How the studio runs
Twenty painters, 2,000 square metres, and a record kept on the back of every canvas.
Assignment by subject
Our painters are not interchangeable and we do not pretend they are. Some spend their working life on faces and skin tone; some on landscape; some on heavy texture built up with a knife. When a commission arrives we read the subject and assign the painter who works in it — not the painter who happens to be free.
Layers, not coats
Depth in a painting comes from building up: a ground, the body of the image, then transparent passes that let the layer underneath show through. It is slower than covering a canvas once and it is the difference between a painting and a printed panel. The layer count for each piece is recorded.
The record on the back
Order number, painter number, layer count, completion date. Written on the canvas back, held in our file, and printed on the label that goes out with the piece. Your customer can see it too, which is usually a good thing.
Curing and rolling
Paint needs time before a canvas can be rolled. Rolled too early, the surface cracks along the curve — the most common and most avoidable damage in this trade. We cure before rolling, interleave with glassine rather than plastic film, and roll face-out on a wide core so the paint layer is stretched rather than compressed.
If you need the piece faster than curing allows, we ship it stretched instead. That option is on every quotation.