Houses & Landscapes

Houses and landscape paintings are often commissioned for presents or, if a house is being sold and members of the family want a painting to remind them of their home. Favourite views are also enormously popular and are normally commissioned by clients who admire an artists painting style at an exhibitions but are unfamiliar with the location of the landscape.

Popular artists include Julian Barrow, Richard Foster, Guy Lester, Nicky Philipps, Marcus Hodge, James Hart Dyke, and Paul Brown. Jonathan Addis tends to be the popular choice for London houses.

For U.K. commissions the artists tend to be restricted by the weather, so in some cases the artist will make sketches and work up the painting in their studio. Others prefer to paint en plein air.

SOME CONSIDERATIONS

What medium's right for you?
Firstly, what look are you trying to achieve?
Is this picture to hang with predecessors, ancestors, or the like?
Do you have a budget in mind?
Where is this picture going to hang?
How much space do you have?
Sometimes an artist whose style you admire may not be suited to painting under life size.

All these questions and more can be answered when you visit our commissioning gallery.

Avoiding common commissioning pitfalls

Is this painting for a particular date? A surprise?

Don't be tempted to choose an artist just because he/she can get the project completed in time. Always trust your instinct, if you don't find an artist whose style you really like don't embark on the project.

Have you seen enough of their recent work? Most important rule of all: don't choose an artist because you have heard of them. Many portraits linger in attics because people commission friends of friends to paint a child when they are really only confident at painting older people etc etc. The rules apply to all types of commissioning.