Moving house has kept me incredibly busy, packing up my house in Leicestershire, and unpacking again in Kent as well as all the odd jobs and maintenance work that that entails, plus September is such a good month to get work done in the garden before the frosts and cold weather kicks in.
Going on holiday to France twice this summer wonderful as much as it was has also kept me busy.
But now everything is starting to calm down again I can get back to commissions, and this one I was asked to do in the middle of May. Normally I try to turn commissions around in a couple of weeks, if I can, depending on ordering art materials and waiting for parts to dry, how complex the design is, and getting framing done, because I want to get on with it whilst its fresh in my head and also I know how excited the client is and I want them to have the wonderful piece of artwork they have asked me to paint for them hanging on their wall as soon as I can, they’re paying for it, and looking forward to it.
So, putting this particular picture on hold has been ten times more difficult, because I wanted to do it the minute I was asked about it..it might be just the picture the client wants, but it is so much MY sort of subject matter, so so much!
The commission is for the woman who commissioned the “Sarah as Mother Nature” picture that I did earlier in the year, she has such good ideas for the artwork she wants me to do, and part of what I love about doing artwork for her is the way she says “You put your magic into it” cos that’s exactly what I want to hear from a client, they trust me and know my art, and me, and let me get on with it…
And this one, well, it involves a warrior, but not the man as is depicted, but a woman, and there is a sexy outfit for me to incorporate her in, and she has to have red hair, and a headdress of “time”, and wings the colour of magpies, and a reminder of the “beloved de
ad” and the wolf walking at her side has to have certain colours that are a reminder of a favourite dog in her life…so all of that in one picture, from the various images that she has sent me… and her brief of “all together”!
The picture is to done as a tattoo design eventually, but I will do the artwork as a painting for her to hang on the wall but with the thought behind it that its actually for a tattoo.
So… its basically “Sexy but strong warrior girl ready to face the world with her favourite wolf at her side, aware of those who are no longer with her, and of time passing, but able to fly along with her own magic”.
No wonder I am so thrilled to be doing this one!!