The Soloist, pictured to the left, is owned by a musician who hired me to commission a painting in 2009 after I had photographed one of his band's performances.  He visited my online art gallery after I sent him a copy of the digital photographs from the performance.  He viewed and liked not only the paintings in my art gallery but also the videos that showed how I created some of my paintings.  In a later phone conversation, I learned that he wanted a custom made painting by an abstract artist to hang on his wall near his baby grand piano.  He wanted to painting to be abstract, modern and contain a piano.  My client did not know how to commission a painting; it was his first time.  We had a secondary phone conversation where we simultaneously viewed images online.  Row by row, we discussed the results of our Internet searches, and he would tell me which paintings he liked and why.  That search allowed him to decide that he wanted his commissioned painting to have some reds and blues along with some neutral colors.  

I wrote a proposal that met his requirements with a sketch of what the painting would look like.  He approved the proposal, and once he delivered his deposit, I purchased the materials to begin his commission.  He asked if I would video the painting's creation just like the videos that he had seen on my site.   I agreed to do so.  Once I completed the painting, I sent him a digital picture of it.  He obviously liked it because he said that it was even better than the sketch.

Since he lived three hours away, I encouraged him to have his painting mailed to him, but he decided that he would prefer to come and pick it up.  I could tell by his facial expression that he was happy to have his painting once it passed from my care to his.

To view a larger image of The Soloist or to view a video of its creation, please click here.