Commissions

A Beautiful Lady  ©Kesler Woodward 2017  acrylic on paper  24" x 30" 

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate doing commissions? When I go to my studio to paint, I never worry about whether people will like what I do. I paint what I want, and I figure there are 7 billion people on the planet, and someone is bound to like and want it. The problem with commissions is that as soon as I undertake one, that 7 billion number shrinks to one individual.

I only ever agree to paint on commission something that I would want to paint anyway, but knowing that it needs to please one person is a great source of anxiety for me. I worry inordinately whether he or she will like it, and I have bad dreams about their being disappointed. That has never happened, or if it has, those for whom I've undertaken commissions have been kind enough not to say so, and good enough actors that I couldn't tell. The anxiety is awful for me, however, every time, and I try as hard as I can to avoid putting myself in that position.

Nevertheless, sometimes I give in...usually for dear friends to whom I can't say no. Two recent portrait commissions were just such cases. A Beautiful Lady is a "portrait" of a beloved, and now lamented, chokecherry tree on the lawn of a longtime friend. As chokecherries here tend to do, it flourished for years, but finally grew too large to support its own weight, and it split apart over the past two years.

My friend asked me last fall to consider painting a portrait of it for her, as her husband was urging her to cut it down, and she knew that it was the right thing to do. I put it off until this spring, when she called me again and said they were going to cut it down that day. I'd seen "The Lady," as my friend fondly and invariably called it, last year in its fall splendor, and I saw it one last time this spring, as it gamely gave birth to new leaves. A Beautiful Lady is a tribute to that lovely tree and my friend's love for it...a composite of some of its gorgeous bark and branches, with leaves from its last glorious fall and its last indomitable spring.

   

Bruth ©Kesler Woodward 2017  acrylic on paper  11" x 9" and Al ©Kesler Woodward 2008 acrylic on paper, 11" x 9"

And speaking of beautiful ladies... Less than a mile from that chokecherry tree lives a woman whose family has been my surrogate Fairbanks family for 35 years. Bruth George and her daughter Katie Sanders took a class from me at the University of Alaska that long ago, and when Bruth and her husband Al invited me to their home for the first time, that winter, I immediately felt as if I'd come home. My late wife Missy and I were a part of family gatherings with them on so many holidays and family birthdays for years, and since Missy's passing, they have embraced Dorli just as thoroughly. The George family is an irreplaceable part of the fabric of living here, for me. 

When Kate, Bruth's granddaughter and Katie and Phil Sanders' daughter, was about to celebrate her marriage to her own beloved Ross this summer, and she said what she really wanted was a portrait of her grandma Bruth, how could I say no? It was a privilege to get to paint this little portrait of Bruth, and I did it in the same medium and size that I painted Bruth's husband Al almost ten years ago, shortly after he passed away. I hope that I captured at least a little of Bruth's indomitable spirit, which continues to shine in her thoughtful eyes. 

Comments

[Kes Woodward]

What a terrible story, Carol! Just the kind of thing I always imagine, when I take on a commission! I've only once painted a portrait of someone I didn't know--a couple from Anchorage. She was having an important birthday, and they wanted to commemorate it.I told them they'd need to come to Fairbanks and spend the day with me, so I could get a sense of who they were. They flew up in the morning, and we spent the day together. They were wonderful people, and we had a great time. At the end of the day, we went back to my studio, I took a number of snapshots of them, and I felt that I could work on their portrait. It was still a very fraught experience, but a good one!

[Carol Crump Bryner]

Kes, I totally agree with you about commissions, but I think the "portraits" in this post are lovely. I was once asked by a woman I didn't know to do a painting for her that included her doll sitting on the chair. I tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted. Three months after I presented it to her she called me and asked, "Could I trade in this painting for something else?" I told her an emphatic "NO - Who would want a painting with YOUR doll in it?" Last time I ever did a commission for a person who wasn't a friend.