VICTORIA SMITH
COLLAGE GALLERY
Private Commissions
Here are just a few examples of the sort of work I do day to day for my private customers.
Private commissions usually come in the form a 30cm x 30cm collage made up of pictures relevant to the client, put togther in
a setting chosen by the client.
The process begins with an informal chat (either in person, on the phone or via email) about the basic form the client would like
their picture to take, followed by a more detailed list of the sorts of things they would like included into the picture. Typical things include past occupations, road names, family names, favourite books, quotes, artists, hobbies, films, foods and music.
Some people have chosen to supply me with photos they wish to have included and others ask me to delve a little into their family history for more surnames and dates, both of which I am happy to do!
Armed with all the information I work my wonders sourcing all the images and weaving them together into a picture that looks
lovely from a distance as well one that contantly gives new things to see up close.
I aim to creative a narrative within the picture of connections and stories. Often these are presents for a husband to wife (or vice versa) and it's amazing the delight a recipient gets when they spot their favourite packet of chocolate buttons hidden in a corner
of the picture, or the time their cat caught a kingfisher or the words from their favourite book or song. They are a pleasure to do!
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Please get in touch if you are interested in commissioning a picture. Prices start at £500 (unframed) and take about 6 weeks to complete.
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Another string to my commission bow is the postcard mash up. For these pictures I source two postcards which I feel sit physically
and aesthetically together. After a little mathematical brow-furrowing I slice each postcard up and mount them onto a hand cut mountboard structure, setting the postcard slices alternately at an angle. When viewed from either side you see each postcard as a whole and from the front a lovely mash-up of the two images.
The example above is a Mash Up of The Houses Of Parliament and the sea off the English coast. When viewed head on you get a wonderful image of waves breaking over the top of Big Ben. It was a statement on global warming when I created it but ended up
as somewhat of a political statement when it was exhibited around the time of the 2015 general elections in Great Britain.
Again this works very well for couples who have grown up in different places and want to bring pictures of those places together
into one place. The one pictured above, mid-construction, was a postcard of Morpeth Northumberland mashed up with a postcard
of Wem, Shropshire and was for my brother in law and his wife.
Postcard mash-ups cost £250 which includes the sourcing and purchasing of the postcards, construction and framing in a solid wood, bespoke frame, by Foxwist framers, Shipston On Stour. Please allow 4 weeks for delivery.