Thus far, experience has taught me that art commissions are my bread and butter. I don’t say this in a negative way – commissions challenge me. It was much the same when I attended University and obtained my Fine Arts degree – we were pushed to create beyond ourselves and this helped me to grow.

I was excited about this commission here because the photo that my client gave me to work with was so beautiful.

The scene pictured here is in Hania, Crete – my client’s homeland. I knew that the challenge in this piece wouldn’t be the mountains or the water but in fact, the buildings. I have painted very little architecture and so I was a nervous. Ah, let’s be honest, I’m always nervous doing commission pieces. 🙂

Normally I begin with a pencil sketch but I skipped it this time because I felt super confident in the photograph. Instead, I started directly with the painted sketch on my canvas.

My client mentioned that he would like the mountains to be a prominent feature in the painting and so I began there.

I paint in layers and sections – putting on my base colour first and then working details over top. Since my canvases are normally quite large I find that this process of dividing and layering helps me feel less overwhelmed.

My dining room serves as my studio. It has lots of space and most importantly – LIGHT!

EEP! Heading into the architecture… I did a lot of layers on the buildings before I was content with how they looked.

I laid down my base colours for the sky and the water before adding the details. The canvas was big and I felt intimidated by all of the work to be done in these areas – so I put on the basics and then gave myself a couple days of rest before I tackled them.

I had my hubby take this shot of me painting – I thought that it would give a good impression of how large this canvas really is.

Title: ‘Homeland’ – acrylic on canvas – 4′ x 3′. You can click on the finished painting above to see an enlarged version. 🙂

In the end I’m super happy with it but colour always puts me in a happy place.

~ Micheline