed for definition.

I have procrastinated all I can by cleaning my studio, deciding I needed to order more supplies, and working on some other incomplete paintings. But now, it is time for the portrait. I really need to complete this very overdue, cold and paint-dry painting, and NOW. The painting is dead-ended, and I need to bring it to life, but I am finding it an overwhelmingly difficult job.  I first covered it with a thin layer of medium, just to bring back the original colors. Then I begin work on the easy parts--- hair, background, etc. but  eventually, the artist takes over, and I have rebegun work on the face. It is still terrible, but I think maybe I will get it this time around if I use a looser, more impressionistic style. I hope this will be acceptable to the family.

I am in the midst of some preliminary discussions with a high-end gallery in New Jersey which caters to the interior design trade. The owner seems to be interested in handling some of my buildingscapes and landscapes. Wish me luck on both endeavors.

And here is a poem I came upon today in another artist's blog which I liked a lot. if you change desk to studio in the final line, it is a  very fitting poem for an artist. 

What to Remember  When Waking
by David Whyte © 1999 Many Rivers Press 

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.

What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.

You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.

Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the waiting desk? 

Portraits and Politics

Several years ago, I was commissioned by a family in Texas to do a portrait of their daughter. They wanted a Vermont artist because they used to have a summer home in Vermont which their daughter loved. The painting was taken from a photo of her at their Vermont home. Her mother and I worked back and forth with photos and Emails to a final happy conclusion, and it was shipped off to Texas. They were very happy with it. See below.  

Robyn

. Only later did I learn that the young girl’s father was a conservative Republican in the Texas house of Representatives who ultimately became Speaker of the House.  

Just tonight, on the John Stewart show, I learned that Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, was the target of some terrible, dirty politics in the election of the Speaker for the next term. Straus, a traditional mainstream Republican who focuses on fiscal issues and calls himself a fiscal conservative, is disdained by conservative activists who have targeted him since the fall election, when the GOP piled up a 101-49 majority over Democrats in the House . There were loud protests from Tea Party activists in the groups Americans for Prosperity, the Austin Tea Party Patriots, the Texas Pastor Council, and Texas Eagle Forum who insisted on a more conservative leader, and organized to oust him. Pro-life advocates including key Catholic clergy worked hard against Straus because of his weak pro-life record. Further, anti-gay forces worked behind the scenes in the race for speaker of the Texas House; it was made public when The Texas Observer posted a story in which John Cook, a member of the State Republican Executive Committee, explained his opposition to Speaker Joe Straus. The race to lead the Texas House of Representatives took a very nasty a religious turn, with some conservatives in the state suggesting that the speaker of the House, who is a Jewish Republican, should be replaced by a "Christian conservative." Cook said “I got into politics to put Christian conservatives into office.” And apparently some conservative Republican activists working to unseat Straus circulated e-mails that emphasized his Judaism. I understand Straus handled the nastiness with diplomacy, grace, and intelligence. 
 

Now most of my few readers know that I am a liberal, and rarely come to the support of a conservative. But this whole thing really makes me sick, and angry.  I am happy to report that  the idiots were not successful in the efforts. On January 10, the Republican caucus overwhelmingly supported Straus for a second term effectively ending what was a very weak, sloppy, and feeble attempt by Tea Party conservatives and his opponents, Chisim and Taylor, for Speaker of the House. By a 132-15 vote, Straus successfully fended off a challenge from those ultra conservatives who wanted to replace him with one of their own. This is one time when I am happy about a Republican victory.

   

Robyn, second in, with her Mom, her Dad Joe Straus, 
and her sister Sara.