Thank-you gifts
A painting to say thank you
For the teacher, the doctor, the nanny, the landlord: what to paint when a portrait of the person would be strange, and which budget tier fits.
A thank-you gift has an asymmetry the other occasions do not: the relationship is often professional, and a painting of the person's own face can be an odd thing to give someone you are not close to. A teacher does not necessarily want their own likeness watching from a wall at home; a doctor has a waiting room, not a gallery. The painting that works is usually of the thing they did or the place they kept.
The second asymmetry is budget. Thank-you gifts are frequently collected from a group — a class, a practice, a street — which means the price needs to divide into a sensible figure per person. That points to the smaller end of the table: $189 for 8 × 10 in, $289 for 12 × 16 in, $389 for 16 × 20 in, each a genuine hand-painted oil with the same mock-up, certificate and free worldwide shipping as the largest canvases.
Paint the thing, not the person
For a teacher: the classroom door, the reading corner, the school building in the light of the last day of term. For a doctor or vet: the practice, or the animal they saved. For a nanny: the children's hands in hers can work, but the garden where they spent five years is safer. For a landlord or neighbour who fixed everything: the house itself.
Here is the exception worth knowing: a small portrait of the person can work when the subject is a pet or a place they love rather than themselves — the vet with the dog is a different proposition from the vet alone. The mock-up shows you within 24 hours whether the composition lands, before any paint is mixed.
The test for subject choice is simple: would this person put it on their own wall? A teacher keeps the classroom door painting because it is their working life rendered with affection; the same teacher faced with their own solemn likeness has nowhere polite to hang it. If the answer to the test is uncertain, ask us rather than guessing — we have painted enough of these to know which thank-you subjects get hung and which get thanked.
Budget tiers and what they buy
The 8 × 10 in at $189 is a desk-scale painting — a study, not a statement — and it is the right tier for a class collection of twenty-odd families at a few dollars each. The 12 × 16 in at $289 hangs on a hallway wall; the 16 × 20 in at $389 is the size most people choose when the gift is the main event rather than the accompaniment.
What should not change at any tier: the mock-up approved before painting, the two progress photographs, the numbered certificate, the tracked insured shipping. A studio that cuts price by cutting the approval steps is selling a gamble, and a thank-you gift that misses the likeness of its subject has no second life.
The smaller sizes carry one more advantage for this occasion: they move. An 8 × 10 in fits a teacher's desk, a doctor's consulting room, the shelf above a landlady's kitchen sink — the places these gifts actually live. A large formal canvas demands a wall and a hammer, and the recipient who is moving flats, retiring or downsizing does not always have one to spare. Match the painting to the life it is entering, not to the size of the gratitude.
Presenting it
The canvas arrives rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured, with the numbered certificate naming artist, medium, size and year. The certificate is doing real work in this context — it explains what the object is to someone who may never have received an original painting, and it is the part to read out when handing it over.
A local framer stretches the canvas for $60–$120. If the gift is being presented at a leaving assembly or a last appointment, budget the framing into the collection, or present the certificate with the tube and let them choose the frame themselves.
Timing on thank-you gifts is gentler than on the calendar occasions — there is no date that expires — but there is a social one: the gift should arrive while the reason is fresh. A term's end, a discharge, a last day of a tenancy. Order six weeks ahead of that moment and the painting lands while everyone still remembers why; order four months later and the certificate reads as an afterthought even when the painting is fine.
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
Usually the thing they did or kept: the classroom, the practice, the garden, the house. A portrait of the person's own face can be an awkward gift in a professional relationship, and the mock-up — which arrives within 24 hours and costs nothing — is the place to test the safer alternative before painting starts.
The smaller tiers exist for exactly this: $189 for 8 × 10 in, $289 for 12 × 16 in, $389 for 16 × 20 in. A class or practice collecting $10–$20 per person comfortably covers the middle sizes. Each is a real hand-painted oil with the same process as the large canvases, and a class collecting $10–$20 a head covers the middle sizes comfortably.
Yes. Agree the size from the published table, divide by contributors, collect before ordering, and nominate one person to approve the mock-up and the free adjustment. Payment can be split 50/50 across two cards; the sharing out within the group is your own arithmetic.
Ordinary is usually fine for buildings and rooms — shoot in daylight, straight-on or at a consistent angle, and send two or three shots. Faces are the demanding subject, not façades. If the only photo is dark or clipped, we will say what can and cannot be painted from it before you pay.
Rolled in a rigid tube, tracked and insured, shipping free worldwide, with the numbered signed certificate inside the tube. A local framer stretches it for $60–$120 or frames it for $80–$250 — worth budgeting in if the gift is presented at a specific event. Nothing on the packaging identifies what is inside, so it can arrive at an office or a school without spoiling the hand-over.
Send the photograph
The classroom, the practice, the garden — send one photo and the date of the leaving do. Fixed price from the table, mock-up within 24 hours.