A Special Christmas Commission and Design Thinking of an Artist

Recently a lady approached me and asked me to paint a photo she took, of the place where she and her husband met thirty years ago, as a special gift for this Christmas. I am primarily a still-life painter, and this subject was way out of my comfort zone. But I wouldn't say no to a gift of Love. So I braved it. I didn't know how she would react to my painting, but the moment she saw it, she was about to cry. " "This is WAYYY beyond my expectation, and I can't believe how you filled this painting with so much... magic and love!" 💝

The happiness of her was the greatest reward for me. In this post, in addition to share with you a final result, I want to share the design thinking behind it. If you ever need to paint a complex scene, how do you decide what to keep, add, or leave out in your painting? 💙 I hope my thought process might give you some helpful hints.

When I saw the photo the lady gave me, it was gorgeous but also had a whole lot objects in it! Because I rarely paint this kind of subject, I honestly didn't know how the painting would turn out. But I did know this: I wanted the painting to express lots of Love. 💖

Holding this intention, I began to redesign the scene with the sole purpose to amplify Love.

💫Instead of just painting leaves on the foreground, I painted flaming blooms to convey passion.

💫I definitely loved the turquoise bird nest and the gorgeous flower basket, both are symbols of love and home, so they became focal subjects of the painting.

💫For the coolers and patio table and chairs at the bottom, I didn't feel they would add much to Love, so I decided to keep them all out, but instead, painted romantic shadows and petals on the ground.

This final step also gave a lot of breathing space to evoke imagination and feelings, instead of getting stuffed. Because I made all these "radical" design changes to the reference photo, I wasn't entirely sure how my client would like it. But to my amazement, when I presented the painting, the lady instantly fell in love and was overwhelmed with Joy. "It's magical!" she exclaimed. And that made my heart so warm!

So I wanted to share these "behind-the-scene" bits with y'all, to encourage that we all be more free from copying an external reality, but strive to go deeper inside, to honor the emotional and spiritual truth of what we experience, and express that with our brushes. And that, is the magic of Art. 💝