A portrait begins with listening

A commission rarely begins with paint. It begins with a conversation. Before I start, I want to know what matters to the person asking for it: who the artwork is for, what the occasion is, and why this particular image has stayed with them. Sometimes it is a favourite photograph. Sometimes it is a place, a flower, a colour, or a small memory that would not be obvious from the image alone.

Those details are not extras. They shape the work. A quiet graphite portrait might be right for a remembrance piece because it lets the expression and the small details do the talking. A colourful acrylic painting can hold the warmth of an anniversary, a home or a shared holiday. For a larger piece, composition and atmosphere become just as important as likeness.

I also like to talk through the practical choices early: the size, the room where the artwork will live, the medium, the colours the client is drawn to and the feeling they want when they look at it. It means the finished work has a place in their life from the very beginning, rather than feeling like a photograph simply transferred onto canvas.

Reference photos are important, of course. They give me the facial features, the posture, the clothing and the details that make a person recognisable. But a camera catches one second. A painting or drawing has space to carry more: the tenderness in a relationship, the personality of a pet, the pride of a milestone, or the quiet feeling of missing someone.

There is no single formula for a meaningful portrait. Sometimes the best choice is to keep everything close to the reference; other times it is to soften the background, bring in a favourite flower or let the colour become more expressive. The important thing is that those choices belong to the story, not just the decoration.

My aim is never to make something that only resembles a photograph. It is to make a piece someone will keep returning to, because it feels personal, familiar and made for their life. That is the lovely part of commissions: the artwork leaves the studio, but the story keeps going.