A commission is an act of trust on both sides — here's how the process works, what to expect, and what makes a great commission painting.
Every commission begins with a conversation, and the conversation always starts the same way: tell me what you love. Not what you think would make a good painting. Not what you think I'd want to paint. What you actually love — a place, a person, an object, a memory. The painting we make together will come from that love, and if we start there, it has a chance of being genuinely alive.
I've painted commissions ranging from intimate still lifes — a favorite wine, a beloved pet, a family heirloom — to large-scale winery murals that cover entire walls. The scale is different, but the process is the same. We talk first. I ask questions, look at reference photos if they're available, and then I go away and think. Sometimes for days. I'm looking for the angle, the light, the composition that will make the subject sing rather than just describe it.
The technical process varies by subject. For a portrait — a pet, a person, a beloved space — I work from multiple photo references, looking for the gesture or expression that captures the essential quality of the subject rather than just their surface appearance. For a still life, I often prefer to arrange and photograph objects myself, so I have control over the light. For a landscape or winery, I may visit in person, or work from a combination of photographs and memory and imagination.
What I want a commission painting to do is surprise the person who asked for it. I want them to look at it and see their subject as they've never quite seen it before — more vivid, more present, more itself than in any photograph. A painting distills. It removes everything except what matters, and intensifies what remains. That distillation is the gift of a commission — not just a record of something loved, but a revelation of it.
If you're considering commissioning a painting, the most important thing I can tell you is this: bring me your actual love. The more specific and real the subject is to you, the better the painting will be. Generic beauty makes for generic paintings. Specific love makes for paintings that last.