What It Actually Means To Commission A Painting

In short: To commission a painting means to pay a working artist to make an original piece to your specifications — size, palette, and feel — rather than buy something already finished. It's not an abstract idea. In my own studio it's eight concrete steps: a conversation, a deposit, two full paintings developed at once, a first reveal, two real rounds of revision, and delivery. If you've never done it before, that structure — not the word itself — is the actual answer.

Angela Simeone is a Nashville-based contemporary abstract painter whose boutique luxury wallpaper line is created from her own paintings and composed — through her artistic and editorial eye — into layered, original, chic patterns, printed on a single luxurious 20 oz vinyl that looks like raw silk with a glimmering sheen, sold direct and to the trade.

What does it actually mean to "commission" a painting?

It means you're paying an artist to make something that doesn't exist yet, built around your room instead of the other way around. That's the entire distinction between commissioning and buying — buying is choosing from what's already finished; commissioning is directing what gets made. A real question on Quora asked this plainly: what does it actually mean to commission a painting, beyond just paying an artist to make something? The honest answer is that the word implies a process, not a transaction — a back-and-forth between what you want and what the artist can do with paint, on a timeline you both agree to before anyone opens a tube.

Why does that process matter more than the word suggests?

Because the intimacy of it is the actual product. Deborah Beckmann, a Los Angeles and Aspen-based patron, board member of Art21 and the Aspen Art Museum, traces her own turn toward serious collecting to exactly this: "The turning point came when I was building our home in Aspen and commissioned works from a few Los Angeles-based artists to be integrated directly into the house. There was something transformative about the intimacy of working closely with artists, witnessing their creative processes firsthand." That's a collector with access to any gallery in the world, naming the commissioning relationship itself — not the finished object — as what changed how she saw art.

Mario Zonias, co-founder of Maddox Gallery, frames the same shift from the market side: in his 2026 trends forecast, he writes that "the artworks that will matter most are those that restore a sense of humanity — shaped by impulse, imagination and presence at a time when authenticity has become its own form of scarcity." A commission, done right, is the most direct route to that kind of humanity in a painting — you're not choosing from inventory, you're present for the decisions.

What are the actual steps, start to finish?

In my studio, it's eight: a conversation about size, palette, and the room it's going into; a deposit that secures your slot on the calendar; I paint two full options simultaneously — the part most people don't expect, and the part that removes the risk of a single unseen direction; a first reveal of both; a first round of revision; a second and final round; the piece ships rolled, stretched fresh on arrival, and hand-delivered; float framing on request. Deposit to delivery runs about four weeks, depending on the studio's schedule at the time. Rainer Maria Rilke wrote to a young poet about exactly the discipline that timeline asks of a collector: "Patience is everything!" — not as a virtue for its own sake, but because good work, made by hand, happens on its own schedule, not a rush order.

Why paint two options instead of one?

Because a single direction, chosen sight-unseen from a conversation, is a guess — and I'd rather show you two real paintings than ask you to trust one description. Vincent van Gogh put the underlying logic simply, in a letter to his brother Theo: "Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." A commission isn't one big leap of faith from a phone call to a finished canvas — it's a series of small, visible decisions, each one confirmed before the next.

What does a commission give you that buying off the wall doesn't?

Fit — a piece scaled and paletted to your actual room, not the closest match in a gallery's current inventory. And a relationship with the decision-making itself, not just the result. Georgia O'Keeffe once described the nerve that kind of first-time decision takes: "I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do." Commissioning a painting for the first time can feel like exactly that kind of leap — you're approving something before it fully exists. The eight-step structure exists to make that leap a series of small, confirmed ones instead of one blind one.

If a piece already finished and in the studio is closer to what you need today, the current in-stock collection ships in days, not weeks — including the Astral Thicket series shown here, twelve original paintings, each one-of-one at $4,850. To start a commission built for your own room, begin the conversation on the commissions page; designers and architects working on a client's behalf can see trade terms on the trade program page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to commission a painting?
It means paying a working artist to create an original piece to your specifications — size, palette, and room — rather than purchasing a piece already finished. It's a process built on conversation and approval, not a one-time transaction.

How long does a commissioned painting take?
In Angela Simeone's studio, deposit to delivery runs about four weeks, depending on the studio's schedule, and includes two full painting options, a first reveal, and two rounds of revision.

Do I get to see the painting before it's finished?
Yes. The process includes a first reveal of two full options developed simultaneously, followed by two real rounds of revision before the piece ships.

What if I'd rather buy something already finished?
The in-stock collection of ready-to-ship original paintings, including the Astral Thicket series, ships within days.

Sources: Quora, "What does it mean to commission a painting?"; CULTURED Magazine, "For Deborah Beckmann, the Most Beneficial Thing a Collector Can Gift an Artist Is Time" (July 24, 2026); Maddox Gallery, "2026 Art Trends Forecast" by Mario Zonias; Rainer Maria Rilke, "Letters to a Young Poet" (1903); Vincent van Gogh, letters to Theo van Gogh; Georgia O'Keeffe, archival interview.

New original work from Angela Simeone's studio ships regularly — see what's in stock now at angelasimeone.com.