Commissions

Description

A Simon Kenny commission is an original abstract painting built for a specific wall, a specific quality of light, and a specific brief. The work is not made first and matched to your room afterwards. It begins as a conversation, and the canvas develops from there.

My paintings work within the lyrical abstraction tradition, drawing on the raw energy of the natural world, the polarities of the Kent coast in winter, and the deeper forces that sit underneath both. Heavy impasto. Layered glazes that pull warmth from cool fields. Palette knife marks that catch light at different angles as you move past. A palette mixed from the ground up for each piece, never pulled from a previous canvas. The result is work that earns its place in a lived-in room and holds its weight over years, not seasons.

How a commission works

Every commission moves through four stages. The first three are conversational. The fourth is the painting itself.

Stage one. The brief. We start with the wall, the room, and the feeling you want the work to carry. Photographs help. A short daylight video helps more, because it shows me how natural light moves across the space through a day. A north-facing wall reads cool and asks for warm pigment. The same wall facing south at four in the afternoon in autumn reads warm and asks for the opposite. The brief always starts with light.

Stage two. Sketches and palette studies. I develop preliminary sketches and small palette studies for your review before the first marks go onto canvas. We discuss them. You sign off on the direction before the work begins.

Stage three. The painting. I work through the piece in the studio over weeks. Heavy impasto, layered glazes, palette knife passes that build the surface and then partially bury what was beneath. Progress photographs go out at agreed stages. You have the opportunity to feed back at key milestones, though most clients let the painting find its own resolution once the brief is set.

Stage four. Sign-off and delivery. When the painting is finished, you review it through high-resolution photographs and have the option to view the work in person at the studio, or through a private video walkthrough. The canvas is then prepared, packed, and delivered fully insured to your specified address. I have shipped to fourteen countries and counting.

Materials, scale, and what to expect

Original oil, acrylic, or mixed media on deep-edge canvas. Heavy gel mediums and Liquin Impasto where the brief calls for sculptural surface. Archival materials throughout: commercial-grade stretcher bars on larger works, acid-free wedges, and gallery-standard varnishing where appropriate.

Scale runs from intimate studies of around sixty centimetres through to architectural pieces above three metres wide. Diptychs and triptychs are available where the architecture asks for them. Each commission is a one-of-one original. Framing is offered as an optional add-on through trusted UK framers I have worked with for years.

Lead time and pricing

Lead times typically run between four and six months from sign-off of the brief through to delivery. Larger pieces above two metres, or commissions involving extended drying time for thick oil passages, may require a longer window. Time, in this kind of work, is part of the material.

Pricing is calculated by scale, complexity, and medium, and is quoted in writing after the initial consultation. Indicative ranges can be shared on request before any commitment is made.

A track record worth checking

I have worked within the lyrical abstraction tradition since 2003, with paintings held in private and corporate collections across fourteen countries. Notable corporate placements include Saatchi & Saatchi’s London headquarters at 40 Chancery Lane, the JW Marriott in Bengaluru, Gordon Ramsay’s Petrus, the Conrad Bengaluru, and South Seas Resorts in Florida. I am represented across the UK by DeMontfort Fine Art and Clarendon Fine Art, and was a speaker at TEDx Richmond in January 2026 on the relationship between harmony, chaos, and the creative impulse.

Start the conversation

Use the enquiry form on this page to share the brief. Wall dimensions, room photographs, any palette or mood direction, and a target window for delivery all help shape the first response. Every enquiry receives a personal reply from the studio, usually within two working days.