Paul Bachem - reworked romance cover (quite possibly the silliest commission project ever!)
Artist: Paul Bachem (Painter)
4 Comments - 105 Views - 4 Likes
Additional Images:
Original piece
Close-up
Close-up
Original published book
Photo-reference used for couple
Artwork Details
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DescriptionCommission projects are always exercises in self-indulgence, but this one takes the cake. I checked before posting, and this is the one and only piece of art by illustrator Paul Bachem on CAF. That wasn't really much of a surprise - his illustration career never came close to the world of comics or sci-fi/fantasy. Instead, he was one of those talented, but almost anonymous illustrators of the 80s/90s, who worked on countless romance novels, children's books and calendars, during a time when all illustration was still done by hand.This particular adventure in commissioning had an interesting start. The original focus of my art collecting was in illustration art and coincided with a time when Heritage was auctioning off the collection of Charles Martignette, a collector for whom the word obsessive only gets you about a quarter of the way there. Martignette was rumored to make almost totally blind purchases of the entire archives of publishers, greeting card companies, etc., and at the time of his death had a literal warehouse full of illustration art, covering everything from the greatest examples of American pin-up art ever painted, to stuff that no one but him could possibly appreciate. During one of these auctions, I had set my sights on a couple of pieces, but had put several others on my watch list. This was one of those from the later category. I've always had a thing for redheads, thought the piece was very well done from a technical standpoint, and the comet traveling through the evening sky added the slightest touch of science fiction appeal. I didn't really have any intentions of bidding on it, but wanted to see what it might end up going for at auction. Fast-forward to the auction itself and I ended up getting blown out on one of the pieces I was after, and being the under-bidder on the second. Doing that thing you should never do at auction, I decided that I had to win something or the day was a total waste, so I put in a last minute bid on this piece and won it. When it arrived, I was very pleased with it (even nicer in person that I expected), but there was the unavoidable issue that it really didn't fit anywhere in my collection, so it ended up tucked away - something I would occasionally pull out when going through other art and wonder "what the heck am I ever going to do with this?..." Eventually, I had the epiphany that it would be really funny to have something destroying the cabin in the background - maybe some kaiju monster, or a giant robot, or aliens, while the couple in the foreground sat embracing oblivious to it all. I sat on the idea for a while and considered several artists who might be up for the task, before deciding that maybe I should first reach out to the original artist to see if he might consider reworking the piece. At this point in his career, Mr. Bachem had moved on to plein air fine art and had completely left behind commercial work, but I thought it might still be worth at least asking if he might consider the project. What followed was one of the more carefully worded emails I've ever composed. I wanted to get across the fact that I really, legitimately liked the original art as he had painted it, but that I was a guy with a particular sense of humor who hoped he might possibly consider revisiting the piece and giving it an ironic twist. To my delight, he responded quickly and was willing to consider the idea. I ran a few different ideas past him and we ended up settling on some War of the Worlds tripods. I mailed the art to him after sending him a few reference pieces for the tripods and then was completely surprised when he sent me pictures of the finished piece ahead of the schedule we had discussed. He had originally planned to send me a Photoshopped mock-up before laying actual paint down, but as he put it, once he had the idea in his head, the whole thing just quickly came together. The best part for me was that he had a lot of fun with the project. He mentioned that his wife noticed that he was grinning every time she walked past him while he was busy painting. And although I had absolutely no idea what book the artwork had originally been used for, he graciously spent some time going through his records and managed to not only find the publisher and book title, but also the reference photograph he had used for the couple and even the original contract for the job. Of everything in my collection, this one never fails to get a reaction and it's one of the more fun projects I've ever commissioned. Social/Sharing |
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Duke Fleed aka #1 Groo Fan 
Member Since 2013
Posted on 6/2/2025
If that was my house, silly would not be the word that came to mind!
Dan H
Member Since 2012
1 - Posted on 6/2/2025
Duke Fleed aka #1 Groo Fan wrote:
If that was my house, silly would not be the word that came to mind!
Yeah, I struggled for the right word to use there. I almost went with "strangest", but decided on "silliest" because it was a word I used when first reaching out to Mr. Bachem with the idea. But believe me, I absolutely love the final results, no matter how it's described.
Duke Fleed aka #1 Groo Fan
Member Since 2013
Posted on 6/3/2025
Dan H wrote:
Yeah, I struggled for the right word to use there. I almost went with "strangest", but decided on "silliest" because it was a word I used when first reaching out to Mr. Bachem with the idea. But believe me, I absolutely love the final results, no matter how it's described.
I was just teasing. I knew what you meant. Love it, by the way!
Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005
Posted on 6/3/2025
That's a great story and a great job able to convince the original artist to add to his original. You'd see examples of this with garage sale paintings and the new owners doing this themselves.
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