This is one of my favorite client stories. It was commissioned by a husband for his wife, who had recently lost her mother. The photograph of her mom was one that she cherished, and he wanted the painting from that photo.
He wished to keep the commission a secret, but had to delay payment by a day because he left his wallet in his pants in the bedroom after his wife had gone to sleep and was afraid of waking her to retrieve it. He was able to pay the next day when his wife was at the hairdresser.
He let his wife’s sister in on the secret and “she cried profusely.” At Christmas, he couldn’t keep the secret any longer from his wife and she started crying.
In the end when the painting was delivered, Tommy, my client, had this to say:
“AJ, thank you so much. I picked up the painting up at her Dad’s and I showed it to him, Linda’s sister and my nephew. Everyone had tears in their eyes.
You really captured her mother…and those were in fact, Linda’s first words when she saw the painting today. Sadly, she is sick (has what appears to be the flu). When I walked in the door with the painting she was asleep and so I was able to surprise her when she woke up. I was heading back to work and she said that she was so happy to have her Mom there with her, especially when she was sick. While I was at work she texted me a picture of it on the wall in our living room (it will likely move…knowing Linda, six or seven times). All this evening, she kept looking over at it (as did I).
So, thank you from the bottom of my heart…you gave me something that allowed me to do exactly what I wanted: to lift my wife’s spirits and help keep alive my mother-in-law. It has also lifted everyone else’s too.
Thank you so very much!
-Tommy”