Christmas gifts
A painting as a Christmas gift
Hand-painted in oil from a photograph, ordered in time for December — with the arithmetic of mock-up, painting, transit and adjustment laid out on the page.
A painting is the one Christmas gift that cannot be bought on the 23rd. The work itself takes three to five weeks of painting, plus three to five business days in transit, plus the steps around it: a digital mock-up approved before painting starts, and one free round of adjustments on the finished canvas — which is the step people most often forget to budget time for.
So the useful date is not December. Count back six weeks from the day you plan to hand it over, which for Christmas means ordering by mid-October. If you are past that, rush delivery brings the whole job to three weeks including painting for $90 — but rush is not available on the two largest canvases, and a studio promising a 36 × 48 in three weeks is printing, not painting.
The Christmas arithmetic
Order on a Monday and the mock-up arrives within 24 hours. Approve it, and painting runs three to five weeks depending on the size and the queue. Shipping adds three to five business days, free worldwide, tracked and insured. Leave a few days of slack for the free adjustment round — asking for a small correction is normal and it is worth having the calendar room to use it.
For a hand-over on 24 December, that chain lands in the last week of October. Every week past mid-October is a week where one slow step eats the buffer, so if you are reading this in November, order the $90 rush at the same time as the painting rather than hoping the queue moves faster than usual.
One more date worth noting: framing. The tube arrives days before Christmas at best, and a local framer needs their own week to stretch the canvas for $60–$120. If the gift is meant to hang on Boxing Day rather than be unwrapped, add that week to the count and order in early October. Most people find the unwrapped-tube version is enough — the certificate and the mock-up carry the moment — but it is your call, and the calendar should reflect which Christmas you are planning.
What you actually wrap
The canvas arrives rolled in a rigid tube, not framed, which surprises people ordering for a date. That is deliberate: rolled oil travels more safely than stretched oil, and a local framer stretches it for $60–$120 afterwards — which also lets the recipient choose the frame.
For the day itself, print the approved mock-up or show it on your phone and wrap the numbered certificate with a note of the delivery date. Families spread across countries use this often: the painting ships free to whichever address you name, and the promise on Christmas morning is a real one with a tracking number behind it.
The rolled format also spares you the hardest decision in gifting: choosing someone else's frame. A stretched canvas in a frame you guessed at is a gift with an opinion attached; a rolled canvas with the certificate is a gift with a promise attached, and the recipient finishes the job in their own taste. If you do want it to arrive ready to hang, ask us and budget the $60–$120 stretching from the start rather than discovering it on the 26th.
Size, and splitting it between siblings
The 16 × 20 in at $389 is the size most people choose for a single-subject gift; a parent with a second subject — the dog, the grandchild — moves to 20 × 24 in at $549. Each additional subject adds a fixed amount, shown in the table above rather than quoted.
Siblings splitting the cost should agree the size first and nominate one payer, because the commission runs on one approval: one mock-up, one set of progress photographs, one decision. Payment can be split 50/50 across two cards if that helps; the reimbursements between you are your own arithmetic, and it is cleaner to settle them before the painting exists.
A note on secrecy for shared gifts: the mock-up arrives within 24 hours of ordering, and it is the moment the commission becomes real enough to leak. If the gift is a surprise for a parent, keep the correspondence in an email thread the wider family does not share, and nominate the one sibling who lives closest to receive the tube. Coordinating four adults is harder than painting the picture; the studios that survive group gifts are the ones that keep the process to one thread and one approver.
What it costs
Price is set by canvas size and the number of subjects — not by the occasion, the deadline, or how much detail you ask for. The table below is the same one used on every painting page, so there is no quote to wait for.
| Canvas | Metric | 1 subject | 2 subjects | 3 subjects | 4+ subjects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in | 20 × 25 cm | $189 | $259 | — | — |
| 12 × 16 in | 30 × 41 cm | $289 | $379 | $459 | — |
| 16 × 20 in | 41 × 51 cm | $389 | $499 | $619 | $749 |
| 20 × 24 in | 51 × 61 cm | $549 | $699 | $849 | $1,029 |
| 24 × 36 in | 61 × 91 cm | $789 | $1,059 | $1,290 | $1,560 |
| 30 × 40 in | 76 × 102 cm | $1,090 | $1,449 | $1,749 | $2,090 |
| 36 × 48 in | 91 × 122 cm | $1,390 | $1,849 | $2,249 | $2,690 |
Shipping is free worldwide. Framing is optional and quoted separately — most customers have the canvas stretched by a local framer for $60–$120.
How it works
Send the photograph
One sharp phone photo is enough. Tell us the deadline, the wall it is going on, and anything that must or must not be in the picture.
See the mock-up within 24 hours
A digital composite at the exact canvas size and crop, so size and composition are settled before any paint is bought. Nothing is charged until you approve it.
Watch it being painted
Three to five weeks in real oil, with two progress photographs. You can raise a concern at either one — that is what they are for.
Approve, then it ships
You see the finished canvas first, with one free round of adjustments. Then it travels rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured, with the numbered certificate inside.
Real oil, not a print
Hand-painted on cotton canvas, varnished, signed. Brushwork you can see in raking light.
You approve before we paint
A digital mock-up at the exact size and crop, within 24 hours, included in the price.
Numbered certificate
Every painting ships with a signed COA stating artist, medium, size and year.
Free worldwide shipping
Rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured. No minimum, no distance surcharge.
Questions
Questions we actually get
Six weeks before the day you hand it over: mock-up within 24 hours, three to five weeks of painting, three to five business days in transit, plus slack for the free adjustment. For 24 December, that means ordering by mid-October. Rush delivery at $90 compresses the whole job to three weeks including painting.
$189 for an 8 × 10 in, $289 for 12 × 16 in, and $389 for the 16 × 20 in most people choose. Larger sizes and additional subjects rise in fixed steps shown in the table. Shipping is free worldwide and the price is the same whether it is a gift or not.
Yes. Shipping is free worldwide, rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured, with the numbered certificate inside the tube. For families spread across countries, the painting can go directly to the recipient's address rather than to yours — you keep the tracking number either way.
Wrap a print of the approved mock-up, or show it on your phone, with the certificate and a delivery date. It is a common way to handle hand-overs in early January and it is not a placeholder gift — the painting itself is already commissioned and in progress.
No. Rush brings painting and dispatch to three weeks total for $90, and it applies to the smaller and mid sizes. The two largest canvases are quoted case by case, because a painting that size genuinely needs its weeks to dry between layers. Any studio promising a large canvas in three weeks is selling a print.
Order the Christmas painting
Send the photograph and the hand-over date. You get a fixed price, a size that suits the wall, and the last date we can keep — before you pay anything.