Creating for others

As an artist I create paintings using input of my own ideas and how I see the ideas as an image that I am looking to put into a painting. Sometimes that image includes input from another person or persons. There are many reasons an artist paints using input from others, a coloration of ideas. It could be a commission piece of artwork or as a gift for a family or friend. It is however important I feel that as an artist you are true to your style of work.

I have probably painted more paintings for my mum, more than any other person. Particularly recently as her memory is not so good and I feel it is a way to help her engage. What I realised was I had forgotten to include myself in these paintings. I really love tulips, they are my favourite flower. I decided to paint her a bright and cheerful painting of red tulips on a yellow background as a reminder of me, see the painting below.

A few Christmas ago I decided to give gifts of some of my small paintings to my sister-in-law and her two daughters. I also decided that I should give a painting to their brother, but none of the paintings I already had felt right for him. He has a real interest in insects and his mum loves bees, so I decided to create a painting for him of a bee, see the image below.

My sister-in-law is a lovely person and she had a very special birthday occurring. I decided to create a painting for her. It had to have a bee in it. I also know that her favourite colour is orange. I decided to do a painting of orange blossom and a beautiful blue sky and incorporate a bee, the image below is the painting I created for her. I really like this painting and I was pleased I could give this to her.

Sometimes you meet people or animals and they can influence you. I will openly say I am not a dog type of person, I own a cat. However I was captivated by a lovely dog we met when out socialising. I decided I wanted to paint her and asked her owner if she minded me taking some photos. The response was yes as long as she could see the finished painting. I suppose this is the nearest I have come to doing a commission painting. I was not sure if I could capture her and I also wanted to keep my style of painting. The resulting painting is below which this lady brought and is now in Australia. Sadly she had decided not to take her dog with her as the dog was quite old. I was really pleased she has the painting as she was very sad to have to leave her friend behind.

Painting for one person is interesting enough, but when it is many people than as an artist you need to understand what is important to this group of people. I count myself lucky that I work for a very supportive company and that my work colleagues have been really encouraging about my paintings. I was asked to provide a painting to the Wolverhampton site and I ended up gifting three paintings to them, I have also gifted a painting to the Beeston and London Offices.

The Chester office was different as the building is old an industrial. Having visited this office I made a decision to create a painting. By doing this I knew I needed to considered the culture of the company and it's people and also where the painting would hung. My thought was I needed a large painting, however on getting the canvass I was still undecided on the subject. A large canvass led to a decision to paint sunflowers. Sunflower meanings include happiness, optimism, honesty, longevity, peace, admiration, and devotion. The sunflower possibly surpasses all others in terms of its universal power to bring joy to people.

Having created the painting I was unsure how it would be received. I needed not to had worried as everyone was surprised and pleased and it is now hanging in the main meeting room, as this is glass fronted the painting can be seen in the office as well.

Painting for others provides a different challenge and one that I found I enjoyed.

Ruth Breen