Chromacolour acrylic on MDF board. 136x90cm. Completed 26th October 2010.

Charlie Chum asked me to paint a photograph from their wedding. It was a very satisfying portrait in its process of being painted, there’s a young, happy couple, a stunning dress and a dark background – very much like something you would have seen in seventeenth century Holland. It is one of my best paintings and it is also one that brings a great deal of pain to my heart. I poured every ounce of my ability into creating it and it took almost 200 hours to create. I worked 10 hour days most days in order to complete it on time.

I had an agreement from Charlie that the cost would be $10 per hour. I gave him an estimate of anywhere between 170 and 300 hours and he was fine with that. There was also an agreement that there would be three payments. One of $500 to start, then at the midpoint he would pay me for my work to that point and when finished he would pay for the rest. I got the first payment of $500. The second payment was where I should of stopped because he had a bullshit excuse. I trusted him implicitly not to screw me over because I worked with him at Deks Industries. He came and inspected it soon after (with Hanna) and they both expressed that they were very happy with the portrait at the 2/3rd mark. Encouraged by this I worked very hard in finishing a beautiful wedding portrait that was to be treasured. It was finished and I asked Charlie to pay me.

I then spent 2 months asking and came across so many lies and broken promises which led to a huge nervous breakdown and I decided to quit my job at Deks. I decided that I was not going to be treated in this way and have cut my losses and retain the painting. I returned to work at Deks and when my boss Andrew Meese ‘mediated’ I was never given a reason as to why he and his wife didn’t want the portrait. As for Charlie I went on and worked at Deks for a further 9 months and we never had a cross word or discussed it.

Now I am free of any concerns of hurting him or my employment situation I will say just what I feel – CHARLIE CHUM YOU ARE SCUM. YOU ARE A LYING PIECE OF FILTH AND I HAVE ONE QUESTION FOR YOU – WHAT SORT OF PERSON COMMISSIONS SUCH A PERSONAL WEDDING PORTRAIT AND THEN DOESN’T PAY FOR IT.