Art Commission with Aly Ytterberg
At Home with the Hastys - Art Commission with Aly Ytterberg
For the holidays I reached out to artist Aly Ytterberg, a hard-edge painter based out of St. Louis, Missouri, to commission a special piece to give as a gift to my Dad. I told her about the Steffes Store which was in my family for over 100 years but was torn down during one of the most difficult summers of my life (we were rebuilding our home after losing it to a fire started by a neighbor’s negligence.) At the time, I had this to say:
In 1885, my great-great-grandfather opened The Steffes Store in a tiny little town called Wien, Missouri (Pic 2). My great-grandfather took it over in 1928 and my grandfather, Giles, and great uncle, Amos, took it over in 1953 (Pic 3). My cousins and I have fond memories of renting movies on VHS, putting push-pops on the “tab”, and picking out a treat (always an ice cream snickers bar for me) from the freezer. I loved hearing my dad’s stories about candling eggs and sliding things down the counter. My grandpa LOVED that store. I loved my grandpa. So I was heartbroken yesterday when I found out the store was torn down. I was innocently scrolling through Facebook when I came across this photo (Pic 4). It took my eyes a second to comprehend what I was seeing. I took it hard, tears were shed…another home (of sorts) taken from me without warning. But more than anything…it makes me miss my grandparents.
For more on how hard I took this news, I made my parents go buy remenants from the store that were at an architectural salvage site (see here and here.)
I filled out Aly’s Commission form on her website with the following information:
What medium are you thinking?: Canvas
What size are you thinking?: 20 x 20 or maybe a landscape 20 x 30? I'm open.
One piece or multiple pieces?: One piece.
What do you have in mind for your custom art? : I'm inspired by your barn landscapes. There was a store that was in my family for over 100 years that was recently torn down. I was hoping to send over a few pictures and have you do a piece based on those. I really like the color scheme of "The Last Red Barn." The store was red brick so I like the pop of red, it stood next to a white feed shed.
What is your approximate budget?: $250-$500
She was back in touch with me almost immediately, asking to see photos and showing a lot of enthusiasm for the project. Which, given how special the building and commission is to me, was really appreciated. She seemed to understand this was more than just another piece of art to me, it was part of my heart. I sent her the first four pictures below (they were the pictures I could find on my phone - I was eager to get back to her quickly.)
She came back just four days later with this initial digital rendering. It brought tears to my eyes when I opened the email attachment. I was actually with my Dad at the time and nearly showed it to him so that he could share in the moment with me, but I knew it would be more impactful if I waited to give him the final painting. Somehow, I showed restraint and instead sent the image to my husband so that he and I could share in how good it was.
At Home with the Hastys - Art Commission with Aly Ytterberg
I just had a couple of tweaks (which were mostly due to the poor images I had to share with Aly.) Namely, the shed to the left of the store was a bit bigger than pictured below and it was actually on the same plane and set at the same angle as the store. I sent her the really bad photo on the far right above in hopes that helped. I was even asking my parents for pictures they had of the store in hopes I could find a better one of the store and shed together, still trying to keep the whole Christmas gift a surprise.
At Home with the Hastys - Art Commission with Aly Ytterberg
Somehow, she was able to take those really bad/old pictures I sent and was able to create a beautiful likeness of the store that meant so much to so many of us in the family and the small community where my grandparents lived. After I approved the final digital rendering, she got to painting. One of the most fun parts of commissioning a painting with Aly (for me) was seeing her progress photos and videos on Instagram. Luckily, my parents didn’t follow her (at the time) so she could post her progress publicly so that I could see without spoiling the surprise for my parents. Here are a few of my favorite videos:
The Final Painting
I just can’t get over how good the final painting is. I’m thrilled with it and I can hardly stop looking at it. It is so good I almost kept it for myself instead of gifting it to my Dad. Instead, I opted to buy an additional signed, archival print for myself (at least until I inherit the painting - ha!) I can’t recommend working with Aly enough - she was an absolute joy to work with and I always felt like she and I were on the same page. Even if you aren’t interested in commissioning a painting, she has a number of original works as well as prints available on her website including a series on national parks, which I gifted to a friend several years ago. Which, come to think of it, I may need to order another print from this series for Miles’ nursery since we sort of went with a national parks theme for him.
At Home with the Hastys - Art Commission with Aly Ytterberg
