Hotel Commission Challenges

Vertical Painting for the bar featuring Egrets

The main problem with hotel commissions - well, any commission, in fact - is to try and put yourself in the client’s shoes & visualise what they want & then try & reproduce it.

SIZE OF ARTWORK

With the particular examples shown here above, I was asked to paint 6 horizontal acrylics on 5X4ft canvases for a new hotel here in Antigua and a 7th vertical canvas 42X36”. Of the 6 big ones, each threesome had to form a triptych (so it would look like one painting when hung closely togther) as well as each individual painting being able to hang alone without looking odd - already complicated but still clear to me. These paintings would be reproduced as scaled-down smaller prints for the rooms, hence the bigger format of the originals ( I’ve learned over the years that the quality of the reproductions is always much better i.e.sharper when the original artwork is at least 20% bigger). The original paintings would then hang in the public spaces.

The vertical painting was just for the Bar area, so a kind of one-off.

STYLE AND CONTENT OF ARTWORK

Actually this was really easy in this instance.

“So how will you paint them, in what style?” asked the hotel.

“Well, I thought a modern semi-abstract approach would be appropriate as it will be both stylish & totally unique compared with figurative approach as well as giving me a lot of scope within each painting.”

They thought this was a good idea, having liked a lot of other pieces I had painted this way. In order to give the hotel some idea of my vision, I did a rough sketch of all 6 pieces, indicating how they would join up if need be ( the 6 paintings above show how the different palms & the sea’s horizon - the same in each - serve as the links.). The hotel also wanted the content to reflect aspects of the beach upon which its was located, as well as aspects of Caribbean island life, particularly the island of Antigua, where it would be located, so I included all these facets in the sketches viz. tropical flowers, plants, trees, fruits, birds etc which included symbols of Antigua, as well as sail boats racing, as Antigua is very famous for its regattas.

I also agreed to email the hotel the progress of each painting.

COLOUR PALETTE

This was actually THE most difficult part: having visited the site & what were to be the rooms, all white and stark, I had a pre-conceived idea that the colour scheme would be the bright colours generally associated with the Caribbean…THEN the hotel showed me the fabric swatches. Oh dear. So much more muted than I had imagined. Thus the challenge was: how to depict the Caribbean using a toned-down palette.. The swatches featured various flowers & fruit and tropical leaves in greens & pinks & yellows & oranges, a deep blue & some turquoise. I decided that I could incorporate some of the designs on the fabrics into the paintings and add accents of brighter hues of those colours to enhance the whole.

One particular feature they wanted was a couple, on the beach, with shadows. To overcome the possible problem of whether they should be white or black or mixed, I suggested silhouettes - and as the beach faced East, then the couple would be watching the sunrise. The final subject the hotel wanted to be included was a Moongate, under which the couple would be standing. The name of this new hotel was to be Moon Gate, located on Half Moon Bay, and which was represented in their logo. Chinese tradition has it that when a couple stands under the Moongate arch, it represents good fortune.

I think I was very lucky with the hotel trusting me & almost giving me free rein with the style. And they liked everything I did with few if any changes. I also respected the time schedule/deadline. In the end, it was a challenge I greatly enjoyed as it gave me great scope for my creativity.