Retirement
A painting as a retirement gift
Organised by colleagues, given to someone leaving: how to pool the budget, pick the photograph, and have it ready for the last day.
A retirement gift is commissioned by a group and received by one person, which makes it a logistics problem before it is an artistic one. The money is the easy part — divided between a department, even the 24 × 36 in at $789 is a round figure each. The hard part is the photograph, because the person who knows which picture shows the retiree at their best is usually not the person running the collection.
Start earlier than feels necessary. The painting needs three to five weeks plus three to five business days in transit, and a group needs its own lead time before that: collecting, deciding, agreeing a size. Order six weeks before the leaving date at minimum; order two months out and the whole thing becomes calm.
Collect the money first, commission second
Here is the part nobody tells you: collect the contributions before the commission is placed, not after. Chasing colleagues for a painting that already exists is worse than chasing them for a promise — the painting has a schedule, and a shortfall mid-production forces an awkward downgrade or an argument about who covers it.
Practically: propose a size with its price from the table, divide by the headcount, set a contribution deadline a week before you intend to order. One person pays the studio — payment can be split 50/50 across two cards — and one person holds the correspondence, approves the mock-up and requests the free adjustment.
Keep the paperwork as simple as the collection: one price from the table, one payer, one approver. Payment is by card or PayPal in US dollars and can be split 50/50 across two cards — useful when the organiser fronts the deposit and the balance follows after approval. What does not work well is a committee viewing the mock-up together; the two progress photographs and the free adjustment run best through one decisive pair of eyes, ideally someone who sits near the retiree and knows their face.
What to paint for someone leaving a career
The obvious choice — the person at their desk — is the one to resist. A portrait of someone mid-spreadsheet under office light is a portrait of the job, and the job is precisely what they are leaving. Choose instead the photograph where they look like themselves on a good day: at the summer party, holding the trophy, mid-laugh at the retirement lunch itself.
Career elements can be present without dominating: the uniform hung rather than worn, the boat or the instrument or the workshop that is about to get all their hours. If the group cannot agree on one photograph, send the two finalists and let the mock-up settle it — it arrives within 24 hours and nothing is painted until it is approved.
If the retiree is camera-shy, the same escape hatch applies as with Father's Day gifts: paint the thing rather than the face. The workshop, the classroom, the depot, the patch of garden the whole floor knew them by. A career rendered through its objects often says more than a likeness, and it survives being hung in a shared office where a portrait of one person cannot.
Handing it over on the day
The canvas arrives rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured, with the numbered certificate inside. A local framer stretches it for $60–$120 — worth budgeting from the collection, since a rolled canvas handed over at a farewell speech is a slightly deflating object.
If the timing has slipped, rush delivery at $90 brings painting and dispatch to three weeks total for the smaller and mid sizes. If even that is gone, present the printed mock-up and certificate at the farewell with a delivery date; the speech works better with something to hold.
One more thing the organising committee should know: the canvas arrives rolled, and someone will need to take it to a framer. Build the $60–$120 stretching into the collection from the start — it is the difference between a gift that gets hung that weekend and one that sits on a desk in a tube for a month. The certificate names artist, medium, size and year, and it is the natural thing to read out during the farewell speech.
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
Agree the size first — its price is in the published table — then divide by the number of contributors and set a deadline a week before ordering. One person pays the studio and one holds the approval; payment can be split 50/50 across two cards. Collect before commissioning, not after.
16 × 20 in at $389 works for a single figure; 20 × 24 in at $549 or 24 × 36 in at $789 once colleagues, family or a career element join the composition. Each additional subject adds a fixed step from the table, and the price is identical to any other commission. If the wall is an office wall rather than a home one, measure it first — the canvas wants two-thirds to three-quarters of the width below it.
Technically yes, from 24 × 36 in upward — but each extra head shrinks every likeness, and beyond four or five subjects a group portrait stops reading as individuals from across a room. A single figure with the uniform, instrument or workshop of the career usually lands better.
Six weeks before the leaving date at minimum: three to five weeks of painting, three to five business days in transit, plus time for the free adjustment and local framing at $60–$120. Two months out is comfortable and removes all the pressure from the group.
Rush delivery at $90 brings painting and dispatch to three weeks total, available on smaller and mid sizes. If that is past too, present the printed mock-up and the numbered certificate at the farewell with a delivery date attached — the commission is real and already moving.
Start the collection
Send the shortlisted photographs and the leaving date. One payer, one approver, a fixed price from the table — and a date we will keep.