I’ve been looking forward to sharing this scene with you. It’s a commission of Auckland in New Zealand for our wonderful friends Hannah and Alex. They worked over there a few years ago and wanted a memory of their time living in the city. I’m really pleased with how the painting came out, which is a very rare occurrence as there’s always something that I waiver on and I have to stop myself from endlessly tweaking! It also sits beautifully with the rest of my World Series paintings.
They choose an amazing scene for me, knowing full well how I love a mixture of buildings and landscape! We worked on a couple of ideas, thinking about Queenstown as well as the eventual view of Auckland across from Devonport. As so often happens with my commission work, I brought a few references together to show off the downtown skyscrapers as well as the smaller suburban buildings. Extremely satisfying for me to get so much detail in the foreground, with the cityscape at the centre and the faded (definitely exaggerated) peaks in the distance. Hopefully it comes across as a plausible composition for anybody who has been there! Here’s a photo of the finished painting…
We finished the canvas with a custom built floater frame in white. The extra framing taking it to 124 x 94 cm (49 x 37 inches) in size. I think it’s a great size for the living room wall which you can see below. I wish our living space was as neat and tidy as this (I blame the small people in our house and definitely not the scruffy artist making a mess!). I felt really proud to hang it in place.
The biggest of thank yous to Hannah and Alex for commissioning this New Zealand scene…. and for everyone who has commissioned work this year, despite the global situation, there’s still been lots of artwork to celebrate.I’m now booking work into 2021, so if you’re interested in a painting like this Auckland commission drop me a line; or have a little browse at my private commission guide. Find more #commission examples or follow the #WorldSeries tag on the blog for more paintings like these.
