Forever Artify — Bouquet Painting

Every other commission on this site can be delivered as a file. This one cannot. A bouquet painting is an original watercolour on paper, painted once, and there is no digital version and no second copy — what you are buying is the hours it takes rather than an image that can be reprinted. That is the reason it is the most expensive page in the range, about CA$138 to CA$234, and the reason it arrives by post, packed flat in a card envelope with a cellophane sheet, shipped from Canada.

How soon do I need to photograph the flowers?

Sooner than you will want to think about it on the day. The painting works from two or three photographs, and a bouquet has a few days of looking like itself before the edges go. Daylight, more than one angle, and the whole arrangement in the frame rather than a close crop of one bloom — the painting follows the shape of the bunch, so the shape has to be visible. If the bouquet is already gone, a photograph from the day still works; it is the quality of the picture that limits the painting, not how old it is.

Does it have to be a wedding bouquet?

No. The same commission covers a Mother's Day bunch, birthday flowers, or a sympathy arrangement — the cases where the flowers mattered and then they were gone. As a wedding piece it is usually bought after the fact rather than before, which makes it a first anniversary gift far more often than a wedding one.

Which size, given that it is an original?

Six, from 5x7 in (12.7 x 17.8 cm) to 12x18 in (30.5 x 45.7 cm). Size works differently here than on a print: you are choosing how much paper gets painted, so a larger size is not just a bigger version but more detail in the individual flowers. A 5x7 is a desk or shelf piece, read from close up. An 11x14 in (27.9 x 35.6 cm) or larger is the one that holds a wall. Painting takes about three to seven days depending on the queue, and if you want a ribbon detail or a background added, ask before ordering rather than after.

The rest of the wedding commissions are in Custom Wedding Art, the smaller anniversary and engagement pieces in Couple Gifts, and the stationery monogram in Wedding Crest & Monogram.