What an original oil painting is

What the object actually is

Worth being concrete, because the word “original” is used loosely online and the difference is the whole purchase.

Acrylic underpainting, finished in oil on stretched canvas. Not a print on canvas, not a digital file output onto textured board. Paint on a stretcher, built up in layers over weeks. The underpainting sets the values; the oil does everything after that.

Painted over weeks. Days at a time, spread across several weeks per work. The painter finds photographs online, saves the ones that stop him, and paints one months afterwards. That method has a name on this site: the series is called Painted Idols. How long a single canvas actually takes is broken down in how long one painting takes.

Unframed. The works arrive on their stretchers, ready to hang as they are. Framing is optional and any competent framer can do it. A print, by contrast, arrives rolled in a tube and is meant to be framed.

Made once, and what that actually commits to

Every painting in the series exists in a single copy. When a canvas is sold, it is gone.

That sounds like a marketing line, so here is the specific version of it. There is no second version of a sold painting: not repainted later, not offered at another size, not released as an “original edition” of five. The nine signed prints are prints, described as prints, in editions of no more than fifty, printed once and never reprinted — and each one is a reproduction of a painting that exists rather than a file made to fill a catalogue.

The reason that distinction is worth this much space is painted once, and why the editions are never reprinted is why editions are never reprinted.

Signed, and documented

Each work is signed and ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Be clear about what that certificate is: it is documentation of what the object is and who made it, not a valuation and not a guarantee that the work will be worth anything later. It states the title, the medium and support, the dimensions, that the work is one of one, and who painted it and where — signed by hand. Nothing on it is a promise about the future. What a certificate is and what it is not is set out in what a certificate of authenticity is.

Named, and credited

Every painting carries the first name of the woman in it and credits the photograph it came from. Riae (Orange Van). Kayleigh (Tattoos). Natalee (Blue Light).

That is a deliberate feature of the series rather than a legal footnote. The subjects are living women who make a living from their own image, and the painting starts from a photograph she published herself. The painter informs them; most know, not everyone has responded. The fourteen of them have their own pages at the women in Painted Idols, and the reasoning is in painting from someone else’s photograph.

Upright or square, never landscape

Every canvas in the series stands taller than it is wide, or is square. There is no landscape format.

That matters the moment you start measuring a wall: the widest work here is 100 cm across, and the range runs from 50 × 30 cm to 120 × 100 cm, given as height × width. A tall canvas above a sofa behaves differently from a wide one, and a low ceiling rules some of them out. What size painting works above a bed works that out per bed width, and tall canvas, low ceiling covers the case where the wall is shorter than the enthusiasm.

How to tell an original from a print in a listing

Three tells, all visible before you pay.

The same image in several sizes. An oil painting has one size, because it is an object rather than a file. A listing offering the identical picture at 30, 50, 70 and 100 cm is print-on-demand.

Vague nouns. “Original”, “print”, “edition” and “reproduction” are precise words, and a serious seller uses them precisely. “Original artwork print” is not a category; it is a hedge.

No surface. A photograph of a real painting shows the paint: raised edges, brush direction, the weave of the canvas where the paint is thin. The six things you can actually see in a listing photograph are set out in is it really hand-painted?

Questions people ask

What makes a painting an original?

It exists as a single object made by hand, rather than as a file that can be output again. These are acrylic underpainting finished in oil on stretched canvas, built up over weeks. When a canvas is sold there is no second version of it — not later, not at another size.

Are these paintings printed or hand-painted?

Every original is oil on canvas, painted by hand, one at a time. The signed prints are sold as prints and described as prints, in editions of no more than fifty — they are reproductions of a painting that exists, not artwork generated to fill a catalogue.

Do the paintings arrive framed?

No. The works arrive unframed, on their stretchers, ready to hang as they are. Framing is optional and any competent framer can do it. A signed print arrives rolled in a tube and is meant to be framed.

What sizes are the paintings?

From 50 × 30 cm to 120 × 100 cm, given as height × width. Every canvas in the series is upright or square, so the widest work is 100 cm across. The size of each available painting is listed with its price.

What does the certificate of authenticity cover?

What the object is and who made it: title, medium and support, dimensions, that the work is one of one, and the painter and place, signed by hand. It is documentation rather than a valuation, and it makes no claim about what the work will be worth later.