When I begin working on a commissioned painting, I usually start the same way... Talk to my clients, find out their interests, possibly which paintings of mine do they like the most, determine the size and begin pondering in my head "How do i tell their story?" Over the years, some clients have suggested a possible theme for their painting, but their concept and my idea of a "Scott Moore Painting" are usually very far apart.

My clients, Steve and MaryBeth, emailed me a detailed description of a possible direction to take this project. Here is what they wrote:  

"The subject matter would be Naples itself, which as you may know, is characterized by canals, Alamitos Bay, arched bridges (and bridge jumping), docks along the canals, paddle boarding, kayaks, boats of all sorts,… We don’t have a definite concept for a surreal subject matter, but one idea we had would be to use an oversized old school, clawfoot bathtub in the foreground as the basin to hold the water in the canal and maybe one of the bridges spand the bathtub, and use toy boats, paper boats, rubber duck etc as surreal props in the canal and/or bay. We would obviously like your thoughts and guidance as to what types of perspectives could be created."

It was perfect! They really understood my thinking process and came up with the perfect solution. Although they didn't want to compromise the design with including them in the painting, I thought it would be great to have their whole family in the design.

They sent me this photo so I would know the makeup of their family.

This photo shows the canal where they once owned a home. Since the trees had grown up and blocked the view of their home from this angle, they also sent me an older photo...

...right here! I would have to combine the two photos, eliminate some foliage in each one and add their Duffy boat...

..."Bada Bing"

I purchased a vintage set of bathroom fixtures and mounted them on a piece of plywood, duplicating the lighting that would be determined by the sunlight direction in the more current photo of their 'old' home.

This vintage bar of ivory soap would be used as a bench for MaryBeth and the soap itself would become Kevin's stand up paddleboard. With all these ingredients, I put them in a large pot (my small brain) and came up with this image:

Here we have Steve (dad) perched on the bridge, getting ready to jump into the canal. MaryBeth (mom), sits safely on the bar of soap on the window ledge, while the two young ladies sit in their origami boat. They, along with Kevin, standing atop the bar of Ivory soap ("it floats") watch dad as he prepares his cannon ball! Outside the window is a view up the canal, where a couple enjoys a gondola ride alongside a pair of paddleboarders. Oh yeh, "Bada Bind" is the red Duffy boat, docked below their 'old' house.

I built 48" x 48" stretcher bars and stretched the finest Belgium linen portrait canvas over the frame. I'll begin by working on the scene outside the window. It's very detailed and will take a great deal of time to draw all the elements onto the canvas.

Here is about 4 days work, drawing and painting. All my paint applications in the beginning of the painting are thin washes of oil paint and turpentine. This follows the rules of oil paint applications of "thin to fat" in terms of the thickness of the pigment. Thin layer first, fat layer last. I can only paint those areas that don't touch where any of the figures will be. Since I don't know exactly what space each figure will occupy, I will avoid painting those areas. In the outdoor scene in the window, I'll hold off on painting the water as it will surround part of MaryBeth, sitting on the bar of soap.

I will be meeting with the five members of this family soon to photograph them for the painting. Once I have them all drawn onto the canvas, I'll be able to paint all areas of the image.

I've moved off of the window scene and roughed in the wall sign and the left wall. Next, I'll move back to the window to add more details.

 The Naples canal scene has been painted with it's first layer except for the Gondolier and the two paddleboarders. The large white water area in the lower left has been left bare until I draw MaryBeth on the window sill.

I've painted the gondolier and the two paddleboarders. Although they look like a stand alone painting, they are just small details in the background of the window view.

I was planning on moving on to the chrome faucets on the wall today but the sun didn't come out this afternoon. I need to put the faucets in the sun to study the reflections a little more before rendering them.