On Courage and Creativity
For many years I have been painting for clients and receiving orders for portrait paintings of all kinds and in a variety of techniques. Sometimes I get a specific request and sometimes the client is not sure what result is the wanted one. Sometimes it's a work that changes on the move.
A client who gives precise comments helps me improve my painting and also progress as an artist. A client seeking a new kind of work that I have not tried yet challenges my abilities and gives me a great opportunity to learn new styles, techniques, and ideas. I like to work with a customer who patiently updates me about the details he wants and is able to formulate the necessary changes he or she desires, who asks for specific details and is patient enough to go all the way to the perfect result.
When I received the invitation to this wonderful painting, I received from the client, as on many occasions, a photograph that would serve as a basis for painting and other photographs that helped me see sharper details, shades and personal perpectives in order to achieve maximum resemblance to reality.
This portrait painting is a gift to the client's wife. An ordered portrait painting is a project made with great love and close cooperation between me and the client. When the client orders a painting as a birthday gift , it is often a surprise. Confidentiality and coordinated work must be maintained with the client in order to achieve a perfect result and also to keep the surprise a secret until the moment of exposure.
After I handed it over to the client I waited for the response.
Surprisingly, the client wanted to take the work to a more artistic direction and to add color strokes to her image in the painting. I was very surprised because this is a meticulous painting work on a realistic portrait, and I was amazed that such a beautiful woman is willing to be hidden, even in a partial manner, with rough and inaccurate paint strokes.
I continued the work with great reverence, planning every move and weighing every stroke of paint in order not to damage the beauty of the character and not to destroy my delicate work. I had spent hours of agony and writhing as I struggled between caution and freedom of creation, between the traditional style I'm used to, and the bold style of unbridled colors.
It was not easy, but in the end the result was so special and impressive that I thank the brave woman who was brave enough to push me to this bold step of unusual use of color to create a much more avant-garde and artistic work.
Although the painting is at the clients' home and is no longer mine, I continue to be proud and happy to have been a part of such an interesting and unique project.
Painting details: Oil on canvas, 70/100 cm.