The most common thing I hear from people who have been thinking about commissioning a painting is some version of this: “I did not know I was allowed to do that.”

They have admired original art for years. They have a wall that has been waiting for the right piece. They know exactly how they want a room to feel. But somewhere along the way they got the idea that commissions were for corporations, or for people with unlimited budgets, or for collectors who already knew the art world from the inside.

None of that is true. And I want to tell you what commissioning a painting actually looks like — at least the way I do it — so that if you have been sitting on the idea, you can stop sitting on it.

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Every second Saturday of the month, I open my studio at the ArtsXchange in St. Petersburg and let anyone walk through.

No ticket. No appointment. No obligation. No velvet rope, no gallery assistant with a clipboard, no sense that you need to know anything about art or have any intention of buying to deserve to be there.

Over 210 people come every month. And every month, something happens in that studio that I cannot reproduce online, in a newsletter, or in any photograph I take of the work.

 I want to tell you what that something is — and why I think coming to open studio might be the most useful thing you can do if you are curious about collecting original art.

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The most common thing I hear from people who have been thinking about commissioning a painting is some version of this: “I did not know I was allowed to do that.”

They have admired original art for years. They have a wall that has been waiting for the right piece. They know exactly how they want a room to feel. But somewhere along the way they got the idea that commissions were for corporations, or for people with unlimited budgets, or for collectors who already knew the art world from the inside.

None of that is true. And I want to tell you what commissioning a painting actually looks like — at least the way I do it — so that if you have been sitting on the idea, you can stop sitting on it.

Read More