My wife Gretchen and I buy a lot of local art.

We’re not rich by any means, but, over the course of several years, we’ve been able to collect small pieces by many of our favorites.

Across our living room and dining room, we have works by Tiffany O’Brien, Ruth Sykes, Stacie Jean Albano, Nae’Keisha Jones, Angela Burson, AJ Perez, Troy Wandzel, Shelley Smith, Brian MacGregor, Ugis Berzins and two pieces by Jennifer Moss.

In my son’s room is one of Peter Roberts’ early cutouts depicting a haunted radio. Additionally, we have paintings by José Ray and Maxx Feist that aren’t up yet because I want to reframe them, something that regularly irks me because they’re too wonderful to not be seen.

Previous Art off the Air:Savannah artist Susan Hopp is working outside traditional media, investigating digital art

Beyond the artworks that we’ve purchased straight off of the shelf, so to speak, I’ve also commissioned a few pieces specifically for my wife for various special occasions. This includes a joyous portrait of her and our son done by the amazing Zay Hutchins, as well as a colorful pigeon, my wife’s spirit animal you might say, painted in miniature by David Laughlin.

Recently, for Mother’s Day, I commissioned yet another piece, this time by artist Carys LeRoy. She’s a local artist whom I discovered on Instagram via a portrait that she did of Tamara Isaak-Harrington, an artist who I’d recently interviewed for this column. I knew little about her otherwise, but the piece she did of Tamara was so fun that I knew I wanted to see how she could tackle a family portrait of my wife, son, and myself, along with our two cats Rabbit and Odin.

The end result was beyond my wildest hopes.

“I try to capture people and moments as authentically as possible,” LeRoy told me during this week’s episode of Art on the Air. “I like to draw my friends. I like to draw people I have a connection with, and try to just capture their essence, I suppose. Their personalities, the parts of them that I really love, in art.”

Carys and I didn’t know each other prior to me hiring her to create the illustration, but she certainly “captured the essence” of my clan with the work she did. In many ways, the piece looks like a whimsical cartoon version of your typical family portrait, with Gretchen and I standing side by side, our son between us, and our two cats in the foreground.

Remarkably, however, the resulting illustration was in no way a direct copy of any photograph I had of our family. Instead, I’d sent her dozens of random images of all of us, pictures that she used as references for the final composite. Somehow, the eventual product ended up far beyond the sum of its parts.

“I never start with any sort of plan,” LeRoy explained of her process. “I would say the drawing of it, once you figure out where everything is going to go, that’s the easy part. The sort of picking and choosing, it’s almost like creating a collage in your mind and then translating it to paper.”

“I usually do half a dozen thumbnails, throw those out, [and] do another half a dozen,” she continued with a laugh. “And I overthink it until I’m like, ‘Alright, this is what we’re going to do.’ But at the end of the day, it’s about the economy of line. How can I convey the most by doing the least?”

The simple charm of the illustration is the reason that it’s sat in its easel frame on our kitchen island since the day I gave it to my wife. It’s lovely to look at, and I can’t help but smile when I see the five of us rendered in the way that LeRoy chose to present us. As an artist who uses a ton of detail in my own drawings, I find it incredible how much she has been able to get out of what is pretty minimal line work.

Father's Day 2022:I love you, Dad. I'll miss you. Thank you for being the greatest champion of my art.

“It makes it harder sometimes, because it’s like you’re working with a limited amount of stuff, so you have to make it count,” she said of her simple style. “And sometimes I do think I’m making it more difficult for myself, but I’m kind of a perfectionist in that way, I would say, where I don’t mind doing it over and over and over again until I get it right.”

“The less elements you have to work with, I would say, the more critically you look at what’s there,” LeRoy added. “And sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes I have to just put it down and be like, ‘Alright, I’ve been looking at this for too long,’ and come back to it. [And then, after a break] I’m like, okay, now I’m starting to see what was wrong with that, or what wasn’t wrong, because sometimes you can overthink things, I would say.”

In the case of the family portrait I commissioned to give my wife for Mother’s Day, her commitment to the perfect line resulted in not only a memorable gift but also a more than worthwhile addition to our collection of local art.

Those interested in commissioning a piece by Carys LeRoy can do so by connecting with her via Twitter @caryslaRoy, on Instagram @carysl, or by sending an email to caryslaroy@gmail.com.

Art off the Air is a companion piece to the radio program “Art on the Air” hosted by Rob Hessler and Gretchen Hilmers. The column can also be found at savannahnow.com/entertainment.

The show airs Wednesdays from 3-4 p.m. on WRUU 107.5 FM Savannah and at WRUU.org.