Debra Keirce

I have had the honor and pleasure of being invited to participate in the Albuquerque Museum of Art - Miniatures and More Invitational Show, four years in a row now. Through this show, I have built my little tribe of New Mexico friends, favorite hotel, shops, restaurants and galleries. I look forward to going each year, and dread the October when I am not invited back to the show. The museum works to invite different artists each year. This year, 29 of the 100 artists in the show were new.

If you have never been to an art show that is a museum's main fundraiser, you might be interested in how this one works. 

First, the curators hang each artists' works. On Friday, select patrons are invited to attend a dinner where they can purchase the pieces they want, so at the show preview Saturday morning, there are already lots of red dots. At the preview, collectors are welcome to meet the artists in a casual atmosphere, with sweets and coffee. Also, they can drop an intent to purchase slip into the box under any painting they are interested in.

Saturday evening, collectors arrive dressed eloquently. There is an open bar, wonderful appetizers, and as the 8pm hour approaches, the room becomes abuzz with excitement. The crowd thickens, and the noise level peaks. Hundreds of art lovers - artists and collectors, are immersed in beautiful art and conversation. At 8:15pm, staff draws a slip from each box and posts the winning slip next to each of the sold paintings. In this way, collectors feel they have "won" their paintings.

Artists have the option of submitting a "reserve piece." The Monday after the show opening, curators remove the sold pieces and replace them with any reserve pieces. The show hangs until December 4, 2016, and there are still many beautiful paintings and sculptures available. If you are in the Albuquerque area, I highly recommend a stop at this museum!

A special thank you to my husband Cliff who came with me to Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque this year. It's always more fun when he can join me. And thank you to my friend Lisa. We were coworkers in a biotech company in Boston in the 1980's and she is a dear friend with wild horses in her backyard.  

Te amo Nuevo México!

I love painting commissions. Part of the excitement for me, is sharing my art with people. So I am like a giddy little kid when it is time for the big reveal. The downside is, commissions are usually shipped to the collectors, so I don't get to be there in person. If it's a particularly emotional piece, sometimes I won't hear back for days or months. I'll usually get a note saying the painting was delivered, and not to worry - they love it. But it's not the same.

Add to that, the fact that I feel it is unprofessional to share the work, unless I have express permission from the collector. That rarely happens. I love it when it does, but many people prefer not to share art that was created just for them, and I respect that.

I do paintings for Lucretia's Pieces, a puzzle company in Vermont. I have been creating two or more original paintings for them each year for almost three decades now, and I have not been allowed to share a single image. You see, they are a custom puzzle company, and their collectors receive the puzzle in a box with no image. They delight in making these puzzles the most difficult to solve. If I published an image, their collectors could cheat and probably find it in a google search. So there is a retrospective of my paintings from the last 30 years out there that will never be made public. 

Secrets are fun, and I am thrilled to be working on a few of them now. In this post are images of the secrets I've painted recently that I can share. As you see, my commissions are often people, but pet portraits, landscapes and buildings (churches, houses) are also common. I am often asked why I paint mostly still life for the galleries and the shows I enter. It's because I rarely get a commission to paint still life. 

Well, now you know all my secrets. Actually, not all... I'm good at keeping them. :)

One thing it took me awhile to recognize - People who love art, love to feel like paintings they collect were created just for them. People will look at my pet portraits and say things like "I love that dog and pose, but I have a poodle. Could you paint a picture of my poodle doing that?" The answer is usually yes, I can. I had to say no one time when a lady had a cat who passed away before she got any photos of it.

I'm often asked to paint still life pieces with favorite beverages, souvenirs and scenes from memorable trips, favorite books, or jewelry with sentimental value. Weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and Valentine's Day always make people think of special gifts for their loved ones, and nothing is more special than a commissioned painting that was created especially for a special person.

But what surprised me is how it often takes a painting sample to get people thinking about commissioning a painting. I rarely get commissions from folks who think up an art concept on their own. Usually, they have seen my work and want to commission me to do a similar painting, tweaked to make it unique for them.

And that, my friends, is how commissioned art is born!