Kodiak Spring. Painting #48

Kodiak Spring is painting #48 and is actually a commission. An old coworker I used to work with in Germany contacted me on Instagram and asked me to paint a picture of Mt. Barometer in Alaska. This mountain held some special meaning to him as that’s where he spend some of his childhood. He noticed my style of painting and thought that I would be the perfect artist to create it for him.

He did not send me a photo reference. He simple wanted Mt. Barometer to be the subject. He allowed me to use creative license to create it. So I went on Google and Instagram and searched for photos of Mt. Barometer. I found several photos to use in order to compose this picture. This is the result.

I’ve done commissions before. In my early days of painting, some would want a replica of a Bob Ross painting I may have painted. Only one other person has requested an original commission and that one was Night Train. That one was cool and I had a cool photo to work with. This one, I had to compose the scene from different photos I saw of the mountain and surrounding area.

I remember thinking during the painting, “What am I doing? I am actually painting a picture by request! Someone asked ME to paint them a picture!” I also had a moment of self doubt. I thought to myself, “I have no business doing this. I’m not even a trained artist. Why am I doing this.” Why I had those thoughts, I don’t know. I suspect all artists have those at some point. But that’s the other thing, calling myself an artist seems weird to me. Especially as I had been painting for merely a year and a half at this point.

Anyway, the painting turned out great. The customer loved it. The more I look at it, the more I like it myself. I love the highlights on the mountain. I had a bit of a challenge sort of blending the end of the snow line but I think that turned out good in the end. I even used different brush strokes during this painting. That is to say, I didn’t use the standard Bob Ross strokes that I learned. Those different strokes added some cool texture to the painting.

Would you like me to do a painting or you? If so, click up in the top right corner where it says “Commission Inquiries”. I’ll see what I can do!

Happy Painting!