Food, wine and the long lunch

Why cuisine art

Food paintings belong in the dining room, not above the cooktop

Heat, steam and airborne cooking grease are hard on an oil surface, and kitchen downlights flatten every brushstroke you paid for.

Most people's first instinct is the splashback wall or the range hood alcove. Don't. Oil on canvas is unglazed, so a film builds up over a few years of frying and it cannot simply be wiped off. Put the painting where you eat instead, or on the wall a butler's pantry or fridge run would otherwise waste. If it must go in the kitchen proper, keep it well away from the cooktop and out of direct downlight.

In a dining room people are seated, so drop the centre of the painting to roughly 135 cm rather than the usual 145. Above a sideboard, leave 20 to 25 cm of clear wall and make the canvas at least two-thirds the width of the furniture below — a small canvas floating on a long wall is the most common mistake. Pick up one colour already in the room, a chair fabric or a bowl, and let the rest stay warm and neutral.

How your painting is made

1. Choose the size and finishSeven standard sizes from 60 × 50cm to 200 × 135cm. Stretched ready to hang, rolled, or one of our frames. The size guide on every painting shows it to scale.
2. Painted to order, by handA university-trained artist paints your piece in oils on canvas, working from the original. Two to three weeks at the easel, then drying time.
3. Stretched, framed, checkedGallery-wrapped or framed in our workshop, then photographed and checked before it leaves.
4. Delivered free, Australia-wideMade to order in 21 to 28 days, then tracked to your door. Thirty-day money-back guarantee if it isn't what you hoped.