Shipping to UK
Hand-painted oil paintings, shipped to the United Kingdom
Free tracked delivery, rolled in a rigid tube, with the import costs explained before you order rather than after.
Since the UK left the customs union every parcel from China is an import, and a lot of studios simply stopped answering questions about it. We would rather explain it before you buy than have you discover it at the door.
What it costs to get it there
Shipping is free. Every order, to any address in the United Kingdom, tracked and insured for the full value. We do not add a handling fee, a fuel surcharge or a remote-area charge — the price on the painting page is the price at the door of the courier, and the only extra is whatever your own customs authority decides to collect.
How long it takes
| Custom commission | 3–5 weeks painting + 3–5 business days transit |
|---|---|
| Rush commission (+$90) | 3 weeks including painting + transit |
| Original painting, already painted | 1–3 business days to dispatch + transit |
These are honest estimates. Oil dries at its own pace, and a varnish that has not cured will mark in transit — we would rather hold a painting two extra days than ship it early. If you have a fixed date (a birthday, an anniversary, an installation), tell us before you order and we will confirm a schedule we can actually keep.
Duty, VAT and GST
Import duty on original paintings is normally zero. Import VAT is charged on the goods value and is collected by the carrier before delivery — it is the one cost we cannot absorb, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Two things we do to make clearance boring: the commercial invoice declares the true value and describes the goods accurately as a hand-painted oil painting, and the parcel carries the Certificate of Authenticity that identifies the work, the medium and the artist. Parcels that are under-declared get held, returned or destroyed, and the loss lands on the buyer — so we do not do it, even when a customer asks.
- VAT is charged by HMRC, not by us, and is not included in the price you pay us
- Your invoice and certificate are the documents a customs officer will ask for
Sizes, in inches and centimetres
Prices are quoted in inches because most of our customers measure walls in inches; the metric equivalent is below for anyone who thinks in centimetres.
| Canvas | Metric | From (1 subject) |
|---|---|---|
| 8 × 10 in | 20 × 25 cm | $189 |
| 12 × 16 in | 30 × 41 cm | $289 |
| 16 × 20 in | 41 × 51 cm | $389 |
| 20 × 24 in | 51 × 61 cm | $549 |
| 24 × 36 in | 61 × 91 cm | $789 |
| 30 × 40 in | 76 × 102 cm | $1,090 |
| 36 × 48 in | 91 × 122 cm | $1,390 |
What arrives, and what to do with it
A rigid tube. Inside it, the painting rolled paint-side out, wrapped in acid-free tissue, with the certificate in a sleeve taped to the inside of the tube — never loose where it can crease the surface. Stretching is a local job: any framer will mount it on stretcher bars in a few days for roughly the price of a takeaway meal, and they can see your wall, which we cannot.
Film the unboxing from the sealed parcel to the opened painting. In the rare case something has gone wrong in transit, that thirty-second video is the difference between a claim settled in days and an argument with a courier that runs for weeks.
Questions
Shipping to UK: the questions we actually get
Nothing. Shipping is free worldwide, including the United Kingdom, with no minimum order and no distance surcharge. What we cannot cover is the tax your own customs authority charges on import — that is collected by the carrier, not by us.
Three to five weeks of painting for a commission, then three to five business days in transit, tracked and insured door to door. Originals that are already painted leave the studio in one to three business days. Rush delivery (three weeks including painting) is available for $90.
Import duty on original paintings is normally zero. Import VAT is charged on the goods value and is collected by the carrier before delivery — it is the one cost we cannot absorb, and we will not pretend otherwise. We cannot quote a figure that binds your customs office — rates depend on classification and change without notice — but we declare the true value and the correct description, and you receive the invoice and certificate that a customs officer asks to see. Anyone who promises you a guaranteed tax-free delivery is guessing.
Rolled in a rigid, moisture-protected tube — never stretched on a frame. A stretched canvas crossing an ocean needs a wooden crate that costs three to five times as much to move and still arrives damaged more often. Any local framer will stretch it onto stretcher bars in a few days; we send the exact finished dimensions with the certificate.
Original paintings have a 14-day return window from delivery. Commissions are made specifically for you and approved by you before painting, so they cannot be returned for a change of mind — what protects you instead is the mock-up approval, two progress photographs and one free round of adjustments on the finished canvas.
Painting something for a wall in the United Kingdom?
Send the photograph and the wall dimensions — you get a fixed price, a size that fits and an honest date, usually within a day.