Places you recognise, painted in oil

Why subject paintings

A recognisable subject is read from the doorway, not from the sofa

People identify the place first and the picture second, which changes where you hang it and how big it needs to be.

Subject paintings behave differently to abstracts. An abstract can sit quietly at the edge of a room and still work, but a building, a pool or a street corner asks to be identified, so it needs a clear sightline from where people enter. Put one on the wall you face walking in. In oil, the detail that makes a place recognisable, a cornice, a reflection, a window line, is built up in real paint, so it holds up at close range too.

Go bigger than feels safe. A city scene under about 90cm wide loses the detail that makes it legible from across the room, and architecture especially needs the width. Hang the centre at roughly 145cm from the floor, or 25 to 30cm above a sofa back. Pull one colour from the painting into a cushion or a lamp base and leave the rest alone. What fails is two competing subject paintings on the same wall, each fighting to be looked at first.

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.