Open water, painted in oil, brush by brush

Why seascapes

A seascape hangs on its horizon line, not on its centre point

Get the painted horizon sitting near the eye level of someone seated and the whole wall settles down.

Most people hang art by centring the frame, which is fine for portraits and hopeless for open water. A seascape has its own strong horizontal, and if that line lands near the top of a sofa back or cuts across a window reveal, the room looks crooked even when your measurements are right. Hold the canvas up, find the horizon, and set that line first. The frame will sort itself out around it.

Allow roughly two-thirds the width of the furniture below, which usually means 100 to 150cm wide over a three-seater. Small seascapes get lost, because distance is the whole subject. Watch glare too: oil has a sheen, so a canvas hung directly opposite a west-facing window will wash out every afternoon. Let the painting carry the blue and keep cushions and rugs in sand, stone or timber tones rather than matching the water.

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.