Saturday, November 27, 2021

Anatomy of a Commission

At the last Affordable Art Fair in NYC - held last September and documented in this blog, I received a commission to create a work that reflected and incorporated the LGBTQ flag in a mixed media works with embedded electronics.

As I've noted multiple times, clear communications is KEY to a happy commissioning! I sent the client a draft contract and explained all processes... then I sent her some rough sketches for the central figure in the work -- the work was to depict a visitor to a gallery/museum where the center piece rotates digital images sampled online from famous abstract artworks -- a "new" Jackson Pollockish work (created by me, not a copy of a Pollock) was to hang to the left, and a Washington Color School style painting of the LGBTQ flag (a very cool stripe painting by the way...) to the right of the figure, while the center piece rotates images.

I sent her these rough drafts... one of the figures is her, as she expressed interest in possibly "being" in the painting.

pen and ink drawings of art fair visitors by F. Lennox Campello, circa 2021

She liked the lady all the way to the right (who was her), so then I painted her and sent her this...

Woman at art fair -- rough draft watercolor by F. Lennox Canmpello 2021

She loved it! So we moved on! And here's the finished work, which rotates a famous abstract painting (and some not so famous yet) in the middle embedded digital screen.

Woman in love with Abstract painting - Mixed Media Painting 2021 by F. Lennox Campello

Woman in love with Abstract painting - Mixed Media Painting 2021 by F. Lennox Campell

Woman in love with Abstract painting - Mixed Media Painting 2021 by F. Lennox Campell