Memorial portraits
A memorial portrait, painted from a photograph
A portrait of somebody who has died, painted slowly, from the photograph you can actually bear to look at.
Memorial commissions are the ones where the photograph matters most, and where the wrong photograph is sent most often. People reach for the last picture — from the hospital, or from the birthday three weeks before — because it is the most recent and feels like the truest record. It usually is not. A portrait painted from a photograph taken when somebody was already very ill is an accurate painting of that illness, and the family has to live with it on a wall.
So the first conversation is about which photograph. Sometimes it is a wedding, sometimes a holiday in 1998, sometimes a work ID badge with a decent face and a bad shirt. We can change a shirt. We cannot give back the ten years between a good photograph and a last one. If only the last photograph exists, we will paint it and tell you in advance what it will look like, because that is not something you should discover when the tube is opened. If two photographs disagree about the face, we will say which one we would paint and why, and you can overrule us.
Which photograph, and who decides
In most families there is one person doing the ordering and several with opinions. That is fine, but approval has to run through one pair of eyes, or the mock-up travels between siblings and nothing settles. Pick that person. Everything goes to them and is copied to whoever else needs to see it, and the painting does not move until they say it is right.
The photograph should be sharp at the eyes and lit from one side. Beyond that, the useful question is not which picture is best but in which picture did they look most like themselves. Not youngest, not most flattering — most themselves. That is usually a candid rather than a posed shot, and quite often it is not the one that has been on the mantelpiece for years.
If the only source is a small print, a flatbed scan at 600 dpi is worth more than a photograph of a photograph. Restoration is $60–$70 and happens first, and you see it before any paint is mixed, because restoration involves judgement calls — how much grain to keep, how far to push a faded colour — that belong to the family rather than to us.
What we take out, and what we leave
We will remove a hospital bed, a tube, a bracelet, an oxygen mask, a background of ward curtains. Those were circumstances, not the person, and nobody wants them framed. We will also correct the colour cast that fluorescent light puts on skin, which is often the whole difference between a face that looks tired and a face that looks like itself.
What we will not do is make somebody younger than the photograph. Softening the jaw, filling the cheeks, taking fifteen years off produces a face the family half recognises, and half recognition is worse than none. If you want them at thirty, send a photograph from thirty. That is a better painting, and an honest one, than a modified version of the last picture.
No deadline, and nobody chasing you
Memorial orders arrive in two patterns: within a week, or two years later. Both are normal. Nothing in the process requires you to decide quickly, and we do not send follow-up emails asking whether you are ready yet. If you want to hold a date — a birthday, the first anniversary — tell us the date and we will hold it while you think.
The painting can also stop. If the mock-up arrives and it is too much, say so and we will pause for as long as you need, or cancel before any paint is bought. Every commission includes one free round of changes at the end, and if the finished canvas is not right we keep working. Custom work is not refundable once approved, which is precisely why we do not ask you to approve anything while you are still raw.
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
$189 for 8 × 10 in, $289 for 12 × 16 in, $389 for the 16 × 20 in most people choose, up to $1,390 at 36 × 48 in. A second person on the same canvas is a second subject, and restoration of a damaged print is $60–$70. Shipping is free worldwide, and nothing is charged until you have approved the mock-up.
Usually. What matters is that the eyes and the shape of the head are readable. Send the original file or a 600 dpi scan rather than a screenshot, and we will tell you honestly what size the face will hold at before you commit to anything. One photograph is enough for a head and shoulders portrait, which is what most memorials are.
Yes, at any point before painting begins, and again after the mock-up. We hold the slot and the price for as long as you need, with no storage fee and no penalty for coming back months later. Several of these paintings have been finished a year or more after the first message, and that is a perfectly ordinary way to do it.
Rush delivery is three weeks including painting for $90, which is the fastest honest option. Anything quicker means a smaller canvas or a simpler composition, not a faster painting. If the date is very close, tell us and we will say what is actually possible rather than take the order and miss the day.
Yes. Two photographs become one composition, with the light direction matched and the heights reconciled, which is $60–$70 for the composite on top of the second subject. If the two photographs are decades apart, we will show you the combination in the mock-up before any paint is mixed, so nothing about it is a surprise.
Send the photograph, whenever you are ready
There is no form to fill in and no deadline to meet. Send one photograph and we will tell you what it can hold, what it costs, and how long we would need.