Questions
The short answers.
Checked against the catalogue and the checkout. For anything else, write to support@painted.app.
Why are all the brands invented?
Because the objects are real and the names are not ours to paint. A watch, a black card and a car key are things anyone can own; the words on them belong to the companies that made them, and a painting that sells their marks borrows a reputation it did not earn. So every object on a Vanitas table wears a label the house made up, Maison Néant (the house of nothing), Château Débris, Cire Perdue (lost wax), and the joke stays on the object instead of on a company. A list of more than eighty real names is checked against every word the painter is sent, and a test fails the build if one slips in.
What is a vanitas?
A still life painted to remind the owner that possessions do not outlast them. Dutch and Flemish painters made thousands in the 1600s: expensive objects on a table in the dark, beside a skull, a guttered candle, a pocket watch or a peeled lemon. Vanitas paints the expensive objects of now in the same manner.
What sizes are there, and what do they cost?
The Gallery canvas is 30 × 45 in at $1,800. The Salon canvas is 40 × 60 in at $3,200. Both are numbered out of 25. The paper proof is 24 × 36 in on Hahnemühle Photo Rag at $650, an open edition. Insured freight within the United States is in every price.
How does the numbering work?
Each of the twelve pieces is an edition of 25 canvases across both canvas sizes. Numbers go out in the order payments clear. Each piece page shows the 25 numbers in a grid and strikes each one through as it sells, and the ledger page lists every number sold with its size and date, never a name. A refunded number is struck and retired and is never sold again, so an edition can close at fewer than 25. When all 25 are sold or retired the canvas is closed for good; the paper proof stays open.
How does a commission work?
On the home page you choose a table, five of the sixteen objects and a light. The house paints a watermarked proof of that table; you can add a photograph of one object you own, and any logo on it is painted out. If you like the proof, the commission is the canvas price plus $600, and the canvas is printed from that same picture without the watermark. Commissions are numbered separately, outside the twenty-five. Each browser gets 3 free proofs.
Is it hand-painted?
No. Every picture is painted by an image model at the house’s direction, and every canvas is a giclée print on canvas, gallery-wrapped. Nothing is signed by hand or gilded. Hand-drawn study sketches for each piece are owed and will be shown when they exist.
Where do you ship?
Within the United States, with insured freight in the price. For anywhere else, write before ordering and the house will quote it.
Can I return it?
A canvas is printed to order, so it is not returnable for a change of mind. If it arrives damaged or wrong, write within 30 days with a photograph and the house reprints it or refunds it in full. The refunds page has the detail.
How do I reach a person?
Write to support@painted.app. By post: PaintedApp, LLC, 1327 SE Tacoma St #394, Portland, OR 97202.