SATURDAY NIGHT - COMMISSION
'Saturday Night' is a large scale piece was commissioned by an Ottawa couple for an expansive, prominent wall in their newly built home. They liked my ‘Street Light' series but needed a piece much larger than any in the series.
With Don Monet, Cube Gallery owner/curator, we worked out the best size and configuration for the piece: a triptych with a total size of 60 x 120 inches. We discussed which ‘Street Light’ pieces, and which aspects of those pieces, they liked best and why, and generally homed in on what they were looking for in the commission.
I chose to paint Elgin Street, with its lively, colourful streetscape and street life, and shot photographs to use as reference. I then worked out the composition, taking some artistic license with some storefronts to make it work with the triptych format.
The next step was to paint a small scale version of the piece, 8 x 24 inches, which allowed me to finalize the composition and work out the colour scheme. It also gave the clients a clear sense of what the full scale piece would look like.
After some modifications to my space and easels to accommodate the three large pieces, it was finally time to paint the full scale painting. A few solid weeks of focused and thoroughly engrossing painting and the work was complete.
After a challenging hang, led by Don, the piece looks fabulous in its permanent home. The clients, a delight to work with, were very happy with the work.
