Ritz-Carlton commision finished

Iterations #2, 30 x 66 inches, ©2009 Deidre Adams

I finished this piece about a month ago, just before I left for Ohio (see images of the work in progress here and here). The commission was to make a copy of a work that had sold previously. The difference was that I needed to make the orange more red to coordinate with a swatch of fabric from some furniture that will be in the lobby area where the work will be hung. The swatch also has a kind of shiny copper look to it, so I put some metallic copper paint into the new one as well. I’m posting the original here again because it’s fun to see the comparison.

Iterations #1: Aquamarine, 30 x 66 inches, ©2006 Deidre Adams

While I was working on the color in the new piece, I was looking at an image of the old one on my computer screen in the studio and trying to make judgments based on that, but now that I see the photos together, I’m really surprised at how different the second one turned out. I knew the spaces between the stones were bigger and I had consciously decided that I wanted the negative spaces to be darker in this one, but the colors are more different than I expected, with a lot more contrast. I guess for me, making an exact copy turned out to be more difficult than I would have thought.

I delivered the piece just before I left town, and Judy and Kate from Translations both said they liked it better than the original, so that set my mind at ease. I hope the Ritz-Carlton likes it too.

Now, for another twist on this story. Translations moved into a new gallery space in the heart of Denver’s LoDo area last month. It’s a beautiful new space and the location offers much greater visibility and traffic potential than their old one. (They got a good write up in the Denver Post, which I meant to talk about here on my blog, but never got a response from the Post as to whether I could have permission to repost the photo, so I forgot about it.) A new customer came into the gallery and saw the work which was going to the Ritz-Carlton, which includes this piece:

Horizon IV, 24 x 24, ©2006 Deidre Adams

She loved this one, and so now I have another commission to recreate an existing piece — except she doesn’t like yellow too much and wants me to make it more red.

Is it true that something becomes more desirable when it’s unobtainable? (Like that guy I broke up with once in my younger years but then wanted him back as soon as I found out he had a new girlfriend and was going to take her to the Bob Seger concert? Wow, dating myself here!)