On Grief and Painting: A Note on In Memory Commissions

Some commissions begin not with celebration but with loss. A parent. A partner. A dog that was with a family for fourteen years. These commissions arrive differently — quieter, more careful, often with an apology at the beginning of the email, as if requesting a painting in honour of someone who has died requires a kind of permission.

It does not. This is exactly what painting was made for.

The Long Tradition

For most of human history, the painted portrait was how the dead were kept. Before photography, before film, oil on canvas was the only technology capable of arresting a face — of holding a particular version of a person so that the people who loved them could continue to see them. The memorial portrait is not a new idea. It is perhaps the oldest idea in portraiture.

What We Can Work With

We understand that photographs of those who have died are precious and sometimes few. We work carefully and respectfully with whatever images you can provide. We have painted from a single photograph. We have composed portraits that combine two or three images to create something more complete than any one source offered. We take care.

The conversations around an in memory commission are slower than others. We move at whatever pace feels right. There is no rush. The painting will be ready when it is ready, and it will remain long after the grief has shifted into something quieter.

If you are thinking about commissioning a painting in memory of someone you loved, we would be honoured to begin that conversation.