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Ella Clocksin

CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTIST
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Ella Clocksin (2018)  Soundscape , acrylic on canvas, 106 x 141 cm. Client trying the painting for size in the intended space.

Ella Clocksin (2018) Soundscape, acrylic on canvas, 106 x 141 cm. Client trying the painting for size in the intended space.

Large-scale painting commission (part 1)

November 13, 2018

In March 2018, I was commissioned to do a painting for an empty wall in a new kitchen extension full of natural wood, and neutral pale greys and black. The clients have bought work from me before, but this would be for something on a much larger scale. The brief was for a bold, energetic, colourful abstract, with ‘wow’ factor.

EllaClocksin-PaintingCommisison1.jpg

March 2018. Here we are on site. An old TV box came in handy for visualising the potential scale of painting needed to work in the space, more useful at first than a tape measure.


EllaClocksin-PaintingCommisison2.jpeg

March 2018. Part of an old orchard, seen from the house. Abstract trees are a significant part of the finished piece(s).


EllaClocksin-PaintingCommisison3.jpeg

March 2018. The clients chose a colour palette from my box of colour swatches. Pieces of coloured paper are the quick and easy way to do this. Some of the colours relate to the immediate environment, but other colours are added to fulfil the brief for a painting with a strong colour element.

EllaClocksin-PaintingCommisison4.jpeg

July 2018. One of the contenders for the commission (unfinished at this stage). It was painted during the heatwave this year, in heavily dappled sun and shade under trees. Birdsong was all around, and some of the marks are notations of the sounds I was hearing.

My framers have put the loose canvas onto stretcher bars. I can get it in the car. But I can’t close the doors . . . The framers help me remove some seats, but still we can’t quite get it all in. So they let me store the painting with them while I come up with a plan to get it back to the studio.

EllaClocksin-PaintingCommisison5.jpg

August 2018. The painting and me travelling up Oxford High Street in a taxi. You wouldn’t believe how many taxi companies I phoned . . . but eventually I found a company with a mini-bus taxi large enough to take both the painting and me, and who were willing to do a short local run, rather than their usual airport transfers.

EllaClocksin-PaintingCommisison6.JPG

November 2018. The clients’ car is fortunately big enough to collect the large painting, with a smaller one (to give a choice) tucked underneath.


EllaClocksin-PaintingCommisison7.jpeg

November 2018. When I say ‘smaller one’ I mean this one, waiting in the clients’ kitchen to be auditioned on the wall. Orchard (with a few things still to be finished) is acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm. It turns out to be too small for the space designated for the commission, so not as useful for offering choice as I’d hoped.


EllaClocksin-PaintingCommisison8.jpg

November 2018. However, we’d already spotted a potential home for it in the room beyond the kitchen.

EllaClocksin-PaintingCommisison9a.jpg

November 2018. The larger painting, Soundscape 1, is 106 x 141 cm, acrylic on canvas. Trying it for size, it's perfect for the space. Clearly, I haven't been painting large enough all these years :-)

EllaClocksin-PaintingCommisison10.jpeg

November 2018. 'Soundscape' up on the wall, to be lived with for a few weeks. Clients very pleased.

Both paintings need a few small tweaks (clients' privilege with a commissioned painting) and there are a couple of small adjustments I want to make as well. But pausing and taking stock before making them is always a good move. Then varnishing will be the final step at the end of the year.

In Painting commission, Studio practice Tags How do you know when a painting is finished?, Abstract painting, Large-scale acrylic abstract painting
← Large-scale painting commission (part 2)'Haiku 02' selected for 2018 RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition →

Past posts

  • February 2019
    • Feb 1, 2019 Large-scale painting commission (part 2)
  • November 2018
    • Nov 13, 2018 Large-scale painting commission (part 1)
  • February 2018
    • Feb 28, 2018 'Haiku 02' selected for 2018 RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition
    • Feb 9, 2018 A midsummer day's painting? Book now for a contemporary watercolour art retreat in Derbyshire
  • December 2017
    • Dec 8, 2017 Better late than never: embracing online bookings
  • November 2017
    • Nov 22, 2017 Exhibition review: ILLUMINATION - Marius von Brasch & Howard Hardiman
    • Nov 2, 2017 What I want people in my art classes to know
  • April 2017
    • Apr 28, 2017 Today in the studio: the answer is pegboard
  • March 2017
    • Mar 8, 2017 RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition 2017
  • January 2017
    • Jan 11, 2017 Art classes in Oxford - self-doubt and the value of framing
    • Jan 3, 2017 Where does abstract painting come from? (part 2)
  • December 2016
    • Dec 7, 2016 Where does abstract painting come from? (part 1)
  • April 2016
    • Apr 30, 2016 Abstract painting as visual haiku?

© 2019 Ella Clocksin all texts and images: all rights reserved