A Prickly Subject: My Cactus Painting Commission

I recently had the opportunity to paint a commission for the owner of an enormous cactus garden in Graaff-Reinet. The first time I’ve attempted painting such a prickly subject, and my first commission in my new hometown.

The client, we’ll call him JB, showed me two of his favourite places in the garden for me to choose from for my composition, and told me to put him in the painting.

I chatted with JB and took a few photographs of him. These served as reference for the figure in the painting.

Then I headed in to the garden to take photographs of the two spots from different angles. I decided not to paint in the garden, because there were many prickly hazards and the reference photo/composition that I chose was taken from an awkward position (pressed very close up against a sculpture on my haunches).

From my painting notes, here are some thoughts I had on the day:

Photographed the second spot in the garden that JB showed me. I couldn’t find a very good composition so I decided to go back to spot one. That was the one he took me to first after all. So I hope it is his favourite.

I did a value study in the garden, sitting on an upside down flower pot. The composition I’ve chosen is fairly complicated, and yet, not too complicated. JB wants to be in his painting.

I’m thinking about using yellow ochre for the cactus greens.

Here are the process photographs with a few extra colour notes for your info.