I never really planned to do commissions because I always felt that I would have somebody hanging over my shoulder telling me what to do. The funny thing Is, I've kind of been doing them all along.
It wasn't until I set up this new website grudart.ca that I found some older paintings plus 2 I was commissioned to do this past year. When a friend of a friend or someone at a show would come up to me and ask me to paint the exact copy of a painting that I sold to a mutual acquaintance, I would most always say " I don't do commissions" then I'd go back to my studio and paint something similar, Just weird if you ask me. The next time I'd see that person, they would jog my memory and I would show them the painting and they would buy it. The crazy thing is, that has happened a few times over the years and in hindsight I didn't think there were similarities between the paintings.
This past year 2017, an old passion re-emerged. A friend asked me if i would do a commission of a couple of Matisse works, and I said "I don't do commissions".
What I use to do was copy different masters works, primarily as a learning tool and I got to a point where I was pretty good at it. Well! last year those memories came flooding back and I did those pieces for my friend by Henri Matisse , "Woman in a Purple Coat" and "2 Models Resting. Those paintings would have been a huge challenge if I was going to forge them but I was in it for fun. I also painted them with acrylic which didn't exist in the late 1920's and1930s' So now I can finally admit to the world that " I do commissions"
Check out my commissions page
Contact David Grudniski