VM

The collection

Inside the studio: how these paintings are made

The hardest thing to prove online is that a painting was actually painted. These are videos from my own studio on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, filmed while the work was on the easel — the same works that are for sale in this shop, at the stage where they were still wet.

Everything here is oil on stretched canvas, built up with palette knives over brushwork. That is why the surface of these paintings stands off the canvas and changes as you walk past: the knife lays colour down in a single loaded stroke instead of blending it flat. A photograph flattens that. A video of the knife moving does not.

If you are deciding between an original and a print, this room is the argument. There is a longer explanation of the method in the journal — how a palette knife works and what it does that a brush cannot.

Buying an original painting here

What you are actually buying

Every painting in this collection is an original oil on canvas, painted by hand in my studio on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, with palette knives and brushes. Each one exists once and is never repeated as a second canvas. It is signed on the front, signed and dated on the back, and travels with a certificate of authenticity made out in your name. It arrives stretched on its wooden frame and ready to hang — never rolled. I also make fine art prints of my own paintings on request, and a print is always labelled as a print, never sold as an original.

How do I know what size to choose?

This is the question that stops most online art purchases, and the answer is usually "bigger than you think". Over a three-seat sofa, a canvas of about 120–150 cm wide looks right; a 40 × 60 cm will look lost. Every painting page here draws the real canvas to scale against a 200 cm sofa and a person 1.70 m tall, so you can judge it before you buy. There is a full guide to hanging heights and sizes that work.

What does shipping cost, and will customs charge me?

Shipping is free to the European Union and the United Kingdom, and a flat insured rate elsewhere: €29 to the rest of Europe, €49 to the United States, €59 to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Indonesia, €68 to the rest of the world. Tracking and insurance are included. Outside the EU your own country may charge import duty and local tax — though original hand-painted works are duty-free or nearly duty-free in most countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. The real figures, from more than 800 shipments to 42 countries, are in this breakdown of shipping and customs.

More from the studio: how a painting is packed · how to care for an oil painting · what a palette knife does · the whole journal

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