Taking risks

The completed work: "Pegasus"

A little while ago, I received a commission for a painting which would be

very different from the sort of thing I normally do, so was going to be quite a challenge.

The brief was to interpret in a painting a sculpture of the mythical Pegasus by Hasan Novrozi. I was asked to retain some of the mechanical form of the sculpture but to bring it to life. Over lunch, we discussed a colour theme and general feel. The client, who is a triathlete, also stated that the completed canvas would hang in his home gym, in particular in front of his turbo machine where he spends a lot of time training hard. 

The inspiration

The sample panel

I set him some homework (deciding on the size of the canvas), while I did my own homework (a small panel showing the colours we had discussed and the texture I wanted to go for). He liked the panel and gave me the go-ahead.

Starting out

And so I set to work: producing a painting in acrylic on canvas measuring 1 m x 80 cm in line with all we had discussed, and also in line with his taste, which I felt meant making it not as abstract as I would otherwise have done.

Adding mechanical texture

  As the canvas neared completion, I had the idea of adding an inspirational quotation and proposed several to the client. He chose my favourite, by Leonardo da Vinci: "Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.".  This went along the top and down the right-hand side on the face of the canvas. The client also liked a quotation by a hero of his, Steve Prefontaine: "Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." which I wrote along the left edge of the canvas.

 

More texture

 Well, I am thrilled to report that I hit the nail on the head! My client was absolutely delighted with the finished work – and even more delighted when I then sent him photos of the work-in-progress.

Detail

The wings still to do

  

Nearing completion

He immediately posted all the photos on Facebook and among the many comments this prompted, a number expressed their interest in seeing how the work progressed, so I thought you blog-readers may like to see the WIP too – and here are some photos!