I was contacted recently by someone who requested a painting of their house as a wedding gift for his bride to be.
Painting peoples’ homes is something I do all the time so I was more than happy to help out and I agreed. I was also pleased with the building. A lovely thatched former gamekeeper’s cottage, set in two acres of garden and orchard.
There were, however, a few challenges. The painting needed to be done rather quickly for the wedding so I had to squeeze it into my already tight schedule. Added to that, the location was in Yorkshire, and I was here in Somerset. I didn’t have time to travel, so it all had to be done through photographs sent by the client.
Initially, I thought we would be painting just the house. The client mentioned that there were some pets too. No problem, I thought. We can do that. I requested the list. It was as follows!
- Four dogs (German shepherd, black labrador, cocker spaniel, springer spaniel)
- Four cats (two black, two tabby)
- Fourteen Muscovy ducks
- Ten Indian Runner ducks
- Five red hens
- And a partridge in a pear tree (not really)
I wondered if his surname was ‘Doolittle!’
Painting a house off location
I asked the client to send over photos of the house and gardens. ‘More is always more’ in these situations.
While he was gathering those, I was drawing up the menagerie on my end, and trying to find out what a ‘runner duck’ looked like. Google kept correcting it to ‘Rubber duck’.
Once all the photos were in, I got to work drawing out the house. There is a large space out front which would be ideal for the animals to be located. I placed them all in, and counted them all out as I went. I’d hate to leave out a chicken, and incur any wrath.
I like to do my initial drawings pretty accurately, so the clients get the best idea on what the final art work will look like. Once the house was complete and the menagerie was in place, I presented the drawing.
No amends this time and I went ahead with the painting and emailed the final artwork. By this time, the wedding was fast approaching. Even the dogs had been shampooed so any further amends needed to be done sharpish.
I had nothing to worry about as the client was most pleased and I got to post it off with a few days to spare before the wedding day.
I love a happy ending
Client testimonial
I noticed one of Liam’s paintings on Facebook and was instantly drawn to his style.
With our wedding coming up, there was one obvious choice for a gift for my wife. I contacted Liam and said what I would like, and a couple of weeks later it arrived in the post.
Perfect! He had understood and captured the exact feel I was looking for, and everyone is over the moon with our painting.
Thank you!
Bent Hunt
