I thought I would take a moment to share one of the recent commissions I had the pleasure of painting. It was a wedding gift from a mother to her daughter of the venue where the ceremony was to take place. The funny thing is that this is not the first time I’ve had the opportunity to paint this venue. That’s right – Montfair Resort Farm is now a repeat commission location! I can see why, too. It’s a beautiful place located in the countryside just northeast of Charlottesville, VA with the mountains of Shenandoah National Park rising up across the horizon.
I thought I would show the reference photos presented to me and explain how I composed the final painting. Like many other commissions I’ve done, this wasn’t a standard artistic duplication of a single photograph. Instead, I was tasked with selecting the best parts of each of the photos and combining them together in a way that made sense and brought balance to the layout.
My goal was to:
- emphasize the mountains in the background and give them more presence
- capture the open field with the fencing
- create a lush floral foreground by carefully dispersing the purple aster and yellow goldenrod to create balance.
Once I figured out a mental plan for the piece, I began sketching.
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