Harry made a bareback rider proud and free upon a horse
And a fine coalminer for the NCB that was
A fallen angel and Jesus on the cross
A skating ballerina you should have seen her do the skater’s waltz

Some people have got to paint and draw
Harry had to work in clay and stone
Like the waves coming to the shore
It was in his blood and in his bones
Ignored by all the trendy boys in London and in Leeds
He might as well have been making toys or strings of beads
He could not be in the gallery

And then you get an artist says he doesn’t want to paint at all
He takes an empty canvas and sticks it on the wall
The birds of a feather all the phonies and all of the fakes
While the dealers they get together
And they decide who gets the breaks
And who’s going to be in the gallery

No lies he wouldn’t compromise
No junk no bits of string
And all the lies we subsidize
That just don’t mean a thing
I’ve got to say he passed away in obscurity
And now all the vultures are coming down from the tree
So he’s going to be in the gallery

This is a commissioned piece. The customer wants a painting of this pair of jeans (supplied by him) against a black background. We went back and forth on the composition, eventually settling on making it look as if they were being worn by an invisible person. That entailed hiring a model to wear the jeans as I paint, since I’m pretty bad at working from photos.

As you can see, I’m working my way down. I mixed and tubed a base color and applied that as an initial dead coloring layer. I am working on top of that. Right now, the jeans are hung in midair so that I can paint the inside parts. The customer wanted to capture the iconic nature of Levis 501’s, so the inside tags—especially the one that will have a bright red 501 on it—are important.

I’ll try to post better pictures later on.

I like how it’s coming at the moment. In some ways this is an interesting and exciting project, and in others it will be really good to get this done, as it also represents a block on my other work.

Commission agreement

1. This is an agreement between John Smith (“John”) and David Rourke (“David”).
2. David will create a painting according to subject matter and composition chosen by John.
3. The painting will be approximately ____ x ____ inches in size. It will be completed in oil paint using professional-quality materials and methods.
4. David will complete the painting, to the best of his ability, within three months.
5. John will pay David a total of _____________________ dollars (not including applicable sales tax) for the painting. Payment is due as follows:
   1. One third of the total price upon completion of this agreement. David will then create one or more preliminary composition drawings for review and approval by John.
   2. One third of the total price upon approval of the final composition drawing by John. David will then prepare the canvas and complete the painting within a mutually agreeable time frame.
   3. One third of the total price upon delivery of the completed painting.
6. Payment is not refundable. However, John can end this agreement at any time with notice in writing to David.
7. Framing is not included in the price.
8. Although John will own the painting and has the right to display it as he sees fit, David retains copyright of the image. This agreement provides John with authorization to use photographs of the painting for personal, non-commercial use. Any other use of any image of the painting or portion or derivative thereof requires prior authorization in writing from David.
9. David will deliver the completed painting to John when it is sufficiently dry for hanging. It is recommended that the painting receive a coat of protective varnish approximately six months after completion. Upon request, David will varnish the painting at no additional cost.