Here’s the painting I recently completed. This is Sherrie-jane – she sells lingerie in Somerset, including specialist bra-fitting, her business is called ‘Orchid’ – http://www.orchidlangport.co.uk/ – and she likes champagne. Quite a lot to get into 4 x 8 inches… but her daughter wanted a special present for her, for the re-launch of her new business, so in went the bras and the orchids and it all came together with quite a nice oriental feel, which was something of a happy accident.
People do occasionally ask me ‘do you do commissions?’, and I say yes… occasionally… but I don’t usually get asked unless people want to be made to look like a fairy or a demon! Here is a painting I did some years ago, of a girl called Stacey, for instance:
The worrying bit is when I paint a portrait of someone I don’t know, from a photograph, and I wonder if it really looks like them, but I am told likenesses have been really close.
My most startling result in that respect was a portrait I did last summer, of somebody’s personal ghost! Apparently I got her spot on… in fact the gentleman in question is firmly of the opinion that I was temporarily taken over by said ghost, though I have my own views on this matter… I would love to be able to include it in this post, but it’s destined for a book cover of the story of this ghost, and so I can’t show it to you yet.
Instead I’ll leave you with this one – another slightly nerve-wracking issue is whether people will like their surprise presents! Below is a portrait of the Duke family, commissioned by Mr Duke, as a present for his wife. I am assured that she loved it, so perhaps I caught their hidden qualities!
Art by Nancy Farmer 