This painting is what I would describe as a perfect example of a 'Personalised Painting.' It was commissioned for a 40th Wedding anniversary gift, by the daughters in the picture and it had an amazing list of places and objects to be included. It was actually great fun to paint but I had to work it out carefully at the start in order to fit in everything. So here's the list I was eventually given...

Cobham Church in Kent, where the couple got married
The couple in their wedding outfits
A cross
Two of the family homes, one where they met and one where they live now
The pub they visited a lot on honeymoon
A bottle of Avon Unforgettable perfume, the first present he bought her aged 16!
A piano with the Trumpet Tune music on it (played at their wedding)
Various records
The words from the song 'Jesamine'
Various cinema tickets (from their honeymoon)
The three daughters, three grandchildren and pets
Daffodils
Some love letters
The couple in their Robin Reliant car (which they went on honeymoon in)
A signpost pointing to places they have lived
A Ford Capri car
An old fashioned tent with reference to France and Italy

Quite a lot to cram into one A3 piece of paper! Here's the sketch...

This is the very first preliminary sketch. After the daughters had a discussion, they found out some more interesting stories from their parents and remembered some more significant objects. They asked for the design to be tweaked; with the cinema taken out, the two houses put in and a few extra things added, like the records, the letters, the piano with the music, the tent, the time on the church clock and the tortoise.

Once the design was finalised, the rest was easy, a bit like colouring in! I really like the way so much can be put into a personalised painting, and when each commission is finished I always feel like I know the people in it and wonder how they are doing...

Goodbye long dark nights...

Spring is here and that means I get more time to paint in natural daylight. The last of the dark evenings are captured in the painting below; a birthday gift for a friend. It shows her coming home from work on a dark evening, with her teenage children all doing 'their thing' in each room. I love painting houses at night as they always look so cosy with the lights glowing through the windows.

This painting has a cat on a cloud in the moonlit sky...it's Martin, a much missed deceased family pet. Everyone likes the thought that he is up there watching over them. My friend also pointed out the little topiary mouse, as in the little bush next to the cat on the doorstep in the shape of a mouse....funnily enough this was completely unintentional as the bush had just become mouse shaped by accident!  A happy accident I think, as it adds to the picture once you spot it! It looks to me like it's frozen in the hope the cat doesn't see it!