Commission art is fun.. and very challenging! I am excited that this summer I was asked to paint a colorful and bold portrait of a sweet pot belly pig, named Lucy and 2 other portraits of her farmyard friends (a duck and a chicken), which I just received photos of.
I made an attempt to capture Miss Lucy, failed and started over. While disappointing, I learned so much! I started again and sent photos to my client and was encouraged that she was happy with the painting. “Pretty” is to some what ugly is to many. Pets are often ugly to untrained eyes that do not know them, but beautiful to those that care for and raise them. I was happy that my client, Nancy could see the beauty of her lovely pig in my work (because when I asked for opinions from friends and family I could tell they were NOT loving the unconventional pot bellied pig… they only had eyes for a sweet pink pig with big dreamy brown eyes).
I love this pink pig, but he was not my client!.
For the background, I layered several of my favorite colors to get what my client requested. She wanted a painting of her pig done in the way we currently see the cows or chickens done so often. It was so exciting to paint the first coat of bright red and add yellow, and aqua one at a time. I love how the background turned out.
A sketch in pencil and lots of grey, black and white paint to bring Lucy to life on the canvas. She has a heavy pink chin in her photos, and lots of wiry white hair and whiskers. This is where I left off and sent text and photos for encouragement from her owner to either keep at it or give up! I was told to keep going – that I had captured Lucy’s spirit. That is hard to do if you have a subject that you cannot actually prove has eyes. Nancy, my client said they have not seen Lucy’s eyes in years… so it was normal to them!
I normally do not paint in such blunt, strong brush strokes. It was a fun concept to practice. I love to see artists that have skill do this. I hope with practice I will master it as well. Onward I paint and proceed! 
This is the view as I drive to the art studio each week to work with my friend, multi-media artist, Rosalia Periera.
I was given my own set of keys to the studio about a month ago as a thank you for some of the work I have done there. It has been wonderful that when I go and work, I have had wonderful input and instruction from a gifted artist. I cannot express how exited I am to have such a beautiful place to work quietly when I have the time. I am learning so much each time I go
Stephanie Macera 