Sligachan Bridge, Skye. Oil Painting Commission.

What a lovely, dramatic subject for a commission. A commission is always a challenge as you are trying to get into the mind of the client and trying to communicate well enough so that you each truly understand one another. This client wanted quite a stark image I believe but I find it very hard to desaturate my paintings so I worked on two at once. The one on the right feels more me, but I learnt a lot from painting the one on the left. It is bleak but very dramatic. The composition created a bit of a challenge with the bridge falling very central and essentially cutting the painting in two - not very golden section. I hope that the rocks in the foreground balance this out. The other challenge was to create the movement of the water around the rocks and to add water where there wasn't any (from the source reference for the painting on the left). These are both quite small but painting small doesn't necessarily take less time. I worked on these for a week and will be waiting now to add a varnish and paint the edges. I would love to hear the experiences of other artists and makers working from commission.