Big Commission - Four paintings

We have recently completed four paintings which were commissioned by an association of local tourist offices in the Charente who want to use the pictures as cover illustrations for brochures focusing on four towns in the local area.  This is an important commission for us and we are looking forward to seeing the brochures published in time for the summer season.  Two of the towns in question are much visited by tourists on account of their impressive châteaux, and we are hoping that this will generate some business for us.

Two of the paintings are in acrylic, painted by Fran; two in watercolour, painted by me.  Here are the finished paintings.

Villebois-Lavalette

Acrylic by Fran Evans

Torsac

Watercolour by Ian Osborne

Montbron

Acrylic by Fran Evans

La Rochefoucauld

Watercolour by Ian Osborne

Watercolour painting - Four Men on Bench

My latest watercolour was painted from a photograph in the image library on wetcanvas.com, which has a vast range of licence-free photos for artist's reference.  The scene was shot on Madeira.  As the figures are in shadow and the detail on the faces was difficult to see well from the photo, I have left the faces blank.  The painting is a bit of a departure for me, but I quite like the effect. I have called the painting....

In The Shade of the Jacaranda Tree

Watercolour painting - Wisteria / Acrylic painting - Henrietta

Fran has done an acrylic painting of this door surrounded by wisteria, which is in our local village of Varaignes.  Using the same reference photos, I chose a different angle to her painting, which was a straight-on close-up of the door.  This angle allowed me to include the row of purple irises beside the doorway, and a bit of the garden beyond.  The painting is a watercolour 30x20 cm.

 Fran has meanwhile painted this hen which is one of many that belong to a friend.  This is an acrylic painting on a deep-edged canvas 30x24 cm and was commissioned by a woman here in France as a present to her daughter in England. It is to match the painting of a cockerel that she bought last summer.

Acrylic painting - Portrait of a horse

This acrylic painting is on a deep-edged canvas 50x40cm. Fran painted this, not as a commission, but as an example to try to entice people to commission a painting of their horse.  We have been asked about this several times when we have been doing markets etc. but nobody has ever followed up their enquiry.  The painting will go up in a local bar/café where we have several works on the walls, and hopefully attract some interest.

Here is the painting