Putting Ideas on Canvas

In addition to ideas that occur to her, Patti has been hired by others to create a specific painting. Creating a painting based on someone else's mental vision brings on unique challenges. "Ideal for an artist is for clients to love the work they do and make purchases from their inventory. But mostly people have an idea of exactly what they want and either describe it or have photos they want copied exactly."

While it might seem somewhat easier to reproduce something exactly, based on an existing image, than to create from your imagination, artists are not usually motivated by fulfilling the job of a duplication machine. In addition, "Exactly is what is difficult for most artists who want to add their own artistic creativity & it’s hard to be creative when others are directing what they want in a painting." Lucky for Patti, her clients realize that part of why they hired her was her style. Patti continues, "Generally, of the ones that have commissioned work with me, most all have allowed me to add some of my own creative inventions to their requests or photos."

When painting for themselves, Kim and Patti each begin with an actual object or image, rather than purely from the imagination. Kim says, "I have to have reference material in order to create a painting. However, I always modify what I see to what I want it to be or I will use multiple references and merge them into one painting." Patti agrees, and adds, "I’m not one of those artists who can create from my own imagination. It was eye opening for me to find out there are only a very few artist who can even do this."


Above: Some of the paintings in Kim's studio