This was my very first commission. I don't usually do commissions because people tend to have an image in their heads of what they want, and they think an artist is a mind reader who can produce the precise thing that they have imagined. I am not that artist. I am the artist who can produce my impression of that image. I am an impressionist.
However, my mother's friend saw a painting of mine and excitedly requested that I do a painting of her deceased rooster. She didn't have a photo of him and she wanted something to remember him. She had a blurry video of him from when he was a baby, but had to describe what he looked like in adulthood.
Against my better judgement I agreed to do this painting for her. We spoke for hours and I worked out a sketch for her. Then she began describing what she called a "chestnutty reddish brown like a horse," and I had to explain that my colors wouldn't be exact, as I am an impressionist artist. She cancelled her commission, saying that she didn't want a purple and yellow rooster.
I decided to go ahead and finish the painting anyway. So here is my first and last commission.
Entitled Terminator, after the subject. Oil paint on canvas paper.
