'Sagittarius Nebula' is finally completed, signed and varnished. It has now been scanned and launched as prints, available to order via my website shop!
This painting is the first in a new venture of exploring the stars, a series depicting the celestial heavens of outer-space. A breath-taking painting subject, full of wonder beyond my wildest dreams. This adventure through the galaxies took an astonishing two-hundred hours of work. My brushstrokes illuminating the skies, moving in the spirit of the cosmos, I felt at one with this painting. 'Sagittarius Nebula' is my artistic representation of a Nebula in the Sagittarius constellation, close to the celestial equator. A nebula (Latin for 'cloud' or 'fog') is a distinct body of interstellar clouds associated with stars and illuminated by starlight. Most nebulae are of vast size; some are hundreds of light-years in diameter.
'Sagittarius Nebula' is a commissioned painting, commissioned by the same client who commissioned the handsome portrait of 'Paddy'. As this is a new painting subject to me, I want to say a big thank you to this client for your support and patience throughout this painting experience. To compare these two commissions, they are cosmos apart in many different ways. In Sagittarius Nebula, the work is spread out over the whole canvas, which is larger, and many more colours were used. Details are in every inch of this painting, and this required full concentration throughout this journey. For Paddy, the colour scheme highlighted the colours on the subject and focused the details on Paddy himself. Pricing commissioned work had always been a trying subject for what we as artists do. As much as I would like to paint, getting paid accordingly helps me to continue doing what I love. I’m still slowly hoping to achieve the right balance. Learning and improving my skills is such a passion for me, and I'm starting to understand there are several paths that could be taken at this crossroads I have met. To further my skills I’ll need to undertake subjects of technical challenge potentially spending more time on some particularly large projects. However to sustain financially, I need to reduce how much time I spent on the paintings and stick to subjects that entranced majority of people. So much to take into consideration for the future. I have a new page on my website detailing the considerations of commission pricing and how to commission your own painting here