Linda Robertson

special event Commissions

I approach my paintings for special events as portraits of celebrations rather than portraits of people, often using the actual plants from special occasions or memorable spaces as my muse. I’ve worked with leaves, flowers, and stones, and whole branches that have come from gardens, weddings, celebrations of life, graduations and other special celebrations.

When you commission a painting we will start by talking about your event, why it is important to you, what kind of plants and flowers you plan to use, the color palette and size of paintings you prefer, and any other details that will help me create my best work for you.

I had the pleasure of creating a series of paintings to celebrate a tropical wedding. Below you can see some of the works in progress, as well as some of the images I collected during the event.

A few images showing the beauty of the wedding flowers. The ceremony was lovely and the bride and groom looked amazing, accented by colorful floral arrangements and Hawaiian lei!

Following the wedding the happy couple gave me a variety of plants to work with, including some of the flowers from the table arrangements, petals from the aisle, and the lei of both partners. The plants don’t need to be fresh, so they can still be used even when they start to fade, leaving you time to enjoy them at their best.

I carefully chose and arranged flowers, petals, leaves, and little blossoms to create a flowing design across the first two canvases. I was even supplied with a string of tiny lights from the stage, but they didn’t end up in the final painting. I never know where inspiration will come from, so the more I have to work with the better.

Once the design was laid out I used acrylic and watercolor paint, added in layers, to build up a lasting image of these delicate plants.

Above you can see nearly finished paintings focused on the Haku lei the bride wore on her head (spanning the canvasses) surrounded by flowers from her bouquet. The groom’s boutonniere wouldn’t have produced a distinctive shape, but I wanted to include it somehow so I made marks with the thistles instead. Additional layers of both spray and brushed paint accent some of the details and completed the paintings.