'm now taking orders for my 2020 calendars for delivery in mid October , in time for overseas Christmas posting. The calendar this year features New Zealand landscapes - 13 months of paintings to take you through to the end of January 2021! The  calendar retails for $26 which includes postage within New Zealand. If you'd like to order one for a special Christmas gift,  I will send them together with a card in time for Christmas.
Please check out the slideshow of the featured paintings Calendars
and  let me know if you'd like to put in an order- [email protected]

  “As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.” (Toni Morrison)

I've just been commissioned to paint an artwork for a wedding gift .....
A commission, according to my Collins dictionary, is  "the state of being charged with specific duties or responsibilities". No pressure! Both the commissioner ( or commissionee? Not sure which) and the intended recipient are close friends of one of our children, so I've know them for quite a while. The chosen subject is a place where they have both spent holiday time together and my job is to capture the essence of that special place for them.
When I'm working on a commissioned piece I like to take my time and make sure that what I paint is fulfilling  expectations. I feel quite a responsibility here - who knows whether someone else sees or feels what I see or feel? Do they see, hear, smell what is the essence of a place in the same way that I do?
I spend some time gathering reference material , considering which medium to use, what format paper or canvas, what to put in, what to leave out. Luckily the chosen subject is a place which I enjoy ,too. 
That can be a tricky thing with commissions ,  if someone asks you to paint something which strikes no chord - and , in fact, if that happened I would suggest that they ask someone else to paint for them. . The responsibility of trying to create something special from something that I dislike would be beyond me! When I paint a piece like this I do it with the agreement that I'll paint it the way I want to and if they don't like it then they don't accept it. So far I've managed to capture something special each time, fingers crossed that this one will tick the boxes...