Warm stone, blue water, slow afternoons

Why Mediterranean art

These paintings are about light, so the wall you choose matters more than the subject

Mediterranean scenes are built on warm stone and reflected water, and that warmth either sings against your paint or dies on it.

Most people choose a Mediterranean painting for the subject, then hang it on a cool grey-blue wall and wonder why it looks flat. The ochres, terracottas and sun-bleached whites in these paintings need a warm or neutral ground to read properly. Against warm white, limewash, clay or natural timber, the same canvas suddenly glows. It is worth walking a paint chip around the room before you commit to a spot.

Canal and harbour scenes want width. Go at least 120cm across above a three-seater sofa, or the horizon looks cramped and the perspective loses its pull. Village lanes and doorways work better square or portrait, hung in a hallway or beside a bed where you see them close. Heavy palette-knife pieces need side light to show their ridges, so avoid flat downlights directly overhead, which erase the texture completely.

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.